If the Thirsty Whale could do it, why not? Durty Nellie’s in Palatine has slotted February 26th to reanimate a potential competitor: Haymakers. The Prospect Heights club, shuttered in 1984, will return for one night before rushing home in glass slippers. Coming from as far as California and Florida, members of some of the venue’s stalwart acts (Bitch, Dreamer, Hounds, Madfox, One Arm Bandit, Pezband Allstars, and Tantrum) will suit up once again and rock like it’s the Reagan era. Former IE Editor Guy Arnston co-masterminded the event with Kathy Powers-Hall, wife of former owner Chuck Hall. Far from a hangout for bygone local musicians, Haymakers also hosted Cheap Trick, Survivor, The Bangles, Shoes, The Kind, Sly Stone, Queensryche, and Twisted Sister. Visit the Facebook page for more info.

WWW.SMACKDOWN.COM

The opposition cheered as caustic, conservative attacks sullied the GOP’s own primary debates, but then the glove-dropping contagion afflicted the nominally liberal world of musicians. Veteran local rapper/actor (and White House honoree) Common kicked off, telling WGCI that the “soft” MCs attacked in his new track, “Sweet,” included sensitive singer/rapper Drake. The Canadian answered back by calling Common out on the Rick Ross side “Stay Schemin’” – despite earlier pledging, “Diss me and you’ll never hear a reply for it.” Not missing a beat, Common remixed the same track with his retort, saying Drake can’t get girls, um, excited, because he’s Canada Dry – and then encouraged people to print Canada Dry shirts. The weird thing is it’s reportedly a beef over the affections of tennis star Serena Williams, who could probably kick both their asses. (Fakeshoredrive posted this news about Drake after we went to press.)

– Steve Forstneger

IE: Was the hype for your debut thrilling or scary?
Alaina Moore: It was definitely more scary. Obviously, we appreciated it and were going to take the opportunity, but we didn’t know what we were doing. Our way of handling that was forcing things to stay as small as possible. We ended up saying “no” to lots of things: no producer, no management. We said “no” to support tours because we weren’t sure if we could tour for very long.

IE: So another force was pushing you along?
AM: This time the momentum behind us is more sustained and created by us, and we feel more in control. Anyone who, at some stage in their career, has been considered a buzz band understands it’s like riding a tidal wave. You have no say, it’s just happening. It’s really amazing, but you keep finding yourself with decisions that you don’t want. I remember the first time we got a publicist, they asked us about doing late [TV] shows and they could push for that, and we were like, “No. Not at all.” I shut it down immediately. “I do not want to be on TV – it sounds horrible.”

IE: Are you ready for your tag to be, “Patrick Carney produced their album; they’re the band the Black Keys guy is involved with.”
AM: It’s funny, maybe nihilistic, but I’d be relieved if people thought that than the dismissive stereotype of us as the wedding-couple-sailing band. [Tennis' first album was inspired by a boat trip.]

IE: What inspired Young And Old?
AM: I immersed myself in Todd Rundgren; I wanted to write things on piano. I listened to a lot of Elton John and Rundgren. Patrick [Riley, guitarist/husband] switched to playing baritone guitar instead of wall-of-sound surf guitar, so that brought out a lot of differences in songwriting.

IE: Rundgren’s one of those guys who I get why people enjoy him, but I can’t stand his music.
AM: [Laughs.] When I first started dating Patrick he played me Todd Rundgren and I totally hated it. Three-years later we were at someone’s house and Something/Anything was playing and I was like, what is this? And I ended up delving into his catalog.

IE: In what sense is the Tennis name a metaphor for the dynamic?
AM: Sometimes I see me and Patrick in those classic matches, where the competition is fierce but then they hug afterwards. But I cannot emphasize enough the complete, flippant lark [it was]. If we’d thought about it, we probably wouldn’t have picked it.

Tennis’ Young And Old arrives Valentine’s Day through Fat Possum. They play Lincoln Hall on February 26th. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

The IE staff picks its favorite albums, reissues, live shows, and local bands of 2011.

Curt Baran: Albums
1. Wild Flag Wild Flag (Merge)
2. PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Island)
3. Le Butcherettes Sin Sin Sin (Rodriguez-Lopez)
4. Tune-Yards whokill (4AD)
5. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
6. Fucked Up David Comes To Life (Matador)
7. Radiohead The King Of Limbs (TBD)
8. Wilco The Whole Love (dBPM)
9. Wye Oak Civilian (Merge)
10. The Black Keys El Camino (Nonesuch)

Steve Forstneger: Albums
1. Wilco The Whole Love (dBPM)
2. Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin‘ (Columbia)
3. Seryn This Is Where We Are (Velvet Blue)
4. Elbow Build A Rocket Boys! (Fiction/Polydor)
5. The Tunnel Fathoms Deep (Glorious Alchemical)
6. Meshell Ndegeocello Weather (Naive)
7. Frank Ocean Nostalgia, Ultra (mixtape)
8. Eleanor Friedberger Last Summer (Merge)
9. Drive-By Truckers Go-Go Boots (ATO)
10. KEN Mode Venerable (Profound Lore)

John Vernon: Reissues
1. Material Issue International Pop Overthrow (Hip-O)
2. The Smashing Pumpkins Gish (Virgin)
3. R.E.M. Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011 (Warner Bros.)
4. Peter Tosh Equal Rights (Legacy)
5. Nirvana Nevermind: 20th Anniversary Edition (Geffen)
6. Sugar Minott Hard Time Pressure (VP)
7. The Jesus And Mary Chain Darklands (Edsel UK)
8. The Beach Boys The Smile Sessions (Capitol)
9. The Who Quadrophenia: The Director’s Cut (Geffen)
10. Marvin Gaye What’s Going On (Motown)

Andy Argyrakis: Concerts
1. Paul McCartney – Wrigley Field, August 1
2. U2 – Soldier Field, July 5
3. Lady Gaga – United Center, February 28
4. Bryan Ferry – Civic Opera House, October 12
5. Steely Dan – Ravinia, August 12
6. Alison Krauss & Union Station – Summerfest, September 10
7. Roger Daltrey – The Venue, October 7
8. Weezer – Aragon Ballroom, January 7
9. Robert Plant – Ravinia, June 16
10. Gang Of Four – Metro, February 11

Around Hear staff: Local Bands
California Wives
Jeff Elbel + Ping
Daniel Knox
The Maybenauts
Musikanto
Joseph Messing & The Wisemen
Northpilot
Will Phalen
Tiger Bones
YP

Is that a giant list of songs, or are we just happy to see ya? For all the discussion surrounding the deaths of various recording styles and formats, 2011 was a fantastic year for songs. IE found very little overlap when our writers submitted their votes, which is astounding. If you can find 10 new singles you’re ecstatic about, and none of those would land on a peer’s top 50? You bemoan the lack of consensus – we say, bring on more salad bar!

Too many listeners take a philistine attitude to year-end lists: the Spin and Rolling Stone comment boards overflow with readers disappointed not to see their own delicately chosen tastes reflected back at them. Here’s an idea: treat them as recommendations. Almost all of IE’s top songs can be streamed, YouTube’d, caught on Soundcloud, Spotify, or legally and freely downloaded as MP3s. And if you hate every single one, exult in the knowledge that you’re an individual!

In alphabetical order:

Akron/Family “Island”
The Antlers “I Don’t Want Love”
The Bees “I Really Need Love”
The Belle Brigade “Losers”
Big K.R.I.T. ft. David Banner “Sookie Now”
James Blake “The Wilhelm Scream”
Bon Iver “Holocene”

Jeff Bridges “Falling Short”
Buffalo Tom “Down”
Hayes Carll “KMAG YOYO”
Chairlift “Met Before”
Class Actress “Keep You”
Cornershop “Double Decker Eyelashes”

Danger Mouse & Daniel Lippi ft. Jack White “Two Against One”
Lana Del Rey “Blue Jeans”
Dev “Bass Down Low (Proper Villains)”
Thomas Dolby “Nothing New Under The Sun”
Drake “Marvins Room”
The-Dream “Body Work”

Elbow “Neat Little Rows”
*The Electric ft. Pugz Atomz “Toot Toot”
Foo Fighters “Walk”
Foster The People “Helena Beat”
Fountains Of Wayne “Action Hero”
*Ezra Furman & The Harpoons “I Killed Myself But I Didn’t Die”
Gotye ft. Kimbra “Somebody That I Used To Know”
Cee-Lo Green “You’re So Square”
Grouplove “Colours”
Lisa Hannigan ft. Ray Lamontagne “O Sleep”
Hey Sholay “Dreamboat”
Incubus “Adolescents”
Iron & Wine “Walking Far From Home”
Mason Jennings “Bitter Heart”

Wiz Khalifa “On My Level”
*Kid Sister ft. Riff Raff “Hide & Seek”
Takahiro Kido “Oranges & Lemons”
King Creosote “And The Racket They Made”
Kendrick Lamar “The Spiteful Chant”

LMFAO “One Day”
Low “Try To Sleep”
M83 “Midnight City”
Major Lazer “Original Don”
Mastodon “All The Heavy Lifting”
Nicki Minaj “Super Bass”
Meshell Ndegeocello “Weather”
Nekromantheon “Divinity Of Death”
Notorious B.I.G. “Gimme The Loot (Superginger remix)”
*Russian Circles “Mladek”

*Scattered Trees “A Conversation About Death On New Years Eve”
Sebastian “Embody”
Seryn “We Will All Be Changed”
The Shoes “Crack My Bones”
*Smith Westerns “Dye The World”
The Smithereens “What Went Wrong”
Sneaky Sound System “Big”
Star Slinger ft. Reggie B. “Dumbin’ (Diplo Remix)”
Stay+ “Young Luv”
Still Corners “Into The Trees”
*Stratus “Jasper’s Theme”
Switchfoot “Afterlife”

*Urge Overkill “Rock&Roll Submarine”
The Vaccines “Wetsuit”
Tom Waits “Hell Broke Luce”
We Were Promised Jetpacks “Sore Thumb”
The Weeknd “Wicked Games”
*Wilco “Whole Love”
Wild Flag “Something Came Over Me”
Wooden Wand & Briarwood “Winter In Kentucky”
Willie Wright “Dressing For The Occasion”
Yelawolf ft. Kid Rock “Let’s Roll”

Young Chris ft. Future “Racks On Racks”
Young Galaxy “The Angels Are Surely Weeping”

* = local

IE: We were intrigued by the local connection to The Office Of Future Plans.
J Robbins: [Laughs.] It’s Jeff Dean’s fault that we’re a band. Dean is hard to say no to. His enthusiasm in this case was relentless. I just thought I was going to do a recording project. Dean kept asking me to play, and I thought, at the time, I’m not going to do solo-acoustic opening for The Bomb. That’s ridiculous. So I got Gordon [Withers] and Brooks [Harlan] together.

IE: Was it music you had locked away?
JR: No, I had a major change in my life with the birth of my son. At 7 months he was diagnosed with spinal atrophy and I really put my music on the shelf. In October 2008, Callum was in the pediatric ICU for six weeks, and [wife] Janet and I were there every day. When I would stay overnight, I would be there ’til 8 in the morning; a sane person would go home and go to bed, but I would be like, “I can’t sleep now.” The sun is up, my head is spinning, and I just needed some place to go and get my head together to not be full of worry and fear. So I would write songs.

IE: Does your reputation as a recording engineer connote a style?
JR: There’s definitely a lot of times that people have worked with me because they were fans of Jawbox. For me, it’s a lot to do with space. I can get fairly picky about drum tuning, but I can also get excited. If someone said to me, “The snare in this song is a telephone book.” Cool. Let’s mic-up the phonebook! There’s times when you hear someone’s record, and you think, “I want my record to sound like that.” That’s what Jawbox did when we made our second Dischord record with Iain Burgess. We were lucky to meet Iain when he did sound for Pegboy when we opened for them at McGregor’s [in Elmhurst] in like 199-who knows when? And we were massive [Naked] Raygun fans, just like, “Imagine if our record could sound like Throb Throb or All Rise!”

IE: The Jawbox reunion on “Jimmy Fallon” seemed random.
JR: We were faced with this reissue of For Your Own Special Sweetheart, so we thought, instead of just putting it out there we hired publicists – one of our favorite people in the music business who we met from our whole Atlantic Records misadventure. We told her we had too much going on [to tour], and felt insecure about bringing our “A” game. So she went behind our backs and called up the music director at “Jimmy Fallon,” who happened to be a big Jawbox fan, and then came back to us and presented it as “Fallon wants you to play.” And she knew the only way to get us to do something was to blindside us with something completely weird like that. “Who wants us to what?”

Office Of Future Plans appear Saturday, December 3rd at Beat Kitchen with The Life And Times. Their self-titled, Dischord debut is out now. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

The cover photo on Taylor Swift’s Holiday Collection – lying apparently topless on a futon while clutching a guitar – set a new low for increasingly tossed-off seasonal albums. Seeking to inject some life into winter music, we asked our staff to dig up the best of what’s around.

In no order: “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra; “Little Drummer Boy” by Jars Of Clay or Bob Seger; “Silent Night” by Sinéad O’Connor; “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” by Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan; “Merry Christmas Baby” by Chuck Berry or Bruce Springsteen; “No Presents For Christmas” by King Diamond; “Black Xmas” by Venom; “Cashing In On Christmas” by Bad News; “Christmas With The Devil” by Spinal Tap; “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love; “Merry Christmas From The Family” by Robert Earl Keen; “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” by Dean Martin; “Christmas In Hollis” by Run-D.M.C.; “Blue Christmas” by Elvis Presley; “Run Rudolph Run” by Keith Richards; “Re-Gifting For The Holidays” by The Alice Project; “She Feels Like Christmas Day” by The Critics; “Christmas Time” by The dB’s; “This Christmas” by Shoes; and “Christmas Ride” by Fight. Sorry, JBeebs. Some other time?

Invigorated

So how about 2011? If we can carve a list of the top seasonal hits in 50 years, certainly we can widdle down the best overall from the past 12 months. Nopers. When asked to submit their top songs, our writers overlapped zero. While that bodes well for the predictable Spin/Pitchfork flavor of the annual Pazz & Jop poll, it also underscores the musical disunity MP3 players have sown. Even when two plucky AOR-leaning IE scribes could settle on a band (Foo Fighters) they couldn’t agree on a tune (“Walk” vs. “Rope”). Terrence Flamm made some space for local bands on his (“Miss You On Tuesday” – The Handcuffs; “Broken Baby Dollhouse” – Phil Angotti; “Pictures Of A Masquerade” – Bad Examples; “How Dangerous” – Smoking Popes; “Monitor Me” – The Laureates), so we’ll print those before restarting this machine and seeing if we can’t get a little conformity.

Letters Of The Month: D & J

Heading someone off at the pass isn’t common hip-hop lingo, but it’s what Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years Of The Last Great Record Label does. Proclaiming “Our artists speak for themselves (’cause they can’t sing)” repels rockist criticisms of the ultimate rap record label. The nearly 300-page, LP-shaped book attempts to capture what Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons set out to build in the early ’80s. From lucid LL Cool J, Slayer, and Beastie Boys anecdotes to clearly hopeful, promotional myth-making about Young Jeezy and Rick Ross, the book carefully captures the co-optation of an American dream, but one that is distinctly American. Whatever your opinion of hip-hop culture, this is the story of how it happened, and no one comes out unscathed.

Motor Town

“Come On Christmas” aside, Cheap Trick nestle into our December coverage upon the announcement of the band’s plans to “curate” a Chicago-themed music-history museum on the site of an old Buick dealership on Michigan Avenue. Pounded into the old 2245 S. space on the former Record Row/Motor Row district will be a combination “one-of-a-kind eatery, unique musical instrument museum, radio station, and performance space as well as rooftop and outdoor and event space in the future Music Row in Chicago.” As we’ve been chronicling, this South Loop revival has been enlivened since Mayor Emanuel took office, but has gained considerable steam in recent months. Of course, it’ll take more sustained investment than a rock band’s proclamation to revive the area, but the fear put into the band from the disaster at this summer’s Ottawa (Canada) Bluesfest means they’ll be home to work on things.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: People are excited about your cover of “Unchained Melody.”
Lykke Li: They [Triple J Radio] called me at like 12 in the morning, and they were like, “Pick a cover!” And oh, God! And that’s like one of my favorite songs and couldn’t dare touch it – I wouldn’t have done it if I were in a clear mind. I just went for it – and it was in Australia, so I felt very remote and didn’t think anyone would hear it. I didn’t even know they were filming. God, I would have put on some mascara!

IE: Have you had any starstruck moments?
LL: The one moment where I was really ‘Oh my God, is this happening?’ was I got to sit down with [filmmaker] David Lynch and have coffee and talk. That was probably the wildest one.

IE: It seems like it would take time to have conversation with him. Like you would need a couple days.
LL: I know! But it was a short meeting, yet we touched all subjects in life. You kind of go right into it. I loved it. He’s so light. His spirit is so warm.

IE: Are you getting advice from others as your career escalates?
LL: Well, I have a strong feeling about everything. I’m really inspired and happy about the situation. I am. Just being in my band, pumping out tunes – there’s no pressure on me. I don’t believe in seeking out advice, though I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I can feel them in my stomach, but then I can tell myself not to do something again.

IE: Do you have a plan?
LL: I’ve always had a plan, but the plan was just to express myself. I’m very determined. I’ve been daydreaming a lot and calling on the higher power for something to happen. Not in the way people think, but to give me an opportunity to meet people to create with. Fortunately, I found my producer and my band, and that’s the flow I’ve got to follow. On that path I’ve done some miscalculations, and I’m a spontaneous person and sometimes I look back and don’t love [what I've done]. But there’s a saying: you can’t live life backwards.

IE: What mistakes?
LL: When you do something in the moment, you’re experimenting on a spontaneous idea. I know my identity well, and what I like. So, for example, I kind of regret that crotch thing I was wearing [in the "Get Some" video]. I go really far into any situation, so I was living that character. Like, “She wouldn’t wear any pants while singing. Pants are the last thing on her mind.” In retrospect, I would have worn a suit, actually.

Lykke Li’s Wounded Rhymes (Atlantic) is out now. She plays November 14th at Vic Theatre (3145 N. Sheffield) in Chicago with First Aid Kit. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

Most Americans know Björk as that girl who showed up to the Oscars in a swan dress. Rebranding was in order and, several years down the line, the former Sugarcube’s ninth outing, Biophilia, has been billed as the world’s first “app” album. Its 13 tracks have a smartphone/tablet alternate universe, one that the Icelish sprite hopes can be used to teach children about cosmos-level science with a dose of spirituality. As the Guardian wrote, apps rarely challenge our imaginations; Biophilia can be mesmerizing. Its creators hoped not only to redefine the album in digital contexts, but bring fans back to when you put a stylus to vinyl and sat down with the artwork. As such, you can follow each song’s lyrics and staff-paper breakdown, as well as dawdle in activities specific to each song. At its best, it connects you with the album, and points a way forward. At worst, it recalls vintage EnhancedCD vapidity or download codes that unlock “bonus” “content.” The music? Oh. It’s among her more ethereal, freeform excursions, with winding vocal melodies that sound like a 3-year-old adlibbing. Plus a massive dubstep drop.

The Days Of Whine And Roses

IE attempted to get a member of Guns N’ Roses on the phone to advance the band’s first Chicago-area show since 2006, at Allstate Arena on the 15th. Originally we were rebuffed because the band were in South America – where there are no phones – and then told we could get Tommy Stinson, but only if we stuck to his solo career. It’ll be a miracle if they make it to Rosemont at all. The band’s Rock In Rio performance got savaged by the press, and its promoter laid into the band publicly for “a lack of commitment and respect for the public” after taking the stage two-hours late. GNR issued two different responses, the first pledging that they’d never “intentionally disrespect anyone, especially fans,” then, on Facebook, “You want 8 o’clock shows go find friends or hit a cinema somewhere. Or if you want to be informed go catch the 10 o’clock news. This is Rock’n'roll! Treat yourself, don’t cheat yourself thinking you’re going to go to school or work or whatever you normally do the next day.” Rock ‘n’ roll: needing a shrink to lure you past your fears and onto a stage, and singing a lyric like Dracula on your over-produced, 18-years late album. Rock on.

The Mailman Always Rings Twice

Forty years have passed since John Prine’s classic, self-titled debut came out and “Great Society Conflict Veteran’s Blues” turned into “Sam Stone.” In its honor, Oh Boy Records has released The Singing Mailman Delivers, a two-disc set of the songs Prine was workshopping at the Fifth Peg on Armitage while holding a day job in Maywood as a postal carrier. The first set was tracked in the WFMT studios after an interview (at the behest of Studs Terkel), while the next disc relays an amateur taping of a typical set at the Peg in November ‘70. Almost as startling as the audience’s familiarity with the unreleased songs is Prine’s stage banter: the poet laureate of Chicago folk has an accent you’d more commonly associate with the line jutting out of Gene & Jude’s.

DeWyze Denied

He may have cut his teeth selling paint, but these days Lee DeWyze has become a specialist in whirlwinds. Not 18 months ago did he receive the keys to Arlington Heights, throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game, and perform for 30,000 people at Arlington Park Race Track, all before lopping off Crystal Bowersox’s melon and hoisting it during his coronation as “American Idol” champion. He proposed to model Joanna Walsh in July 2011 after a nine-month courtship, and began touting his next project online. In October, however, RCA dumped him (and Bowersox) as its relationship with “AI” and 19 Entertainment ended, while the new affiliate, Universal, hasn’t shown any intention to sign him. Hopefully, something breaks Lee’s way soon.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: I know you were born overseas, but had you traveled much before the Rihanna tour?
J. Cole: Oh yeah, on my own tours for two years at least. Growing up I was kind of a military brat. But after coming back from Germany as a kid, I never traveled much.

IE: Do you speak any German?
JC: No, no.

IE: You could have German versions of your songs, like The Beatles did.
JC: [Laughs]. Nah, nothing like that.

IE: Being the first signing on Jay-Z’s label, do you feel the burden of expectation?
JC: I’m ready for that. I don’t think there’s any greater expectations of me than what I have for myself.

IE: What were the biggest differences between working on Cole World and your mixtapes?
JC: I didn’t need anyone to give me a date. I would just do it. I set my own date, put all the songs I wanted to put on there . . . more freedom. You don’t need a single to sell it.

IE: How much trust/faith was put in you? Or did you feel you were being watched?
JC: It was both. There was patience and trust, but also a feeling like, “Are we really letting this kid do this on his own?” I felt a lot of that. There was a lot of freedom, but also like “maybe I’m doing the right thing.”

IE: What kind of an impression are you trying to make?
JC: I want to show that I can make a cohesive album with a sound you can play front to back – so it remains true to who I am, and also explains who I am. There’s moments on there like, “That’s what I love him for,” but also, “Wow, no one else is doin’ this.” All of that in an album you can play front-to-back, and not skip one song.

J. Cole’s Cole World: The Sideline Story (Roc Nation/Columbia) is out now. He plays House Of Blues on October 9th. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

Energizing Bunnies: The Windy City’s resurgence as a setting for motion pictures has spilled onto the small screen, notably with “Boss” and “The Playboy Club” hoping to outlast the since-canceled “Chicago Code.” These programs draw high numbers of Chicagoans, who no doubt sit close to their sets wearing loupes to pinpoint flaws.

Editor’s note: As of October 4th, “The Playboy Club” has been canceled!

The “Playboy” folks stayed local when it came to music, hiring Richard Marx to help oversee “Glee”-like cast productions of ’60s hits for sale on iTunes. “Aside from ‘Moon River’ from an upcoming episode, and a new version of ‘Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town),’ which I just produced for the soundtrack,” Marx writes via e-mail, “the tracks are cut in L.A. by a trio of guys {The Transcenders}, and I am producing the vocals on the cast members here in Chicago, mostly working with Laura Benanti, who’s really cool. There’s an attempt to both stay true to the era but modernize enough to get people to click ‘Buy,’ but realistically, how modern can you get with a song that has the word toddlin’ in the lyrics?” He says the Playboy-related gig hasn’t elevated his sons’ opinion of him, but he keeps plugging away. “Aside from a hit I co-wrote with Keith Urban, ‘Long Hot Summer,’ that’s climbing the country charts, I’m mostly doing solo acoustic concerts. Playing around the U.S. until December, then heading to China, Indonesia, and Singapore.”

Free Your Mind

Daily Herald readers revolted recently when the suburban newspaper added online-viewing fees – people don’t want to pay for what they used to have to pay for. The rules regarding digital content don’t really exist, at least in any recognizable form. Some of the BET Awards‘ nominated songs were issued free online, partly to avoid copyright law, but also to elude the hassles of doing things “officially.” Longtime local singer/songwriter Michael McDermott just cut the ribbons on a Kickstarter.com campaign, which asks fans to fund artistic projects. Hank Williams‘ grandson, Hank III), just self-released a double album and two single ones, the former of which is $15 and rated a “7″ by Trevor Fisher in our “Spins” section; the latter pair are $14 each and utter garbage. Wilco streamed its new album, The Whole Love, online for free prior to its release, meanwhile Prosthetic became the latest indie label to pull its tracks from streaming subscription service Spotify, arguing the miniscule royalties are cost prohibitive. Live Nation and Universal Music have formed an old-media partnership, and Columbia has issued a tribute of sorts to Hank III’s grandfather on CD – it, too, is utter garbage. What we need is a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
– Steve Forstneger

Punks On Film

The terms “fine-art photography” and “punk rock” don’t often collide in the same sentence, but that changed when people dropped by House Of Blues in September. The New York-based company Rock Paper Photo hosted a photography exhibit depicting some of punk and new wave’s best-known pioneers. These limited-edition pieces were hand-signed and available for purchase, with prices reaching up to $1,000. The last day of the exhibit coincided with a performance by The Psychedelic Furs and The Tom Tom Club; Blondie performed the first night.

The high-quality images often capture the musicians’ unique personalities. A young Debbie Harry reclines seductively in shorts and a tank top on Coney Island Beach in a black-and-white shot, and a portrait of Sid Vicious features his ever-present snarl. There are also photos of Ric Ocasek, David Byrne, The Clash, The New York Dolls, and Stiv Bators. One of the more intriguing works depicts the Ramones standing at the base of the Supreme Court Building. The online Rock Paper Photo gallery has many more fine art photographs and extends well beyond the punk and new-wave genres.

– Terrence Flamm

IE: What’s been going on during the decade between Human League albums?
Susan Ann Sulley: The last album, Secrets, didn’t do so well because the record company [Papillon] went bankrupt when it came out, and we had to pick ourselves up from that. We’ve done a lot of live work all over the world, including three trips to America in the last 10 years. About three years ago, Philip [Oakey, frontman] said he was writing again, which was for his own pleasure at first, but a record label in the U.K. [Wall Of Sound] came to us and said they wanted to work with us, so we put out the material as the new album, Credo.

IE: What styles and sounds were you going for on the new tunes?
SAS: It’s just a Human League album, isn’t it? We can’t be anything we’re not, and couldn’t sound like Coldplay or Rihanna even if we tried. There’s always synths, drum machines, melodies, and choruses with the three of us doing vocals in whatever way we choose to do them.

IE: How did MTV play a role in the band’s rise to fame?
SAS: I think it was very important, especially in America. You can’t get to all the places you need to be and MTV allowed us to make a video that everybody from America to Japan to Australia could see and know what we looked and sounded like.

IE: Did you ever think there would be a day when they’d stop playing music?
SAS: No! That’s really odd isn’t it? If you want to watch a video now, there’s always YouTube. But I’m a bit old fashioned and liked MTV because you could always turn to them to watch videos. It’s quite sad.

IE: Any fashion regrets when you see those old clips?
SAS: No, because that was the fashion! When you wore those clothes they were fashionable and you looked great. Now they’re not cool, but I can deal with that. I see pictures and go, “Oh my God, did we really wear that?” Obviously I would never wear anything like that again, and as a 40-something year old lady, I wear something that’s more suitable – but I don’t regret it.

IE: Why do you think the band’s attracted such a large gay following?
SAS: We love coming to Chicago because there’s a big gay contingent there. Although there aren’t any gay people in the group, we try to put on a big of show with costume changes and run around with lots of mad dancing. We have female and male members and I think they like the campiness that comes from the group.

The Human League appear Saturday, September 17th at Guinness Oyster Fest (Damen & Roscoe) in Chicago. Q&A by Andy Argyrakis.

The way they’re marketed – like vacations – it’s easy to forget that music festivals are as prone to fate’s whim as anything. While flash-mob gate-crashing at Lollapalooza didn’t become a national epidemic like the England riots, Cheap Trick’s experience at the Ottawa (Canada) Bluesfest in July shockingly repeated itself twice more in August.

First, as stormwinds began howling through the Indiana State Fair on August 13th, organizers attempted to alert fans watching Sugarland’s set with evacuation instructions. Moments later, the stage and scaffolding collapsed, sending lights, steel, and debris into the crowd – killing seven and injuring more than 40. Varying reports allege flaws with the stage’s design and construction. Five days later, the 25th-anniversary Pukkelpop festival in Belgium suffered a similar, winds-related disaster just as Chicago-based buzz-band Smith Westerns began their set. Initially, frontman Cullen Omori tweeted that drummer Max Kakacek had nearly been crushed and also made a dark insurance joke, which was removed amid reports that death claimed four in attendance.

Palooza’s trials with the uninvited now seem trivial, however a lingering issue exists between promoter C3 Presents and the Chicago Police. Superintendent Gary McCarthy lashed out after the weekend, “I don’t think it’s acceptable, obviously. Being a private event, it’s not up to us to be bouncers. We’re there to provide for the public safety. We don’t work as bouncers for admission purposes.” C3 released a detailed account of its security preparations, which might require a moat and drawbridge for 2012.

Brightening Corners

Unpredictable weather in September generally refers to rash, external temperature swings, and the internal cauldrons that erupt with frustration at Tom Skilling for failing to elucidate that 85 in Mokena could only mean 55 in Lincoln Park. Lollapalooza and Pitchfork at least provide a dress-code: South Beach attire. The inaugural Brilliant Corners Of Popular Amusements? Follow your parents’ “you can always take it off” standard. The Noble Square bash, from the 16th to 18th, melds carnival, comedic, art-house, and competitive accents with a stage boasting a Pitchfork-worthy lineup including Shellac, Bill Callahan, School Of Seven Bells, Dan Deacon, A Lull, Fool’s Gold, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Cave, and more. There’s also the slightly interesting fact that the main grounds are free, though access to the big-top circus tents will require paid admittance. How September.

How To Go Out Of Business (Without Really Trying)

By 1978, the Cold War had convinced the world that the U.S. or Soviet Union could (and would) end the world at a moment’s notice. (Kids don’t seem to appreciate that, now, blah blah.) So why would the big record companies be expected to respect a mid-’70s copyright-law revision that essentially gave artists their music back? Just be happy we’re still alive, man! Star musicians (Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty) have begun filing papers to regain control of their 35-year-old recordings (beginning 1978) for 2013. This option was outlined in an amended section of federal copyright law, which grants artists termination rights after a three-and-a-half decade period. (Songwriters cash in as well.)

The meaning is that Sony, EMI, Warner Bros., and Universal (not to mention indies, down the road) lose the ability to proliferate these records and their songs in compilations, reissues, and soundtrack albums, etc. – an absolutely crucial source of revenue for the beleaguered labels post-Napster. Representatives for NARAS – which presents the Grammy awards – believes the opportunity will cripple the major labels even more than file-sharing has; the suits plan to fight back on the flimsy argument that songs/albums are works-for-hire, and thus not subject to the law. We don’t imagine Tom Petty will back down. Fact, we know so.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: What did your life look like throughout the ’80s during the Triumph whirlwind?
Rik Emmett: I remember it being an exciting time and a pressure-filled time. We were a unique entity in managing ourselves and we had our own office, studio, and a pretty intense relationship with the record company. We hit when FM radio was at its peak and when MTV was launching and they embraced us early on. My wife and I had kids in 1982, 1985, and 1988, [the last of] which is when I gave my notice and left the band. I wouldn’t have minded catching my breath, but I was blessed and lucky to have a career extend to multiple albums.

IE: What were your goals when you first branched out as a solo artist?

RE: When you’re in a rock band, you make art by committee and sometimes you get out-voted. I’ve always felt art was kind of a personal thing and I wanted to take a certain level of risk where I was pushing myself and my audience. I also branched out on a slightly different level with clinics, workshops, and teaching on a college level. I just turned 58, and those are the kind of things that give your life substance and value. If I was still trying to chase what I was at 22, I’d be making a fool of myself.

IE: How are you able to stay so prolific, practically releasing a new CD every year?

RE: I think an artist has an obligation to work hard and be conscientious. Being eclectic and prolific is always important, and while I think it gets harder as you get older, one of the lovely things is developing partnerships. I’m involved with Dave Dunlop in The Strung Out Troubadours and did a CD called Trifecta with Pavlo and Oscar Lopez.

IE: What is the structure of your upcoming Strung Out Troubadours show?

RE: We’re about three albums in and are planning another one now, so we cover a lot of territory. Of course, we cover the old Triumph material with our own little twist and we throw in a few cover tunes. We’re avid guitar players from a rock background playing on acoustic guitars, and it has an informal quality to it that’s a lot of fun.

IE: What are your favorite memories of playing in Chicago?

RE: I have so many early ones all the way back to the Aragon when Triumph was first getting known, then graduating to the Rosemont Horizon. And lately, I’ve been performing with Jim Peterik and World Stage, which is always fun because you get to make so many friendships with other artists.

Rik Emmett and Dave Dunlop (The Strung Out Troubadours) appear August 27th at St. Patrick High School (5900 W. Belmont) in Chicago. Proceeds benefit the St. Patrick High School Kids At-Risk Program (www.stpatrick.org).

– Andy Argyrakis

In keeping with last month’s baseball-themed Pitchfork Festival preview, we’ve dedicated our Lollapalooza snippet to the playing days of former San Diego Padres pitcher Tim Lollar, who did his damnedest to help the Cubs win in ‘84 (4 IP, 2 HR, 4 BB). Lollar also wears the distinction of having been traded to the White Sox with prospect Ozzie Guillen for powder-loving hurler LaMarr Hoyt.

The story of ‘Palooza ‘11 (represented this issue with a feature on Cults) is the continued courting of top-40 fans through headliners, who have always been in play but never so much with both Eminem and Colplay doing battle in Bigdollarpalooza. The question is, if scores of either’s fans bought tickets, will they stick around for the other acts? Otherwise the subplot is the larger-scale infusion of electronic music, which – as the booking agents of the Congress and North Coast Festival have learned – really packs ‘em in. Founder Perry Farrell’s latest incarnation includes his wife Etty, for the imaginatively dubbed PerryEtty. At Palooza, they’ll face off with Carl Craig, Girl Talk, Pretty Lights, Kid Cudi, Afrojack, Modeselektor, Skrillex, Chuckie, The Glitch Mob, Jay Electronica, and Daedelus.

Use A Coaster

By the time Labor Day weekend rolls around, we’ll be so sick of our ball teams that it’s really not worth it to weave our national craptime into this North Coast Festival bit. (No, really, the Sox will finally start hitting!) As Lollapalooza picks up more electronic acts, NCF has been backing up and frantically running its hands over the tables in hopes of a weapon to counterstrike: instead, it comes up with a joint and a Democratic Party trinket, courtesy rappers Wiz Khalifa and GOP lightning rod Common.

Dancing remains the program’s forte (September 2nd to 4th in Union Park), featuring stalwart acts like David Guetta, Bassnectar, STS9, Fatboy Slim, Thievery Corporation, Rusko, Benny Benassi, Lotus, Neon Indian, and more, but also slips in Gogol Bordello, Of Montreal, Budos Band, and a local contingent including California Wives, Van Ghost, Hood Internet, and Team Bayside High.

Rupert Needs A Friend

If embattled media tycoon Rupert Murdoch were actually A-Teamer H.M. Murdock, he’d just storm out of Parliamentary hearings and do something zany in a Huey. But the 80-year-old mastermind already had cause to be sullen before the News Of The World hacking scandal: that being the $545 million loss his News Corp. sustained when it sold Myspace to Specific Media last month. Despite what anyone thinks of Murdoch or how he peddles his influence, his effectiveness and foresight (believing Americans would take to a fourth major network (Fox); how to steer politics from a 24/7 cable-news station) could not be questioned – until the Myspace disaster. Hailed as a visionary when he bought it in 2005, some analysts thought he’d use Myspace to challenge MTV (indeed, some Viacom executives were fired after the MTV parent failed to table a winning bid). Myspace quickly fell behind Facebook, however, getting dissed in the 2007 film Superbad and hemorrhaging ad revenues. It’s still an effective home for musicians to reach fans, as long as your favorite’s page doesn’t scream at you, “Myspace is dead! Visit us on Facebook!”

– Steve Forstneger

As Exxxotic As They Wanna Be

Raunchy rap act 2 Live Crew have been chopped down to just two members, yet the show must go on – particularly at their regular gigs at the eXXXotica Expo. Last month, remaining reps Brother Marquis and Fresh Kid Ice stopped by the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont to headline the traveling exhibition that’s rife with porn stars. While the duo resurrected controversial hits like “Pop That Pussy,” a handful of the scantily clad eXXXotica girls joined 2 Live on stage and quickly took over the show. (A few audience members even got lap dances.) Rhyming gradually took second fiddle to the on-stage antics, but would we expect anything else from the group who put sex rap on the map and who fought obscenity charges in the process? 2 Live Crew are possibly the perfect fit for the eXXXotica stage even if they haven’t had a hit in more than a decade.

– Max Herman

IE: What advice would you pass on to a 20-year-old Dolly?
Dolly Parton: One of my favorite sayings of all time is that to thine ownself be true. I think that says so much. I would just say know who you are. Be sure that this talent that you’ve got is really worth working towards, that it’s going to get you where you need to go. Don’t just be fooled by having a desire, you’ve got to have guts; you’ve got to have talent and the desire to get out and push it. You’ve got to keep the dream in the forefront at all times and whatever it takes to reach it. That’s what you’ve got to do even if you cry and kick and piss and moan, you’ve still got to do it if you’re gonna get there.

IE: “Sacrifice” describes the things any career-driven person must give up in order to succeed. What have you sacrificed?

DP: I think we sacrifice more than we really realize. Some sacrifice more than others. I mean, I’ve had a wonderful, rich life. I’ve had a good marriage and a good husband that’s very independent and doesn’t demand that I be at home and all that. Having freedom to work has always been a great asset to me, but we all pay. We pay our dues.

IE: You’ve enjoyed great success singing songs written by others. Why is this album devoid of covers?

DP: I had a personal statement to make. I wanted to do an album to uplift the human spirit, but I also needed to uplift myself as well. I just made that conscious decision, that people need to know that I’m still a songwriter and that I still do that. All these songs have a ray of hope and a little bit of promise in them.

IE: What would you like your legacy to be?

DP: I’ve done so many things I’m proud of. Everything I’ve accomplished whether it’s my records or my career, whether it’s in the movies or whether it’s with my songwriting or Dollywood and I want to be known for all of that. I want people to be able to say, “Well, there’s a colorful little character. She did a lot of good things and seemed to enjoy them all.”

Dolly Parton appears July 28th at Rosemont Theatre (5400 N. River) in Rosemont. Her new album, Better Day (Dolly/Warner Bros. Nashville), is out now. Q&A by Janine Schaults.

More than 50 Major League ballplayers have gone 6-for-6 at the plate in a single game – a handful went 6-for-7; only Rennie Stennett ever hit 7-for-7 – but no Chicago reps since One Dog in ‘95 and Scammin’ Sammy in ‘93. What could we possibly be driving at? Last year, for its festival’s fifth anniversary, we put Pitchfork on our cover. For their sixth, they land on page 6: welcome to the club!

That labored, overextended intro now finished, it’s time to gear up for the 15th through 17th at Union Park, still the best bargain among Chicagoland’s 49 ticketed she-bangs. Despite Lollapalooza taking a vacuum to Pitchfork’s roster possibilities in past years, 2011 packs more midtable punch than Grant Park’s top-heavy, Top 40/blog-rock gulf. Friday might be the baddest bill in its history, with Neko Case, James Blake, Thurston Moore, Guided By Voices, Battles, Tune-Yards, mixtape king Currensy, and a compulsory headline spot by Animal Collective . The rest fills out with TV On The Radio, Fleet Foxes, DJ Shadow, Dismemberment Plan, No Age, Kylesa, Deerhunter, Cut Copy, Superchunk, and Ariel Pink. Whaddya think of that, Ronny?

One-Oh-One, Uh-Oh

This won’t be some soapbox to lambaste disgraced former Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels (randy bugger, though he is), just because he encouraged a fraternity atmosphere where he could be caught being fellated by Trib staffers while knowing security couldn’t touch him. Those are only allegations, anyway. People see a rich, white man with powerful friends and just want to see him topple. It’s the American way.

After his fall from grace, he sat – alone – in a treasure bath (having to scrub his own bits and berries, can you imagine?!) and plotted his triumphant return. With only a few, hundred-million dollars to his name, he took to driving Merlin Media’s acquisition of both WLUP-FM (97.9, a.k.a. The Loop) and WKQX-FM (101.1, Q101) among other stations, naming veteran John Gehron (who oversaw WLS in the ’70s and ’80s) chairman of his advisory board. At presstime, The Loop looked to remain as-is. Q101, however, is rumored to hit all-talk at the end of the month.

Cover ASCAP’s Butt

Technology will ruin us all. Comcast and Skype are working on teleconferencing through your TV so that people can see what a pigsty you wallow in. Apple will install sensors in iPhones that keeps them from recording events like concerts and peaceful, democratic demonstrations against hockey results. And now, the major labels want to bundle mechanical and performance licenses directly to online services. But that’s what ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are for!

Looking to streamline its global business and handling more direct licensing among publishers, EMI – and the other labels, soon enough – will be eating others’ pie as unrelated elements of their own arcane business models get chomped away. ASCAP, et al, aren’t worried. The label’s move will only amount to a percent of its business, and not touch its more traditional media enterprises. Probably. Or until there’s an app for it.

La-La-La-La-Lambada!

Yes! One of the songs enmeshed in the “Day The Music Died” legend is baa . . . wait, no. Try, if you turn 21 late this year or early next, chances are your conception was the result of The Forbidden Dance: Lambada! The worldwide dance sensation – public humping, if we’re being honest – capitalized upon by French pop legends Kaoma in 1990 and feted with two blockbuster films (Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights doesn’t count) is back. Three recent hits have channeled Kaoma’s transcendent smash: “Stereo Love” by Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina, Don Omar’s “Taboo,” and Jennifer Lopez thumping “On The Floor,” which borrows the entire melody! Two-million digital copies have sold! Rogelio Alfonso, of Miami’s WMGE-FM says, “Good music revives every so often.” Oh, Rogelio. Lambada comigo, amigo!

– Steve Forstneger

As if Middle Easterners don’t have enough problems in this country, the term “Arab Spring” will become the opposite of “Indian Summer” and signify a relentless, wintry malaise. (You say it means revolution, well, you know . . . ) But at last it’s June, and you can smash that icy lake breeze in the face with the plastic vessel of pale brew acquired at a weekend festival!

Check your local listings and sites like chicagoevents.com, starevents.com, and chicagofestivals.net for complete listings, and check out this month’s “Sweet Home” for Blues Fest. Making our way through some of the bigger headliners, Smoking Popes, Treaty Of Paris, and AM Taxi are the kings of Sausage Fest on the 5th; 10,000 Maniacs howl at Wells St. Art Fest on the 11th; the 11th-12th at Northcenter’s Ribfest brings Ezra Furman, Waco Brothers, Tapes ‘N Tapes, and Hayes Carll; Pride Fest (24th-25th) revives Crystal Waters, Deborah Cox, and Mya; Green Fest the same weekend shoots out Yo La Tengo, Les Savy Fav, and The Thermals.

The Taste’s budget got trimmed (with Gospel and Country Music fests folded into it), so instead of past-their-prime flops you get some sturdy B-listers and locals including Gold Motel, The Giving Tree Band, Heartsfield, Lil’ Ed with Lurrie Bell and Eddie Shaw, White Mystery, Kevin Flynn, Jessica Lea Mayfield, California Wives, Empires, Material Reissue, and heavyhitters Loretta Lynn, The Jayhawks, Lemonheads, and Natalie Cole.

See (Sky) Saw

Jimmy Chamberlin’s new outfit, Skysaw, come to Metro on the 25th. The former Pumpkins drummer brings former Jackfields Mike Reina and Anthony Pirog with him, for a more pop-oriented project than his ongoing fusion gig, Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. “This is more about songwriting, orchestrating, being in a band with collaborators,” he says, “as opposed to going out to play jazz fusion, which is a part of me, just not this part.” For now the goal is to play handfuls of shows and record, record, record. “I know I’m having a great time now. We’re on the road, I’m setting my stuff up, we’re in a van with a trailer. I’ve never really asked much more of music that that. We don’t have any preconceived notions or grandiose expectations, especially in light of the current music business profile. The goal is just to have fun and put out as much music as we can, and maintain an economic profile so that we can keep doing it.” Great Civilizations (Dangerbird) arrives on the 21st.

The Year Of Living Fat

Goose Island might have been slurped up by Budweiser/Imbev, we just hope Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing doesn’t think we’re begging for a void to be filled. The craft-beer shop will throw a party in Logan Square’s Palmer Square park on July 16th, with a lineup championing indie-pop stars Free Energy, local “circus punk marching band” Mucca Pazza, The Dovekins, Daredevil Chicken Club, and Squirm Burpee Circus.

Yes, plenty of Fat Tire Ale will flow, but the event, dubbed “Tour De Fat” and visiting a dozen other cities, is more about filling up your tires. For a year. At the center of a costumed bike parade and other two-wheeled shenanigans is a contest or dare: turn over your car keys, and New Belgium will provide a Black Sheep commuter bike for you to ride for a full calendar. People interested in potentially swapping should visit Newbelgium.com for more details.

Cleansed By Fire

Café Brauer, the tony refectory south of Lincoln Park Zoo, has lasted 100 years and will go on to be enjoyed by the affluent for ages. Brauer House, the Hillside-perched punk-rock institution, didn’t last a decade before it burnt to the ground – to its owner’s horror – in 2008. And while Steve Brauer would probably prefer his original location likewise became an encrusted, venerated hall, he’d have to admit that an incineration followed by rebuilding is pretty punk rock.

We can all laugh about it now, right? The big bonus is that Brauer’s new location – in one magazine editor’s opinion – is in the greatest Western suburb in the world: Lombard. Tucked into a slot north of North Avenue and between Rte. 53 and I-355, grisled vets of the old establishment will find the same ambitiously life-threatening snacks (the frankenstein “tater tachos”), a tastemaker’s brews, and, of course, edgy rock in the land of the cover band. Burn, baby, burn.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: What led you to forming your new group, Macrodots?
Cathy Richardson: I met Zack [Smith, also of Scandal fame] when I was living in San Francisco and we started writing together. He’s a very prolific writer and producer and he had a lot of great tracks without lyrics or vocals. The first song we wrote was “Save Me.” It was a complete instrumental arrangement when he played it for me, and it’s such a heavy track; the lyrics just flowed out and I cut the vocal then and there. That first take actually ended up on the record. We knew we had something serious at that point. Zack played a lot of the guitars, bass and keys on the record and I did the vocal arrangements. We also used some really cool studio musicians and tried a few different lineups live, but ended up using the band that had been backing me for the past several years. I met [guitarist] Jude [Gold] on Myspace, believe it or not, and I was working with [drummer] Donny [Baldwin] in Jefferson Starship and then it turned out they had worked together in JGB. Jude is an editor at Guitar Player Magazine and he introduced me to [bassist] Jon [Herrera], who was working at Bass Player. Anne Harris and I have been playing together for years in my Chicago based band. She’s my not-so-secret weapon. 

IE: What type of sound and overall vibe were you going for on The Other Side?
CR: We set out to make a desert island album, a defining album, with undeniably great songs that sound fresh, but with a nod to the great classic bands of rock that we love, like Cheap Trick, Zeppelin, The Beatles, AC/DC, The Pretenders, Heart, David Bowie, Aerosmith, etc. I’d call it retro-modern power pop with a psychedelic twist. [Laughs.]

IE: How did you get hooked up with Jefferson Starship?
CR: I was doing “Love, Janis” in San Francisco and had just signed a lease on an apartment and then, bam, the show closed five days later. Luckily for me, Big Brother & The Holding Co. were going out on a tour of the U.S. for the 40th Anniversary Of The Summer Of Love and they asked me to sing with them. Jefferson Starship were the headliners on that tour and Diana Mangano, who had been with them for 13 years, decided to leave right after that. So, it was another right place, right time situation. I have always been a huge fan. I grew up listening to them so it was a very natural fit. Right after I joined, we made a record of old folk songs called Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty and toured that acoustically with David Grisman on mandolin. We also went to Europe and Japan, which was a first for me and a lot of fun. 2009 was the 40th Anniversary Of Woodstock and we toured the U.S. with another package called “Heroes Of Woodstock” and played a lot of big sheds, including Bethel, New York at the original site on the actual anniversary, doing the same set the Airplane had played. That was filmed in 3D for a documentary that will presumably come out someday [laughs]. This year is Jefferson Starship’s 40th anniversary, so our set is mostly early ‘70s stuff from Blows Against The Empire, Dragonfly, Red Octopus era. We’re playing a show in June with the Cleveland Youth Symphony that’s being taped for a future broadcast on HD Net. 

IE: What are your current and future solo project plans?
CR: Thankfully, I can always write whatever comes out of me without concern for writing for a certain “project,” so I just continue doing that and playing solo and duo acoustic shows with Anne [Harris] to round out my calendar. I don’t have plans to make a new solo record anytime soon; I’m really just focused on pushing the Macrodots forward. I consider this the new Cathy Richardson Band.

IE: How are you able to balance all three acts?
CR: It takes a lot of coordination. Jefferson Starship plays about 60 shows a year, which theoretically leaves 75 percent of the year open, but they are most active in the summer when a lot of things are happening for my band, too, so it can be difficult. Then, there’s a lot of time when I’m scrambling to fill my calendar, like in the winter months when touring gigs dry up. Obviously, I can’t do everything all the time, so sometimes one or the other has to take a backseat. Also, Chicago is my main market, but you just can’t play every weekend around town like I used to in the ‘90s. There are so many national acts in venues of all sizes coming through town on a daily basis. I have to pick my moments so as not to oversaturate or compete with everything that’s happening here. 
 
IE: What is your proudest career moment thus far and why?
CR: There have been so many great moments, it’s hard to pick just one! The Grammy nomination was a major accomplishment for me as a DIY artist, even though it wasn’t in a musical category [“Best Recording Package” in 2004 for Road To Bliss], it was still a huge honor to be recognized for the creativity and work we put into that record and it did help to get the music heard. I also got to take my parents to the Grammys before my mom passed away, which was pretty awesome for all of us.

Cathy Richardson and Macrodots appear June 17th at Metropolis Ballroom in Arlington Heights. Q&A by Andy Argyrakis.

O Come, O Come Emanuel
On the 16th, Chicago will inaugurate its first new mayor in 22 years. Despite the inevitable letdown breathed by every new administration that has ever taken office anywhere, Chicago’s music community seems cautiously optimistic about Rahm Emanuel. Outgoing Richard M. Daley wasn’t the savviest despot ever, and his post-E2 tragedy crackdown on small clubs and originally unbending stance on lakefront concerts (among other difficulties) soured the relationship. Daley was a Daley, a well-connected Bridgeport kid whose stewardship of his father’s Machine left little time for artists and musicians. (Unless those people wanted to help gentrify neighborhoods that the connected could then profit off of.) People who watched him declare Chicago Music Day in 1990 have begun to think they were incepted.

Emanuel — at least based on descriptions by those who worked with him on President Obama’s staff — doesn’t strike many as an improvement. But he is brother to the Hollywood superagent on which Jeremy Piven’s “Entourage” character is based. He spent a lot of his campaign telling people that Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was one of his favorite, all-time musicians. And in a broadcast interview with WXRT-FM (93.1), he proposed an Uptown “music district” to foster community and build the city’s international presence, which, musically, has always been in the shadow of the coasts.

Rahm It Through
Of course, each of our requests to interview the mayor-elect have gone unanswered, so there you have it. A music district would be a boon to the sputtering development of Uptown, home to the Aragon and Riviera as well as The Green Mill and Kinetic Playground. It has four CTA stops within seven blocks, sits right off the lake, and has cheap enough rents along with a smattering of gangs and homeless to provide the gritty, urban feel artists crave.

Any such move, however, would be met with fierce opposition from South Side aldermen, who have been hankering for the city to exploit our blues history for tourism and would want any such musical destination somewhere below Roosevelt. They’ve already lost Record Row and Maxwell Street and had to watch the housing boom crumble on their doorstep. Emanuel will meet a revamped city council, that could be ready to reassert itself after years of managing Daley’s zipper and belt for him; losing South Side support could prove crippling.

The People’s Party
While an official of Emanuel’s standing had never gone public with such a proposal, it’s not as if people haven’t tried to give Chicago a more musical bent, both internally and externally. The Chicago Music Commission came into being partly in response to the E2 atmosphere, but has battled infighting and efforts to establish its authority. Its study (that alleged local music’s billion-dollar annual contribution to the local economy) might make the city’s indifference toward it seem ridiculous, but it’s not as if Mayor Bloomberg wasn’t attacking danceclubs in Manhattan or Austin police can’t be heavy-handed during South By Southwest or, well, have you read about New Orleans’ law enforcement lately? The CPD isn’t chasing hippies through Lincoln Park anymore, is what we’re saying.

We have pride/embarrassment issues with the quality of Taste artists and the Blues Fest lineup, but ain’t that the way it’s supposed to be? I don’t know what everybody else is reading, but rock music has an anti-authority streak that runs counter to all this clamoring for Officially Sanctioned Events. Yes, capitalism trips a gag reflex in organized musicians, and you’d like to see tax dollars spent on something other than the sewer they’ve dug up at the end of your block for the seventh time in three years, but do we really want to drag bureaucracy into this?

Baby Steps
There exists a disconnect between what people dream and what could feasibly make a difference. One of the CMC’s desires is a friendly bond between city inspectors/departments and the music establishment, which it believes to be a negative, at best benign, relationship. Emanuel can insist upon improvements, but memos and scandals got Daley nowhere with corrupt cops or government, and he really really did all he could to straighten them out.

Other than a music presence in tourism brochures, what else can be done? A museum? (See: Peace Museum, The.) The city can’t make musicians famous. Better festivals? Lollapalooza, Pitchfork, Mobfest, Riot Fest, North Coast, World Music, and others have become international destinations independently. Remember, whatever’s given can also be taken away. Without major, private-sector investment (which would effectively destroy our grassroots identity), what you see is what you get.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: Describe the EP: stuff you’re playing live, a tip of the cap to Kanine Records before diving into Warner Bros.?
J.P. Pitts: A little bit of everything. We did want to release something to bridge the first record and the next, which we’ll start as soon as we get back from this tour. The second [album] will be released by Kanine and Warner Bros., too, though.

IE: With the Trail Of Dead/Surfer Blood tour, will you get a lot of disoriented metalheads showing up?
J.P.: I’m not sure what to expect, honestly. Musically, we’re a lot different, they’re a fair amount older than us, and we’re all going to be on the same bus, apparently. A lot of metalheads seem to like Surfer Blood, too, so maybe we’ll make some more fans.

IE: You don’t want the cutters that some black-metal bands acquire.
JP: That would bum me out if I saw that from the stage. I’ve never listened to music and felt like that, so I guess I don’t understand the impulse.

IE: You guys have done several tours; do you hang out with the other bands?
JP: We’ve always gotten pretty close with them. When you’re traveling together, you can’t help get to know somebody. I love all the dudes in my band, but after 200 days on the road it’s nice to talk to somebody else and realize there’s a world outside of your bubble.

IE: Do you have stacks of plans to collaborate after a tour?
JP: It comes up, but everyone’s pretty realistic about time. It’s pretty hard keeping up with a tour schedule, writing new music, and making records. It’s all day, every day. We’re probably really bad at it. “Yeah, we should do this tour, get together, collaborate,” when in the back of our minds we know it’ll never happen. But it’s not a bad thing to dream.

J.P. Pitts and Surfer Blood co-headline Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake in Chicago) with And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead on May 7th, and will release the I’m Not Ready EP this spring. Q&A by Steve Forstneger.

IE: We want to give you a little grief, because you took eight years to put an album together, which conveniently landed you on your 25th anniversary.
Corporate Death: That’s just the way it worked out. We really wanted to put something out earlier. In the U.S., it’s actually the 26th, though in Europe we got it out last year.

IE: How long had you been working on Grim Scary Tales?
CD: We never stopped being a band; we always did shows, festivals, and some limited touring. But after Murder Metal, I took a break. I was just constantly reading books on these guys and wanted to come back with a fresh outlook. I sat down with my books, notepad, and my pen, went to my office — a Mexican restaurant by my house — and sat at the bar to write. Had margaritas and tequila for inspiration.

IE: You gave them good business.
CD: I wrote all of Grim Scary Tales and half of a part two. I had so many songs, I just decided to start with the earliest recorded killers and work my way up to modern times. The next album will probably start around World War I. I’m trying to record it to get it out by next year, because I don’t want a long break between the two parts.

IE: What were your research materials for murderers?
CD: Just books. I’d buy ones with a bunch of different killers in them because I didn’t want to have too much information on the guys; I have to fit them in songs. A lot of books have the same guys, but different facts.

IE: Did you get burnt out on it?
CD: No, I came back with a lot of zeal for it after the break. Once I get in that mode of reading about killers, I won’t read about anything else. This is more historical, and I tried to pick the most famous historical ones — even if other bands have done them. Though I started writing a Thomas Bathory song, but our bassist just said, “Let’s do Venom’s version.”

Macabre play Central Illinois Metalfest in Urbana on July 24th. Q&A by Steve Forstneger

Conventional wisdom says that if record companies are so miserly when it comes to doling out royalty monies, the only real way for an artist to make bank is through appearance and performance fees. Corporate events and celebrity/billionaire birthdays have long been part of the circuit, but, while North Africa burned, it emerged that some A-listers have found a different kind of royalty stream.

Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent, and Usher, among others, have agreed to donate their fees to charity after fans learned they played for embattled and terrorist-tied Libyan dictator Moammar Gadaffi. Kesha told Rolling Stone that foreign exploits aren’t limited to heads of state: “I played a private concert [in Moscow on New Year's Eve] with Amy Winehouse. I don’t even know who the show was for. Russia is so shady.” The gigs don’t even have to be abroad: known cleptocrats, like those from Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang clan, frolic on U.S. shores and purchase from whomever will take their money. One of the most unlikely recipients of this cash is Lionel Richie dubbed “Lionel Of Arabia” by GQ for his popularity among Middle Eastern sultans.

Storage Solutions

Three years ago, Record Store Day seemed like a quaint, underdog rebellion in the face of foregone extinction. What music that was selling put change in Steve Jobs’ pocket or served as a tax loss for Walmart and Best Buy. Now it’s an event bound to outlast the stores themselves.

For 2011, the big throwdown occurs April 16th, with some record stores calling out shoppers for midnight release specials the night of the 15th. Many items — of which there is an incomplete list at recordstoreday.com — will only be available day-of, and range from obscure indie releases to full-on, major-label vinyl barrages. From a 78 r.p.m. “Good Vibrations” single and Warner Bros.’ “Side By Side” singles (famous original/ famous-person’s cover) to a Mute comp (unreleased Can and Moby) and local-populated Parkinson’s-research benefit Made In Aurora (on 150-gram vinyl), which was commissioned by Kiss The Sky records in Geneva and Backthird Audio in Aurora, the bounty is staggering. To celebrate Made In Aurora, Kiss The Sky will host a party at Bistro Thai, starring Kid, You’ll Move Mountains. Visit your favorite local shop online, and pickup the paper edition to see more specials in “File.”

Dresden Tolls

It’s been a long road back for Matthew Leone, and while April 23rd won’t mark the end of a year of hell, it will begin some closure. Last July, Leone intervened in a domestic dispute outside his brother’s West Town condo between 34-year-old Justin Pivec and his wife. Leone charged, momentarily separating the couple, but with his back turned Pivec — who reportedly bloodied his wife — allegedly began a series of blows that took Leone within an inch of his life. Doctors told the Chicago Tribune that if assistance arrived much later, he likely would have died.

On the 23rd, Leone, bassist for locals Madina Lake, will rejoin his band onstage at Metro. He still has the scars — both from the attack and two brain surgeries — but Madina Lake will re-release the limited-edition Dresden Codex EP for the show, and simultaneously re-release their bassist in the process.

– Steve Forstneger

Yes, the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas has become something entirely different. Like MTV, SXSW doesn’t aspire to modesty. Miller Lite and Chevrolet are sponsors, Duran Duran and Duff McKagan will perform, and sxsw.com features an interview with “American Idol” runner-up (and holder of a major-label contract) Crystal Bowersox. There are concurrent film and comedy festivals (which we imagine trot out Titanic and Larry The Cable Guy). Live and let live, right?

Unlike MTV, SXSW retains the component that built its brand: low-profile artist showcases. And once again, young Chicago bands will head down in droves hoping to lure badgeholders shut out of Queens Of The Stone Age or The Bangles. Bottom Lounge (12th), Hideout (12th), and Lincoln Hall/Schubas (17th) are all hosting huge send-off parties, and we host full list of the hometown artists below:

A Lull, Bruce Lamont, California Wives, Candy Golde, Cast Spells, Dawn Golden & Rosy Cross, Distractions, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, Flosstradamus, Gemini Club, Gypsyblood, Houses, Joan of Arc, Jon Langford & Skull Orchard, L.E.P. BOGUS BOYS, L’Altra, Light Pollution, Lupe Fiasco, Makeshift Prodigy, Maps & Atlases, Marco Morales, My Gold Mask, Netherfriends, Novembers Doom, Paul Cary, Secret Colours, Sissy-Eared Mollycoddles, Smoking Popes, The Atlas Moth, The Autumn Defense, The Bears of Blue River, The Hood Internet, The Kickback, The Streets On Fire, These Wonderful Evils, Veil of Maya, Waco Brothers, Young Man, and Yourself & The Air.

St. Patrick The Invader

St. Patrick’s reputation in Ireland shouldn’t be. Part of Irish identity is loathing British imperialism, yet here’s the rich son of a high-ranking, British-based officer importing a whole religion? (And how is his name Patrick if his parents were Calphurnius and Conchessa and he trained mostly as a priest in France?) The celebrations are more farcical: his original color was blue, the first parade was in New York, and it was illegal for pubs to do business in Ireland on 3/17 until the 1970s.

Our nitpicking over, bring on the bacchnalia! Peggy Kinane’s in Arlington Heights will go for broke for three days beginning the 17th, spending all their green on headliners Scythian, Sister Hazel, and .38 Special, with Ides Of March, Neverly Brothers, and 7th Heaven adding support. Uncle Fatty’s in Lincoln Park looks to put a stop to Peggy’s by opening at 9 a.m., and offering an open-bar package from noon until 4 a.m. on the 17th. Before you accuse them of being thoughtless and irresponsible, Mike & Joe will play at 2 p.m. before everyone’s hammered. Congress, which hosted Dropkick Murhpys in late February, have The Pogues on the 3rd and then Flogging Molly on the 11th and 12th; Kevin Flynn & The Avondale Ramblers play six city and suburban venues between the 11th and 19th; and The Tossers do one at Metro on the 18th.

Grammy Jam-A-Jam

Practically since its inception, the Grammy ceremony has been derided for stressing sales over substance and being so clueless in its early years that it has spent the past decades in atonement by rewarding the voters’ geriatric peers over what’s current. So what happens when the critical favorite finally wins? The other side has a go. Spurned Eminem fans (supporting a top-seller shunned in the past) were incredulous that Arcade Fire took home Album Of The Year, artfully dubbing the band “Arcade Fire Who” and accusing the Recording Academy of racism (denying Eminem = dissing hip-hop = hating blacks) and being opponents of free speech (Eminem lost because of his mouth). One mid-level entertainment exec bought a full-page New York Times ad (Hey, guy! Our full pages are cheaper!) condemning the show and saying it exploits stars who aren’t going to win. And there stand Arcade Fire, like Taylor Swift watching Kanye West ruin her night.

A Waxy Plug

Some people plan to purchase a record when they turn 33 1/3rd, a quaint self-acknowledgement combined with retro consumerism. If you’re Wax Trax, however, you throw a party. The legendary Chicago-based record label and store will celebrate this appropriate anniversary on April 15th and 16th at Metro featuring Front 242, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Luc Van Acker, Paul Barker, Chris Connelly, En Esch, Guenter Schultz, Raymond Watts, and Rights Of The Accused all to benefit Center On Halsted. The families of deceased founders Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher will be on hand to commemorate the duo, who moved from Denver to Lincoln Avenue in 1978 and lasted until the mid-’90s. Along with regular admission, Metro’s offering a VIP package with limited-edition bonuses.

– Steve Forstneger

IE: How do you balance The Tragically Hip with your solo career?
Gord Downie: I don’t really worry about balance. Just like anybody, I move from one thing to the other. I’m into the process of discovering things and chasing surprises. It’s not a tough transition, because I pretty much write every day and I’m always looking for an outlet.

IE: What inspired the title of your new album?
GD: I took the title from the book Son Of The Morning Star: Custer And The Little Bighorn [by Evan S. Connell]. I’m not an aficionado, but it provides a detailed account of The Battle Of Little Big Horn that I don’t think you’d typically find. It’s about Custer and the various characters as they converged on the battle site. The Grand Bounce describes the term soldiers used when they were planning to desert.

IE: How did you get hooked up with Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie as producer on the project?
GD: We met at a festival in British Columbia where we and Death Cab were both playing. Chris came backstage and said he grew up listening to The Tragically Hip. He’s a very curious guy, really nice and easy. We talked over the phone for months as schedules converged with one another and then two summers ago we converged in Canada. I showed him some songs, we laid them down with the band [The Country Of Miracles], and he went away and mixed it on his own. As each mix arrived, it was like getting a great gift out of the blue and it was fun and surprising.

IE: How would you classify your songwriting these days?
GD: I’d probably say I’m an emerging songwriter, someone who’s always learning something new . . . I don’t have any great expectations, but I love doing it and exploring the guitar. I like writing the words and what they’re trying to say and then the pattern of what the next sound should be since there are so many choices.

IE: What can fans expect from your current solo tour?
GD: We spent last summer touring festivals of a disparate nature — jazz, folk, rock, blues — and I’m proud of the nimbleness. Last fall, we did a proper tour across Canada and [this spring in America] will be a modified version of that. We’ll have [guitarist] Dale [Morningstar] and [vocalist/guitarist/bassist] Julie [Doiron] and strip it down to the woods. It’s going to be closer to how the songs sounded when I was teaching them to Chris Walla.

IE: What are the goals for the current season of your career?
GD: As we speak, I’m writing, recording and pushing forward with the guys in The Hip. We’ll be putting out songs and playing this summer. I’m moving from one thing to another, just to keep it interesting as opposed to here comes a record that you spend 18 months recording and touring in support of and then spending a year on your couch relaxing. I don’t know, but I think those days [in the music industry] might be gone.

Gord Downie & The Country Of Miracles appear in support of The Grand Bounce on March 29th at Park West. Q&A By Andy Argyrakis.

IE: Did the Wheel Of Chance [a device that will dictate the structure of this month's Yo La Tengo tour] come out during your Hanukkah shows?
Ira Kaplan: No. The wheel will be making its debut. We only spin it once. It’ll tell us what to do for the first 40 minutes. I think there’s eight different possibilities for the first set. It’ll determine format – not song-by-song – so we’re just preparing ourselves for any eventuality.

IE: So it’s nothing too complicated.
IK: It’s actually fairly complicated. [Laughs.] The spinning of the wheel won’t be complicated.

IE: Where did the idea come from?
IK: I can’t say specifically, but I think [Kaplan's side-project] Condo Fucks had a big role in it, in that we kind of did and didn’t want to go on tour and were looking for a way that we could do that. Similarly, The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo was another thing we enjoyed, but didn’t want to do another tour that way right away. [Yet] we also didn’t feel like hanging it up in the closet.

IE: Have you seen other bands attempt anything similar?
IK: Not that I can think of. People have referenced the Elvis Costello show where he would spin the wheel. I never saw it, but my understanding was that had actual songs on it, and they would spin it to determine the next [one]. Our wheel will probably be smaller. We can’t afford those big production values.

IE: It’ll have value after the tour.
IK: Actually, we’re borrowing it. It’s a good deal for us. [New Jersey-based radio station] WFMU has a wheel that they use at their record fair and fundraising marathon.

IE: So you need to protect it.
IK: Yes, there will be no Who-style antics. At the last show, we won’t finish with “My Generation” and destroy it.

IE: What about next for the band, new-music-wise?
IK: I think one of the reasons we’re not working on songs constantly is we like what happens when we take a break and then come back. Interrupting the process shakes things up in a way we enjoy. In that sense, not writing/not working on songs is sort of a form of working on them. It’s always leading its way in as meandering a way as we dare – to writing new songs. I have a feeling that’s coming when we give the wheel back to WFMU.

Yo La Tengo play Metro on February 4th. Popular Songs (Matador) is available now. Q&A by Steve Forstneger. Photo Credit: Jesper Eklow