Standard Issue

The New Standards
Schubas, Chicago
Friday, February 10, 2006

John Munson (Semisonic) headed lounge group The New Standards arrives in town having rewritten a lot of songs you know. You will love this, or you will leave Schubas cursing the sky.

If you were between 19 and 30 in 1999 — and your rate increases if you were in college, hence the 19 — you probably heard Semisonic’s “Closing Time” a bajillion times at approximately 2 a.m. Call it cynical marketing tactics by the band or complete obliviousness by bar managers from New Lenox to New Orleans (“Dude! I’m totally gonna play it when we close! It’ll be sooo awesome!”), the only thing more predictable was your reaction each time — “Awwwwwwwww! I can’t believe it!”

Munson, perhaps incensed by the treatment of his surname in Kingpin, is looking to redefine the family crest by interrupting normal pleasures once again. His new band, The New Standards with Chan Poling (ex-The Suburbs) and vibist Steve Roehm, takes the Anglo pop fakebook and jazzes it up the way you always prayed Herb Alpert or Esquivel! wouldn’t. From Beck and The Replacements (“New Pollution” and “I Will Dare”) to The Impressions and James Carr (“Man, Oh Man” and “Dark End Of The Street”), you’ll wonder which Priceline commercial it was where Will Shatner scatted in the Twilight Zone.

Ironically, what maintains The New Standards’ charm is their lack of virtuosity. From champion bluegrass bands to Caetano Veloso, smothering songs in a single genre’s trappings loses its impact because of professionalism. Too many notes fall into place so what was once fun sounds too rehearsed. You won’t find too many technical flaws on The New Standards, because you won’t bother yourself to find any.

Christopher Sullivan will open.

— Steve Forstneger

Click here to download The New Standards’ cover of Neil Young’s “Only Love Will Break Your Heart.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly