SXSW, T. Rex, Juvenile
MR. FORSTNEGER GOES TO AUSTIN
If you get bored from the 15th through the 19th, head on down to Austin, TX, for South By Southwest. You won’t be lonely, all of the following Chicago bands will be there: Office, The M’s, Owen, Puerto Muerto, Chris Mills, a Flameshovel Records showcase featuring Bound Stems, Lying In States, Russian Circles, and Low Skies, Baby Teeth, The Detholz!, The Changes, The Jai-Alai Savant, The Reputation, Healthy White Baby, Bible Of The Devil, Headlights, Chin Up Chin Up, Steve Dawson, Palaxy Tracks, The Fold, Caural, Volcano!, Bottomless Pit, OK Go, Allister, Psalm One, Head Of Femur, Devil In A Woodpile, Ambulette, June, Debris Inc., Tight Phantomz, Sybris, Waco Brothers, Marty Casey & Lovehammers, Andre Williams, Magnolia Electric Co., Catfish Haven, Busy Signals, Jon Langford, Zombi, Backyard Tire Fire, and The Thin Man.
On the other hand, if you stick around Chicagoland, it’s a pretty good week for shows. George Clinton comes to the House Of Blues on the 15th or Original Sinners featuring Exene Cervenka visit Double Door, The Tossers do the Metro on St. Patty’s, England’s hotter-than-shit Artic Monkeys find the Metro on the 18th, and country legend Ray Price is at Old Town School Of Folk Music on the 19th. See our calendar for more fun.
HE SLID
There hasn’t been a reissue campaign as fiercely bold as Rhino’s T. Rex onslaught in years. Given the band was only a mild curiosity in the U.S. — further damaged by the parenthetical censorship of “Bang A Gong (Get It On) — bumping the offensive up to eight albums seems excessive. This second installment, which follows the double-disc 2005 issuances of The Slider, Zinc Alloy, Dandy In The Underworld, and T. Rex Wax Co. Singles, dares the U.S. audience into the effervescent Marc Bolan‘s downfall, beginning with Tanx and leading into Bolan’s Zip Gun, Futuristic Dragon, and the posthumously collected Work In Progress. Posthumous? Yeah, Bolan was killed in a 1977 auto accident. What is no accident is his immediate tunefulness. There were a number of bands hyped as the “next” Beatles; T. Rex, in Britain at least, was the only one to exceed it.
— Steve Forstneger
CHIGGITY CHECK (MICROPHONE)
Following a six-month-plus delay, Juvenile‘s seventh album, Reality Check, will finally see the light of day on March 7th via Atlantic, and everyone from Paul Wall to Brian McKnight is strapped in for the long-awaited ride. At a recent listening party at CRC Studio here in Chicago, Juvie didn’t disclose specifics surrounding the hold up, but the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, which toppled his New Orleans home, are at least partially to blame. While introducing new single “Get Ya Hustle On,” Juvie solemnly preached about the government’s disregard for his fellow residents as we watched him rapping amid the post-Katrina rubble in the song’s stunning video. His latest album may shows signs of rising maturity, but reality check or not, Juvie’s reputation for producing raunchy, bass-heavy hits will likely be upheld. Not keeping the listening party subdued, Juvie gradually livened up when sharing his quintessential new material like “Who’s Ya Daddy,” in which he drunkenly rhymed along to lyrics like, “When I grab your ass/I ain’t never gonna let go.” For better or worse, some things never change.
— Max Herman
