Stage Buzz
Will Hoge preview
Will Hoge Double Door, Chicago Friday, February 8, 2008 Listening to Will Hoge’s “Dirty Little War” is like digging your heart out with a spoon. The Nashville-based singer’s husky vocals break as the song ventures down a weary path with no end in sight from enclosing doom. In other words, it’s glorious.
Machine Head preview
Machine Head Pearl Room, Mokena Friday, February 8, 2008 Machine Head had a pretty killer 2007, no thanks to us. By us, I mean me. I more or less trashed The Blackening (Roadrunner) in a “Spins” review last summer, saying Machine Head “failed to write engaging material” and that none of the songs were memorable […]
Soft preview
Soft Empty Bottle, Chicago Sunday, February 10, 2008 Self-proclaimed studio rats Soft owe a big debt to the blueprints of shoegazer bands (My Bloody Valentine, Ocean Colour Scene) of early-’90s Britain, with a seiche of psychedelic guitars and an analog rumble of big drum beats.
Freezepop preview
Freezepop Subterranean, Chicago Wednesday, February 13, 2008 You’ve probably heard about a video game called “Guitar Hero” by now. If not, it’s kinda popular: The newest version, “Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock,” made more than $100 million in its first week alone. “Rock Band,” a similar game that lets users sing and “play” drums […]
Love In October preview
Love In October Reggie’s Rock, Chicago Saturday, February 2, 2008 How do you know when a rock group take themselves way too seriously? How about when they proclaim it bothers them to be called a band because it “limits [them] to a scope of music” and “[we] want . . . to be known as […]
Wild Sweet Orange preview
Wild Sweet Orange Schubas, Chicago Monday, February 4, 2008 Birmingham, Alabama-based Wild Sweet Orange offer the self-reflection and sensitive yearning we’ve come to expect from alumnus of that great jukebox known as “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s easy to reason why the folks behind the ABC hit show chose “Land Of No Return,” from the band’s Whale […]
Daniel Johnston preview
Daniel Johnston Metro, Chicago Wednesday, February 6, 2008 As the ’70s became the ’80s, Daniel Johnston became a fixture of the Austin, Texas music scene, peddling homemade cassettes of his songs to passersby. Even a cursory listen to this material (available today on Songs Of Pain 1980-83: The Early Recordings Volume 1) reveals something amiss […]
Eve 6 preview
Eve 6 Chicago City Limits, Schaumburg Friday, January 25, 2008 Eve 6 are an all-too familiar music industry horror story: They scored a big hit on each of their first two albums, but were abandoned by their label nonetheless when their third was a dud. Now, after a three-year hiatus, the pop punk band return.
Supersuckers preview
Supersuckers Brauerhouse, Hillside Thursday, January 24, 2008 Friday, January 25, 2008 Supersuckers will never lack for identity. Even when they made a “country” album, their whiskey-drenched, biker-punk rock had a habit of baring its teeth. And though for a while it seemed they wrote songs simply to go with new song titles, their intensity never […]
T. Duggins preview
T. Duggins, Nate Van Allen Beat Kitchen, Chicago Friday, January 18, 2008 The Tossers will officially celebrate St. Patty’s Day with a hometown blowout at Metro on March 14th, but fans should consider frontman Tony Duggins’ solo gig Friday night for a sampling of the band’s past and present.
A Verse Unsung preview
A Verse Unsung DePaul University, Chicago Sunday, January 20, 2008 Some kids spend their senior year of high school applying to colleges and the following summer gearing up for the big move/life change that inevitably comes with heading off to a university setting. The fellas in A Verse Unsung did, in fact, experience some life-changing […]
Lacona preview
Lacona Empty Bottle, Chicago Thursday, January 10, 2008 Since releasing two not-so-telling singles back in May, local outfit Lacona finally have a full-length release in hand. And the results curiously span a spectrum from glossy numbers akin to fellow area Ashlee Simpson-courting groups (minus the bombast, of course) to D.I.Y.-ethos barn burners.
Tomorrow Never Knows preview
Tomorrow Never Knows Festival Schubas, Chicago January 16 – 20, 2008 Schubas’ annual “January sucks” festival might be its deepest yet, featuring headliners John Vanderslice, Bobby Conn, The Redwalls, White Williams, and The Walkmen.
Chloe Day preview
Chloe Day Elbo Room, Chicago Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Perusing Chloe Day’s online picture gallery isn’t so different than listening to one of her CDs. It’s the same person in each one of those pictures, just like it’s the same voice on each one of those songs, but there are a lot of different personalities.
Mer preview
Mer Cubby Bear, Chicago Friday, December 28, 2007 Mer infuses a jazzy flair into the worn out genre of college rock. Like the O.A.R. of past (before they started purposefully writing radio singles), Edmer Abante — the man behind the pseudonym — breezily sings about unrequited love and relationships in an upbeat, bouncy tempo that […]
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