Stage Buzz
L’Ocelle Mare preview
L’Ocelle Mare Fuck Mountain Loft, Chicago Friday, February 15, 2008 Thomas Bonvalet don’t wanna work. He just wants to bang on his guitar all day.
A Place To Bury Strangers preview
A Place To Bury Strangers Schubas, Chicago Sunday, February 17, 2008 By Sunday you should have Valentine’s Day out of your system: Drained of the inner pain and humiliation; ready to exact revenge on a society that places vacant companionship above all else; looking for A Place To Bury Strangers.
Danny Burns preview
Danny Burns’ Defectors Martyrs’, Chicago Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Hailing from County Donegal in Ireland, this Chicago-based singer-songwriter, on first listen, sounds like the next coming of longtime local staple, South Sider Michael McDermott. On Danny Burns’ Defectors debut, Grace & Mercy (TL), the 26-year-old does, indeed, channel a young McDermott, but shades of fellow […]
MGMT & Yeasayer preview
MGMT, Yeasayer Schubas, Chicago Friday, February 8, 2008 Sometimes a band just can’t get out of their own way. MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular (Columbia) is an ELO-sized fiesta, a Swedish-pop spectacular that’ll rack up year-end top-10 points* while maintaining indie-band-on-a-major 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 […]
Recent Comments