For music fans, fall is exciting for two reasons: The concert scene moves back indoors to clubs, theaters and arenas, where the sound and surroundings are always preferable to those at outdoor sheds and big summer festivals, and the record companies flood the stores with their most anticipated releases of the year.
Here is a look at the dozen shows and albums I'm most eagerly anticipating as summer fades and the leaves begin to turn, listed in chronological order.
With just enough rock aggression and rhythmic raucousness to appeal to this generally jazz-averse rockist, this Chicago quartet was formed in 2004 by trumpet and trombone player Brian Niebuhr, tenor and alto saxophonist Ray Pandocchi, bassist Jon Marchese and drummer and sample artist Dave Marsalek to explore the intersection of jazz, funk, rock and experimental music at their most extreme. The band is following in heavy footsteps in this endeavor--the Vandermark 5, George Clinton, Miles Davis and the Stooges of "Funhouse" have all aspired to the same--but it more than holds its own on "Resistor," the group's extremely impressive second album, released last March on the local indie IZM Records.
Pointing out that they intentionally avoid chordal instruments in order to emphasize the grooves, Doppler Shift writes that "jazz sure as s--- ain't dead--it's just been waiting." You can hear what they mean via the streaming sounds at http://dopplershiftmusic.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/dopplershift.
Having done its version of one of the most famous "lost weekend" albums in rock history--the Walkmen recorded a track-for-track remake of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's 1974 album "Pussycats" in 2006--the much-hyped indie-rock band now gives us its morning-after hangover record. And, as might be expected, it's nowhere near as much fun.
In addition to the many comments prompted by my blog post on the JoBros, the print version of the article that ran last Sunday produced a flood of angry emails. Here is a sample.
On the list of underground legends of Chicago rock, few bands rank higher than Screeching Weasel.
Formed in the mid '80s in suburban Prospect Heights by chilhood friends Ben Foster, better known as Ben Weasel, the group's vocalist and primary songwriter, and John Pierson, aka Jughead, punk guitarist extraordinaire and sometimes co-songwriter, Screeching Weasel was the punk band that made it cool again to embrace bubblegum melodies -- the missing link between the Ramones and the Buzzcocks and pop-punk's modern-day platinum-selling heroes Green Day, Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy.
Yet though the band's most successful album, "Boogada Boogada Boogada!" (1988), has sold more than 100,000 copies, the group never achieved mainstream success, partly because its sound was more uncompromising, partly because the irascible Foster could rub people the wrong way and partly because he came to suffer from agoraphobia, enduring severe panic attacks whenever he tried to leave his apartment.
An indie-rocker at heart, the Evanston native became the second biggest rock star of his generation -- after only Kurt Cobain, of course, and look what happened to him.
Though Vedder has a wide range of musical interests, from avant-noise to freak-folk, the majority of the singer and songwriter's fans remain wed to the arena-friendly classic-rock that has only ever been part of his story.
And now, as he's crossed the country on his first solo tour, Vedder has tried to showcase a side of himself not easily heard amid the roar of Pearl Jam. But, as review after review has chronicled, he's been greeted nightly by boisterous crowds expressing what they want instead of listening to what he's offering.
"Eddd-ieee," they've howled. "Eddd-ieee!"
It's had to have been enough to make a guy consider pulling a Jeremy.
When it comes to stretching the boundaries of rock 'n' roll in bold and exciting new directions, the accomplishments of David Byrne and Brian Eno cannot be denied, together or separately. Nevertheless, the influence of their 1981 collaboration "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" actually ranks far below many of the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums or much of Eno's startlingly innovative solo catalog: Even 27 years ago, there was nothing all that original or appealing about an ethnologically-minded mix of various world rhythms and random vocal snippets captured via shortwave radio. Anyone who claims these boys invented sampling clearly never heard Can or musique concrete.
Right off the bat, "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" is a much more accessible, enjoyable and arguably better album than "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"--at least if you care about conventional pop/rock songcraft. A collection of instantly winning and familiar tunes, many working what Byrne calls "a folk-gospel thing," it's Byrne's most melodic work since the Talking Heads, and Eno's most tuneful offering since "Wrong Way Up," his 1990 pairing with John Cale. (Included as a bonus track on the 2005 reissue of that disc, the Eno nugget "You Don't Miss Your Water" is pretty much the blueprint for most of "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today," including the warm, content and optimistic lyrical vibe that permeates the disc.)
As you might expect from a band named for one of the most iconic songs on the most famous of all officially untitled fourth albums, the Chicago quartet Blackdog gives a whole lotta love and then some to Led Zeppelin, which ranks first and foremost on a list of classic-rock heroes that also includes Cream and Jim Hendrix. Yet while this can be a dire thing indeed in the hands of mere mortals or copycat wannabes in the Lenny Kravitz mode, thunder god drummer Andrew Elbert, bassist Jason Segal and guitarists and vocalists Antony Ablan and Sam Reicher have both the chops and the bluesy, boozy joie de vivre to pull off the sound and the stance in a most convincing way.
The band released a self-titled album last year, and it offers a hefty sampling of its heavy tunes on both its MySpace page, www.myspace.com/yourblackdog, and its own Web site, www.yourblackdog.com. The group also is gigging with road-warrior regularity; the next stops on the itinerary: The Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Elston, at 8 p.m. Friday, and Phyllis' Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division, at 8 p.m. on Aug. 28.
The inevitable ascendance of the Jonas Brothers as the male tween-pop phenomenon of the moment was obvious when the group opened for Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus on her massive tour late last year.
The brothers crooned, cooed, spun and jumped, but "discreetly libidinous" was the only impression the Broadway-trained, closeted Christian trio from Wyckoff, N.J., made on me that night, and the 11- (soon to be 12-) year-old Hannah/Miley fan beside me wasn't much more enthusiastic.
"They're cute, and I like some of their songs"--notably "Kids of the Future," their reworking of the Kim Wilde New Wave classic "Kids in America" from the soundtrack of "Meet the Robinsons"--the astute young critic said. "But they're not all that. I think you should trash them, dad!"
The ecstatic screams that filled the Allstate Arena indicated that we were in the minority, however, and even louder was the behind-the-scenes grind of the massive Disney star-making and marketing machine, which already was cranking into high gear. Now, its success is manifest.
The JoBros recently made history for being the first group ever to sell more than 100,000 digital downloads for three consecutive singles: "Burnin' Up," "Play My Music" and "Pushin' Me Away." Their new album "A Little Bit Longer" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart last week, selling 525,000 copies, and marking them as the 'N Sync of the new millennium. And, in a bit of obvious demographic pandering, they even appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
So, who are these goobers, and how did they reach these lofty heights?
Joanna Newsom straddles the line between the rock and classical avant gardes: The harpist and vocalist records for Chicago's Drag City label, and her last album, "Ys," was co-produced by the legendary arranger and friend of the Beach Boys Van Dyke Parks. At the same time, she has the world-class chops to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which will join her and her band at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan. Tickets are $25 to $45 via www.cso.org, or call (312) 294-3000.
Chicago's irascible, inconsolable but always undeniable punk-rock legend Ben Weasel, last heard on disc with the 2007 solo album "These Ones Are Bitter," is performing two beyond-rare solo gigs this weekend at Reggie's Rock Club, 2109 S. State. The all-ages show starts at 6 p.m. Friday with the former Ben Foster topping a lineup that also includes Jetty Boys, the Chinese Telephones and the Repellents; the same openers kick things off on Saturday starting at 5 p.m. Both shows are sold-out. For more information, call (312) 949-0121 or visit www.reggieslive.com.
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