Handpicked shows for June 2012

Posted on May 31, 2012 by

credit: White Mystery’s Facebook

The last time I did one of these — in February — I didn’t yet know whether a monthly handpicks column would become a “thing” here. Turns out it didn’t, and that’s great. I don’t know that I like the structure of producing these month by month anyway. Music is feeling; an impulse. And I don’t think I’ve been as excited about a month of music in Chicago since, well, February.

If this is your first time reading one of these things here — that should cover just about all of you — then essentially I’m going to list a bunch of shows worth checking out.

Let’s begin:

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Posted in Cains & Abels, Caught in Your Pockets, In Tall Buildings, Magic Milk, Mannequin Men, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, The Runnies, Tyler Jon Tyler, White Mystery | Leave a comment

Any Kind — ‘Never Seen Anyone Out There Like You’; Dear Everyone — ‘Whatever Forever,’ ‘Brain Children’

Posted on May 29, 2012 by

Any Kind’s Dan Duszynski has recently been involved in the release of three beguiling video projects that deserve some mention. The first is the debut music video for that band’s single, “Never Seen Anyone Out There Like You”:

The found footage in the video stays pretty literal, with each shot perfectly complementing the accompanying lyric. It’s hard not to miss the symbolic importance of the classic ’50s images strewn throughout and the idealism that they represent coupled with each gloomy line.

The feeling of loneliness is addressed more directly towards the second half of the song when we’re transported to space, followed by a hazy sequence where the stag film clips from earlier are overlaid and the emotions in the song come to a head.

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Outer Minds @ The Empty Bottle (5/24)

Posted on May 27, 2012 by

credit: Outer Minds’ Facebook (Dan’s lovin’ it!)

I’ve only ever seen Outer Minds play at the Empty Bottle, and I think that kind of consistency brings with it considerable advantage.

For one it’s the Empty Bottle, far and away the best space to see live music in the city — I think Township, maybe The Hideout round it out. And two, that the setting has remained the same gives me the kind of wiggle room to step back and judge their progression from set to set to set.

That I’ve seen them pre- and post-Pitchfork swoop in is huge, as the kind of growth exhibited Thursday — even from their (pre-Pitchfork) totally fantastic record release about a month and a half earlier — is noticeable. Let me expound some.

Essentially, Outer Minds displayed more confidence than the pair of shows I’ve seen them play earlier in the year. They were sharp; they were tight. I think by now they recognize that they must brave a certain kind of fandom that they, as a band, have not had to confront with in the past. It all seems rather new to most of them. And I like that.

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Posted in Outer Minds, Show Review, The Empty Bottle | 1 Comment

Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside @ The Hideout (5/22)

Posted on May 23, 2012 by

credit: Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside’s Facebook

You know, when Chicago Tunes got up and going in August 2010, I about gave equal time to bands based in Chicago and those not based in Chicago. I also had a good amount of people writing with me from then to late fall/early winter. So between the multiple perspectives and our independent tastes, the page covered all sorts of things, really.

The next year was interesting. I broke away in hiatus for some time, and when I returned I brought with me some renewed kind of focus to what I was doing with this thing. By then nearly all the writers had left, and no more than a few weeks after that, probably, they’d all left.

I think there’s something serendipitous to that. By paring down its voices to one — however undesigned — Chicago Tunes started to become the kind of thing I think I envisioned from the beginning: That is, a Chicago-based blog about Chicago-based music.

From then on, or thereabouts, my attention diverted damn near exclusively to Chicago-based music. So much so that when I pick through Early Warnings in The Reader’s B Side anymore, I at times feel pretty out of touch. The hot bands of a year or two or more that are touring around I might recognize; those newer than that? Well, I dunno.

Such is the fallout of being so completely obsessed with the good people creating great things in and around the city. After awhile it becomes all you know, really, which I’m apparently totally OK with. Of course, that also means I’m finding out about bands like Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside a bit later than I should.

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Posted in Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, Show Review, The Hideout | Leave a comment

Caught in Your Pockets — Lose Your Cool

Posted on May 20, 2012 by

Band: Caught in Your Pockets
Album: Lose Your Cool
Release Date: January 12, 2012

The happy byproduct of seeing an Elsinore live show like I did Friday is coming away with a great new band to track. Like you get your fill on Elsinore, and then you get to delightfully stash another band under your shirt sleeves.

The first time I saw Chicago Tunes’ favored sons of Champaign was about two years ago when they were traveling around in support of Yes Yes Yes. That show’s byproduct: The Bears of Blue River. About a year later at Subterranean — now promoting Life Inside an Elephant — I left with Minor Characters.

This strange thing, but again a thing I’ve finally recognized as a thing, happened a third time this weekend. One of their openers, the Chicago-based Caught in Your Pockets, totally rocked me with their spin on ’80s-flared noise.

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Posted in Caught in Your Pockets, Elsinore, Music Review, The Runnies | 1 Comment

Tyler Jon Tyler — ‘New England Street’

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

credit: Tyler Jon Tyler’s Facebook

I revisited Tyler Jon Tyler for only a teensy bit last night — honestly, a taste of a session — and so, for a good chunk of the day, today, I’ve had Tyler Jon Tyler on the brain. Particularly: “New England Street.” Gosh, what an exuberant tune.

I checked ‘em out for the first time, actually, on Valentine’s Day. They, Nones and The Runnies collected themselves at the Empty Bottle for what was an evening of nowdy madness. As you might know, The Runnies have since been worshiped like heroes around here.

What’s most excellent about Tyler Jon Tyler is their lively brand of youthful vigor. When they’re on and loud, I feel I can totally escape my place and profession and the rest of it, really, because they seem to slip me back to times of eased responsibilities.

I don’t know what triggered Tyler Jon Tyler this week. I probably just want to see them play again. Only engagement I see is a show next weekend in Dekalb. Poops. STRIKE THAT: Per TJT, they’ve got a 6/9 show at Ball Hall and a 6/30 record release (7″) at Cole’s!

Go on and adore “New England Street.” It’s aged a handful of years already, I know. But if you haven’t already done so, it’ll get you in the spirit for the Chicago summer for sure.

Extras:

  • The Chicago-based Tyler Jon Tyler is Rebecca Flores, Nathan Jerde and Tom Cassling. | Facebook
  • Download “New England Street” and three more for free. | Soundcloud

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Many Places — Another Oath

Posted on May 13, 2012 by

Band: Many Places
Album: Another Oath
Release Date: May 29, 2012

For many weeks, I’ve grappled with what to say, exactly, about Many Places. More to the point, the “how” of their music — how it’s ingested, that is — seemed to so starkly contrast with the way I usually listen to new work.

Only upon realizing that idea, that shift — however subtle — could I finally begin appreciating what they were doing for me, and probably listeners like me, on Another Oath.

Readers of this page may know that most of what I write here largely comes from me repurposing music on the go. That is, I take it with me on an inbound train to the city, or up and down the ped path hugging Lake Michigan, and so on. Evening runs, come to think, are the where and when of a good amount of my prep and research. What, with room to roam and just one album pumping in and around my system, it’s been the kind of setting where I can enjoy and concentrate on the music at hand — regardless of the fact that I’m exhausting quite a bit of energy running down a path hastily populated by persons of all types.

Many Places stubbornly rejects this. However attentive I might be in such setting — and I think I am. I’m heading nowhere in particular, and music totally envelops at least one of my five senses — I realized that that kind of devotion wasn’t enough for a band like Many Places.

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