Reader Best Of

WLUW gets a shout out in the Reader's Best of Chicago 2008 even though Monica Kendrick goes with WHPK as her favorite. Still, it's nice to see a WLUW blurb that doesn't mention CHIRP or Loyola in it.

Mash

At a wedding this weekend,I made a request for some LCD Soundsystem. The DJ mashed up LCD Soundsystem's "Someone Great" with Justin Timberlake's "My Love." It sort of worked. Still, it proved to be far better than the typically wedding DJ fare.

Phair

The Liz Phair Exile in Guyville show tomorrow night may have sold out, but you can apparently buy tickets here for half off. Some broker bit off more then they could chew apparently . . .

CHIRP/WLUW in the Sun Times

Media columnist Robert Feeder has a blurb today on people leaving WLUW when it transitions to Loyola on the 1st. It sort of implies there's going to be some grand change as of 7/1, which there won't be other than those DJs leaving. As it stands now, the existing station manager will be staying through the end of the year, so not a whole lot is going to be changing unless you were a regular listener of an exiting DJ.

Lolla

The Lollapalooza schedule is now up for our perusing. The lineup always seems so much smaller once it's put into schedule form. Here's the 2007 Lolla map to try and figure out just how far all the bands you want to see are away from each other. Hopefully all the bands you want to see aren't on the Bud Light and AT&T stages, or you've got quite a hike ahead of you!

I think this year I'll take it easy and just pick one end of the park each day to hang out at. A quick look at the lineups makes me think Friday, Softball fields (Rogue Wave, Yeasayer, the Kills, Gogol Bordello, Grizzly Bear, Mates of State, Stephen Malkmus, CSS, Radiohead); Saturday, Butler Field (Devotchka, Broken Social Scene, Explosions in the Sky, Okkervil River, Wilco); and Sunday's actually pretty weak so it's a toss up (Butler field- National and Iron and Wine, Softball- Chromeo, Girl Talk, Gnarls Barkley).

Who's excited to see Toadies do "Possum Kingdom"?

Meanwhile, a few of the Lolla bands are playing that weekend at various Chicago venues in case you can't see them at the fest (though I always wonder who has the energy after a day on your feet in the sun):

8/1
Brand New @ House of Blues
Mates of State w/ MGMT @ Double Door

8/2
Battles w/ Foals @ Double Door
Broken Social Scene @ Metro
Bloc Party @ House of Blues

and lots more I'm too lazy to spell out . . .

Radio Show Echo

My show from last night is up for downloading now. For some reason, the web stream I record off of was acting up and while the music sounds fine, my vocals have this bizarre echo going on. It's sort of cool and ethereal, so I'm posting it anyway ;)

New Releases

Two highly anticipated releases are coming out tomorrow- Wolf Parade's At Mount Zoomer and The Notwist's The Devil, You + Me. I have not illegally downloaded them or heard anything other than a couple songs I played on my show tonight. Will these be good? Let's hope so!

See them live:

The Notwist @ Logan Square Auditorium, October 17
Wolf Parade @ The House of Blues, July 8

Bike

A cute cartoon from the Tribune:

R Kelly, free man

Ah, R. Kelly is acquitted on the child porn charges.

This article is unintentionally hilarious. Some gems:

"The 41-year-old superstar's trial was repeatedly delayed, once because the judge seriously injured himself falling off a ladder and another time because Kelly had emergency surgery to remove his appendix." What are the odds?

"During the trial, Kelly endeavored to make a good impression on jurors, always standing straight and folding his hands in front of him whenever they entered the courtroom."

"Jurors, in turn, made a good impression on Judge Vincent Gaughan, who repeatedly praised their attentiveness. All appeared to take careful notes, even when testimony became highly technical." I'd like to know how testimony in a child porn case becomes 'highly technical.' Actually, no, I really don't.

Annuals Show and Contest

Annuals are playing at the Empty Bottle this weekend. I won't be able to make it, but I hear they put on a great live show. I think the average age of the band is like, 19 or something.

The band also has a contest where you can win free tickets to the show and free tickets to the Shedd Aquarium. Random.

Bon Iver

I love that Bon Iver's Justin Vernon shows so much Wisconsin love in this interview. Probably the only time we'll ever see the words "Eau Claire, Wisconsin" grace the webpages of Pitchfork. Glad to see he also explains where the name came from and why it's spelled wrong.

Summer Festivals

Salon.com gives a rundown of this summer's festival circuit. Fun fact, co-writer Judy Berman is also a tinymixtapes writer.

Mel!

Hey! Mel from Flight of the Conchords (aka Kristin Schaal) was the "Senior Women's Issues Correspondent" on the Daily Show last night. I wonder if this is a one-off or a more permanent gig for her? Let's hope so, the show could use more of the ladies.

Bottom Lounge Returns!

Well, after 2 months of rescheduling shows, it looks like the Bottom Lounge has finally made its resurgence. I'm interested to see how successful the new space is. Out of laziness, here is the press release:

THE NEW BOTTOM LOUNGE NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR BUSINESS. MODCHICAGO 'OUR WAY OF THINKING 7' KICKS OFF OPENING WEEKEND: FRIDAY, JUNE 6TH AND SATURDAY, JUNE 7TH

Alas! Our ship has come to shore, we SWEAR it! Seeing IS believing, so head on over to have a look for yourselves- the new Bottom Lounge restaurant and music room is officially open for business. Great things await including tasty eats and drinks, a second floor deck overlooking Chicago’s skyline, the Volcano Room Tiki Lounge, top-notch staff and hospitality, and the best new music venue in town. With this opening, Chicago sees an important new contender on the Chicago entertainment and dining scene.

Bottom Lounge will host ‘Our Way of Thinking 7’, a 3-day scooter rally sponsored by ModChicago. Events begin at Delilah’s (2771 N. Lincoln Ave) on Thursday, June 5th (9pm-2am) and continue at Bottom Lounge on Friday, June 6th (9pm-2am) and Saturday, June 7th (9pm-3am) as part of the official Bottom Lounge opening which will include international DJ’s spinning the best of mod, soul, garage, freakbeat, and funk classics.

June and July bookings include The Atlantic Divide and Panda Riot (June 12th), The Broken Letters and For All The Sweet Children (June 15th) and the funk-filled likeness of The Diplomats of Solid Sound (June 28th). Urge Overkill have been rescheduled for July 12 (all tickets purchased for 5-2 will be honored). Post punk-throwbacks Xiu Xiu will headline on September 3rd. Advance tickets go on sale Friday, 6-6-08 through bottomlounge.com

The new Bottom Lounge is tailored as a multi-tier dining and entertainment headquarters giving Chicago’s savviest a new, all-in-one destination to suit their needs: lunch and dinner served in a sleek loft space, a second-floor Tiki Lounge dubbed ‘The Volcano Room’, specializing in a wide assortment of tasty rums, a second-floor outdoor deck with spacious city views and — best of all — a state-of-the-art music room hosting the most legendary musical minds of our time.

Bottom Lounge evolved from the former rock club of the same name located at 3206 N. Wilton between 1991-2005 in Lakeview. After closing its doors to accommodate the City of Chicago’s planned expansion of the Belmont El stop, owners Brian Elmiger and Dan Miskowicz teamed up with new partner Mike Miller, owner of the famed punk rock bar Delilah’s to re-imagine a new Bottom Lounge that would bring together national touring bands, the best eats and drinks, and an iconic lounge setting and esthetic for Chicagoans of all tastes. Brian Peterson (talent buyer for the original location) continues to book the new Bottom Lounge music room.

Radio Show Update

Last night's show is available for download, and I'm back on the every-other-week plan for the summer, so I'll be back on the 16th while DJ Mica does her dance party thing next Monday. Got a call last night from one of the Flosstradamus guys; good to know prominent local musicians are still listening to the station amongst all its turmoil.

Speaking of turmoil, I've been getting more calls lately asking about the Loyola transition. Here's the basics: the official "transition" is July 1st. Some DJs will leave the station by their own choice at that time, but otherwise there should be no discernable difference in programming from June 30 to July 1st (as far as I know). Loyola just hired a dean for the new school of communications, and he'll eventually have to hire a new station manager, but that will take some time. Then there will probably be some sort of evaluation period where the school and station manager will talk about what they want from the station, which again, will take some time.

If I had to venture I guess I'd say it'll be a year before anything significant happened, whatever "significant" may mean- could be a lot, could be relatively nothing. Until then I guess we're just stuck in a holding pattern.

Sasquatch Day 2

After taking Sunday off to relax and tour some Washington wineries, we returned to Sasquatch on Memorial Day refreshed and ready for more music. (Best idea ever, incidentally- I will have to do the same for Lollapalooza. 3 days is just too much). Meanwhile, the kids who'd been camping for three days straight were noticably lackluster and very sunburned, strewn about asleep in the grass while bands like the Hives raged on in the background.

12:10: Yeasayer. Luckily for this Yeasayer fan, they were early enough on the main stage to see them from a relatively empty pavillion floor. We only got handful of songs, but the best of All Hour Cymbals was represented: "2080", "Sunrise", "Wait for the Summer," and singer Chris Keating's flailing and pointing continued to entertain. At the end he told the people in the front row that he realized they were not there to see them on this day, but hopefully next time they would be.

1:25: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down. After Yeasayer we headed over to the Wookie stage and by chance came upon Thao, a peppier, Vietnamese-American version of Cat Power and a badass on the guitar. This was by far the most passionate crowd I saw at the festival; the males in the crowd appeared to be melting at Thao's feet and everyone around me had trouble holding in the cheers and catcalls for the band.

2:10: The Hives. Ah, the Hives. I stopped listening to their music after Veni, Vidi, Vicious but knew I would be highly amused by singer Pelle Almqvist's posturing. My friend and I realized how funny it can be when foreigners, even those with perfect English, try to tell jokes- they never seem to go over quite right because the timing is always a little off. Like when Pelle told us they couldn't play at 100%, but only 60-65% because otherwise they might rock the stage into the Gorge. Cute. In the 80+ degree heat they wore stripped down versions of their trademark black suits and sported black pants and shirts instead, with which Pelle decided to tease the ladies by unbuttoning one, then two buttons (but as we all know, if he had taken off the whole shirt, the heat would have . . . knocked the stage into the Gorge. Or something). Aw, those adorable Swedes.

3:30: Built to Spill. Surprisingly, Built to Spill played nothing from their seminal Perfect From Now On, which they are about to go on tour playing in its entirety (all the rage these days). Guess they wanted to rest up on those jams. They were surprisingly uninteresting on this jaunt- just sort of stood there playing their songs without a word. I remembered them being more engaging when I saw them at the Metro a few years ago. Now if they would only add Chicago to that PFNO tour . . .

4:40: Rodrigo y Gabriela. We made our way down to the pavillion to catch Rodrigo y Gabriela and to secure our spot for Flight of the Conchords. Rodrigo y Gabriela are one of those bands where you'd never buy an album but they are fantastic live; the Mexican pair (based in Dublin!) shredded, Latin-folk style, on their guitars, showing off their mind-blowing rhythmic and finger-picking skills. After some more traditional sounds they got into the audience participation part of the show where the crowd sings "Wish You Were Here" to their strums (I'm guessing this is a RyG show staple at this point), and then they covered popular songs we all know, like "Seven Nation Army." The boys around me again swooned when Rodrigo left the stage so Gabriela could take a guitar solo.

6:05: Flight of the Conchords. The highlight of the festival and the best way to end the weekend was to see even a brief 45-minute set of Flight of the Conchords. We were treated to "Albi, the Racist Dragon," "Business Time," "Foux du Fafa," "Mutha'uckas," "Robots," "Boom," and "the Most Beautiful Girl in the Room," as well as a new one about angels doing it in the clouds (prefaced by "You all know we are Christians. Yeah, we love Jesus"). At one point Jemaine told us how many blowjobs he'd gotten backstage ("49") and Bret pointed out how they must be a real band since they are getting real band things, like water bottles on stage (and blowjobs backstage). Ah, the boys are just as funny and unassuming as they are on television.

After Flight we decided to head home and skip out on the Flaming Lips, which I was ok with. Their festival shows end up being 75% schtick (Wayne Coyne rolling in a huge plastic ball across the audience), 25% music. This works fine when they headline their own show and have all the time in the world, but for 45 minutes to an hour of festival time, it gets a bit old when you only hear 3 songs. Apparently after viewing pics of their show on Pitchfork, I missed lots of naked women on stage. OH DARN.

Free Show!

The Empty Bottle has a great lineup for free (!!!) next Thursday, June 12: Oxford Collapse w/ Frightened Rabbit and Tigercity. I walked through the Do Division Fest yesterday as Frightened Rabbit hit the stage and was impressed with my brief exposure; meanwhile, Oxford Collapse put out a solid album in 2006 featuring a killer single, "Please Visit Your National Parks." Just try listening to it without breaking out into a huge smile.