More year-end fun

TinyMixTapes has its annual year-end extravaganza up today. I was less involved in its production then in previous years, though my list was still thrown into the mix. I'll post my favorites tomorrow.

Andrew Bird @ Hideout, 12/15/08

Last night's Andrew Bird show was a fun, intimate time with everyone's favorite violin-looping, whistling Chicagoan. As Tim Tuten eloquently explained before launching into a diatribe about how everyone at the Hideout would soon be bailing out all the Republican Douchebags in Wrigleyville who made bad investments and brought our economy down, whatever that meant (though his delivery was good, I think the guy has been taking some stand-up comedy lessons in his spare time), the Hideout purposefully didn't oversell the show so we could enjoy our personal space while experiencing excellent sight lines of the men on stage.

Dosh played a short 30-minute set of his ambient electronica+drumming with Mike Lewis on saxophone and bass to warm up the crowd before the main event. Andrew Bird and his touring band (currently Martin Dosh- drums, Jeremy Ylvisaker- guitar, Mike Lewis- clarinet/bass) took the small stage, which was barely able to fit the spinning horn speaker he's been touting around lately. Turns out these two small shows were added in order to get footage for the album's first music video, with secondary opportunities to preview the entire new record and let the band practice the songs live. This aspect of the show proved to be necessary, as there were several times where Andrew needed to stop and restart songs, or a pedal didn't work properly; however, in a setting like this one, the mistakes only made the show feel that much more quaint and intimate, like we were a part of something special and behind-the-scenes that the crowds at the Riviera or Millenium Park would never get to see.

"Fitz and the Dizzyspells," the track warranting the video, was clearly the most poppy, radio-friendly of the record, featuring plenty of hand claps as well as the members of Mucca Pazza roaming the crowd while the audience flailed around; by the second time we ran through the song (yes, we heard it twice in a row for video purposes), I had a feeling it was a song I could easily get sick of, catchy though it was. Much more interesting were "Souverian", a darker song than we're used to from Andrew Bird that had more layers than I thought possible from Bird's looping, and a drum machine-driven song apparently developed when Bird heard a Dosh song he liked and decided to add violin and vocals. This Dosh-inspired song made for an interesting departure that I thought would make for a great collaborative album between the two in the future (Bird noted that "Simple X" was also a Dosh song he added to, interestingly enough).

Towards the end the band gave the audience some familiarity with "Imitosis," "Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" and "Tables and Chairs." It was interesting hearing these older favorites next to the newly unveiled tracks; Andrew Bird could probably play these in his sleep, and it was interesting seeing the confidence and energy during these songs compared to those that clearly needed more practice. Again, it only added to the intrigue of seeing the beginnings of what these songs will be when they are ready to take them on the road.

Onion's Favs

It's year-end list time! I'll post mine at the end of the week. Here's the Onion's top 30; I think we're looking at another TV on the Radio number 1 sweep (though not on my list).

Bird Show

Man, those Andrew Bird shows took longer to sell out than I thought it would - last time he played the Hideout it sold out in about 20 minutes. I guess that one was better publicized beforehand. I'll be there on Monday, can't wait! If you missed out, he'll be back at the Civic Opera House in April.

Andrew Bird show

If you're quick, head over to ticketweb for tickets to see Andrew Bird and Dosh at the Hideout this Sunday and Monday. The show was just revealed in Andrew Bird's fan newsletter this morning, and tickets went on sale at 10am. Go!

Rod

Radio Free Chicago posts a musical tribute to our great governor Blago, a.k.a. "The Hair."

Common

Common on how Obama as president will change hip-hop, as delivered to CNN.

If you haven't seen it yet, "Prop 8- The Musical" is pretty stellar, and star-studded.

Readers' polls

Tinymixtape's hilarious sendup of a "Readers' Poll", their answer to Pitchfork's "Readers' Poll", where you can select from of surprisingly short list of albums they pick out for you with one lone space for a write-in vote.

Venus

Got nothing to do tomorrow? Check out the latest Venus issue release party:

Dan Deacon

Dan Deacon continues to innovate with his live show, this time by pulling together a 15-member live band (not unsurprisingly comprised of members of his B-More collective, like Ponytail and Videohippos) to preview cuts from his forthcoming album, Bromst. I'll be very intrigued to see how his weirdo-spazzy electronica will translate to actual instruments. Sadly there's only one Brooklyn date down with the full band, but perhaps he'll take it on tour after his album drops in March.

Les Savy Fav returns!

Finally, Les Savy Fav is coming back to Chicago in a form that is not the Pitchfork Music Festival with a stop at the Ephiphany on January 31. What a great venue to see LSF- Tim Harrington will have wide open spaces to run around and truly be a part of the audience. Get your tickets now!

Ikea

It's not often that my regular music websites and my regular interior design websites have the same story:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/news/win-a-date-with-ikea-and-pavement-070464

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/147713-win-a-date-with-ikea-with-a-member-of-pavement

Accolade

Here's an interesting story in the NYTimes about an all-girl Saudi rock band making music even though Saudi code means can't play in public.

TNK 2009

Schubas has some teaser info on the annual Tomorrow Never Knows Festival:

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14 - SUNDAY, JANUARY 18
9 PM // 18+

Schubas' indie-winter-music festival returns. Initial lineup includes...
Bishop Allen // Cursive // Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson // Thunderheist
The Donkeys // Tulsa // Colourmusic // Bear Hands // The Disappears
Pretty Good Dance Moves // The Wonderful World of Bald Eagle // Alla // Vacations

Rock Dives

Gapers Block presents a run down of their favorite Chicago dive-y rock bars.

Chuck on Axl

Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy for the A.V. Club. Pop culture overload.

Joanna + HSBC

Indie-music-in-commercials-watch: Joanna Newsom's "Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie" is in an HSBC commercial. However, nothing about the commercial seems to fit with the melancholiness of the song (one of my favorite Joanna tunes), nor have anything to do with banking. In fact, until Prefix described the plot in this blog post (with video), I didn't even understand what was going on in the commercial, even though I've seen it about 6 times now. Tip of the Hat to Prefix; Wag of the Finger to HSBC's advertising department.

Year-end

Whoa! It's now mid-November and time to start thinking about year-end best of lists. Yikes! In addition to my own list, be sure to check out the annual year-end extravaganza, which will be out on December 17.

P4k Book Fun

What kind of person buys a Pitchfork book?

Not hatin', just wondering . . .

But you can get your fill with the book release party at Sonotheque next Tuesday, or go see the editors read from it at the Lincoln Park Borders tonight (and get it signed by the editors?)

Looks like they are truly going on one mad PR blitz! Kind of makes me want to go just to see what sort of crowd a book signing will attract . . .