Selling clothes is evil, except when its not

So within the span of a week, Pitchfork is up in arms about Liz Phair partnering up with Banana Republic as she further eschews an indie aesthetic she hasn't held herself to for 15 years, while Kim Gordon shilling for Urban Outfitters is virtually excused because Sonic Youth is "now on Matador". Nevermind how Urban Outfitters co-opts indie culture while the ultra-conservative CEO funds his right-wing ideologies (see: political contributions to Rick Santorum). Not to mention the number of times I've heard Cut Copy, TV on the Radio, Junior Boys and countless other Pitchfork favorites blaring in Banana Republic stores. Down with corporate suits, up with ironic PETA shirts!

I get it, Pitchfork thinks Sonic Youth is still making good music and Liz Phair isn't, but you can't pick and choose your sell-out stories, which in these days' indie-mainstream culture should be rendered irrelevant anyway.

Bling blong

CNN takes a look at how in this economy, hip-hop stars may be wearing less "bling". They also use the term "jewels". They ultimately determine that "it's unlikely that bling will go away completely." Thanks, CNN.

Megapreg

Once again, a big thank you to People.com for keeping me up with the latest indie news- surprisingly not about indie rock couples for once!- that a pregnant M.I.A. will be "rapping" at the Grammy's on her due date. I wasn't aware that she was a "rapper", or that her music could even really be called "hip-hop", but cheers for trying, People.com.

Apparently there will be also be a long-awaited(?) Blink-182 reunion post Travis Barker's plane crash. Tune in Sunday!

Bruce on Evilmaster

Last year I mentioned the news that Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow, a "secondary market" ticket broker (i.e., glorified scalper), and was directing traffic for sold out tickets from the Ticketmaster website over to TicketsNow. The amount of conflicts of interest in this set up are too numerous to count. Apparently Bruce Springsteen just realized this as his upcoming tour went on sale and is working with a NJ congressman to investigate. Ticketmaster agreed to stop directing Springsteen fans over to TicketsNow- for his show, at least.

From Gapers Block.

Secretary of the Arts Pt. 2

Last week I posted about a petition being sent around from Quincy Jones to get a Secretary of the Arts in place. NPR has a small piece on what this would entail, with point-counterpoint.

Les Savy Fav

I caught Les Savy Fav this weekend at the Epiphany Church, which as this Radio Free Chicago review points out, Tim Harrington fully embraced. Between the priest collar and the constant church and prayer references, Tim desecrated all that is holy with his constantly gyrating nude belly. As we made our way out of the venue, I saw him race through the crowd only to stop at the door, where I got to shake his hand as he invited me to come back next Sunday at 10.

Flight of the Conchords!

Flight of the Conchords* are coming to the Arie Crown Theater (2301 S. Lakeshore) on April 28. A variety of presales are going on this week, starting this morning at 10am; the official public onsale is Saturday at 10am. I've already secured my seats thanks to the presale; get yours quickly before Saturday at 10:05 as last time they came to Chicago it sold out in minutes! I'm also intrigued by this "Arie Crown Theater"- learn more about the venue here.

*I don't think I really realized "Conchords" was cleverly misspelled until Blogger's new spellcheck feature just told me it was supposed to be spelled "Concords". Call me slow.

Man, Pitchfork is having some ridiculous technical difficulties this week.

Dan the Man

As mentioned previously, Dan Deacon continues to step it up with each subsequent live show, most recently performing in Brooklyn with a full band. Now he's taking that full band on the road, with a stop at the Metro on May 7. This I gotta see.

Burlington Fun

Radio Free Chicago is hosting a DJ night and a record release party this Wednesday. Check it out.

Secretary of the Arts

From the inbox today:

Dear Artist:
Quincy Jones has started a petition to ask President-Elect Obama to appoint a Secretary of the Arts. While many other countries have had Ministers of Art or Culture for centuries, The United States has never created such a position. We in the arts need this and the country needs the arts--now more than ever. Please take a moment to sign this important petition and then pass it on to your friends and colleagues.
http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html

Bird

Andrew Bird Month continues as ABCNews gets on board the Bird bus with an interview with Andrew Bird called- yes- "Bird Is the Word".

Return to the Air

After an extended holiday hiatus, I'm back on the radio starting tonight. I've temporarily given up on trying to record the show for podcasting purposes due to rampant technological difficulties, so if you want to listen and aren't typically in a car on Monday nights, I suggest listening online at wluw.org.

Flight

Check it out, an interview with Bret and Jemaine on the AV Club.

Another one bites the dust

Sad, LA's Indie 103 is shutting down and going online, probably to be replaced by hispanic or religious programming.

Will Oldham

Bonnie "Prince" Billy is one of those artists I've been wanting to see forever, yet every time he comes to Chicago (not often), I have a conflict. So it goes again, as he comes to the Vic on March 14th in support of his new album, and I will be out of town. Fate does not want me to see this man, for some reason.

In the meantime, I'll just read this New Yorker profile on him and cry into my hot chocolate.

Songs in the Key of Blago

Whoa- this is awesome. The Red-Eye had a songwriting contest inspired by Rod Blagojevich's claim that he likes to jog because it "keeps love in your heart". They picked their six favorite original songs out of 36 entries, with the top songs posted on the website and the winning entry set to a video montage of Blago running. The winner, "Bla-Go", by the Keith Harrison Band, is a pretty clear standout over the other five if you ask me, though John Garvey's "Blah Blah Blah" also has its moments.

You can see the Keith Harrison Band play the winning song on WGN tomorrow, January 14, during the WGN midday news.

Awdio

I guess there's a new website that broadcasts live music from clubs and concert venues called Awdio. Smart Bar and Sonotheque shows are available live on the site if you're ever at home and in need of some hot beats.

Jeffrey Lewis

So last year I saw this guy Jeffrey Lewis open up for Super Furry Animals and Times New Viking. Only caught a couple minutes, but he did this pretty funny singing + comics routine. Turns out he, like Andrew Bird, has a Measure for Measure blog on the New York Times website. Find out what his 2008 was like in comic form through his most recent posting. Awwww- cheer up Jeffrey, at least you played with some pretty awesome bands all year long!

More Andrew Bird

The Andrew Bird promo push continues with this great article in the New York Times Magazine that looks back at his career and the expectations for him going forward. I got my pre-order for Noble Beast in this morning (along with my pre-order for Animal Collective's new one, which apparently if it had been released a couple weeks earlier would have topped everyone's best of 2008 lists. C'mon guys, it's only five days into the year!).