Here's another preview of one of my Buried Treasure picks for this week's "Sound Opinions": A deliciously sweet hunk o' bubblegum-pop and glam glitter mixed up in a mess of greasy, oily, garage-rock grunge, and brought to us by one of Chicago's finest independent labels.
Album reviews: Cool sounds from Sweden and France
Aug. 11, 2010Gearing up with Team Sound Ops for today's taping of one our periodic excavations of buried treasures -- recordings that are flying pretty far under the radar (though that's all relative in the age of Internet ubiquity), but which we think deserve to be much more widely heard -- I've been utterly captivated by two albums that take different paths to creating alien worlds all their own"¦ and it isn't only because the bands are based in Stockholm and Reims.
Anticipation builds for Mavis Staples' new set, produced by Jeff Tweedy
Aug. 10, 2010"You Are Not Alone" won't officially be released by Anti-Records until Sept. 14, but already it's one of the most anticipated discs of the year: a collaboration between Chicago treasure and soul and gospel legend Mavis Staples and Wilco bandleader Jeff Tweedy.
Girls Rock! Chicago at Metro on Saturday
Aug. 9, 2010
Metro is only six and a half miles from Grant Park as the Mapquest flies, but on Saturday afternoon, it might as well have been located in a different universe.
Nightclubbing: A dozen ways to avoid Lollapalooza (a.k.a. Walmart on the Lake)
Aug. 5, 2010
The giant marketing machine that is Lollapalooza dominates the Chicago music scene this weekend, of course. But whether your reasons for avoiding it are aesthetic (do you really want to hang out in an oversized shopping mall and be marketed to for three days?), moral/ethical (given the attorney general's investigation of the destination fest for anti-competitive practices that threaten the city's club scene and other promoters -- see earlier reports 1, 2, and 3), or financial (three-day passes are now up to $215, or $850 for the VIP pass), there are plenty of worthy rock 'n' roll experiences to be had over the next few days that have nothing to do with the scene in Grant Park (and no, I'm not counting the official after shows in this tally, a run-down of which can be found here if you so desire).
Here are a dozen alternative suggestions.
Album review: Best Coast, "Crazy for You"
Aug. 4, 2010
Best Coast, "Crazy for You" (Mexican Summer/Wichita) Rating: 3.5/4
The debut album by the L.A.-based indie-pop trio Best Coast arrives like a cool breeze off the lake on the most oppressive day of the summer—and as such, the occasional moments of cloying sweetness, the deafening hipster buzz (based both on front woman Bethany Cosentino’s pedigree as a former member of the more spacey Pocahaunted and her current status dating Nathan Williams of Wavves), and most of all that obnoxiously cute album cover (the adventures of Cosentino’s cat Snacks are documented in-depth along with a wide range of other topics on her Twitter account) all are easily forgiven in the face of the irresistible pleasures.
“When I’m with you/I have fun,” Cosentino coos in the closing track.
Album review: "Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present Dark Night of the Soul"
Aug. 3, 2010
Various artists, "Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present Dark Night of the Soul" (Capitol) Rating: 3/4
More than a year after legal wrangling with Capitol/EMI threatened to make this all-star collaboration the first “great lost album” of the new millennium, this busman’s holiday by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and director David Lynch is finally getting an official release. Now that it actually is available as something more than a leaked download, it turns out to have a lot in common with other “great lost” efforts such as the Beach Boys’ “Smile” and Prince’s “Black Album,” packing a few moments of considerable pleasure and beauty, but generally looming larger in legend than it does in the actual grooves.
In fact, the biggest factor marking this collection of 13 songs is that two of the talents they showcase—Mark “Sparklehorse” Linkous, who co-wrote and co-produced the album with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, and Vic Chesnutt, who lends his vocals to the song “Grim Augury”—both committed suicide in recent months (Linkous last March and Chesnutt last December), and this disc comprises some of the last sounds t
Album review: Liz Phair, "Funstyle"
Aug. 2, 2010
Liz Phair, "Funstyle" (self-released) Rating:2/4
You’ve gotta hand it to our wayward homegirl on this count, if no other: At age 43, a dozen years after “whitechocolatespaceegg,” her last beginning-to-end enjoyable album before she moved to Hollywood and began trying to morph into Sheryl Crow, La Liz still has the ability to polarize people and get both pro and con talking about her.
Unfortunately, like so many people in Hollywood, she assumes that people talking about you is a good thing, regardless of the reasons why those tongues are wagging. And that simply is not the case.
Phair’s first album in five years, since the “so bad it has to be a joke, right?” disaster of “Somebody’s Miracle,” was released on her Web site on July 3rd, and that still is the only place you can buy it (for the reasonable price of $5.99, thank you very much).