WBEZ | Jim DeRogatis

Congress Theater gets another pass from the city

Thu, 09 May 2013 12:10:00 -0500

In his third appearance in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday facing a long list of building, health, and fire code violations at the 87-year-old Congress Theater, controversial venue owner Erineo “Eddie” Carranza once again was given the “all’s clear” to continue operating.

During the court appearance, which lasted less than five minutes, attorneys for the city and Carranza updated Judge James McGing on building renovations, including the removal of obstructions from passageways in the corridors and installation of back-up lighting on the upper floors. Another inspection was scheduled for May 22, with another court date the following day.

Judy Frydland, the deputy corporation counsel who is the city’s top building code enforcement official and the attorney prosecuting the case, said that there is a “small show” tomorrow night (the Electric Circus DJ event), but nothing else is scheduled past that date. This, however, contradicts the theater’s list of upcoming concerts advertised on its own website.

Carranza’s lawyer said he wants a “short court date” for May 23, because they only have a few “minor” repairs to go and then they’ll be “ready to rock and roll,” reopening the upper floors and restoring the capacity to one of the largest music venues in the city.

Thursday’s quick hearing comes as no surprise, since after filing a lawsuit on April 12 seeking the immediate closure of the Congress based on a harrowing, 26-item, literally A-to-Z list of “dangerous and hazardous” building, health, and fire code violations, the city flip-flopped a mere 10 days later and declared that the main floor of the venue could remain open, though the second and third floors have been shut since January, and capacity is reduced from over 5,000 to 3,000.

Frydland told this blog on May 1 that the city “tries to work with” venues like the Congress because, “Theaters are like churches… They’re also older buildings with large assemblies.” Of course, crowds dense with 18-year-olds—some of them over-served with alcohol or high on drugs, according to testimony before the Liquor Commission—generally do not dance the night away in most churches.

As Chuck Sudo wrote on Chicagoist on April 23, “Carranza has nine lives, a genie who granted him three wishes, a lucky rabbit’s foot, a backyard full of four-leaf clovers, and a horseshoe planted firmly up his ass.” Well, we now can assume that there also is a rainbow hovering over his Logan Square theater, as well as a stash of wishbones in its basement.

Carranza may not be so lucky on other fronts, however. While the latest Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance hearing Tuesday found the Department of Business Affairs cautiously optimistic about progress, the owner is awaiting a ruling about whether the Congress can keep its liquor license, following three hearings before the Liquor Commission that included testimony about fights, drug activity, and security’s mistreatment of concertgoers.

The venue owner also may be stymied in his plans to bring more music to another vintage theater at Six Corners on the Northwest Side, the Portage, which he purchased last September, two months before his bank filed a $4 million foreclosure suit (since settled) against the Congress.

On Wednesday, the City Council granted the Portage Theater landmark status, which could frustrate Carranza’s plans for the venue to host live music as well as movies. Ald. John Arena (45^th) has expressed extreme skepticism about Carranza and live music at the venue, and he praised the landmark designation on his Facebook page.

“May the light from the projection booth shine long and bright for generations to come,” Arena wrote.

Earlier reports about Carranza, the Congress and the Portage theaters:

May 7: Congress Theater’s neighbor: ‘Sometimes I feel like I’m monitoring a fifth-grader running the venue’ (By Leah Pickett and Jim DeRogatis)

May 1: Is the Congress Theater safe or not?

April 30: Congress Theater defends itself before the Liquor Commission (By Leah Pickett and Jim DeRogatis)

April 23: Congress Theater allowed to remain open, next inspection scheduled (Alison Cuddy reporting)

April 17: City wants the Congress shut down immediately

March 27: Chicago police official: Congress Theater ‘untruthful’ on night of underage drinking (Leah Pickett reporting)

March 8: The fate of the Portage remains a messy mystery

March 6: Congress Theater hearing rescheduled (Robin Amer reporting)

Feb. 22: Congress Theater restoration underway, but it’s got a long way to go

Jan. 16: Congress Theater liquor hearings begin with undercover cop’s testimony

Dec. 3, 2012: A rally to save the Portage Theater ‘as we know it’

Nov. 29, 2012: Congress Theater defaults on $4 million loan

Nov. 28, 2012: The Portage Theater uses Graham Elliot’s name in vain

Nov. 2, 2012: Congress Theater’s new security chief: An ex-cop with a troubled past

Oct. 31, 2012: Congress Theater police calls rank with Soldier Field, United Center

Sept. 23, 2012: How did things turn so bad so fast at the Portage Theater?

Sept. 22, 2012: New Owner of the Portage Theater moves to evict current operators

Sept. 16, 2012: Congress Theater splits with development partner

Sept. 11, 2012: The Portage Theater: What’s Eddie up to?

July 26, 2012: Congress Theater partners up… and looks to expand

April 18, 2012: Chicago officials scrutinize public safety, other neighborhood concerns at Congress Theater (Robin Amer reporting)

April 14, 2012: More trouble at the Congress Theater

March 28, 2012: Critical of Congress security, headliner brings his own

March 25, 2012: Congress Theater responds to complaints

March 22, 2012: City to Congress Theater: Clean up your act!

Wire: Rock’s greatest super geniuses (after Eno)

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:07:00 -0500

Asked to assess the most important part of the legacy of long-running English art-punks Wire, most fans will cite the quartet’s first three albums—Pink Flag (1977), Chairs Missing (1978), and 154 (1979)—which chart a startling arc of growth and creativity that echoes and inspires to this day.

If you value my opinion at all, and you do not own these recordings, you should download them immediately. Your life will be richer for it, and I’ll wait.

Done? Good. Because here I will venture that as extraordinary as that music is, a case can be made based on Read & Burn: A Book About Wire, an impressive 400-plus-page appreciation of the band by Wilson Neate newly published by Jawbone in the U.K. and distributed by Hal Leonard in the U.S., and Change Becomes Us, the group’s 13^th studio album recently released on its own Pink Flag label, that Wire may prove to be best celebrated for its endless flood of Big Ideas, forever challenging the way rock bands interact, create, and evolve, to the point even of denying that the group has anything to do with rock at all.

In terms of philosophizing about the business of making an awesome noise, the only thinker who’s done more is that Great Theorist himself, Brian Eno.

Over the course of an on-again, off-again, ever-evolving 37-year career, Wire has introduced each new musical “object” (read: album or EP) with a grand theory: sonic, rhythmic, structural, technological, or all of the above and more. Some have been solid, undeniable, and timeless, some crackpot, misguided, and quickly dated, but all were declared in the moment with an unwavering dedication and sense of purpose. Eno had his Oblique Strategies; Wire has its Concrete Tactics. Of course, not every Big Idea has been a fruitful one, and as a guide for sorting through and trying to make sense of them all, veteran fans and new initiates alike can’t do better than Read & Burn.

Neate, an ex-pat Brit who earlier wrote in-depth about the group’s first album for the Wire’s Pink Flag installment of Compendium’s 33 1/3 series, tackles with equal passion, depth, and insight each distinct era of this complicated career: the initial burst that brought us those three classic albums, which was followed by a break of about six years; the “dugga dugga” days that began with the Snakedrill EP in 1986; a misguided period in the early ’90s when the artists were consumed by their own computers and foolishly marginalized drummer Robert Grey; and, after another break of about a decade, the ferocious incarnation that started early in the new millennium and which continues today, albeit with the loss of guitarist Bruce Gilbert.

Though the book is rich in varied perspectives from all of the key players, Read & Burn is less a conventional biography than one critic’s opinionated and insightful illumination of a daunting body of work by four extremely different and willfully perverse individuals. Neate’s theories about these arch-theorists take precedence over their own, which only is fair: This is his account, and the fact that every member of Wire not only has a different vision of Wire but often rewrites earlier versions makes concepts such as “definitive” and “objective” impossible, if they ever were desirable at all.

Here, the author slightly undersells the brilliance of Pink Flag, though he admits that’s largely because he’d already done the effusive gush in his earlier book, and he wanted to take a different approach this time (positioning the album more as a product of the punk explosion than as a radical reinvention of it). But in a brief Beat foreword, Mike Watt more than makes up for this, offering his own take on why this album has been so formative for bands ranging from the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, R.E.M., and Minor Threat to Blur, Guided by Voices, My Bloody Valentine, and Savages, to name but a very few.

To be sure, if Wire has given us one Big Idea on which a lesser band could base an entire career, it’s given us 100. Neate’s personal take on any one Wire album, era, or idea only encourages discerning readers to go back into the stacks, listen anew, and judge or reconsider for themselves; I can’t remember the last music book that sent me scurrying to play so many sounds again with fresh and eager ears. In the end, maybe you’ll think more highly of, say, The Ideal Copy than Neate or some of the band members do; perhaps you’ll hate Manscape even more. It’s all part of the fun.

Neate’s own Big Idea may be a bit more problematic. Basically, he argues that vocalist-guitarist Colin Newman’s rather dictatorial “pop” perfectionism always has ideally been balanced by Gilbert’s love of noise and embrace of chaos and confusion. (“Any form of disinformation is useful,” the sinisterly impish Gilbert once told me.) I more or less agree, and Gilbert’s “spanner in the works” is missed to some extent on the new album. But nothing ever is simple and clear-cut in Wire-Land, and Neate’s construction of the four-legged table somewhat shorts the contributions of bassist-vocalist Graham Lewis, the most lustful, poetic, and dare I say fun member of this posse of sometimes dour intellectuals, as well as adding to the near-universal under-appreciation of Grey, who not only is that rare drummer whose style and sound (minimalist though they may be) mark him as a singular voice, but who is genuinely a very nice man with a calming presence that cannot be underestimated in balancing the difficult forces of nature of the other three founding bandmates.

In any event, the fact that no member of Wire will be entirely approving of Neate’s reading of the charms and methodologies of Wire is one of the book’s strengths: This is just one exceedingly well-written and very passionate take on the band’s story and output, and too bad if the band doesn’t like it. As Lewis sang on 154: “I should have known better/Than to become a target/Albeit a target which moves.”

Ah, yes: the moving target. If all of this talk of ideas and theories seems joyless and pretentious, that neglects the fact that in consistently moving forward, Wire often disavows much of what it’s done in the recent or distant past. No one can take the piss out of Wire better than Wire itself. But the rush toward whatever is coming next always is so enthusiastic in concept and eager in execution that it’s impossible not to be swept up, loving the journey if not the destination. Plus, there usually are laughs aplenty along the way.

Personally, I’m vastly amused by Wire’s current rejection of one Big Idea from the Snakedrill/Ideal Copy days: the complete refusal to indulge in soul-killing nostalgia by playing any of its old material during its first extensive tour of the U.S. in 1987. (But then I would chuckle about that, given my own history with the band.) This doesn’t make that idea any less valid or brave: How many other artists ever have resisted giving the people what they want because they’re more excited about being here now or going somewhere new in the immediate future? Nor is it hypocritical; consistency, after all, is the hobgoblin of small minds. Finally, it certainly doesn’t invalidate the Big Idea behind Change Becomes Us, which attempts a different way to embrace the past in the present with an eye toward the future (or something like that).

When Wire first went on hiatus in 1980, it left behind a considerable body of work-in-progress, some of it heard in various forms of development on the sketchy 1981 live album Document and Eyewitnesses, as well as on scattered solo offerings and various obscure releases in the years that followed. The Big Idea on album number 13 is to return to these 32-year-old pieces and complete or reimagine them now, with Mssrs. Newman, Lewis, and Grey older if not necessarily wiser, and considerably younger guitarist Matt Simms assuming the role of Gilbert (sonically, if not philosophically; on board now for three albums, he has yet to assert himself on that front).

Think of someone picking up an unfinished Shakespeare manuscript and rewriting and completing it in the current vernacular, then doing a Burroughs cut-and-paste. That’s Change Becomes Us.

Now, as often is the case, something is just a little off in the realization of this idea. The original material is obscure even for Wire super fans, so the reimaginings are not necessarily as revealing or as much fun as they might have been. The only song that really grabs me in its juxtaposition of past/present/future is “Ally in Exile,” which opens the album in its new rendition and under its new title of “Doubles & Trebles.” What might have come of Wire 2013 reworking any one of the three masterpieces that started its career? I’d have been much more interested in hearing that, but then the lack of Gilbert might have been much more telling, whereas his twisted presence at least hovers in the background here, since he was in the thick of the original creation.

But with any new Wire offering, the idea only is one aspect of things. For all of the band members’ disdain for some of the words I’ve used—“fun” and “rock” chief among them—let us not forget that another purpose of the newest objet d'art is for us to listen to and enjoy it, however “American” that concept may be. (For this band, “American” and “rock” are pejoratives so nuanced with multiple levels of snarky meaning that no one who isn’t a perverse, nearly 60-years-old legendary English art-punk ever will fully comprehend them, while “fun” no doubt is a word that would leave even these loquacious chaps shuddering in speechless revulsion.)

Nevertheless, a fun rock album is what Changes Becomes Us is, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that. The connections to one possible abandoned future post-154 can be heard in a sonic palette that is more lush, moody, and ambient than that of more Spartan recent offerings such as Send (2003), where the snarl took primacy. Yet the new one also is more playfully inventive and subtly skewed though no less tuneful than Red Barked Tree (2010), a “poppier” effort by Wire standards. With or without Gilbert, the quartet still gleefully brings the noise, and the now properly honored human element and relentless drive of Grey is central; he always will be the soul of this particular machine.

The dreamscape of “Keep Exhaling,” the ambient and lilting “Re-Invent Your Second Wheel,” the highly caffeinated “Stealth of A Stork” (with Newman’s frantic yelps of “Change!” every time the chords shift), the gonzo anthem “Eels Sang” (“Eels Sang Lino” in its earlier incarnation), and the absolutely lovely “& Much Besides” rank with some of the strongest and most memorable songs Wire ever has given us—though “song” may be another of those words that makes this band sneer, so conventional is the very notion.

Is Change Becomes Us the musical or conceptual equal of the three albums Wire gave us at the start of its history? No. But the band seems at long last to have accepted that matching or bettering those peaks isn’t possible, while moving forward to climb new if more modest ones is a worthy and possibly even enjoyable endeavor. As a whole, the four albums Wire has given us since 2003, with the latest being the most ambitious and the logical summation, certainly are more consistent and rewarding than any since the first three. So it’s fitting that all of this looking back and summing up is happening now, on record and in print.

Which is not to say that Wire isn’t about to blow it all up again with the next Big Idea any second, god love ’em.

(Wire performs at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park on Friday, July 19.)

Wire, Change Becomes Us (Pink Flag)

Rating on the four-star scale: 3.5 stars.

Follow me on Twitter @JimDeRogatis or join me on Facebook.

Morning Shift: Flying High

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:21:00 -0600

Morning Shift: All the President's men

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:47:00 -0600

Morning Shift: As the legislation turns, Jordan turns 50

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:41:00 -0600

R.I.P. Reg Presley, long live the Troggs

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:11:00 -0600

While we mourn the death of any great artist, some losses hit harder than others. Though they ultimately are but a footnote in rock history, the Troggs are a brilliant footnote—an indispensible high point between the British Invasion and punk rock. A band of single-minded originals, they remain immortal to anyone who’s heard them, despite the death from cancer of singer and songwriter Reg Presley at the age of 71 on Feb. 4.

Presley was the most unlikely of rock stars. Born Reginald Ball in the nowheresburg of Andover in southern England, he was working as a bricklayer when he formed the band. He essentially had one subject as a lyricist—frustrated teenage lust, not a bad topic for Valentine’s Day—and a rudimentary knowledge of music and composition; there are perhaps a half dozen chords utilized in most of the band’s canon. His voice could charitably be described as monotone, and he looked like a Dickensian street thug prowling the shadowy alleys off the docks, even when dressed in the spiffy Beatles suits of the group’s early days.

You have to admire a character like that audaciously changing his surname to that of the King of Rock—and then somehow managing to realize a version of that dream himself.

Producer Larry Page, the man who launched the Kinks, turned the Troggs into stars with “Wild Thing” in 1966, overseeing the band’s cover of a tune penned by American songwriter Chip Taylor. But the band members soon proved they could rewrite “Louie Louie” themselves, and a string of proto-punk hits followed, all of them based on a primal tom-tom beat, raw fuzz guitar and the lewd-but-droll rasping of pudgy ol’ Reg. The Troggs got as much mileage out of this simple but timeless formula as the Ramones did a decade later, and no self-respecting rock record collection should be without a good best-of collection. My favorite: Archaeology (1966-1976); issued by Polygram in 1992, these two discs include 52 tracks, and there isn’t a stinker among them.

Some artists’ deaths hit harder than others, and I find myself deeply mourning the loss of Reg. But that sadness dissipates as soon as I return to the music, and in the spirit of celebration, I share with you a dozen of his greatest moments.

* * *

First up: Four prime examples of the Troggs at their… um, most eager. The titles pretty much say it all, but even at his most obsessive and hottest to trot, Reg evinces an endearing clumsiness. “I can’t stand still ’cause you’ve got me goin’/Your slacks are low and your hips are showin’,” he sings. “I take you girl as you’re standin’ there/Your low-cut slacks and your long black hair.” What other rocker would even use the word “slacks”—not once, but twice?

1. “I Can’t Control Myself”

2. “I Want You”

3. “Give It to Me”

4. “The Yella in Me”

Like a lot of guys who talk about it all the time, the Troggs were masking their true romantic natures under all that puffed-up machismo, as evidenced by the heart-stirring ballads that balanced the primal stompers. Musically, the group doesn’t get enough credit for its range, while tunes such as the three that follow helped make their randy moments more amusing than annoying, since, when all was said and done, they really were the type of guys who’d send a bird flowers in the morning and kiss her mum upon meeting her.

5. “Any Way That You Want Me”

6. “You Can Cry if You Want To”

7. “With A Girl Like You”

Of course, even in ballad mode, the band never was completely innocent. “Cousin Jane” ranks as one of their creepiest moments, thanks to addition of a hint of the forbidden. Yikes!

8. “Cousin Jane”

Back on the sunnier side of romance, “Love Is All Around” may be the group’s prettiest song ever, a true power-pop gem, and it was covered by some masters of that form in a later generation, R.E.M. That led to Peter Buck, Chris Mills and Bill Berry collaborating with Presley and original Troggs guitarist Chris Britton for an odd gem on an EP titled Athens Andover released in 1992. It’s a bit heavy on the “Love Is All Around” and a bit short on the “I Can’t Control Myself.” But hey, even a legendary troglodyte starts to slow down as he gets older.

9. “Love Is All Around”

10. The Troggs with Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry, “Nowhere Road”

Everybody knows this next one—heck, even Jimi Hendrix loved it—but needless to say, it has to be on any list of the band’s best.

11. “Wild Thing”

Finally, we come to a sample of what might be considered “spoken word.” Many believe the Troggs were idiot-savants, an impression that comes from the infamous bootleg “Troggs Tape.” Towards the end of their initial run, in1970, the group struggled in the studio to nail a simple five-beat groove and capture one more piece of brutish brilliance on tape. Unbeknownst to them, a bemused recording engineer kept the reel-to-reel rolling as the musicians screamed obscenities at one another and spouted absurdities worthy of Spinal Tap. (“I know that it needs strings, that I do know!”) The 12-minute recording became a prized collectors’ item, and it’s a must-hear, though it’s nowhere near safe for work.

12. “The Troggs Tape”

Follow me on Twitter @JimDeRogatis or join me on Facebook.

Morning Shift: Politics behind it all

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:39:00 -0600

Ask Jim DeRogatis: LollaLeaks, Oscar-worthy music and Justin Timberlake becomes Bon Iver

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:44:00 -0600

Listen to Jim DeRogatis on Eight Forty-Eight

848 120222 jim.mp3

At this rate, Jim is going to become our resident Dear Abby -- except much, much sterner.

Yes, Jim will be taking calls Wednesday on Eight Forty-Eight during his discussion with Tony Sarabia, something that we hope will be a regular thing. Simply call 312-948-4848 before 9 am tomorrow, and leave a voicemail asking him whatever you want. You should also feel free to Tweet us, or leave a comment on this post or on Facebook.

Some topics from this week to jog your music memory: the fakery behind LollaLeaks and how that line-up compared to the real bands planned for music über-festivals Coachella and Bonaroo.

Or perhaps you want to know Jim's thoughts on Justin Timberlake's pretty accurate take on Bon Iver this past Saturday night on SNL?

And the Academy Awards are finally, finally this weekend. Is there anything worth listening to in the nominated films?

Jim DeRogatis answers your questions about anything

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:12:00 -0600

Listen to Jim DeRogatis on 848

120215 DeRo.mp3

Jim DeRogatis, WBEZ blogger and Sound Opinions co-host, has dealt with his fair share of controversy. His posts are consistently the highest trafficked on our website, and without his loyal, very opinionated and not at all rude commenters, it's unlikely he'd be able to keep that status. Whether it's his unwavering coverage of Lollapalooza's relationship with the city of Chicago, or his firm anti-uukelele stance, DeRogatis has managed to provoke music lovers from all walks of life. Even the ones who hate him love to hate him.

Wednesday on Eight Forty-Eight, Jim will be answering questions from listeners -- simply call 312-948-4848 before 9 am tomorrow, and leave a voicemail asking him whatever you want. Like, should he elaborate further on Lana Del Rey? I'm willing to bet that'll be a "No." Be sure to leave your name and a phone number, in case we want to call you back. And try to be cool; don't ask him about R. Kelly.

Competing for Chicago's music club crowd

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:55:00 -0600

War is good for nothing but Chicago seemed to be in the midst of perhaps a new chapter in the local club wars. WBEZ music blogger and host of Sound Opinions, Jim DeRogatis, recently blogged about how the concert behemoth Ticketmaster/Live Nation was looking for more action on the mid-sized club front.

The company recently hired veteran talent buyer Sean McDonough to book the House of Blues and to continue programming the Bottom Lounge. This could have far-reaching implications for Chicago's other music venues. DeRogatis joined Eight Forty-Eight to discuss the latest in the battle to bend Chicago club goers ears.