I walked intoLincoln Hall on May 10th alone but left feeling an odd sense of togetherness with my fellow attendees. As it turned out I was unprepared for the passion Ty Segall would inspire among a crowd that was undoubtedly one of the coolest and least pretentious (and most rowdy) I had ever been around. Segall is nothing if not prolific and is somewhat of a cult figure in the garage rock scene—a lighthouse in a tumultuous sea where the waves of fashion often erode the ideals of the genre and distill the term “garage rock” into something much more marketable than what Segall’s music sounds like. With a cast of openers that included Bitchin’ Bajas, The Strange Boys and White Fence, this show was poised for greatness.
I arrived as The Strange Boys began to pickup their instruments under the hue of the screen projecting the Bulls/Sixers game and they had the unfortunate luck of adding instrumentals to what would be the Bulls ousting from the playoffs. I’d imagine it was a bit of a buzz kill for some but I wasn’t terribly concerned. Lead singer Ryan Sambol started off the set seated at the keys but would soon be standing with his guitar draped around his shoulders, looking every bit a mix between Joe Strummer and Buddy Holly. Their set included a rousing version of “Be Brave” before White Fence escalated the sound level into a less controlled, fuzzy aural bliss that at times toed the line of being too chaotic and messy. Song structure suffers a bit with the reverb and distortion up to 11. Each band channeled different flavors of a retro aesthetic–whether it was Strange Boys channeling Motown or White Fence calling up the spirits of 60s psychedelia. The openers did a great job building up the crowd.
“For the first two songs…we are Hair,” Ty Segall announced as he and Tim Presley (White Fence), his counterpart in collaboration for Hair, kicked it off with their track, “Scissor People,” and turned Lincoln Hall into a circle pit of sweaty fists. Segall fires off guitar riffs like Zeus throws lightning bolts and his movements and those of his band resembled engine pistons pumping back and forth at a tempo dictated by drummer Emily Rose. They played a number of tracks off 2011′s Goodbye Bread but made sure to pepper in songs of their upcoming record Slaughterhouse as well. The highlight of the show was the encore cover of James Gang’s “Funk #49″ after Ty had reemerged sporting a cigarette, black sunglasses, and a black bra on his head for “I Wear Black.” Click here to watch the video.
The night was one long stream of consciousness garage rock dream where the songs individually were not really of consequence except as part of a larger puzzle. Was this a garage-rock show? Psych-rock? Grunge? Punk? 80s metal because of the guitar riffs? It would be exhausting to try to draw conclusions and in the end you’d be just as wrong as you would be right. This was definitely something distinct and special and kudos to the crowd for recognizing that and bringing the energy, even if I do have bruised ribs.
Living Thingsjust released a video for their new song” Fake it Baby, Fake it (La Dame Nature)” and it is so aware of the dirty punk aesthetic and calculated in achieving its fashionable grittiness, it could only be filmed in one place—Los Angeles. Even more importantly though, it was filmed at a landmark locale, Clifton’s Cafeteria—a fitting spot for old school 50s rockabilly style to blend with new school punk attitude. The song is pretty good but the video is definitely cool.
For those of you who watched the new HBO show Girls last night and stuck around for the credits, you may recognize today’s Song of the Day, “Same Mistakes,” by The Echo-Friendly. The Echo-Friendly combines the singing talents of Jake Rabinbach and Shannon Esper—former lovers but still best friends and current band-mates chronicling the turbulence of relationships through song.
This is a wonderfully dreamy, ethereal single dedicated to all twenty-somethings who watch as their friends enter adult roles like mom/dad and husband/wife but purposefully or accidentally avoid that level of maturity, clinging to the last years where the phrase ”youthful indiscretion” can apply to them. This single was released by Cantora Records and we can expect a full-length from the band in the near future.
I’ve got the syringe loaded with the cure for what ails you this weekend. All you need to do is tear the cord off the lamp and brace yourself.
Check out this amazing playlist put together by my good friend J.Ro. Remember the forced sequential fidelity during the days of mixed tapes? Here is a digital version of that experience. There is no track list being provided and you’re at the whim of the creator, so trust in his sonic sense of direction.
If you want to upgrade your Cinco de Mayo party plans this Saturday, go seeOld 97s and opener Sam Roberts Band at The Cubby Bear in Chicago.“But Words & Fire writer,” you say, “I don’t want to go to the goddamn Cubby Bear!” While I would agree with you most days of the year, this Saturday provides good cause for braving the vomit-filled streets of Wrigleyville.
Old 97s play high-energy alt-country live shows fronted by enigmatic singer Rhett Miller and they never disappoint in Chicago, a place they in some ways consider home (you may recognize them from the concert that Jennifer Aniston attends alone after being stood up by Vince Vaughn in The Breakup). The “opener” for the show, though I hate to use such a “derogatory” term, is a Canadian group called Sam Roberts Band—one of the best roots rock and roll bands around that isn’t as popular as they should be—and they could use our well-deserved stateside love. How much do we like SRB at Words & Fire? Their song “Words & Fire” was the inspiration for our namesake and we love their live shows that really capture their in-studio magic with startling fidelity.
Go to the concert. Un-tuck your shirt. Prepare for a good time.
A white rapper with a college degree is a hard sell but Hoodie Allen is making waves despite his less than “hard knock” image. Aptly grouped in with folks like Sam Adams and Asher Rother, Allen faces the same challenge of avoiding being deemed either inauthentic or inconsequentially authentic based on his background. Thankfully Allen sticks to what he knows and he’s a gifted lyricist and rapper who isn’t trying to be the next Eminem.
Hoodie Allen plays a SOLD OUT show tonight in Chicago at The Bottom Lounge. Check out the video for his song “No Interruption” below off his latest EP, All American.
Wearing his standard issue brown leather jacket and sporting what I can only assume is a newly grown beard made in San Francisco, Ezra Furman stopped by the WBEZ studio this morning to play a little and talk about his solo record, The Year of No Returning, as well as plug two shows this Saturday at Schubas. Peep the video below for “Cruel, Cruel, World” and buy tickets to the shows at Schubas. Chicago shows are always a friends and family affair so make sure to get in on tickets before they sell out.
Reptar is no stranger to the Words & Fire news feed (their song “Stuck In My ID” made our Best of 2011 list) and today they’ve gone and forced our hand again by releasing a full-length stream of Body Faucet a week before the scheduled date of May 1st. Their live show is one of those that you drag friends to, even if it’s early in the week, and no one leaves disappointed. Get ready to dance in the privacy of your own home too because the album is killer.
28-year old Tanner Walle honed his songwriting talents at the University of Kansas before making the inevitable move to Brooklyn in 2007 to seriously pursue life as a recording artist. On February 7th, 2012, he released Shelf Life, his latest of three albums funded in part with Kickstarter—a relatively new site that is now commonly used by artists to gain sponsorship for their endeavors. Walle’s sound is not groundbreaking or trendy but rather that timeless acoustic folk and pop formula in the vein of other wooing songwriters like M. Ward and Jason Mraz.
Starting with Track 1 “Favor,” it’s apparent that Walle’s voice is a well-tuned instrument—pure, crisp, and choir-like in a way that reeks of classical training—and I sometimes found myself wishing for more grit, more edge, which thankfully can be found later in the album with tracks like “Both Guns,” a song that lyrically goes a bit deeper with lines like, “…Two wrongs don’t make a right, unless both guns are drawn at the same time.” It’s the songs that seem to have a more introverted disposition that give the record character. “Olive” is a campfire-ready jam—you can almost picture swooning co-eds falling in love with Walle—and he really unleashes his falsetto range mid-song. This is probably the best song on a record that is more soothing and listenable with each go-around.
Go ahead and stream a few tracks off the record below and you can check out the Bandcamp page to download Shelf Life for free, but please, support artists who move you in some way.
I have a major soft spot for music that transports me to a fantasized (by me) time when the American west was still largely unexplored territory crawling with outlaws and explorers. The imagination takes hold of raspy lyrics about whiskey and women and jangly saloon piano licks and builds scenes in small town bars where the band’s instruments are sticky from sawdust stuck on tobacco juice. That’s exactly how I feel about this band and pretty much anything John McCauley of Deer Tick has created in part.
Today’s W&F Song of the Day is a track called “Daydreaming” from super-group Middle Brother—a band comprised of members of Deer Tick, Dawes, and Delta Spirit—off their 2011 self-titled debut record. McCauley’s guttural voice turns simple lyrics like “But I’m daydreaming about you. I know that it’s wrong” into stirring moments that cause me to look inside myself to try to feel what he felt when he wrote it. This particular lyric describes my week.
I walked into Lincoln Hall on May 10th alone but left feeling an odd sense of togetherness with my fellow attendees. As it turned out I was unprepared for the passion Ty Segall would inspire among a crowd that was undoubtedly one of the coolest and least pretentious (and most rowdy) I had ever been around. Segall is nothing if not prolific and is somewhat of a cult figure in the garage rock scene—a lighthouse in a tumultuous sea where the waves of fashion often erode the ideals of the genre and distill the term “garage rock” into something much more marketable than what Segall’s music sounds like. With a cast of openers that included Bitchin’ Bajas, The Strange Boys and White Fence, this show was poised for greatness.
I arrived as The Strange Boys began to pickup their instruments under the hue of the screen projecting the Bulls/Sixers game and they had the unfortunate luck of adding instrumentals to what would be the Bulls ousting from the playoffs. I’d imagine it was a bit of a buzz kill for some but I wasn’t terribly concerned. Lead singer Ryan Sambol started off the set seated at the keys but would soon be standing with his guitar draped around his shoulders, looking every bit a mix between Joe Strummer and Buddy Holly. Their set included a rousing version of “Be Brave” before White Fence escalated the sound level into a less controlled, fuzzy aural bliss that at times toed the line of being too chaotic and messy. Song structure suffers a bit with the reverb and distortion up to 11. Each band channeled different flavors of a retro aesthetic–whether it was Strange Boys channeling Motown or White Fence calling up the spirits of 60s psychedelia. The openers did a great job building up the crowd.
