Matt Costa
Allstate Arena – Rosemont, IL
12/12/2008

Fresh off a 4-date tour through Canada with “big guns” Oasis and Ryan Adams, Matt Costa embarked on a U.S. tour supporting the same squad. Starting on the west coast and working their way east, the tour stopped by Chicago’s Allstate Arena last Friday night (12/12/08) to grace our ears with a concert ‘a little bit country and a little bit rock n roll.’

Costa kicked off the show with “TV Gods,” a song off his first album, the Matt Costa EP. On his records, Costa employs a band complete with piano and drums; for this tour however, it’s just Matt and guitarist, Mitchell Townsend. The current tour puts him in front of thousands of fans in huge arenas across the country which is a little different than his usual gigs. Last year’s tour, in support of Unfamiliar Faces, was supported by mutual friends Delta Spirit in small venues throughout the nation. Matt speaks about the change in venues, “The fans are further away so it’s not as intimate but the huge arenas create some awesome reverb (insert hand gestures.)

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Manchester Orchestra
Subterranean – Chicago, IL
12/03/2008

Manchester Orchestra, a lyrically driven indie rock group straight from the heart of the south (Atlanta, GA), played one hell of a show at Chicago’s Subterranean. Opening for MO was All Get Out, Dead Confederate, and Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band where Andy Hull made his first appearance of the night. Hull helped sing “Another Bag of Bones,” (my favorite KD song) while rocking an official Chicago Cubs hat with a Kevin Devine hoodie and a Grizzly Adams beard that would suit the man himself.

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The Lemurs
Million Little Bits
CD Review
12/04/2008

By: Grace Ford

The Lemurs show a unique versatility with their new EP, Million Little Bits (just $4.95 at Amazon.) With a wide range of genres and styles represented over the span of five tracks, it’s quite impressive. The group from Austin, TX managed to convince me that each track on the EP was recorded by a different band. And while that shows a lot of talent, I’m not sure it’s such a good thing.

The first two tracks, “Nina” and “Blackspot,” have a great tone and style to them. They both have that “swell factor” with resonant harmonies and complex layers of instrumentation. Both tracks have catchy hooks, hand-clapped beats, and a definite tone that speaks to The Lemurs’ self-described “Indie Rock” genre. Those first two are great; love them. The third track, however, is where things get foggy in terms of the band’s style and sound. “Yours, Mine, Ours” is a track that really reminds me of The Cure. Not saying this is a bad thing, but if you’re going to bust out a brooding Robert Smith-esque love song, it better be epic. The fourth track, “Waiting Outside,” really threw me through a loop. With an almost techno beat and synthed out robot vocals, I was seriously confused; this track really doesn’t belong here. The final track, thankfully, reinstates the clean-but-complex sound we heard in the first two tracks.

Overall, The Lemurs have found a unique middle ground between Indie Rock and Electronica. Though the EP wasn’t as cohesive as most, these guys definitely have a lot to offer in terms of musical diversity and innovative instrumentation. Hopefully the Lemurs are just throwing a bunch of material at the wall to what sticks and I hope the full length with sound like “Nina.”

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Murder By Death
Metro – Chicago, IL
11/20/2008

Imagine walking through the backwoods of Indiana and stumbling upon an old farmhouse left untouched for decades. Enter Murder By Death and their dusty rock sound.

Before their show at Chicago’s Metro, I got to sit down with the band’s lead singer, Adam Turla. I will post the full interview within the next week and add a link here.

I became a fan of Murder after the hearing the single “Brother,” from the record In Bocca Al Lupo, a concept about sin and sinners. I caught them on tour with Clutch last spring and again this summer at Bash on Wabash. This month’s show makes for three seasons of MBD and I cannot wait for the fourth sometime in February.

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More Please!

According to an article posted 11/19/08, on Spin magazines website, Travis Barker’s near death experience may have triggered the most anticipated punk rock reunion of our generation. After Blink-182 split in 2005, I don’t think anyone thought there was even a remote possibility of a reunion. But, whether Tom feels bad about almost losing his ex-bandmate or missing out on the cash cow that will be the Blink-182 reunion tour, we may never know.

Apparently the trio started spending some time together after the accident and while a tour isn’t confirmed yet, I don’t see how they’ll pass up the opportunity to make millions. I’m not hating but I think alterier motives may be at work instead of a genuine “I missed you guys” reunion. It feels more like a Smashing Pumpkins reunion than say Led Zeppelin.

Don’t get me wrong, The Mark Tom and Travis Show is one of my all time favorite CDs and I’ll definitely be buying tickets to the tour (if it happens.) But, do yourself a favor and get some actual facts by checking out the article here: www.spin.com/articles/blink-182-reunite

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The Killers
Day & Age
11/23/2008

For those who haven’t heard, The Killers are releasing their new album, Day & Age, on November 24th. The album has already dropped overseas and like usual, the US is late to the game. Supposedly they were going to stream the album in its entirety starting November 22nd but I can’t find any links and the only track that’s online is “Human.”

The guys are gearing up for a massive tour in support of Day & Age starting in Seattle and ending in Spain. Thankfully the make stops in Oakland, CA (December 11th) and Chicago, IL (January 20th) before hopping the pond to play 23 shows throughout Europe. Surprisingly, they skip right over their hometown of Las Vegas, odd.

Anyways, on the Day & Age, they’re not afraid to experiment. Unfortunately, they throw a saxophone into the mix on “I Can’t Stay” and I’m not a fan. It just doesn’t fit. Just as everyone thought, it’s a synthed out record that goes easy on the “singles.” To be honest, I like a few tracks but it’s not what I was expecting from the guys made me realize “it’s indie rock n roll for me.” Then again, this could be one of those albums that comes back around, we’ll see when I get a physical copy of the album to review.

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The Death Set
Congress Theater – Chicago,IL
11/08/2008

Australian punk rockers, The Death Set, seemed to be an unusual pairing for headliner Girl Talk. That is exactly what made them the perfect choice for a supporting act. With Girl Talk mashing up everyone from Elton John to Notorious B.I.G., I’d like to think the fans are open to most kinds of music. Some in-your-face punk rockin’ was just what fans needed before a 2-hour dance party.

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Atmosphere
The Vic – Chicago, IL
11/16/2008

Atmosphere, hailing from Minneapolis, MN, was kind enough to stop in Chicago on the second to last night of their more than 50-date Paint the Nation Tour. “I’ve always had a crush on this city,” said Slug (Sean Daley) in between flows. Ant (Anthony Davis) rocked the 1’s and 2’s while slug spitting rhymes like:

A friend in Chicago said that I should stay persistent
If I stay around I’m bound to break resistance
Fuck you Lucy for defining my existence

The entire group is comfortable on stage, making it clear that they’ve done this before. With over 50 tour dates, they’ve quite literally painted the nation, “don’t ever fucking question that.” To round out the set, they played older songs right alongside the recent When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold tracks. Slug prefaced “God Loves Ugly” with “I don’t know why a city full of beautiful people would love some ugly fuckers from Minneapolis,” just before the beat dropped. During the track he shouted “now all the beautiful people be quiet” and the crowd erupted.

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Steel Train
Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
11/15/2008

Music genres have always given me a complex. Are you supposed to label genres based on each song, album, or artist? I give each artist one genre to make things easy. While tagging, I’ve always avoided using the word ‘pop’ in any way, shape, or form. At the mere site of the word, my skin would crawl. At least that was the case until recently.

Now that I’ve learned to embrace pop, I can call bands like Steel Train exactly what they are, pop. Listening to their sophomore album, Trampoline, the songs fixate on love, a fundamental of pop. While I became a fan listening to these guys on CD, their live show is where the real money is at. When I saw these guys at Lollapalooza ‘08, I was blown away by the set they played. The album may be pop but the live show is most definitely rock. The most noticeable part of the set was the lack of shoes on stage.

Lead singer, Jack Antonoff, is one of the best frontmen that I’ve seen in a while. Even though the crowd was small, he made sure to keep them engaged and played as though it was a sold-out show at Metro. I didn’t realize the practicality of playing without shoes until their show November 15th at Bottom Lounge. If Jack were to wear shoes while playing that close to the crowd, people would most definitely die. Broken faces and decapitations would abound. Jack jumps higher than most of the people on my high school basketball team all the while playing his guitar and sometimes singing. Jack plays as though he is all hyped up on Mountain Dew and to say he goes nuts on stage is an understatement.

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Nearly all music lovers know who Jimi Hendrix was; A legendary guitar god known for lighting his guitar on fire at the Monterey Pop festival in ‘67, playing with strips of acid in his headband (said to be rumor), and ultimately dying at the peak of his hype like so many of the greats.

Without a doubt, Hendrix is one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived but it should be noted that Hendrix played with an amazing drummer, Mitch Mitchell, in his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Mitchell, along with Keith Moon and Neil Peart are considered some of the most influential drummers of all time. How Diamond of Low vs. Diamond mentions both Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell in my interview a few months ago: Link To Interview

Getting to the point, Mitch Mitchell was found dead in his Portland, OR hotel room on November 12th, 2008, while on tour with Experience Hendrix. The death is believed to be of natural causes and no foul play is suspected, according to Associated Press.

Mitchell was the last remaining member of the legendary Jimi Hendrix Experience of yesteryear. Mitchell played with many artists throughout his career including Rolling Stones, John Lennon, and Eric Clapton. Another great dies but the legend lives on.

Farewell Mitch Mitchell.

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