Band

“I just wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly with the bands on Wednesday. I’d love to hear how it went and when you think you might be able to post something.”

Oh, and: “Let me know!”

That would be a very cheerful, helpful, just all around wonderful woman — we’ll call her Kathy — who, before following up with me as she was then, had been for about a week corresponding back and forth with me via email about a Red Bull promotion Young Jesus was involved in with another bright young Chicago-based band named Brighton MA.

As I understood it at the time, the two groups would be engaged in a friendly battle of the bands competition, taking them across the country from Chicago to Los Angeles, with the winning rockers being awarded with an opportunity to record at Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica.

Slow to respond on the first go, I was then peppered with a few emails more from Kathy about the promotion. Of course, either Kathy was good at her job, or she just so happened to really want a write-up, a blurb, a whatever to appear within the pages of Chicago Tunes. (Kathy: “If nothing else, we’d love if you could do a little listing, tweet or blog about it.”)

Pithy blurbs don’t happen here — see question #4 (and its answer) on my FAQ page — and quick prep with Young Jesus’ EP at the time, Late Night Standards, sounded good enough for me. So, what the hell. Why not a full interview with the guys (and Brighton MA)? It seemed a good fit.

So Kathy does what any completely reasonable PR person would do: She gets my cell number in advance and then arranges a time for the men of Young Jesus and Brighton MA to hunker down and have a chat with me.

When the predetermined time arrived, she had the LA-bound buses screech to a freakin’ halt and pull off to the side. All in an effort, you know, to get the boys focused and in check for the lovely, likely softball questions I’d throw at them.

We had a nice chat, about 10 minutes, and then for the first time in the site’s history — holds true still — I imported the audio to my iTunes and then did nothing with it. Absolutely nothing. It sits on my computer hard drive completely untouched.

You see, any time after an interview — literally any other time — I’ll import the audio to my iTunes and then transcribe everything to an easy-to-read, blogged format. The results look a little something like this.

Over a year later, and Kathy’s emailed ping remains without an answer from me. It’s not, shall we say, one of the finer moments of the project I’ve been calling Chicago Tunes.

I’ve begun an album review with this true story because it wouldn’t have felt right, to me, to dig into Young Jesus right away without disclosing my limited experience with them and their music. I mean, Young Jesus isn’t just any band. They’re a quartet of musicians who, free of charge, shared with me their stream of consciousness thoughts on live performance and Santa Monica and then they — nor Kathy, come to think — ever read the fruits of their labor.

With that all said, Young Jesus has a new collection of songs named Home available for public consumption on Tuesday, and I must say it’s a delight of a release, especially for a band that a) is making its full-length debut with Home and b) as of this post — and more importantly, the recording of Home — remains unsigned.

It seems Young Jesus has been shouldering its promotion of Home through a single track: “Away.” (The tune is free on Bandcamp, by the way.) I mean, I can’t seem to read through a piece on Young Jesus this month without an “Away” mention, too. Perhaps I’m as liable?

“Away” was probably a safe bet to help sell the album. It assumes, you know, many of the norms of a Young Jesus track on Home: Vocal intro, big drums, gentle ooooss and some John Rossiter yelling. In many ways it’s a perhaps unintended composite of what else to expect on Home.

Despite the push for “Away,” my jam happens to be “Fallin’ For You.” It’s an adorable tune, really, that the total hopeless romantic within you will respond to. A snip of its lyrics reveals all you might need to know: “I’m not saying I’m the man for you. I’m just a kid who’s fallin’ for you.”

“Fallin’ For You,” as it were, also makes for a decent test of your John Rossiter vox leanings. Honestly, in the first spin or two, his deep baritone was something to get used to. Jarring in the way that the front men of, say, The National and Beirut might sound for newbs.

The tune that follows it, “New Cool,” is something of a rich, unintended amalgam of a handful of songs I’ve heard recently. For me — stay with me, I beg — it’s strangely Like Pioneers’ “Gift From a Holiday” with touches of King Sparrow’s “The River” and Generationals’ “Victim of Trap.” I feel pretty strong about this and welcome any and all opinion. “Gift From a Holiday” came right away — it’s the cadence of their vocals. ‘The River” and then “Victim of Trap” entered the fray after more analysis.

Home, really, is a series of rock encores, one after the other. (By the end of “News,” Young Jesus applauds itself, actually.) It’s like any of these songs could feasibly cap a set of music. They’re passionate and mostly anthemic.

Extras:

• Young Jesus, based here in Chicago, is: John Rossiter (guitar/vox), Shawn Nystrand (bass), Cody Kellogg (lead guitar) and Peter Martin (drums).
• Balls! Unless you were there, you just missed the band’s record release show at Lincoln Hall. Stay tuned for future engagements.

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Stream all the music you’ve heard here in one convenient place on Hype Machine.

Band

A bit of fact for today: Secret Colours’ 2010 self-titled release was the first album to get reviewed here on Chicago Tunes.

Back then I was a new guy in a big city, a novice in terms of what I knew about the music scene here and hellbent, even, on crediting cover art images paired with my reviews. Boy, it was a different time.

I’ve skimmed over that review of yore, and I can’t help but notice how poorly written it is. A lot of those early reviews — Chicago Tunes Vintage, we’ll say — were. Like fine wine, though, the hope is my style (and, well, tastes) have improved with age over the year and a half I’ve shared with you.

Despite genuine positivism for Secret Colours the last time I reviewed an album of theirs — that self-titled LP — I think I was so giddy at the time to just get going with this project of mine that I would have dubbed anything thrown at me as awesome. I think this to be true because, namely, it took me a long while to go out and see them play. And then it wasn’t until a more recent show here — January 7 at the Empty Bottle — for me to, as I wrote then, “get them finally.”

I think some transparency was necessary here to further my effort — which began with that Empty Bottle review — to begin things anew with Secret Colours. The ragtag bunch of five guys and a girl have truly outdone themselves with their EP3, and y’all need to scoot over to their Bandcamp and give it a good spin.

What’s so striking about the new five-song collection is how great a departure it is from the LP without undermining the foundations the band laid in 2010. Whereas the Secret Colours of that year coated just about every song with thick layers of haze, rendering much of their work with the fault of sounding too similar the more I listened to it, the Secret Colours on EP3 made a conscious effort, it seems, to inject needed diversity into their rock.

The tunes we get here are their own islands, and that’s great.

I mean, “Faust” storms EP3 out of the gate quickly with what might be the group’s most delicious hook to date. A satisfying mash of big drums, sassy guitar and fog horn moans, “Faust” smacks you with an unrelenting blind rage that will catch the unsuspecteds by surprise. Yet are we to be anything here but bashfully unsuspected? For a few beats, even, the sound drops off completely before that wonderful hook slams in.

Destined to be a crowdpleaser, “Faust” may someday be the kind of anthem “Lava” has been for these guys on the live stage.

My choice pick, though, would be “Legends of Love.” Its steadiness is a reminder of what we got on the self-titled LP, but again, it joyously splits itself from those earlier recordings by not binding to familiar static. At about 2:45 “Legends” takes a small step forward with a sprinkle of funk drums. A subtle shift, sure, but just what this one needed to sustain it through its run time.

Extras:

• EP3 is up on Bandcamp for $4.95. | Bandcamp
• Watch: “Faust” music video by Secret Colours | YouTube
• I saw Secret Colours perform splendidly with Apteka not too long ago. | Review
• Secret Colours have two shows upcoming: January 25 at Schubas and February 10 at the Empty Bottle. | Schubas Tickets, Empty Bottle Tickets

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Band

Hard to believe — for me, anyway — that I haven’t written much about Tony and his Warm Ones here in quite a bit.

Their last mention on this website, in fact, was the time Tony mic dropped his sweet edition of Waxing Nostalgic for us nine months ago. His write-up, like all Waxing Nostalgics up to now, detailed the albums that inspired him to write and record. He went with The Pod by Ween and Grace by Jeff Buckley.

Since then, I’ve seen him and his band play at least once. The gig that still sticks out in my mind is the one where they headlined at The Abbey Pub in front of what felt like 10 other bands. Fortunately, Tony’s a nice and interesting dude, and we shared some entertaining exchanges that night between the other acts. I remember this coming up, actually.

For whatever reason, I kept that evening of music to myself and didn’t share my thoughts here, so you’d have to go back another few months to late December 2010 to read the one where I named their debut full-length, Sprezzatura, as Chicago’s eighth-best recording of the year. Still stand by that pick, too. It hasn’t left the rotation.

A bigger fan of the album’s first seven songs over its latter seven, I certainly responded to the high level of experimentation that happened on Sprezzatura. It’s a careful mixture of zippy garage rock-pop that somehow enabled tunes like the high energy wailer “Bacteriostatic” and funky two-step “Hot Flash” to cleanly fit on the same release without it feeling weird.

Despite it taking a few spins — true of me, at least — to “get” what they’re doing on Sprezzatura, the disc is a real treat to enthusiasts of impromptu shoulder rock. “Get Shit Set” remains one of my favorite songs of the city to hear live, you know.

With that said, “The Man That Clothes Me” might be an unintended gateway track to help migrate Sprezzatura followers — hell, Warm Ones listeners, et al. — to the new EP.

Of its three songs, ‘The Man” is probably the most Warm Ones-like tune on Lena. It’s the loudest, sure, and also the fuzziest of the three. And Tony, who wears the band’s lead vocals hat among others, sounds like his old self here. Funny, then, that “The Man That Clothes Me” happens to be my least-liked Lena track. Perhaps because it feels so familiar.

For me, the purple star lies with “Some People Work Better Alone,” a fine track I find I’m still having fun picking apart, and the one I decided to offer you free of charge for one week.

The way it moves makes me think of some tactful personality realizing their opposite is actually, well, a thoughtless piece of ugly. That describes, at least, the quite seamless transition of the first half — where much anything out of Tony’s mouth (“you’re not thinking about true love,” “you don’t even know what I’m made of,” etc. etc.) could very well be followed by a diffident “maybe” *shrug of shoulders*, “maybe” *shrug of shoulders*. As if our hero, for now, is running empty on confidence.

Then the second part of “Some People” bumps in, and everything seems declaratory. Tony totally owns what he’s saying here — even though he’s reading a similar script — and a pounding of drums concurs.

The tune that gets Lena going, though, is “Handler,” one of the most assured pieces of the Warm Ones archive I’ve yet heard. It’s tame, but tight and bold, too. It strikes with a pleasant jolt those primed by the ground work laid on Sprezzaura.

Extras:

• Warm Ones’ Lena release show already happened, and it doesn’t appear like you can secure you’re own copy online yet. Per their website, though, “you can ask [them] very nicely, or like [them] on Facebook, or join the mailing list.” So, shoot an email to Tony and tell him I sent you. | Email
• Watch Lena EP’s making-of documentary. | Video

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credit: Algebro's Facebook

There are few things that will get me out of the house on a busy Monday night. A Dan Duszynski project is one of them.

I should state right up front that his new band, Any Kind, was the reason I went to Clip Art’s first night of residency at Schubas. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay for that band, and I’m kicking myself for leaving early. I hope to make it back to see them next week.

Their openers, however, left me totally satisfied.

First up was Algebro, a band I’ve been hearing about quite a bit but hadn’t taken the time to check out. Now I’m sorry I never did. Watching Thom Cathcart was something like watching a Nicolas Cage character front a band. He is a sweaty, verbose mess, his lyrics ingenious and conversational without ever sounding too studied. I was completely taken in by the band, who played with casual raggedness and a subtlety that matched the quality of the songs. These guys will definitely be on my radar from here on out, and I can’t wait to here more from them.

Now, Any Kind was an entirely different kind of band. Consisting mostly of members of one of my favorite local acts — This is Me Smiling — this new project is essentially the same band sans keyboardist Sheldon Miller. Deserters’ Bobby Lord steps in on guitar, keys and vocals. Frontman Dan Duszynski also plays with Greta Morgan (ex-The Hush Sound) in Gold Motel. And the Chicago musical family tree keeps expanding.

Although there were a couple of minor technical hiccups, mostly related to Dan’s new synthesizer/vocal processor (Read: TOY), the band sounded great and the songs were typically excellent. As far as I am concerned, Duszynski is the king of Chicago pop, and in this new project he seems to be expanding his palette, moving ever so slightly from the power pop of This is Me Smiling into a little bit of modern rock territory.

I am really looking forward to following these guys as their record is released and they start to play more shows. This was their first show, and as the set went on they started to click better and really feed off of the energy of the crowd as people filtered inside. I can tell that they will only get better, and I just hope I’m there for as much of it as I can be.

Note: Danny is an intern at Schubas.

Extras:

• Both Any Kind and Algebro are Chicago based. Any Kind is Dan Duszynski, Matt Schuessler, Adam Kalthenhauser and Bobby Lord; Algebro is Thom Cathcart, Eddie Dixon, Adam Fitz, Dan Salyers and Ryan Suzuka.
• Any Kind’s debut album is expected to be released next month. Listen here. | Bandcamp

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Many of us just experienced some good holiday time — whatever that might mean to you — so let’s go there a moment to set some mood.

When I reflect on a typical evening of mid to late December, I rouse wholesome memories, generally, of warm nights indoors: company and chatter, blankets and books, brownies and baked goods, ciders and coffee and, if my dear mother supported it, a live, crackling fire in lieu of one of those silly instant ones she’s got that ignites at the flip of a switch.

These are the kinds of things the music of He’s My Brother She’s My Sister seems to remind me of. It embodies those same, simple qualities that make those yearly pilgrimages to the homeland — eastern Pennsylvania — so very special. HMBSMS is cozy and sunny, perhaps in the way Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is cozy and sunny.

You know, I was a touch fearful to make that comparison, but a hasty web search reveals the two bands toured together for a handful of engagements in late 2010. I’m not the only one, apparently, to think them a somewhat compatible pair.

It’s been a good long while since I’ve discussed a band in this space from way outside my city — HMBSMS is L.A.-based — but He’s My Brother She’s My Sister got the nod here for digging into my ears at a good time. Its upright bass and horns and other diversities combine in a thoughtful way, all in a conscious effort to foster a rolling atmosphere of, I think, Country Americana.

I didn’t notice it on my own — used this as my reference — but a slice of HMBSMS’s sound is secured by the clatter of live tap on polished wood, and to winning effect. That’ll read like I fell for one big gimmick, I’m sure, and yet I swear the tap works wonderfully.

Knowing it’s thrown in there now, go back and listen to “Tales That I Tell” and “How’m I Gonna Get Back Home” another time. It’s pronounced in those ones especially, and by god it works.

Extras:

• The L.A.-based He’s My Brother She’s My Sister is: Rachel Kolar (vocals/percussion), Rob Kolar (vocals/guitar), Lauren Brown (tap dancing/percussion), Oliver ‘Oliwa’ Newell (upright bass), Aaron Robinson (slide guitar) and Satya Bhabha (cello).
• Their EP is available on Bandcamp for $6. | Bandcamp
• He’s My Brother She’s My Sister plays The Empty Bottle on January 14 for $8. (Or free with RSVP.) | Tickets

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credit: Secret Colours' Facebook

I don’t think I’ve been in so packed a Bottle before. Not since that 1900s record release a year ago have I done a lap in the space and been struck so hard by the tally of heads.

A free-with-RSVP show on a weekend helps get it there, naturally. Yet the talent under the lights Saturday eve — and the hollerin’ and the chatter in the between-song breaks attests — is the true reason so much Chicago packed inside to sell the place out. And that’s exciting.

What brought me into Uke Village last night wasn’t the headliner, not the band whose new EP was being formally celebrated — more on those Secret Colours guys in a few graphs — but instead their support act, Apteka, whose album released several months ago was named by yours truly as the city’s best of 2011.

Most everything on that trusty list of mine I’ve seen at least once live. And while I don’t think the level of entertainment drawn from live performance determines the value of recordings, it inevitably becomes a factor. There’s certainly a hope that the bands I say sound good on record won’t disappoint — or won’t be too disappointing — live.

Knowing this, I handpicked Apteka and their Gargoyle Days as the city’s best without ever having seen them play so much as a song in front of me. Albeit a risk, I guess I just really flippin’ loved Gargoyle Days.

Thankfully, Apteka’s set last night in front of all those people confirmed my opinion of them. They’re a quality foursome that had me and several others up front flailing around all stupid and weird.

Apteka dug into “Striking Violet” — energy’s high point on Gargoyle Days — fairly early, and I thought it smart to do so. Its monumental riffs and screamed vocals emphatically grab you — on record and, as I learned last night, live. By that point Apteka had stolen our attentions and I dare say they kept it that way through what I consider a short set. I don’t think the Bottle allotted them enough time, though perhaps their setting up went on longer than planned.

Their show’s keystone, however, was “We Know Time.” I liked the song enough while researching for my review of Gargoyle Days, but its six and a half minutes soars higher than it did only a few weeks ago because of how it translates in a live setting.

What’s great about “We Know Time” — and I hadn’t noticed it, really, until the Bottle crowd did a funny thing — is that it’s got two climaxes. One at about the three-minute mark, and another they gently build to in the second half. At about the time Apteka’s drummer authoritatively pounded his cymbals, the crowd roared in the way crowds general do at the end of a song. (I laughed: “Just you wait!”) The guys got going on the song’s next part and climax two just killed me. I couldn’t have been alone in that. Probably the best moment of the night, Secret Colours’ set included.

Speaking of those guys, let’s hop over to them now because the night was in support of their EP3, you know.

It took me a handful of live shows to get there — I think I’ve seen them twice — but regardless of that, I feel like I get them finally. I discovered I like Secret Colours quite a bit, and this amuses me, you see, because I saw them open for Soft Speaker a month and a half ago at Beat Kitchen, and I wasn’t charmed at the time to say much anything about them in that review.

That block of text surely reads like a backhanded compliment, but I swear I’m merely processing my thoughts as transparently as I can. I’m in a bit of wonderment here, honestly, but I take it as another bit of evidence of my evolving tastes in music. (This was my other recent revelatory moment. Unfortunately, I’m not as kind there as I am being here).

I haven’t listened to EP3 yet so I won’t speak for it, but listen to “Redemption” and then listen to “Lava” off their 2010 self-titled EP. These songs, I think, are the backbone of the Secret Colours sound. If you like and appreciate them both, then inch closer to retrieve your gold star because you’re in the club. And that’s what I learned at the Empty Bottle last night.

Armed with that, finally, Secret Colours’ set unfolded like a dream of beautiful haze. Tunes melted into their successors, one after the other. After awhile it felt like one awesome, sprawling maze with between-song breaks for its six players to, you know, take quick breaths.

Apteka and Secret Colours are a pairing we can afford getting used to. My hope is we’ll get to hear them play together again real soon.

Extras:

• Buy Gargoyle Days. Please. | Bandcamp
• Secret Colours’ just-released EP3 is available, too, for $4.95. Expect to see a review of it by me here shortly. | Bandcamp
• SC says their next show is at Schubas on January 25, but the venue hasn’t posted that up yet. They’re also returning to The Empty Bottle on February 10 for $8. | Tickets

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credit: aptekamusic.com

Hey, 2012!

Now’s as good a time as any, I guess, for me to get going on a post I’ve looked forward to writing for a long while. Today, I’m planting myself in a warm room for a few hours to bust out what I consider to be the best of the year that was.

To qualify for my list of the best local releases of 2011, an album had to meet both of these easy requirements: 1) it had to be performed and released by a Chicago-based (or local-ish) band and 2) it had to be released in the 2011 calendar year. With me?

Something new for this year is a little gift from me that you can take on home with you. At the bottom of this piece is a link to a free album of music handpicked by me featuring all the bands you’re going to be reading about oh so very shortly. That’s right: One song from every best of 2011 album condensed into one lovely and convenient .zip file. You’re welcome!

Let’s get on with it, yeah? In the spirit of the year that just passed, in order from liked to most liked, is my 11 of ’11.

11. Elsinore — Life Inside an Elephant EP | Review | Buy for $5
Batting first here is this list’s lone entry by a band not residing in County Cook. Based in the state of Illinois — more specific, Champaign — the quartet Elsinore generated waves of joy within me when I saw them open for Canasta two summers ago at Lincoln Hall. They were in town at the time promoting their Yes Yes Yes full-length, an album I later identified as the second-best thing to be released locally in 2010.

Their followup is really a taste of what I’d come to expect of their rock-pop. And I mean that practically, really: We get just four tunes here, with one of ‘em being a remix of the title track.

10. Little Boy Jr. — Local Thieves | Review | Download it Free!
Little Boy Jr. will take you back. Way back. For me, it’s to a place I respect and admire, but certainly didn’t live. People, the music on Local Thieves is ’60s party rock so craftily done that it could only be homage, not theft. There isn’t a bone within me that thinks Little Boy Jr. didn’t simply do good research to make old music sound relevant again.

9. The Singleman Affair — Silhouettes at Dawn | Review | Buy for $10
Last time I did one of these year-enders, Jeff Schneider and his Darling earned a spot on my list for their debut full-length, Lights That Last Forever. This time around, it’s his older brother Dan and his Singleman Affair. The Schneider boys ride again!

In a bizarre way, The Singleman Affair remind me of The 19oos. Not by sound, but in the disparity between recordings and the live show. On stage, Dan and his band come alive. Your just coated, enveloped even in their beats and throbs. On record, the mood is more subdued, and a radically different experience.

8. Soft Speaker — Vortrobos | Review | Buy for $5.99
We might only be nearing the halfway mark on my list here, but already we’ve reached the point where I’d like to introduce my favorite song of the year. Off Vortrobos, “Ask the Guild” is nearly eight minutes of cutting hooks and addictive guitar flair. Hell, you’ve got to get nearly three and a half minutes deep before any vocals appear. It’s a majestic piece of music, and the lead track off that album I’m handing out down at the end.

7. Elephant Gun — Kid Scissors | Review | Buy for $8
Well, how best to introduce Elephant Gun. They’ve got a touch of the zany, surely. (Xylophones have been known to do that, you know). And then when you pitch in a violin, some horns, steady drums and traditional guitar/bass filler, you’ve got a sound that’s about as eclectic as it is unexpected.

6. The Bears of Blue River — Dames | Review | Name Your Price
Dames represents a marked improvement to The Bears of Blue River’s raw and swingy jive. They’ve added some honest bulk with this release and seem way louder than anything they recorded on that spottier 2010 EP. Their guitars are heavier, certainly, and backing vocals are utilized more. And as I noted in my formal review of the album, Margaret Gard’s voice is richer here, and still a lovely complement to Gavin’s vocals. They’ve got a cuddly back and forth between them that I’ve had trouble finding elsewhere.

5. Minor Characters — Minor Characters EP | Review | Buy for $1
I can thank Elsinore for introducing me to Minor Characters. Well, the foursome happened to be sharing a bill with my favorite Champaign-based band one August evening, and I happened to bring with me some pals who consider it criminal not to arrive to shows early, and that’s how I came to know Minor Characters. Since then, I’ve reviewed their music — as I promised I would in my write-up of the show — and have seen them one other time when they bounced around to properly release it.

We really only get a taste here with five tracks on the books, but it was enough for me, at least, to consider their self-titled EP one of the year’s shiny bright spots. These guys, slow and melodic in their delivery, earned a handful of points with me, too, for appearing to be so damn nice. At live shows, their between-song banter is among the most genuine and heartfelt I’ve heard in the city. They’re just always so tickled to be playing music in front of people.

4. Grandpa vs. Grandma — The Grandpa vs. Grandma EP | Review | Download it Free!
What got me listening to Grandpa vs. Grandma at first, of course, was their name. I mean, Grandpa vs. Grandma! You ain’t human if you gloss over that moniker and then move on to the next thing. Their silly name caught my attention, surely, and then their travel rock did, too. Just a guy on guitar and gal on drums, Grandpa vs. Grandma sounds pretty mighty for what you’d otherwise expect from a two-piece. And by preaching about shoes and PBR, they go down as easily as cold beer.

3. Soft Speaker — I’ll Tend Your Garden | Buy for $5.99
Soft Speaker played the best live show of the year, and their first of two full-length albums of 2011 nearly ascending to the top of my favorite recordings, too. You heard correctly: Soft Speaker released dos albums in under a year, and both got placement on this master list. They’d certainly be on the shortlist for city band of the year if I did that kind of thing here.

What makes I’ll Tend Your Garden great? Or, at least, greater than Vortrobos? It showcases a peculiar brand of psychedelics. One of adventure and improv, as if its tunes are being handcrafted right there before you. It has an edge, but isn’t offputting. It’s fun, and doesn’t go stale.

2. Sons of the West — Sons of the West | Review | Buy for $7
Sons of the West is probably one of my favorite music discoveries of the past year. Perhaps of the entire year and a half of time I’ve called this city home. I happened upon them completely unexpectedly at a Martyr’s show in late March, and despite opening for two other bands, the threesome just owned the evening. They’re intense and tight, and happen to be an act I can respond to.

Fortunately for you and me, that power, that emphasis translates to their recordings. They do the right amount of vocal work to keep them accessible, yet their strength — and where they seem most confident — is in their jam. They put their noisemakers to work.

1. Apteka — Gargoyle Days | Review | Buy for $7.49
Just a few weeks ago, I brought to work my iPod loaded with Gargoyle Days and got it fired up and going by the time I began another day in the office. One spin of the album came and went, so I casually went back and played it a second time. And then a third. And then a fourth. I think I may have been in the middle of or even completed five cycles before I got control of myself and realized what I had let happen.

Gargoyle Days is hands down my album of the year. You see, there’s not a thing in the world wrong with letting it spin around and around again as you comfortably ride its roller coaster of tempos. (“Sriking Violet,” then “Monterey” will give you a good sense of its range). On Gargoyle Days, Apteka has bottled a kind of psych rock that is at times tough, at times gentle, at times an odd combination of the two that just works wonderfully for these guys.

Download Chicago Tunes’ Best of 2011 Album
Not working? Email me and I’ll upload a new link!**

**Had to do this a few times already. If only I had my own storage!

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credit: JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound's Facebook

Remember the holidays? They seem so far away already. Most of us are already wrapped up in work, school and what have you, but I’d like to take a look back at the past weekend…

I spent New Year’s Eve Eve with JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, a terrific soul band that seems to have come from nowhere and blown up within the past few months. I first heard about these guys when I came across one of their singles in a local release section of one of my favorite record stores last summer. I bought it on a whim and fell in love with their homage to Motown and Stax, but I had no idea until I got their record and went to this show how deep it goes. This is much more than a kitschy retro band. These guys are the real deal, a true continuation of ’60s and ’70s R&B, soul and funk.

The opener, Green Room Rockers, was your typical funk-lite reggae group, but I did admire their conviction and the lack of irony with which they played their Sublime inspired jam-pop. However, their set went on far too long and it started to wear on me.

JC Brooks was insatiable, and the perfect example after the opener of what good stage presence can do. Sure, there is a throwback aspect to his onstage gimmicks, but unlike Green Room Rockers, the Uptown Sound’s love of their music transcends the basic shtick, allowing them to dig deep and write some songs that can stand up to their favorites.

His handling of the ballads was equally as compelling as the harder-hitting numbers, and I was really struck by how capable his voice was, something I guess didn’t stick as much on record. Even now when I go back to it, I don’t get the same feeling as I did in the room with him.

Still, a great voice can be squandered without the proper backing band. Fortunately, anyone who was worried can rest assured that the Uptown Sound is more than capable, matching if not exceeding the talent of Mr. Brooks. Without being showy (again, a huge stumbling block for the opener), these guys can grab an audience and really get them into the groove. After all, this was nearly New Year’s, so the main priority seemed to be getting people to dance.

I enter the new year continually amazed at the breadth of talent at my front door, and I ask you: Why, as a music fan, would you want to live anywhere else?

Note: Danny is an intern at Schubas.

Extras:

• JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound is Chicago-based and is: JC Brooks (vocals), Billy Bungeroth (guitar), Kevin Marks (drums), Andy Rosenstein (keys) and Ben Taylor (bass).
• The band plays The Vic on January 14 for $22 (plus fees). | Tickets

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Kid Scissors, really, is one big pile of kooky fun. I mean, Elephant Gun’s snappy xylophone and section of horns and sassy violin and the rest of it make their Kid Scissors one of the more eclectic releases of our most recent fall.

Some disclosure as I start things here: It’s a good challenge to up and go with an Elephant Gun critique. You see, an honest review of their music could very well begin any number of ways, and I think that a practical representation (and inadvertent truth) of what they’ve got synthesizin’ on Kid Scissors.

Forget the music even and begin with the name: Kid Scissors. What comes to my mind, at least, and the cover art helped get me there, is what’s probably bound to happen when you dangle a pair of shiny paper cutters in front of an unsuspecting tween. Of course they’ll grab those motherfuckers and away they go! And around and back around and around again until their energy is spent or a mature adult intervenes. Whichever is first.

Kid Scissors, then, might be a wholesome depiction of that. At times silly, at times joyous, by god its got quirky energía about it nearly the whole way.

What just works, and this can only speak for those first few plays, is an inspired sense of mystery about where things may go, be it in the pauses between tunes or simply mid-song changeovers. This is probably because Elephant Gun is a bit giant — about nine banders, I think — and they come armed with those mentioned noisemakers, and then a few more.

They’ve got room to roam because they’ve planned it that way. Kinda like an actor creating roles for himself by writing his own screenplays. Patrick Stewart is with me at about 0:33.

Perhaps I’m guilty of romanticizing. Maybe Elephant Gun is (or is also) a group of friends who collectively knew how to play a flight of instruments, and Kid Scissors is a game of “What would happen if we…”

Despite its pleasantries, Kid Scissors may be a touch too lengthy. I’d comfortably set the over-under bar at two tunes. I think the album solid, certainly, but there’s a confidence about its first half that I’d argue is lacking in the second.

In the spirit of Elephant Gun, I’m sharing an mp3 handpicked by yours truly that’s maybe flush with what you expected these guys to sound like or, well, it’s something else entirely. The kicker: “How Have You Bendorf?” is distinctly its own thing; outside the “Kid Scissors sound.” And that’s what I mean by an inspired sense of mystery.

Extras:

• Kid Scissors is on Bandcamp. Stream freely or buy for $8. | Bandcamp
• I just saw Elephant Gun with my own eyes! | Review
• Elephant Gun plays with a million other bands on January 8 at Pancho’s for $12. Seriously, the bill is in double digits. | Tickets

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credit: Soft Speaker's Facebook

As I began compiling a list of my favorite Chicago performances of the year, I noticed a pattern emerge. I’ve picked out seven key nights here, and many of them — four, in fact — made the cut for introducing me to something not only new, but exceptional. Minor Characters, Sons of the West, In Tall Buildings and The Singleman Affair all etched their names on my radar for what they can do live.

What made their sets that much more meaningful to me was that they played at a time when I had not a clue who they were. Minor Characters? Totally would not have known they existed as a band — by August 12, at least — had they not opened for Elsinore at Subterranean. The same is true of In Tall Buildings, who played some music in front of Santah about a week ago. And so on.

Some of my favorite music nights in Chicago, then, caught me by surprise. I had gone to a venue to see a band I knew, and then came away with one or a handful more to follow.

It was very much a year of discovery for me, which I would imagine to be the norm for a critic of local music. New bands crop up all the time, or more established ones get paired with some up and comers. And with a little luck, you’ll be there, too, to see it unfold.

Elsinore, Minor Characters @ Subterranean (August 12) | Review

Based in Champaign, Elsinore doesn’t make it up to our city nearly as much as they should. With that in mind — and, well, the fact that I love them so — I make every effort to keep a clean schedule for when they’ve planned to drive up 57 North to pay us Chicagoans a visit.

To the best of my knowledge, Elsinore made the trek just once in 2011 to formally release, officially, their Life Inside an Elephant EP. That it had to be at Subterranean is another story entirely. You all by now may have a general understanding about how I feel about the space.

Opening for these guys was Minor Characters, a group I’ve taken under my wing, so to speak, by raving about them since. In October I reviewed their debut EP, and then a week or two later I caught a follow up performance at, you guessed it, Subterranean.

The Yes Way, Sons of the West @ Martyr’s (March 24) | Review

A venue I don’t go to nearly as much as I should is Martyr’s, a lovely bit of space on Lincoln Avenue in North Center and, really, steps from my apartment. Every show I’ve been to — and there have only been a handful — have been a delight. And I think much of the credit goes to the guy or gal in charge of booking. It seems they’ve got a knack for arranging acts that might sound good together.

Such is the case for a late March evening there for a Village show my friend wanted me to see. As it were, I enjoyed more the bands that opened for Village: Sons of the West and The Yes Way.

Sons of the West is based here in Chicago. I’ve since reviewed their recorded music but haven’t seen them live again. But what I can remember from that Martyr’s show, which translated to the album, is their intensity. They just beat their instruments over a period of 40 to 45 minutes and then just up and call it a night. Expect to read more about them here in the new year.

Alela Diane, The Parson Red Heads, The Singleman Affair @ The Empty Bottle (June 9)

What brought me out to The Empty Bottle in early June was to see, again, a performance by Dan Schneider and his Singleman Affair. Some time earlier in the year I’d seen him headline a free show at The Whistler and was about due for another live set.

Dan got the evening started on a good note, and then that was carried on through the night by a pair of Portland-based acts: The Parson Red Heads (a group I’ve since reviewed twice: their new album and their Schubas show around my birthday) and Alela Diane, a woman with a father so supportive that he actually plays in her band.

I remember this night so fondly for being such a tight show all around. Everyone that played I’ve since seen again (or would do so independently).

UMMA @ Lincoln Hall (April 25) | Review

I caught the Rachele Eve train fairly early in my move to Chicago. She happened to headline a record release show for Darling about 15 months ago and I’ve been a fan since.

What’s nice about Rachele, among many things, is that she comes packaged as a variety of sounds. As of early this year she’s led (and continues leading) a rock band of her own — known simply, I think, as Rachele Eve — and has played gentle, acoustic sets as Rachele Eve, the singer-songwriter.

Her next gestation was a unique four-piece named UMMA — I’ve stylized it at such; the letters may in fact be lowercase — which featured her and singer-songwriter Dan Price on guitar and vocals, and then two supporting cellists.

These guys were on fire that night at Lincoln Hall, and made for one of my favorite evenings nights of music for having so uncommon a sound. Rachele and Dan, too, were gracious enough to play at a benefit I helped put together some time ago, and I’m indebted to their goodwill.

Breathe Owl Breathe @ SPACE, Evanston (November 29)

One of the strangest bands I’ve seen yet in Chicago is Breathe Owl Breathe, a three-piece folk group out of East Jordan, Michigan. I caught the end of their set in front of the Fruit Bats in September at Lincoln Hall, and then drove up to Evanston a few months later with a car full of friends to see them headline an evening at SPACE.

The members of Breathe Owl Breathe are the rare sort of performers who have a fun time under the lights, outwardly show that fun to the people watching them play and then move to include the room in their games.

In Tall Buildings, Elephant Gun @ Lincoln Hall (December 22) | Review

Originally stepping inside Lincoln Hall for a reunion with Santah a few days before Christmas, I came away a fan of both of their openers.

I seem to be in the honeymoon phase with Elephant Gun. Their live show got progressively better as it went on — I’m not versed enough in their tunes to know which songs came from which albums — and I haven’t had much chance yet to give a respecting listen to their new one (though I do, finally, have it in full). So a factual, this-is-how-it-is opinion of these guys — a group of eight-plus, depending on the song I think — is still on deck. But I responded to, certainly, their eclecticism and size.

In Tall Buildings, though, left quite the impression on me. So much so that a complete unknown — paired with Elephant Gun as an opener — happened to be my second favorite night of music of the year. In Tall Buildings rocked it with grace and beauty. And yet I think I’ll stop it there because I’ll probably repeat my week-ago self.

Soft Speaker @ Beat Kitchen (November 19) | Review

This one was easy. Soft Speaker’s record release show for Vortrobos at Beat Kitchen about a week before Thanksgiving was my favorite show of the year.

My first time seeing them live will of course not be the last. Hell, I would have been there a week or two later when they stormed into Empty Bottle had I not been out of town sipping wines in Napa Valley and resting my bones in Dolores Park, among other things.

Soft Speaker got going and tore the roof off Beat Kitchen. And I actually mean that literally: There was a leaky hole near the front of the stage that the venue’s crew nursed with an over-sized trashcan. The hope is it was water, but I never took initiative to find out.

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