Weddingtime.

Weddingtime.

Totally slammed prepping for my little brother's wedding. So exciting!

Returning to the scene of the crime to discover there's no crime.

Returning to the scene of the crime to discover there's no crime.

I keep going back to re-listen to the Micachu & The Shapes debut, especially since everyone is hitting the thesaurus to describe just how wonderful the album is, but I just can't get into it. I want to check them out live to see if that's the missing piece that will draw the frenetic strands of their album together for me, but I admit suspicion due to the fact that the group has been championed by a coterie of tight-nit music bloggers who tend to overvalue certain albums in hopes of retaining their "trendsetting" status. In fact they set no trends outside of an insular community, but that doesn't mean they don't contribute to inflated expectations.

Hm, I honestly don't know where that came from! When I started writing my primary intent was just to say that I didn't dig a particular album but am willing to return to it occasionally to see if my opinion changes. I suppose the digression was rooted in the realization that if it weren't for the name recognition or buzz around certain groups they would probably end on the discard pile without benefit of further review farther down the road. So I suppose that means I'm part of that "insular community" to a certain extent since i allow myself to be influenced insofar as to give stuff that isn't worth my time a little but more off that time.

Then again, very occasionally, that extra time pays off and something finally connects, so I guess it is worth it after all?

Powering through to the weekend.

Powering through to the weekend.


I've already pined on and on about how awesome Streets Of Fire is. I just noticed that the two songs I posted from that soundtrack are long since gone from the interwebs, so here's a refresher course. It's Wednesday, and the weekend seems to shrink ever further into the distance, so I'm hoping these two over the top gems help power you through the next two days and recreate the illusion that rock and/or roll runs the gears of the earth and never before or since has there been anything truly worth dying for.

MP3: Fire Inc. "Nowhere Fast"
MP3: Fire Inc. "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young"

FUN FACT: Look for a pre-Hollywood Shuffle Robert Townsend aiding our heroes in the flick as a member off the vocal group The Sorels.

I am barely civilized.

I am barely civilized.

So yesterday I went and got a very nice haircut -- one even my mother will love -- in preparation for my brother's wedding this weekend. I'm standing up and wanted to make sure his fiancee, and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, wouldn't be embarrassed by my mane and be forced to Photoshop me out of all the photos. Weddings cost enough as it is and digital removal just adds to that cost, doesn't it? I'm fitted for my tux. I'm ready for the weekend. And then I read the itinerary and realize that the dress rehearsal is supposed to be business casual.

I no longer really own any business casual clothes! The company I work at ask that we dress nicely, but allows jeans to enter that equation, and my previous job was a jeans and T-shirt kind of place. While I donated most of my slacks and khakis when I moved out of Photogal's place, I do have one pair of dress slacks but they don't really fit anymore* and I keep meaning to buy a pair that do. I know, what kind of grownn man doesn't even own one pair of nice pants that fits, huh? I guess it's one of those things I keep putting off and just never get around to. The way my mind works is: If I'm going to spend $50-$75 on a new pair of pants, why not buy a nice pair of jeans I'll get lots of use from? Juvenile, I know.

Anyway, long story short, my brother and his long-suffering mate took pity on me and are allowing me to wear jeans to the rehearsal as long as I'm willing to accept a bit of good natured teasing for doing so. (This may seem like a minor price, but my family and our friends are gifted with razor tongues, so "good natured teasing" to us is the sort of thing that sends lesser folks to psychiatric wards.)

*I call these my emergency pants, and are something I would suffer through wearing if I was ever called to a client meeting. The truth is I've put on a few pounds** and they are neither really flattering or comfortable right now.
**Primarily from working out, honest. Though the waist is a little tight right now.

Chrome vs. Firefox ... winner Firefox!

Chrome vs. Firefox ... winner Firefox!

I've been test driving Google Chrome at work, primarily since the latest version of Firefox didn't support Google Gears yet (it now does), and while I liked some of it's features, I'm moving back to Firefox. Chrome has a ways to go.

The one thing I did like was the simplicity of Chrome's interface, and the intuitive download features. I get a lot of music sent to me online, photos in press packs, and stuff like that, and I really enjoyed the single-click downloading including a single browser page were you could keep track of everything. Firefox is a tad more multi-step in this area, so it was a welcome change.

Unfortunately, Chrome is just too rough around the edges for me. It's spellchecker and text selection is atrocious. It crashes too often for me, and it's slooooow. And the fact that you can't manually re-size photos in Blogger -- um, a Google product -- when you can in Firefox and Explorer was the final deal-breaker. It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence to find Google's own browser doesn't play nice with it's other products.

So Firefox, I'm back! Now let's start outfitting you with all my favorite plug-ins again...

In quiet repose ... NOT!

In quiet repose ... NOT!

Friday, Friday, Friday, what to do? Oh yeah, tonight I'm going to get my face blasted off by the legendary Wrens at Schubas. This'll be my first time seeing 'em indoors since Scott brought them over to open for Local H a few years ago, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm bringing my camera, but if it's too crowded -- and I bet it will be -- I'm just going to hang in the back and bathe in the music without worrying about "getting the shot." Fuck that, this show is too awesome to do anything but pay attention to the band.

Speaking of bands, Stellastarr* was great last night, but their tour manager was a jerk. I won't go into it, but the whole exchange was a great example of one party reacting mechanically while the other was trying to communicate something that would make the night a whole lot easier. In the end did it matter? Naw, so I'll leave it at that.

Hey, guess what?! Tomorrow is when Rudy and I storm the DJ booth at The Continental and unleash all kinds of madness! So after you've stopped by the Fabian Guerra benefit show at Double Door, come on by and get down to our now sounds of tomorrow and yesteryear! Sounds from the underground! Streams from the mainstream! KICK ASS TUNES!

O.K., perhaps that was the coffee talking at the end there.

And now, a picture of Pickle the Kitten in a rare moment of personal reflection.

(And just after the shutter snapped, she tried to claw my face off. It's how she shows affection.)

Second best error page ever.

Second best error page ever.

Just got this in Chrome. Do yourself a big favor and click on it to enlarge the screenshot so you can read it.



Oh, what's the first best error page ever? This one.

Long-lost classic Chicago bands: Homunculus!

Long-lost classic Chicago bands: Homunculus!

Homunculus weren't technically from Chicago, I believe they hailed from an Indiana college town where they all met, but I booked them at The Note so often in the early part of this century they may as well have been locals. They played this odd sunshiny pop that hinted at just what virtuosos all the members were without bashing you over the head with it. Admittedly this meant they occasionally teetered into territory then also occupied by Phish and bands that loved Frank Zappa, but they loaded their sets with sing-along tunes that were some of the catchiest stuff I've ever heard.

They had a "hit" in their song "Okay," and I've included it below with "Here and There" and "Kitten Got Claws" since they're lesser known but just as good an example of what they sounded like when combining their varied backgrounds into perfect pop.

The band broke up in 2004, but I do remember booking one the singers -- Kevin I think -- at The Pontiac a few years ago without realizing it was his new band I was booking. I remember the new project being pretty good, but it couldn't hope to reach the heights Homunculus did. I still miss those guys from time to time.

If you like the tunes hunt out their albums. I couldn't find them new anywhere, but you can buy used copies of their best album Words really cheaply at Amazon, among other places.

MP3: Homunculus "Okay"
MP3: Homunculus "Here and There"
MP3: Homunculus "Kitten Got Claws"

Seriously, don't talk to robots.

Seriously, don't talk to robots.

I'm pleased to see someone has been creating PSAs to address some of the dangers unique to our modern age.

Pitchfork photos!

Pitchfork photos!

My photoset from this year's Pitchfork Muysic Festival is up at Chicagoist, and a full gallery is on Flickr too.

The above photo may very well be my favorite of all taken is those chaotic three days.

Enjoy!

P4K, 99.9% perfect this year.

P4K, 99.9% perfect this year.



Overall, I think I enjoyed Pitchfork more this year than any other. I was there early all three days -- a first for me! -- made a few new musical discoveries, and had an overall really good time. I didn't even mind waiting in the long bathroom lines (and they were everywhere, even back in VIP ... people gotta pee, what can I say?). The cooler weather and awesome staff (mostly volunteers) helped create a near perfect weekend. My only gripe was with the photo pits, since they were allowing everyone and their mother in there, including a couple dozen folks with point and shoot cameras that had obviously never been that close to a band before and got in everyone's way. That's cool though, I still got a lot of great shots.

The only real burr under my saddle was shooting the Flaming Lips's set. I got there 40 minutes early and had scoped out the scene with security ahead of time. The intro started, they started letting us in ... and then stopped us. It turned out they were only letting a set number of photographers shoot a single song at a time. No biggie, right? Except the first group got all the intro music, band entry, confetti explosions, Wayne in a bubble AND an additional whole song. My group was then let in, and while it's impossible for the Lips to not be visually interesting, you can see a huge difference in the photo ops. (And to those photographers in the first group, I commend you, those are some AWESOME photos.)

After we got our shots I left the VIP area, swam through throngs of people to find GalPal and Marcus, and enjoyed the rest of The Lips' spectaular set from the middle of the crowd, in my opinion the best way to see the band.

And holy hell! Althrough it felt far too short (damn you 10 p.m. sound curfew!) it was an awesome set. I almost lost my shit when they played "Mountainside." Oh my good gawd.

So take my single grouse for what it is; a teensy tiny inconvenience buried within an otherwise perfect weekend!

I should have a full photo set up tomoroow on Chicagoist, but until then read our recaps of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3.

Never a day off.

Never a day off.

I took the day off the 9-to-5, but it looks like I'll be working on editing these dang Pitchfork photos all day on a computer moving at a snail's pace. Auuuuuugh!

P4K 2009.

P4K 2009.

I'm tied up with the Pitchfork Music Fest. If you're in town shoot me an email and let's say hi in person!

The absolute best Michael Jackson eulogy out there.

The absolute best Michael Jackson eulogy out there.

Thank you so much to Whet for sharing this online so I could discover it.

Phishin' and coming up empty.

Phishin' and coming up empty.

So yesterday some jerk took over my friend Jose's account and tried to lure me in with this Facebook phishing scam. Here's how it went down.

11:14am Jose
hey

11:14am Jim
hey jose, what's up?

11:15am Jose
not too good

11:15am Jim
what's wrong?

11:16am Jose
i'm stranded in London
got mugged at gun point last night
all cash,credit card and phone was stolen

11:16am Jim
yikes! still have your passport at least?

11:17am Jose
yes
my return flight leaves in few hours but having troubles sorting out the hotel bills

11:18am Jim
really? how did you phish into jose's account?

The worst part? Facebook seems to be uninteretsed in either dealing with this particular scam or are doing so in a completely opaque manner.

The obvious moral of the story is BE CAREFUL. Utilize Snopes and search Google for scams if anyone asks you for money / passwords / ANYTHING WEIRD (and even the not-so weird). Just because someone looks like your friend on the internet doesn't mean it actually IS your friend!

Disco love songs.

Disco love songs.

I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more of a ruckus over Kennedy.* He writes three-minute pop-disco ditties, and while some tracks on his debut Life Is A Party occassionaly veer awfully close to satire, for the most part the disc is stuffed full of frothy fun.

I've been sitting on this album for a while now, primarily because I only just got around to giving the whole thing a proper listen. The three stand-out tracks are the propulsive jerkiness of "Karate," the disco-lite of "Let It Out," the fun "John & Yoko" featuring guest vocals from Yelle.

Life Is A Party isn't a timeless classic, but it's worth flipping through the tracks on iTunes to select your favorites for a kickin' dance EP.

Here's a taste.

(And no, that's not Yelle in the photo ... just some random fan in a random live shot with Kennedy.)

MP3: Kennedy "John & Yoko (featuring Yelle)"

*Maybe there has been a ruckus and I've just been completely blind to it.

Things to look into...

Things to look into...


It's shaping up tp be a busy week, but here are two momentary diversions for you.

• Green Day linked to my preview of last night's show.
• I put up a couple pictures from Friday's Mannequin Men show.

And God, am I jazzed for Pitchfork Fest this weekend!

Beeeeeaaaaaans!

Beeeeeaaaaaans!

I'm pretty sure we saw Beans' cousin at yesterday's Cubs / Cards game.

The sight of him trying to lead the people around him with his shirt off has scarred me for life.

Die Paste, die.

Die Paste, die.

Really, because it must be shared, Chunklet's Henry Owings has fired another shot across Paste's bow.

Look, I have nothing personal about Paste, but they are NOT a national treasure and don't deserve to be bailed out. Seriously. Blender deserved to survive this print downturn more than Paste does.

Can't Stop Won't Stop.

Can't Stop Won't Stop.

Hey, guess what? It's another jam packed weekend! The problem with my life is that there is ZERO down time. I work hard and play hard, sans break. In fact GalPal and I have discussed just cutting out to some far off Mexican locale with no internet, no nothing for a few days in the fall just so we can catch a breath.

Until then, we must soldier on!

This weekend's can't-miss show is the Mannequin Men release party at Metro tonight. I lurve their new disc and you should lurve it too. Tomorrow I'll be day0drinking with my brothers and their friends to help my youngest sibling sling one last huge hangover over his shoulder before he commits the greatest sin of tying himself down to one woman for the rest of his life. (O.K., it's not a sin, but as the only un-hitched sson of my mother I feel I need to make such grandiose proclamations.) And Sunday will be spent within the friendly confines eating hot dogs, drinking lousy overpriced beer and catching up on my Junot Diaz reading.

Man, I'm just tired reading that, ain'tchoo? Let's perk back up with some motherfucking excellent tunes by Sleater-Kinney courtesy Mr. Perpetua.

Upping my game and seeing old friends.

Upping my game and seeing old friends.

Just got my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 50mm lens in the mail! I've asked a bunch of my extremely talented photographer friends what lens I should buy to up my game and every one who was kind enough to gift me with their advice named this as the lens to have, especially for shooting concerts. (And yes, I'm aware that the 1.4 KICKS ASS, but I reckon I better make sure I can handle the $100 lens before tackling the $400 one, right?)

I'm considering bringing it to tonight's show with Rachael Yamagata and Bumpus to give it a test run. My history with this crew goes way back -- if memory serves I think the last show Rach played with Bumpus was the NYE gig I booked for them at The Note lo those many years ago -- so I'm excited to see them all together again. I haven't been officially told they will actually perform any songs together but c'mon, how could they not? Hopefully we'll be able to all go out for drinks afterward, especially since the last time Rach was in town we all got kind of, um, sloppy drunk pretty quickly. (So drunk that when GalPal and I closed out tab I didn't even notice he was grossly overcharging us.)

Anyway, this is my way of saying that you should go see this show too. It's at Logan Square Auditorium tonight and also features Darren from The Changes spinning between sets. As if that weren't enough, it's also for a good cause to support the health costs incurred by our friend Irena's father due to an unexpected and devastating health condition.

Bottom line; there's a party tonight and you're all invited!

Summer doldrums. Really? (And then, a rant.)

Summer doldrums. Really? (And then, a rant.)


We've hit a lull in music for the summer months. Right when we should be hip deep (in hip shaking) pop froth I cast my peepers along the horizon and come up with nary even a mirage in sight. Believe it or not the only thing casuing me to slick up the nether regions right now are a trio of garage tracks (Mannequin Men's "Massage," "Never Lived By Myself," and "(Us And) All our Friends Are So Messed Up" off their new disc Lose Your Illusion, Too) and baby, that just ain't right.

This is not to say there are not already a number of contenders for Summer Song '09 -- none of which The Trib nails, by a long shot -- but it is to say nothing fresh is hitting my internal airwaves, and I find this confusing. Seriously, we're at a point where 20-year-old MJ jams are knocking everything else aside new music-wise.

SPEAKING of new music, I came across one of the sloppiest blog defenses for a band's buzz EVAR. The band in question is The Rural Alberta Advantage, and they are a polite, nice sounding little combo whose most recent release came out on Saddle Creek recently and has suddnely set critical pants (inexplicably) afire. This post defends the sudden spotlight using dubious logic and "facts" steeped in opinion. Now, I have zero against The Rural Alberta Advantage but puh-leeze, claiming "Hometowns, their debut album, is considered by many to be the best album of 2009" is incredibly wrong. And their summation on how this band in particular -- and all bands by extension -- get the buzz they deserve is laughable.

It’s that simple; there is only three parts to it. Do something amazing. Have the right person or people see it or hear it. Let the word-of-mouth trickle through the internet.

O.K., Hometowns is not amazing. Nice, yes. Faceless? Uh huh. Politely unassuming? Yup. Amazing? Hardly.

HERE IS WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: The second and third points are right on though. In this case (hell, most cases) most credit for point number two AND three are due the publicist. Period.

What you should know is that a publicist lives and dies by the bands they work with. In The Rural Alberta Advantage's case, they were smart / lucky enough to be adopted by a firm with a good track record of promoting excellent bands. And thaat's why they're getting this massive and sudden buzz that will, sadly, just as massively and suddenly disappear, but that's life in the internet music age, right?

Also, I feel it needs to be said, Passion Pit is the 2009 version of Black Kids. Another sad but true fact.

Summer fling ... with a bug!

Summer fling ... with a bug!

Hey, everyone out there that has caught this summer cold that just WILL NOT LET GO and enjoys tickling / scraping your throat while hacking at your lungs, raise your hands! Isn't it fun? Isn't it awesome? Isn't it just like this year for such a thing to arrive as soon as the weather FINALLY becomes nice, thereby stripping all your will to actually go outside and enjoy said weather. Isn't it awesome?!

Isn't it?!

Blerg.

I need a vacation from my vacation.

I need a vacation from my vacation.

It's been a hectic week plus, and on top of that I had a pretty weird experience in my 'hood last night I'm still sorting through, so please accept this light take on a Beatles cover run through Chicago on the El that was sponsored by GalPal's favorite maker of the sudsy stuff.




[credz Miles]

Remote broadcast.

Remote broadcast.

Blogging via mobile phone unit, sunning in Humboldt Park with GalPal and Betty the Beagle, drinking beer, reading a book and generally loving life.
How's your day going?

Hello, old friend.

Hello, old friend.

It's been a long time since I bought any vinyl new, aside from a single here and there. In fact, the last "from the label, brand new, never been played" LP I bought was probably sometime in the early '90s. I appreciate vinyl, and my first albums were of course vinyl, but I tend to buy used LPs when I buy LPs at all.

Well, yesterday I bought the new Wilco album on vinyl. I really liked the artwork and kind of felt like indulging myself. (It didn't hurt that since GalPal moved in we've actually had a working record player in the house .. mine has been busted for years and I just never got around to repairing it.) The fact that the LP also came with a copy of the CD didn't hurt either, since another reason I probably haven't bought much new vinyl over the years is, well, it's a lot harder to rip something off a record player. And I admit it, I like my music to be portable, music snobbery be damned.

I'll admit I was a bit taken aback when I hit the register and had to shell out $26* for the album, but what the hell, I viewed it as a late birthday present to myself and allowed myself the indulgence. When I got home I turned into a 12-year-old, opening the gatefold, looking over the lyrics and liner notes, growing slightly amused that there were two sleeves (one with additional artwork, the other a plain white one to actually house the record) and just really enjoying its bigness, solidity, and sense of thereness you just don't get with CDs or tapes (or MP3s, obvs).

I've been hearing about the resurgence of vinyl for years and years now. It's not a new story. I've always thought it was great people were still enjoying the format, but it wasn't until yesterday that I realized how important it is that people enjoy the format. I pore over liner notes and art in CD booklets, but man, it ain't the same. And there is a physical connection -- especially when you have to get off your ass and flip that LP over to side two, or back to side one for another listen -- that you just can't get any other way.

I'm not saying I'm gonna start buying nothing but vinyl, I just couldn't afford that, but there is a good chance that if I come across an album I love, even a brand new one, you might find me trekking to the record store to pick up the LP.

*I think the last time I bought a brand new vinyl LP it was under ten bucks, so the sticker price did come as a genuine shock.

There is a lesson here.

There is a lesson here.


This is why all media should manually manage their Twitter feed.

(via Leafblower)

Lucky boy.

Lucky boy.

I am incredibly lucky to have so many friends who either came out last night or sent me birthday wishes throughout the day yesterday. Thank you to all of my incredible friends.

Lucky. Lucky. Lucky.