Live Wire

On a recent Thursday night, Windy Citizen sent me on a mission to see the band Leslie open for The Trews at Evanston’s classiest little venue, the Space.  Thank you, Windy Citizen!  I had a great time.  Here’s what I discovered:

a) Leslie is a power trio consisting three rail-thin, tall, long-haired Southerners who are super-nice dudes and have great manners.  They have appropriately badass names for their line of work: Sadler Vaden (guitar/vocals), Jason Fox (bass), and Jonathan Carman (drums).  

b) They’re from Charleston, SC and have played extensively through the Southeast, but they’re not a “Southern rock” band per se.  Their music is definitely retro, in the vein of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack.  It’s like if a music broker went back to the 1970s, bought an option to mortgage a decade’s worth of riffage, sliced those riffs into little tranches and repackaged them as complex financial instruments, Leslie would be one of the premium rated AAA ones.   

c) Their first big recording, the “Rebel Souls” EP, came out on March 31 and is available on iTunes, Amazon, etc.  They recorded it in Memphis with producer Paul Ebersold, who helped them hone their songwriting and add texture to their arrangements.  Ebersold has lots of modern rock/alternative credits to his name, and I think his sensibilities mesh well with Leslie.  The songs are straightforward riff-rockers, so they benefit from the instruments sounding impeccable and fitting together just right.  A good producer = money well spent by Leslie.

d) On stage, the band can seriously put out.  For starters, if you’re a rail-thin, tall, long-haired Southerner, there’s very little you can do onstage that won’t look great, so if you actually know what you’re doing you’ll end up looking extremely cool.  Add to that the fact that Leslie have been on the road pretty much constantly since forming in the summer 2004—they’ve got the chops to back up the visual. Live, the songs lose the sheet of production and achieve that ragged sound that you associate with the Who, Zeppelin, or Cream.  With these bands there are only three instruments, so the palette of sounds is limited and the musical vocabulary is pretty much the blues.  The performance becomes about conjuring a very primitive, powerful energy and mastering its ebb and flow, more like a magic show than a night at the symphony.  Not many bands perform that way any more, maybe because using a non-ironic blues vocabulary is out of fashion, or because it’s so easy to buy so many sound-making toys, or because, for the first time in human history, musicians now record first and learn to play live second.  It’s a great feeling to be giddy and impressed by skill rather than cleverness in music.  I’d recommend going to see bands like Leslie if only to be reminded that rock is a vocational, not professional, endeavor.   

e) Speaking of vocation, not profession, in the five years that Leslie have been on the road, they estimated a net profit of, like, $400 each.  They’ve played on a cruise with Lynyrd Skynyrd, been caught up in gunplay at a Young Jeezy afterparty, appeared in the movie Tropic Thunder with the Mooney Suzuki, and crashed on couches all across the nation.  For three guys in their early 20s, to have logged the hours that they’ve logged before releasing their first big, official recording, you get the feeling they’ll only get better.

Leslie are headed back to South Carolina, then to Texas, then to California, but will eventually be back in Chicago.  They’re on tour with The Trews and then Bang Camaro.  You should check them out next time they’re around, especially if they’re playing at a high-volume venue (the Space was a little fragile for their performance).

It's official! The lineup for Lollapalooza 2009 is here. The rumored headliners - Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, Depeche Mode, The Killers, Tool and Kings of Leon - have been confirmed.

And a nice supporting cast has been revealed, including Lou Reed, TV on the Radio, Snoop Dogg, Animal Collective, Vampire Weekend, Thievery Corporation, Ben Harper, STS9, Andrew Bird, Of Montreal and many, many more. Check out the entire list below.

Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane’s Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santigold
Atmosphere
Dan Auberbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat For Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Green Cards
Carney
Thenewno2
 
DJ sets at Perry’s include:

Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
DeadMau5
Boys Noise
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)

Yeasayer rocked Lollapalooza last year. This year they'll be rocking Pitchfork.

Slowly, but surely the Pitchfork lineup is growing into another can't miss event. As if the Flaming Lips' closing set wasn't enough, today's addition of Yeasayer and Blitzen Trapper has officially sold me on the fest, to be held July 17-19 in Chicago's Union Park. The other newly announced bands are Plants and Animals, Disappears, Mew, Japandroids and Women.

Compared to Lollapalooza's $200 pricetag, Pitchfork is a bargain. It's $35 for single day passes, $60 for Saturday and Sunday and $75 for all three days. Get your tickets here.

Here's the lineup as it stands today.

Friday - "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request"
Built to Spill
The Jesus Lizard
Yo La Tengo
Tortoise

Saturday
The National
Yeasayer
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Fucked Up
Plants and Animals
Matt and Kim
Wavves
Charles Hamilton
The Duchess and The Duke
Disappears

Sunday
The Flaming Lips
Grizzly Bear
M83
The Walkmen
Pharoahe Monch
Blitzen Trapper
Black Lips
The Very Best
Mew
Vivian Girls
Japandroids
Women

  M83 at the Empty Bottle on May 29, 2008.

Today, another round of acts has officially been added to the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival roster (to be held July 17-19 in Union Park). The new additions are M83, Black Lips, Wavves, Fucked Up, Matt and Kim, Charles Hamilton, The Duchess and The Duke and The Very Best. They will join the likes of The National, The Walkmen, Built to Spill, Jesus Lizard, Grizzly Bear and  festival headliners The Flaming Lips. More bands are expected to be announced soon.

Three day passes are on sale for $75, two-day passes are $60 and single days are going for $35 a pop. Click here for tickets.

Here's the lineup so far:

Friday - "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request"
Built to Spill
The Jesus Lizard
Yo La Tengo
Tortoise

Saturday
The National
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Fucked Up
Matt and Kim
Wavves
Charles Hamilton
The Duchess and The Duke

Sunday
The Flaming Lips
Grizzly Bear
M83
The Walkmen
Pharoahe Monch
Black Lips
The Very Best
Vivian Girls

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for Phish's recently announced Aug. 11 show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. But good luck getting 'em! The jamband heavyweights have long been a hot ticket. However, tickets for this year's tour have been even harder to get, as the band is returning from a nearly five-year hiatus. Fans have crashed sites, in route to selling out their summer shows within minutes.

So get your computers ready to go for noon tomorrow, so you can compete with the masses. Phish did release a limited amount of tickets for their shows through an online lottery. But the majority of fans will be forced to try their luck with Ticketmaster. And if that doesn't work, eBay, StubHub and other sites.

If you've never seen a Phish show, it is quite a spectacle. There's the traveling hippy circus of devoted fans, the wild parking lot scene, the spectacular light shows and, of course, their larger-than-life sound. Sure, jambands aren't everybody's cup of tea, but Phish has risen to arena-level status for good reason. Phish is also playing two nights at nearby Alpine Valley in June, but those shows sold out long ago. Check out the rest of their summer dates below.

06/04/09 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY
06/05/09 Nikon at Jones Beach Theater Wantagh, NY
06/06/09 Comcast Center (Great Woods) Mansfield, MA
06/07/09 Susquehanna Bank Center Camden, NJ
06/09/09 Asheville Civic Center Asheville, NC
06/10/09 Thompson-Boling Arena Knoxville, TN
06/12/09 Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester, TN
06/14/09 Bonnaroo Music Festival Manchester, TN
06/16/09 Fabulous Fox Theatre St. Louis, MO
06/18/09 Post Gazette Pavilion Burgettstown, PA
06/19/09 Verizon Wireless Music Center Noblesville, IN
06/20/09 Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, WI
06/21/09 Alpine Valley Music Theatre East Troy, WI
07/30/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
07/31/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/01/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/02/09 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
08/05/09 Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View Mountain View, CA
08/07/09 The Gorge George, WA
08/08/09 The Gorge George, WA
08/11/09 Toyota Park Bridgeview, IL
08/13/09 Darien Lake Performing Arts Center Darien Center, NY
08/14/09 Meadows Music Theater Hartford, CT
08/15/09 Merriweather Post Pavilion Columbia, MD
08/16/09 Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Springs, NY

The Pitchfork Music Festival just injected a little star power into their 2009 lineup, with the addition of The Flaming Lips. Today's press release states "The Flaming Lips will close out the festival in grand fashion on Sunday." As one of the best live bands on earth, Wayne Coyne and the Lips seem to do all their shows in grand fashion. Aliens, Santas, giant balloons, confetti guns and possibly audience nudity (if last year's tour is any indicator) can all be expected at Union Park on July 19.

CORRECTION: As previously reported, The Flaming Lips will not be allowing fans to write their setlist (like the Friday performers).

Here's the official press release correction:

"We have a correction regarding the Flaming Lips' performance at the 2009 Pitchfork Music Festival. The "Write the Night" series, in which tickets holders get to vote on the songs that they want to hear, is happening on Friday, with Built to Spill, the Jesus Lizard, Tortoise, and Yo la Tengo. The Flaming Lips will be closing out the Festival on Sunday, July 19th, but they will not be part of the "Write the Night" series, as was previously indicated. We apologize for any confusion. Any problems regarding tickets purchased due to what was previously reported can be addressed with TicketWeb for reimbursement at info@ticketweb.com. Thanks, and we hope to see you in July."

To recap the 2009 line-up so far:

Friday - "Write the Night: Set Lists by Request"
Built to Spill

The Jesus Lizard

Yo La Tengo

Tortoise

Saturday
The National

Pharoahe Monch

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Sunday
The Flaming Lips

Grizzly Bear

The Walkmen

Vivian Girls

If the rumors about Lollapalooza's 2009 headliners are true, the festival will have trouble matching the turnout from last summer.

The latest rumor is that Tool and The Killers will nab the two remaining headlining spots at Lollapalooza this summer. So topping the 2009 bill we have the Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction, Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, The Killers and Tool. My first impression: MEH.

The Beastie Boys rise to the top of the bunch, and the others aren't bad, but not incredibly exciting either. Sure, it's hard to folllow Radiohead, a reunited Rage Against the Machine and Kanye West in 2008. I think any lineup would pale in comparison to last year's star power, which led to sell outs and record numbers at the Grant Park festival. (Wait a minute, smaller crowds could actually be a good thing for us fans!)

According to Greg Kot's Turn It Up blog, Lou Reed and The Decemberists are also expected to play Lollapalooza 2009. Hopefully, other quality supporting acts will help round this year's fest out a little more. Bonnaroo has David Byrne, Animal Collective, Paul Oakenfield and Al Green, sign 'em up for Lolla. Coachella has M.I.A, My Bloody Valentine, The Chemical Brothers, Fleet Foxes and Franz Ferdinand, add 'em to the bill. Both fests have TV on the Radio, Band of Horses and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Rothbury's got Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley & Nas, String Cheese Incident, Man Man and The Hold Steady, bring 'em to Chicago.

So there are plenty of non-headliner bands playing the 2009 festival circuit that could help make this another great year at Lollapalooza (Aug. 7-9). And a quick suggestion to the promoters - how about dipping into the 2006 lineup to bring back the Flaming Lips, Ween, Hot Chip, Of Montreal, Sonic Youth, My Morning Jacket, The Shins... (I missed out that year!)

Cut Copy's Dan Whitford led a high energy dance party Wednesday at the Vic Theater.

Australian electropop band Cut Copy has been a frequent visitor to the Windy City over the last year. Since playing Pitchfork last summer, the Aussies have returned twice for sold out shows at the Metro (9/17/2008) and the Vic (last Wednesday).                     

Both of their albums - 2004's Bright Like Neon Love and 2008's In Ghost Colors - are 80s-inspired, electronic-flavored pop masterpieces. Their live shows are a blast as well. The concerts don't come across quite as tight and clean as their studio albums, but pounding bass and the band's spastic dance moves are more than enough to incite a hipster rave.

Cut Copy does a lot more dancing, fist pumping, clapping and snapping than your average band. Whitford is a fan of singing with extended arm (see top photo), while his bandmates have perfected the white boy jig when not playing their instruments (see below). But despite the dramatic hand gestures and corny dance moves, the quartet does accomplish the goal of making their audience get down right along with them.

In terms of setlist, last week's show was very similar to their visit last fall (which isn't too surprising when you consider this young band has only two albums so far).They ran through their most popular tunes - "Hearts on Fire," "Lights & Music" "Saturdays" and "Future," But the band was at their best when they picked up instruments for their rock-ish songs like "Unforgettable Season" and "So Haunted." Not only did it show off their musical chops, it also helped them transform from dancing white boys to an all-out rock band.

Check them out for yourself with this video from Pitchfork TV. And here's some more photos from the Vic below.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 put on an impressive show Friday to a sold-out crowd at the Congress Theater.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 is a band that always keeps it fresh. Despite constant touring, the electronic instrumental group keeps their rabid fans on their toes by sticking to a goal of continued evolution.

In a recent interview with SF Station, drummer Zach Velmer had this to say about the STS9 experience:“We try to keep it interesting. People want to come back because it was not the same thing as the last time they saw us. I think the element of surprise has done nothing but helped us.”

Drummer Zach Velmer

Their sold-out show Friday at the Congress Theater in Chicago took the element of surprise to the next level. It wasn’t just their sound that had evolved, it was their whole set-up. The California-based quintet came to town with a new on-stage arrangement and an impressive LED light wall.

Keyboardist David Phipps is now dead center, with bassist David Murphy to his right and guitarist Hunter Brown to his left. Velmer and percussionist Jeffree Lerner are now located on opposite ends of the stage on elevated platforms. With the exception of Velmer, each band member is also armed with laptops and some other cool electronic devices. They’ve always had top-of-the-line lights that add to their shows, but the new LED panels have made it an even more visual experience. The constantly moving background of color and psychedelic graphics now gives fans even more to look at.

The band's new setup takes their live shows to a new level.

STS9 has a very atmospheric sound, with a diverse catalog full of ambient grooves, electronic throwdowns and hip-hop, rock and jazz infused arrangements. The only vocals you’ll hear at a Sound Tribe show are samples. Their latest album Peaceblaster was released last year, but the band already has a new batch of tunes they’re dipping into this tour. They kicked off the Friday the 13th show with two new songs that kept the guitar and bass guitar in the background. A heavy dose of bass shook the theater, but it was hard to tell exactly where all the sounds were coming from, as Brown, Murphy and Phipps each focused on the table of musical gadgets in front of them.

Bassist David Murphy

For a majority of the current tour, they’ve been playing one long set, but Friday night’s show was one of the few two-setters. Once again, STS9 provided a high-energy, relentless show that was chocked full of highlights from top to bottom. For my money, this is definitely one of the more exciting live acts playing today. And although the Congress is probably my favorite larger venue in the city, STS9's rising popularity could soon have them moving up to the Aragon.

Here’s a setlist (courtesy of SoundTribe.org):

Set 1: TUSON, Lion, Be Nice, Hidden Hand, Hidden Fist, Beyond Right Now, By The Morning Sun, Arigato, Heavy
Set 2: Lo Swaga, Atlas, Rent, Hi Key, West, Orbital, EHM
Encore: Shock Doctrine

Check out more photos below:

Keyboards, David Phipps

Guitarist Hunter Brown, with percussionist Jeffree Lerner in background.

LCD Soundsystem provided one of the highlights of Lollapalooza 2007. Who will blow fans away this summer?

Lollapalooza's official lineup won't be announced until April, but a few recent reports are giving fans a glimpse of this year's headling acts. According to Greg Kot's Turn It Up blog, multiple sources have confirmed that the Beastie Boys, Jane's Addiction and Depeche Mode are a lock as 2009 headliners. Kot went on to say that three more arena-level headliners are expected. According to a Billboard report, one of those other headliners will be Kings of Leon, leaving room for two more headlining acts. Lollapalooza will take place Aug. 7-9 in Grant Park.

So far, it looks like a blast from the past with three powerhouses from the 80s and 90s. The youngsters of the group, Kings of Leon, have seen their popularity grow considerably since their Lollapalooza appearance in 2007, apparently giving them a top spot on the bill. The Lollapalooza message board also lists the following bands as "semi-confirmed" - Atmosphere, Friendly Fires, The Raveonettes, Kaiser Chiefs, Delta Spirit, The Little Ones and Ezra Furmon and the Harpoons.

After seeing the Coachella lineup for April, I was thinking The Killers and The Cure could also be possibilities for this year's fest, but who knows...The Lollapalooza forum has Tenacious D, Tool, Ben Folds, Rancid and Rise Against listed as other rumored bands.

One way to tell if your favorite band will be included this year is to check out their tour schedule to see if any upcoming Chicago dates are listed. Bands playing Lollapalooza have a radius clause that prohibits them from playing anywhere in the area for a certain period of time before the festival. So if they skip Chicago during a big summer tour (see Depeche Mode's tour gap from Aug.4-9), there's a good chance they might be on the bill. Which bands would you like to see added to Lolla 2009?