LIVE: Titmice, Milk at Midnight, Telenovela, Adam Fitz & Big Buildings

Performer: Titmice, Milk at Midnight, Telenovela, Adam Fitz & Big Buildings
Location: Subterranean / 2011 W. North Ave. / Chicago, IL
Date: 01/26/2006

Review: Due to my work schedule, I had to arrive late to this show and due to a cold coming on, I had to leave early. I came for Adam Fitz's set, but didn't want to miss Big Buildings. These guys always put on a drunken, toe-tapping good show and if you have seen them once, you never want to miss another one. Still, three bands for five bucks. That isn't so horrible. In fact, it was downright fantastic.

This concert was a release party for the Big Buildings-created Sweatbox compilation, paying tribute to all of the bands who have played in their basement venue over the last year. As with the family-like shows there, this party at Subterranean was filled with friends and otherwise good people all gathered to have a good time and bolster the support of some of the best Chicago bands around.

When I arrived, Milk at Midnight was on stage. The standout feature of this band has to be the drummer, who looks as if he is going to bounce right out of his stool each time he slams the heads. MaM's sound reminds me of a lot of the music I was into in the nineties from the Hum vein of music that I still listen to while donning my Hypercolor shirts to this day. I only caught the end of their set, so I can't comment thoroughly on their performance other than to say that they are a group of fun, passionate guys who have kept everything that is fun and melodic about indie rock with them. I will be sure to check MaM out again soon.

Next up was a band who are fast becoming one of my favorite live acts in Chicago: Telenovela. Consisting of two guitarist/singers and a drummer who is too good for his material, Telenovela plays tight catchy rock music that will have you singing along on your second time seeing them perform. I am always leery about modern rock bands that features female singers - before you pin me as some "get-me-my-beer" misogynist, hear me out! Many of the "female" rock bands around nowadays tend to sound like a Sleater-Kinney cover band, screaming incoherently and scraping their guitar strings as if they were washboards. Not so with Telenovela. Instead, you have two strong and stern female vocalists that engage in a furied dialogue-chorus around catchy crunchy melodies, all backed with complex jazz improv style drumming. Amy Malick (bass/vocals), Shelly Kurzynski Villaseñor (guitar/vocals) and Geoff Atkinson (drums) have a sound reminiscent of several bands you've heard in the past, but take the equation to a place where lowbrow fun and highbrow musical taste play kickball in a dimly lit parking lot after hours.

Last (for me) was Adam Fitz. I've been going to Adam's shows since it was just him with a guitar and keyboard. The sincere awkwardness of his stage presence was always something that added to the show rather than annoyed. Well, Adam has come a long way, both with his backing band and his stage presence. Drummer Dan Salyers looked as if he would fit in the grimiest jazz club and have the place jumping, all while he smiled sweetly to the sky. Eddie Dixon, strumming guitar, playing keys and twiddling knobs fills the mad-scientist role of the band perfectly. Adam, after the release of his amazing album, Between The Incident and The Event, now gives off the air of someone who has cleared is first hurdle and is better prepared for the subsequent ones to follow. His voice is stronger and clearer and the minor hangups of playing live don't distract him as much as they used to. Peppering his setlist of original songs with the occasional tip of the hat to his influences (Leonard Cohen and Velvet Underground to name a couple), Adam's live show switches tempo as often as his voice breaks to ascratchyy melodic scream. All of this is a good thing. At one point during his set, Adam asked how much longer he had to which an audience member yelled back, "an hour!" I agree. Keep going Adam! Keep right on going.

I don't think I've been to a show where I've spent so little and received so much. Thank you Big Buildings, for orchestrating the compilation and the show. And thank you Sub-T, for being one of the better venues in this city.

Rating: 4.25 / 5

CD: "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" Live At The Sweatbox Compilation

Artist: Various
Album: "I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement" Live At The Sweatbox Compilation
Label: Stars/No Stars Records
Released: 2006

Review: Remember those kids you went to high school with who bought a couple of microphones and a four-track to record some songs with in their basement? Well, they've grown up and instead of the refuge it once was, the basement has become a destination dubbed The Sweatbox.

Chicago band, Big Buildings, may owe their local staple status as much to their house parties in Roscoe Village as they do to their hard work, hard play and hard drinking as a rock band. The band has decided to pay homage to the happening that they helped grow, but once it started, took on a life of its own. I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement is a collection of nineteen bands performing live from the shows held at the now defunct Sweatbox. The lineup represents some of the best bands the midwest has to offer. Chicago's Telenovela, Milk at Midnight, Camaro Rouge and Adam Fitz all contribute a track, as well as Big Buildings themselves, who kick off the collection. Not to be dismissed - and perhaps most importantly - is the dedicated and passionate crowd that can be heard on every track. Not to lessen the impact of each band's performance, but without the friends, family, fans, drinkers, hecklers, writers, dancers, lovers and others who made each show something that was remembered through the nicotine haze, the Sweatbox would have been nothing more than a basement with faux rock and wood siding where a few bands recorded their demo tapes. The communal experience was what made the Sweatbox the important, even romantic, venue it was. Rightfully, the crowd even gets their own track. After the music ends, the party continues with a few minutes of conversation snippits, crowd chatter, and the happy clink of quickly emptying bottles and cans.

Each performance on this CD was recorded live with minimal equipment... and it shows. That, however, should not deter you from the experience captured here. This is one album where the result is worth infinitely more than the sum of its parts. As I said, some of the best local rock bands appear here. They may not be at their best, but they are at their most vital. I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement is a loving document of proof! Proof that there are good creative people out there having a good time together in a place that not only felt like home, but was home to everyone who passed through.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

MUSIC: The Budos Band - s/t (LP)

Artist: The Budos Band
Album: s/t
Label: Daptone Records
Released: 2005

Review: I hate to admit it, but this purchase was made shortly after I paid a very large gas bill. After dropping all of that cash for what amounted to half a month's worth of warm comfort, I needed to get something nice for myself. I hate this kind of emotional spending, but in these cold winter months, I sometimes cave. I choose to look at this album as something I paid several hundred dollars for. And you know what? It was entirely worth it.

From the first track, The Budos Band's self titled album kicks into a heavy beat and bass funk with smatterings of brass here and there to make all of the people on the dance floor throw their hands up and say "yeah!" Though an eleven piece band, these guys don't let anyone get drowned out. There are few outright solos, but the Budos Band have an innate sense of timing and a true collaborative spirit. Unlike some of the longer recordings of one of their influences, Fela Kuti, everyone in the band seems to know just when to improvise and when to stand back and enhance the groove by just keeping beat. Energized interplay between electric guitars, woodwinds, brass and dance-enabling conga drums, each song on this album would fare well as a single and is sure to make your dull old music collection ten times the entity it is. Even if you don't dance, this album will make your hips sore with all of the gyrating you'll be doing.

From the looks and sound of this album, you would think that it was a repressing of a funk release from the seventies. In fact, the Budos Band is the newest release from the fantastic Daptone Records label. Daptone dedicates itself to finding the best in today's soul and funk. Some of you might be familiar with the label's house band, The Dap-Kings who have gained some popularity backing the singer Sharon Jones, also released by Daptone Records. The Budos Band formed while some of the members were participating in an after school jazz ensemble in Staten Island, New York. Fans of soul/funk/afrobeat sensations such as James Brown and Fela, they kept meeting up and tried to bring the sounds of funk and soul that they grew up with into the modern day's musical lexicon. They have achieved their goal with this album. Simultaneously raw and tightly orchestrated, the sound of The Budos Band brings nostalgia to the world of funk while staying refreshing and original.

This album was a blind buy. I wandered around Chicago's Dusty Groove record shop aimlessly, not knowing what I wanted to listen to. All I knew was that I had to limit myself to one piece of wax. It had to be something funky and it had to be instrumental. I just wasn't in the mood to hear someone else singing about his sorrows or lost loves. This album happened to be on display, the sleeve said that it was instrumental afro-beat influenced music and it had a picture of an erupting volcano on the front! Employees of Dusty Groove always do a good job picking the newest music to put on display, so I sauntered up to the counter and spent hundreds of dollars (in my mind) for a record I had never heard or seen before in my life. If you don't wish to spend that much, you can skip paying your utility bills and just go to your local record shop to get one for a little more than a ten-spot and still have money left over to get lunch. It'll be worth every penny... well, maybe not the lunch... that depends where you decide to go.

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Image from daptonerecords.com

UPCOMING EVENT: Adam Fitz @ Gunther Murphy's

I know it is kind of a late warning, but for those of you in Chicago, Adam Fitz is playing at Gunther Murphy's on Saturday night at 10PM. There is no reason for you to miss what will be an incredible and affordable night of singin' drinkin' and funnin'. Here's the info:

ADAM FITZ
w/ Todd Hembrook and the Hemispheres
& DJ POSEUR

Saturday, January 14th, 2006 @ 10PM

Gunther Murphy's Music Room
1638 West Belmont
Chicago, IL 60657
773.472.5139

!!ONLY $7.00!!

Come see some great Chicago music. I'll be there, PBR in hand!

BOOK: blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture by David Kline and Dan Burstein

Title: blog!: How The Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture
Authors: David Kline and Dan Burstein
ISBN: 1593151411
Publisher: CDS Books
Year: 2005
List Price: $24.95

Review: In the introduction to this book, Dan Burstein likens blogging to such communication methods as cave painting, Talmudic tradition and Revolutionary pamphleteering. I couldn't help but remember these very same sentiments from a book I read while in my freshman year of college about 'zine culture called Notes From Underground. The only difference being that instead of likening Thomas Paine to a 'zine publisher, Burstein likens him to a blogger. Both authors are on the right track, but both try too hard to co-opt these traditions and historical figures for their own subjects. The real issue concerning blogs (or zines), is that they are a populist and effective way to communicate ideas to a certain type of person. One voice reaching the relative many. A single person actively disseminating and recording their ideas and voice for time immemorial. It was these ideas that caused me to read this book.

Despite the proprietary claim to history, it is these ideas that this book attempts to deal with. blog! is split into three sections, breaking the world of blogs into three broad arenas; political blogs, business blogs and culture blogs. Each section consists of an essay from neophyte blogger and veteran journalist/business consultant, Kline, which introduces and explains the tone of the blogs about to be discussed. Following the introductory essays in each section are several interviews with bloggers that fall within that category and a few editorial pieces from popular media discussing the impact that each type of blog has had on our society.

The interviews with who are ostensibly star bloggers, offer an interesting sociological insight into obsession and the personality traits that most bloggers possess that make them feel as if what they have to say needs to be heard. Highlights include interviews with the sex-obsessed political gossip hound blogmistress of Wonkette.com, Microsoft's outspoken (and sometimes contrarian) Robert Scoble and child-actor-turned-geek-hero-blogger, Wil Wheaton. Each interviewee discusses the reasons they got into blogging (which are more varied than the alleged reasons we are at war with Iraq), the particular strains that blogging can cause in professional or personal life and where they see blogging evolving in the near future. Occasionally, the interviews dwell on the money-making aspects of blogging and internet advertising. This was equally interesting and tedious to someone like myself who has blogged since the beginning of 2001. Every blogger flirts with the idea of making a living (or at least a nice bit of supplemental income) from blogging, yet perhaps not everyone who reads this book will appreciate the amount of space dedicated to the subject.

All in all, blog! is a welcome addition to my media theory library. The fact that both of the authors come from more traditional journalistic background makes this not only an insightful read, but an interesting crossroads between old and new media culture. As I was reading it, I got the sense that the authors were warming up to the culture of blogging as a significant form of communication and broadcasting the farther I progressed. Most interesting is that author David Kline started his own blog just as the book went to print and continues it today at blogrevolt.com.

Though blog! will not convey anything new to someone who still remembers usenet and bbs's, nor will it teach a blogging neophyte how to create a blog that attracts more than friends and family members, this book is an interesting piece of media history that accurately examines the zeitgeist of blogging while we are still in the midst of it.

Rating: 4.25 / 5

Buy a copy of blog! from Amazon.com: Consume.

Picture provided by Amazon.com.