Coming Attractions - Week of March 8th 2010

Three shows lined up for this week. First up is Surfer Blood @ Schubas's - 3/10/10



Second one is Thursday night - We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Lincoln Hall:



Last show of the week is Ted Leo on Saturday night @ the Bottom Lounge:

Morning Mix 12/1/09

First one of December.

• Quick Canal (w/ Leatitia Sadier of Stereolab) - Atlas Sound
• All of the Things That Go To Make Heaven and Earth - New Pornographers
• The One Who Got Us Out - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• Futures and Folly - Blitzen Trapper
• Cracking Up - the Jesus and Mary Chain
• High and Dry - Radiohead
• Let the Serpent Sleep - Elf Power
• Run - Spiritualized
• In the Flowers - Animal Collective

The last song serves as a good reminder that year end lists are coming up. Animal Collective will likely be featured prominently. Here's Run, from Spiritualized. Originally released as the first song of the second movement of Laser Guided Melodies, it has also been released as a single in its own right.

Morning Mix 11/30/09

Post-Thanksgiving and ready for three weeks of work before I go home for Christmas:

• Fall On Me - R.E.M.
• Lovecats - the Cure
• On and On - the Longpigs
• Four Sticks - Led Zeppelin
• Sons of Cain - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• So Much - the Sundays
• The Piccolo Snare - Super Furry Animals
• Big Red - Frank Black
• You're Not Very Well - Charlatans U.K.
• Squint - Grant Lee Phillips

Maybe the largest concentration of "acts I've seen live" today. All but Zeppelin, if you give me credit for Frank Black, who I've seen with the Pixies. And not one song released this year. Which reminds me, year end lists start soon. Here are the Longpigs and Frank Black.

Morning Mix 11/3/09

See yesterday's post for details. Here's today's stuff:

• Good Weekend - Art Brut
• 303 - Kula Shaker
• Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip - the Whigs
  
• Timorous Me - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
  
• Evil - Interpol
• Going to Hell - Brian Jonestown Massacre
• Mary Anne - Spacemen 3
• The Holy Ground - the High Dials
• The Ballad of Elton John - Simple Kid
• A Good Man is Easy to Kill - Beulah
• Jeepster - T. Rex
  

Pretty decent showing today. Good stuff to listen to on the train. I've seen eight of these bands live (8.5 if you give half credit for Spiritualized in place of Spacemen 3). Three of them this year. Here's some TL/Rx, who I just saw at the brand spankin' new Lincoln Hall about a week and a half ago. He played this song.

Ted Leo @ AV-Aerie - 12/10/08 - Updated with link to photos

This is the third time I've seen Ted Leo live, but the first time I've seen him with no Pharmacists*.  It was kind of an interesting aesthetic, really.  I've seen singer/songwriters before.  I've even seen singer/songwriters who were part of a band play without the band (Grant Lee Phillips doing his Buffalo material, for example).  But I've never seen a singer/songwriter play something pretty close to the same arrangements he plays in the band setting without the band behind him.  

In other words, usually when guys play a solo set like this, they have an acoustic set up.  The acoustic guitar almost allows the artist to add a little of his or her own percussion to a given song.  Ted Leo basically just played lead guitar for the entire night.  Picture him playing a typical TL/Rx show, but without anyone behind him.  It was really cool to see once.  I'm not sure I'd be particularly jazzed about seeing it again (I would go, of course), and it's really made me want to listen to the studio versions of all the stuff he played.  

Speaking of the stuff he played, he sample a little from just about every album, and played a bunch of covers including songs by Lungfish, the Waco Brothers, Blondie, and set ending rendition of Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark'.  From his own songs, he played a bunch of stuff that was unfamiliar, but also played:

• Timorous Me (which had some improvised handclaps)
• Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone.
• The High Party
• Ballad of the Sin Eater
• Me and Mia
• Bleeding Powers
• Colleen
• Bottle of Buckie

He played for about an hour and a half, only stopping occasionally to tune and joke around with the crowd.  He was entertaining even when he wasn't playing.  

As for the venue, it was the third floor of a semi-industrial building converted for music in an industrial part of town just northwest of the United Center.  I imagine, per their website, that this was one of the "fund raising arts and cultural events whose revenue will go to local socially and/or environmentally focused initiatives in partnerships chosen on a bi-annual schedule."  It had a really high ceiling, but you wouldn't know, because the whole performance space was covered by a large parachute draped from above to make it feel much more intimate.  The house lights never went down, which almost gave it the feel of a casual evening with a friend, assuming your friends invite Thax Douglas over to read strange poems.  Even beer was cheap.  $2 bucks for a can of High Life, and that was a "suggested donation".   *UPDATE* - Photos of the night at this link.  Pretty good look at the venue.  

So a really cool show, in a very different type of setting than I'm used to.  I look forward to seeing who else they'll book there.  Enjoy some Ted. Two versions of Rude Boys to choose from, and two great live songs back to back.

*There may have been actual pharmacists in the audience.  I didn't poll everyone's occupation.

Rude Boys solo live


Rude Boys studio recording (you'll have to turn it up a bit)


Timorous Me/Walking To Do

Top 10 Albums of 2007 - #10 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Living with the Living

More than anything, this album suffered from timing, and high expectations. I didn't really start listening to Ted Leo until last summer (2006) at the Pitchfork Festival, but subsequently devoured both Hearts of Oak and Shake the Sheets. This was one of the most anticipated albums of 2007 for me. And while it's still a very good album (mediocre Ted is better than 99% of what's out there now), it didn't quite live up to the expectations I had following the previous two albums. Perhaps I was exiting a Ted phase at the point in time.

Still, all things considered, it really is an excellent album. It's got all of TL/Rx trappings. And infectious brand of indie punk with boundless energy, devastating hooks, and it plays great live. Still, when all was said and done, it just seemed like I didn't listen to it all that much this year. As I re-enter a Ted Phase, that will probably change.

Standout tracks are Sons of Cain, Colleen, The Unwanted Things, and the World Stops Turning.

Here's Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.; Sons of Cain (Live); and Who Do You Love (solo).

Ted Leo Review and Pics

Can't argue with Pitchfork on this one. If you enjoy live music, you owe it to yourself to check out a Ted Leo show sometime.

Angels 3; White Sox 0; Ted Leo - Awesome

Missed most of tonight's game because I was at the Ted Leo and the Pharmacists concert. Dude can rock the house like no other, but I digress.

Here's the meat: Jered Weaver - 5.2 scoreless. Mr. McMillin, I believe the floor is yours. If you require any assistance, allow me:

1. 5.2 innings and 107 pitches? You can't be successful if you keep that up!
2. Five Ks? That's not even one per inning!
3. I just can't see how a pitcher can be successful if he allows six hits in fewer than six innings. That looks like something Jeff would do.
   

But I kid Rob. I kid because I love.

And hey! Six runs is like, more than they had on the entire last road trip, right? And two homers in two games, neither by Vlad, that's gotta be a record!

Boy, I really hope they start hitting on the road soon.

Enjoy some Ted.