We’re on hiatus until after the holiday, so read the archived posts. They’re still totally relevant even if the pictures have expired.
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Earthy, honest and captivating are all good adjectives for Inchworm, an Americana-rock band from Chicago. Sounds a bit like Tom Petty fronting My Morning Jacket, which is cool with us. Catch them July 10 @ Subterranean with Jonny Rumble and Will Phale. Listen to Inchworm – “Waltz Through The Ashes” (MP3) This poster really says it all. I’m excited to hopefully see Murder By Death.
In keeping with our goal of covering Chicago bands as often as possible, I’m pleased to bring you an MP3 from Helicopters. If you like electro-laced indie rock then you’ll certainly dig the barks and warbles of Helicopters. Their next Chicago show is July 23 @ Schubas with Lymbyc Systym.
Listen to Helicopters – “Emergency (Remix)” (MP3) NOTE: If you have or know of a Chciago band that you’d like to see covered on ChicagoSnacks.org please have them get in touch and if we like them we’ll feature them. Since moving to Chicago in February I’ve been wanting to cover more and more Chicagoland music. This week I got my wish when I found out about melodic indie-rockers, Yourself And The Air via a Daytrotter.com session. This young band from the suburbs has already made quite the name for themselves through the release of a few albums and a dedication to rock’s great equalizer – touring. In fact, the band made such an impact in the local scene that reknowned Chicago booking agency, Flower Booking (Joan of Arc, Ratatat, Ted Leo & the Rx) signed them. Singer/guitarist, Erick Crosby was nice enough to answer a few questions for us.
Thanks so much for being the first band subjected to a ChicagoSnacks profile/interview dealie! Tell me who everyone in the band is. Erick Crosby – Guitar, Synth, Vox The Chicago music scene has been a huge influence on my musical tastes, but I didn’t even grow up here. Growing up so close, how has it impacted you guys musically and creatively? The Chicago music scene to us has been very good and for the most part very kind. I think that living so close to a big city really can give an advantage in many ways. At first there was this scare about playing in the city, since we all are from the ‘burbs, and the shows are very different between the two. But we instantly realized that it was something that had to be done. So for us, playing in Chicago has really been a motivating factor. There are soooo many bands, so many genres, so many crowds, so many venues, so many everything. Its very easy to be looked over in a city with so much, that we are always determined to be one who may stick out. And even then, if you should be able to break, you know that someone else is coming right behind you. That kind of creates a sense of urgency to keep on your heels. But being from Chicago again, you realize how great this city is. For our whole life, we’ve talked about moving away from Chicago. When we went on tour, we realized how welcoming Chicago really is. We’re very fortunate to live in such a diverse city that accepts the art scene as widely as it does. There are some cities where there really isn’t too much of a scene for music and art, but when you come to Chicago you can always find something, or someone, or some piece of art that will blow your mind and inspire you more. Listening to your newest EP, Friends of All Breeds it’s easy to pick up influences like Pinback, Wolf Parade and the Cure. What bands would you say have the most significance in your development? The very first influence for myself, was a band so close to home, The Smashing Pumpkins. When I heard of them in Elementary it blew my mind to know that kids in our neighborhood had created this huge entity, so that was always a huge influence for me. Sunset Rubdown, Modest Mouse, Broken Social Scene, Menomena; and soo many others out there have had more recent influences within the band. Not just their music, but their story as well, sometimes a band’s story can be the most influential thing of all. Friend of All Breeds is different because…well, I feel that every song we write is different than the one before. Every disc we have is different, and our next one is gonna be the same way. But recording this CD was really the first time we had a lot of control. We were able to work on it and try to make it a well-rounded EP. We wanted it to be something that flowed very well, but wasn’t too long. A lot of times indie CDs can drag on, and I’ve noticed patience for new music, (mostly my own) can be a very [short]. So we wanted something that could grab you fast and make you wanna know a little bit more bout us. No secrets here. We’re very lucky to be on board with Flower. I’ve always had my eye on them, and always thought we’d fit very well on their roster. But I knew early that you can’t just arrive on the scene and get an agency. You gotta put in the work, we’ve booked a good number of tours and out-of-state shows ourselves. There’s no secret to what you have to do, it’s written everywhere; build a base, and they will find you. That’s something we have to keep reminding ourselves, that this can’t happen overnight. That we won’t be quitting our day jobs anytime soon, and you have to work the longest and hardest at something you won’t be getting paid to do. We have too many plans to even keep a lid on. We’ll be touring again in September, making our way to Music Fest NorthWest, and the North West in general for the first time, really excited for that. After that were gonna take a backpacking trip in Colorado, that will be a nice break. Then we gotta get in the studio and get our new tracks on disc. We’re very excited for this one. we’re writing better songs than I think we all ever thought we could. We hope you guys like em! Listen to Yourself And The Air – “So You’ve Come to Mingle” (MP3) Just wanted to start the week off without mentioning Micahael Jackson. Whoops! To get your mind off the King of Pop, listen to this track from the Chicago indie rock band named after the domesticated King of the Jungle, Pet Lions.
Listen to Pet Lions – “Propellor Plane” (MP3) The good folks at Daytrotter.com posted a session from Chicago’s own Yourself And The Air today. Reminds me a bit of early Pinback and is a very good listen. Head over and give it a listen: Yourself And The Air at Daytrotter Studio
LA Times says Michael Jackson is dead at 50 due to cardiac arrest. That’s two stars in one day, but can we really compare Micheal Jackson to Farrah Fawcett? Dude was totally influential in the development of the way we hear music today, but he touched little boys. WTF? The chances are good that despite all the good he’s done for music, he’s probably in hell. Just sayin’. CNN just said he was some people’s Princess Diana. Did I mention that he molested children? We made jokes about it for the past 15 or so years, sure… but it’s not really funny.
I guess someone forgot to tell his heart to “beat it”. Is 18 minutes too soon? This Minneapolis band is pushing their breathy, ambient indie rock on Chicago in a couple weeks when they play Schubas on July 9th with Box of Baby Birds and Lost in the Trees. They’re just a few degrees shy of Postal Service, but I don’t see a new album from them on the way, so this is welcome. www.myspace.com/halloweenalaska NORTHERN OUTPOST – Episode 9 – Halloween, Alaska – 5/8/09 from Northern Outpost on Vimeo.
Sunny Day Real Estate Fall 2009 US Tour September 17th Vancouver, BC/Commodore Ballroom September 18th Portland/Crystal Ballroom (Musicfest NW) September 20th Salt Lake City/Murray Theater September 21st Denver/Ogden Theater September 23rd Minneapolis/First Avenue September 24th Chicago/Metro September 25th Detroit/St Andrews Hall September 27th New York/Terminal 5 September 28th Boston/House of Blues September 30th Washington DC/930 Club October 1st Philadelphia/Trocadero October 3rd Atlanta/CW Center Stage October 5th Dallas/Granada Theater October 6th Houston/Warehouse Live October 7th Austin/La Zona Rosa October 9th Tempe/Marquee Theatre October 10th Anaheim/House of Blues October 11th Los Angeles/Henry Fonda Theater October 13th San Francisco/Fillmore October 15th Spokane/Knitting Factory October 16th Seattle/Paramount Theatre |
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