According to Peter Margasak’s Post No Bills blog over at the Reader, there’s a new music festival being launched in Chicago with a focus on experimental music. The Neon Marshmellow Fest will take place August 20-22 at Viaduct Theatre.
Red Electric Rainbow
We should give them credit for their guts and gumption. It’s not easy starting a music festival and I can see a number of problems arising from an experimental festival. Funding, promotion, advertising and ticket sales are all areas where any kind of show is bound to have problems. Targeting a genre like experimental music could open up an even bigger can of worms in that it has a very specific target crowd. The average music fan probably won’t be interested in paying $30 to listen to a 17-minute Aeolian wind harp drone while being visually assaulted by a purple strobe light. On the other hand, experimental music is notoriously under-represented at local venues, so hopefully there will be a market for the three day fest.
While founders, Daniel Smith (Red Electric Rainbow) and Matt Kimmel (Acid Marshmellow blog) are waiting on a number of acts to confirm, they have a partial list posted. The confirmed acts include: Astral Social Club (UK), Emeralds, Telecult Powers, Skin Graft, Caboladies, Fragments, Tiger Hatchery, Dog Lady, Sunglasses, Red Electric Rainbow and PissPissPiss MoanMoanMoan
The Travel Channel is launching a new series later this year called “The Last Adventure.” The series, hosted by James van der Baan III and David DiVona, seeks to highlight the culture of some of the world’s most unique cities. The show will be on location in Chicago this week, with local indie band, Kid You’ll Move Mountains as their tour guides and resident advisors of rock. The show’s hosts will be following Kid You’ll Move Mountains around the Windy City, showing off some of their favorite hangs and hideouts. “The Last Adventure” should prove to be a wonderful platform for upcoming artists to gain a vertical foothold while simultaneously flaunting little-known cultural gems, promoting local businesses in the process.
To cap off the episode, they will be filming a live performance from KYMM at the recently opened Lincoln Hall this Friday night. I would urge as many people as possible to attend this show. Kid You’ll Move Mountains is one of my favorite local discoveries of the past year, so seeing them succeed would be an excellent boost for the band and for Chicago’s indie scene. The owners of Lincoln Hall would probably love to see their venue packed to capacity for a national television spot as well.
Friday’s show also boasts an excellent bill in addition to KYMM; Bishop Allen(Dead Oceans) will be headlining with local act, Unicycle Loves You.
As the nature of the music business continues to change, bands need to look to new and interesting ways to promote their music. Shows like “The Last Adventure” offer an excellent vehicle for artists to gain exposure on a national level.
I’m sorry about the showdar thing. I don’t know why I can’t keep things pastry related.
John Davis of Q and Not U and Georgie James (not the Korn guy) has a new band, Title Tracks, whose new album, It Was Easywill be available on February 9. As mentioned in the headline, John and his touring band will be performing at the Hideout on February 18. They’ll be playing with Pretty and Nice, which is … wait for it … pretty nice. To avoid leaving things on that horrible joke, I’ll post this video and Myspace link.
If you haven’t heard of Clogs, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of some of the members’ other projects, notably, The National. Padma Newsome and Bryce Dessner are members of The National, which couldn’t be more different than Clogs. Ambient, orchestral, organic, folky… all these adjective apply. Their newest album, The Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton is out March 2 on Brassland and features Shara Worden of Awry and My Brightest Diamond as well as Sufjan Stevens.
Jason at the Deli Chicago recently asked us to help them choose the top emerging Chicago artists of 2009. It was our pleasure to nominate three bands that we thought were doing great things in 2009 and had great potential for 2010. I’m not going to say who we nominated, but if they win we’ll certainly take all the credit.
Head over to the Deli, drop a vote and see what else they’re cooking today.
Two posts in a week officially qualifies me for a prolificacy award. Go fish.
I wanted to take a moment to introduce a couple new websites that recently launched: EarsCollective and The Music Shrink. Both sites are from the brain trust of Minty Fresh Records founder, Jim Powers. In addition to the many successes of Chicago-based Minty Fresh, Jim also worked A&R for Geffen Records and signed some amazing bands (think Grammy nods and gold records). He’s got a keen ear and a dearth of knowledge to share.
EarsCollective is a music rating service where the staff chooses from their submissions and presents us with five songs a week to listen to and rate from favorite to least favorite. They tout it as an “entertaining game” which makes sense as there’s no money involved and it is entertaining to see how your tastes match up with others when the voting closes. But they also claim it’s an “insightful tool” which also makes sense because I’m sure that some industry-types could definitely find benefit in checking out the weekly ratings. Maybe there’s a licensing deal or record contract on the horizon. Submit your music (MP3 links preferred) to songsubmission@earscollective.com.
The Music Shrink is Jim’s blog geared toward giving advice and sharing wisdom about the entertainment industry. Though in its infancy, there are already a few insightful entries posted. Jim’s taking questions at jim@musicshrink.com, so if there’s anything on your mind I’d suggest shooting him an email – it just might get addressed in a future post.
It’s pretty funny saying that I’m going on Christmas break as I haven’t posted anything in a couple weeks! But such is the case. Time for a break. And my first child is about to be brought into the world any day now, so let’s not even examine what the word “break” normally means.
Anyway, there’s a show I’d like to blip on your radar in January. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Alec Ounsworth is doing some solo dates and he’ll be at the Vic on Jan 30th. He just released an album, Mo Beauty.
As reported a few days ago, Fin Fang Foom have a new album out, Monomyth. If you like doom and gloom and the boom boom boom then buy this album. You can even get it autographed tomorrow night when Fin Fang Foom play Subterranean with Pinebender. I don’t think the purple pants wearing dragoon will be there, but you never know. Good luck driving in this shit weather, FFF.
I’ve often thought about starting a husband and wife duo with my significant other, but then I think about how rusty organ and sloppy guitar might sound when sung by two tone-deaf lovers. Luckily, this isn’t the case for Chicago’s Puerto Muerto, which literally translates to the White Stripes in Bantu. Joking. These guys sound nothing like the Stripes. I’d hastily say, more like a petite DeVotchKa with a little more pop edge, and then think about it some more. The band, Tim Kelley & Christa Meyer, have an upcoming album, Drumming For Pistolswhich will drop in February via UK’s Fire Records.
“It’s strange and beautiful at the same time,” Kelley confesses. “For a lot of guys in bands, I think that music is a separate experience, a guy thing, that they compartmentalize into a different world where wives and girlfriends are not invited. For us it’s an exploration of our relationship as well as a kind of therapy that brings us together.”
If you’d like to explore their relationship by watching them perform live, they’ll be touring in the spring. Until then seek out last year’s I Was a Swallow.
Like so many keyboard cats (or dogs in hot cars for that matter!), NY’s The Fiery Furnaces will be playing us off with shows at Schubas on December 30th and the still-fairly-fresh Lincoln Hall on December 31. They’ve also been doing some rewrites and remixes of songs and here’s a reworked version of “Keep Me In the Dark” below of I’m Going Away on Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records.
