NOMO bandleader, Iron & Wine live member and fellow Midwesterner Elliot Bergman has a new project called Wild Belle.
Their first single “Keep You” is a sexy dubbed out psychedelic pop jam. Here it above and on their bandcamp.

Common’s video for “Blue Sky” off his upcoming album The Dreamer, The Believer

If I were to scribble my own Overlooked in Ohio piece, Brian Harnetty would likely be my artist of choice. I’ve written about Columbus’s gentle giant quite a few times, and I began wondering what Harnetty has been up to lately. Turns out, quite a bit.

Like he did for his collaboration with Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Silent City, and his previous full-length, American Winter, Harnetty continues his excavation of the Berea College Appalachian Sound Archives in Kentucky, finding old folk songs, interviews and other odds & ends from Appalachia and layering the found sounds with his own instrumentation. His new album will be called Rawhead & Bloodybones, and it’s a collection of old archival folk tales as told by children. “The combination of the children’s innocence and the often gruesome tales is a pretty powerful combination already. I added some instrumental parts, and other samples,” Harnetty says. This one will be out in late winter/early spring of next year — on vinyl this time, too.

Harnetty also has a sound installation that will open Nov. 12 at a sound art gallery called the Audible Gallery, which is part of the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. The installation is based on the archives of enigmatic jazz musician Sun Ra. (He’s hopeful that this, too, may become an album, pending permission from the Sun Ra archives trustees.) Full description of the installation below. I particularly like this excerpt from Harnetty: “I am not a jazz musician. I cannot lay claim to Sun Ra’s history, nor can I ever fully understand him or his music. But I can listen, intently, and enter a dialogue, bringing my own knowledge and thought and experience.”

Brian Harnetty : The Star-Faced One
6-Channel Sound Installation
60 minute continuous loop 2010

Title borrowed from poem by Konstantine Balmont via Igor Stravinsky:
“His eyes were like stars, like flames which furrow space. His visage was like the sun when it shines at its zenith. The luminous colors of the heavens, purple, azure, and gold, dappled the gorgeous robe he wore to be reborn among us….”

On one level, this piece is a way to access a vast collection and explore the many facets, dichotomies, contradictions, and beauty contained within. The collection in itself is already a kind of large-scale composition, a finite world that points to the endless universe. My contribution is but one of an infinite number of pieces that can come from it.

I am not a jazz musician. I cannot lay claim to Sun Ra’s history, nor can I ever fully understand him or his music. But I can listen, intently, and enter a dialogue, bringing my own knowledge and thought and experience. How to enter a dialogue with Sun Ra? Start playing along, always listening with imagination and empathy….soon, your own voice emerges, runs along side, converses with, connects, while all along staying independent; they are “co-habitating” together.

In this conversation, there is also the gift economy: finding a way to bring the archives out of the defined world and into the daylight, to hold them, and pass them on. Their energy lies in the exchange, and is how they can stay alive and in motion.

Many thanks to the trustees for the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive at Experimental Sound Studio, who have generously given permission and access to the recordings.

Samples: All from the Sun Ra/El Saturn collection housed at the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive at Experimental Sound Studio.
Musicians: Brian Harnetty, Piano, Rhodes Electric Piano, Celesta Jeremy Woodruff, Saxophone, Flute Fred Lonberg-Holm, Cello Jeff Kimmel, Bass Clarinet Aaron Butler, Vibraphone

Jay Electronica brought a bunch of hippies on stage with him this weekend at the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago.
This video has Jay rocking “Googley Eyes” over PaceWon’s 1998 single “I Declare War”, I had forgotten Ski Beatz produced that song until this moment.
Jay transitions into “Eternal Sunshine for A Spotless Mind”, a song where the New Orleans emcee raps for like 9 minutes of loops from the movie of the same name. This performance is enteraining for two reasons. 1)Hippies actually try to dance to a loop from an incredibly depressing movie and no drum. 2)Security starts throwing the crowd off the stage. Jay times it so that half the crowd gets thrown-off while he is saying “you can fit in with the close minded at the sit-ins” then turns around right on when some kid is being violently removed at the exact part where Jay exclaims “fuck rap. fuck that. this god-hop” and raps it in the face of the security.
This video ends with Jay Elect doing an accapella of “The Ghost of Christopher Wallace” which has the best literary referancing lyric of 2010 “the flow is so Tolstoy, Fyoder Dostoe , half-oyster, half shrimp fully dressed po boy”.

MP3:Adulture & OCD Automatic-Paper Cat (Sammy Bananas Remix)

(via  Fools Gold via Rcrd Label)

I got up with  Adulture when I was in Chi for Pitchfork.  The Columbus ex-pat has a weekly at the Smart Bar and is still pumping out music, as evident by this  Sammy Bananas remix.

Dood is mainly way into learning everything he can about Chicago House, and seeing what the world has in store.

Years passed, the band garnered some recognition, shot some videos, and continued to make good music. Their tunes were solid, always sounded good on the stereo, but they were mostly the sort of material you didn’t seek out to play on repeat. Solid, nonetheless.

Then the band went dark. I assumed they were on permanent hiatus, but man oh man was I wrong. Instead they were holed up in the most fabulous of laboratories, Dave Fridmann’s Tarbox Studios, grafting funk onto industrial metals and hypnotic guitars. The first time I heard the new album I was convinced they’d given over to the self-indulgent excesses that have sunk many a band before them in search of “making a statement.” Upon the third listen I realized the band had made their masterpiece.

And with that masterpiece the band found a new strength. The threw off their corporate chains and it could be argued that not only is the band enjoying its own personal renaissance but that they’re also continuing the work begun by other bands who paved the path to reach outside the industry to create a model of self-sustenance. this too, shall pass.

Click here to view the embedded video.

TOP 21 ALBUMS OF 2008

It should be noted I only counted albums released in 2008. If it was released digitally in 2007 it was NOT eligible … which is why you don’t see Radiohead, Robyn or MGMT on this list.

TV on the Radio, Dear Science
This mixture of high art and dance floor squonk not only bears up over repeated listens, it actually gets better. In that most rare of occurrences, the album I found myself turning to again and again too sate my more base musical desires also ended up feeding my intellectual hungers as well.
MP3: Dancing Choose | Buy on Amazon

TOP 10 RELEASES BY CHICAGO BASED BANDS IN 2008

Tom Schraeder and His Ego, Lying Through Dinner EP
On his latest EP Schraeder often mixes Americana with the feel of a humid New Orleans bordello. Boozy, swinging strains spill out of darkened nightclubs into puddle-splashed streets. Rouged nipples brush inches away from the unshaven crevices of a miner’s chin on the boozy sing-along “When You’re Not Around,” an excellent compliment to the soaring hopeful organ strains permeating “Guadalupe Cries.” Schraeder expertly mixes the dark with the light creating a chiaroscuro effect on his compositions.

Local H, 12 Angry Months
12 Angry Months deals with the intensely personal cycle of the demise of a major relationship and the year of fall-out that follows. It’s not like break-ups are exactly unusual territory in pop music, but Local H’s Scott Lucas has the undeniable talent to take an individual experience and expand its relevance to universally touch. Lucas still has a gift for injecting a darkly pretty melody into even the most abrasively angry guitar lines, and Brian St. Clair’s drumming is both massive and tasteful. This is the near perfect album Local H has been threatening to make for years … all it took was something deeply personal to allow them to make a universal statement.

Milk At Midnight, Less love More Acid
Milk At Midnight’s sound is chimeric, with the primary sonic tether between tunes being the group’s ability to graft memorable melodies onto craggy surfaces. The other connecting point is angry lyrics that both condemn and soar. The sunshine is there if you really quint and search it out, but eventually your eyes are going to tire and the light will temporarily slip from your vision again. It’s the hope that keeps us going even as I stare wide-eyed at the horrors around us.

Grammar, The Grammar Self-Titled Short Player
Grammar has the potential to grow into kings (and queen) of Chicago’s orch-pop particular scene. The band’s debut self-titled EP contains six songs of wistful and airy pop that flickers and twinkles, delighting the ears. Jaunty piano numbers melt into choirs of intertwining vocal melodies, politely restrained rockers descend from above, sparse and cutting acoustic odes seep in underfoot, and pleas for inclusion are folded into tiny synthetic symphonies and plinking xylophone runs. Sound like an earful? It is, but it’ll leave you wanting more. Not bad at all for a debut EP.

Walter Meego, Voyager
Voyager is one hell of a first album. It’s slinky, sexy guitar and synthesizer lines kiss and cuddle with each other, while the underlying beats seem destined to unleash a whole new class of freaky line-dancers getting ready to make babies. Their urbane, sophisticated delivery gives off images of disco balls, DeLoreans, glow sticks and day-long lollipops.

Fall Out Boy, Folie à Deux
Shut up, I don’t care what you think. Once you get past Pete Wentz’s celebrity antics and allow yourself to become enveloped by Patrick Stump’s powerhouse vocals that forsake emo delivery for good old fashioned soul you’ll begin to realize why Fall Out Boy’s albums actually seem to be getting better as they get more famous instead of the other way around.

Prairie Cartel, EP 1
The Prairie Cartel’s debut 12″ successfully lays out the group’s sonic manifesto in two original tracks, a cover, and a remix. Think of it as punk blood coating a Go-Go cage. The highlight of the EP is the cover of 999′s “Homicide” since it does the best job of offering the group a chance to let their talents for truly mixing the big rock with the surging dance. In my opinion it also does the best job of capturing the group’s electric at times careening live show.

Textbook, Boxing Day Massacre

Boxing Day Massacre is equal parts All, Uncle Tupelo, and Cheap Trick. “Desperation Free” is the sort of song that lyrically appeals to the eternal 15-year-old in us, while sporting a a musical envelope that would fit equally well on Fuse or in the back room of Hideout. Textbook is one of those weird beasts that I could see the kids going gonzo over while the older crowd hangs near the back by the bar and tips perspiring bottles of PBR the band’s way in admiration.

Big Science, The Coast Of Nowhere EP
Big Science came out of nowhere during the latter quarter of this year to blindside us with their glam-pop. Their ’80s-inflected pop would have put them in permanent rotation on 120 Minutes between vintage Cure, INXS, and XTC. And believe us, I mean that as one of the highest compliments I can offer to a pop band. [Download the EP for free]

Parks and Gardens, Avec Cloture
Parks and Gardens doesn’t really deviate from the form of loop and sample laden rockin’ designed with the discotheque in mind, but instead of utilizing those elements to create a cliche they inject an angular artsiness into their songs. In effect this creates a minor agitation in the listener, and I think that’s kind of a bold move for any band trying to ingratiate themselves with a crowd not particularly interested in anything beyond basic Sybaritic pleasure.

THE 50+1 SONGS OF 2008
(in almost no particular order)

These tunes are all songs that will scream “2008!” any time I hear ‘em. They may not be the highest charting singles, and some are barely even known to more than a handful of people … but they are the top tracks on the mixtape that defines the feeling and experiences of 2008 for me.

MGMT “Kids”
Hey Champ “Cold Dust Girl”
Walter Meego “Girls”
Katy Perry “Hot N Cold”
The Black Ghosts “Repetition Kills You (with Damon Albarn)”
Neon Neon “I Told Her On Alderaan”
George Pringle “Carte Postale”
Alphabeat “10.000 Nights Of Thunder”
Amanda Palmer “Oasis”
Beck “Chemtrails”
Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Black Kids “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix)”
British Sea Power “Down On The Ground”
Chairlift “Bruises”
Coldplay “42”
Cut Copy “Lights and Music”
Does It Offend You, Yeah? “Dawn Of The Dead”
Estelle “American Boy”
The Feeling “Turn It Up”
The Futureheads “Think Tonight”
Hot Chip “Ready For The Floor”
Jay Reatard “See/Saw”
Kanye West “RoboCop”
The Killers “Spaceman”
Ladytron “Ghosts”
La Scala “ Love! Love! Love!”
Ladyhawke “My Delirium”
Lettuce “Blast Off”
Lily Allen “The Fear”
M83 “Graveyard Girl (Speechless Edit)”
Mansions “The Worst Part”
Mardeen “Telephones”
of Montreal “Gallery Piece (Jon Brion remix)”
Phantom Planet “Leader”
Pink “So What”
Prairie Cartel “Homicide”
She & Him “I Was Made For You”
The Submarines “You Me and the Bourgeoisie”
Supergrass “Rebel In You”
The Boy Least Likely To “A Balloon On A Broken String”
Titus Andronic
The Ting Tings “Great DJ”
The Virgins “Rich Girls (RAC Mix)”
Weezer “Pork & Beans”
What Made Milwaukee Famous “Sultan”
Friendly Foes “My Body (Is A Strange Place To Live)
Black Mountain “Stormy High”
Darker My Love “Two Ways Out”
The Hold Steady “Sequestered In Memphis”
Local H “White Belt Boys”

…aaaaand, while I was DJing the song regularly last year, it didn’t really explode until the summer so…

M.I.A. “Paper Planes”

I’ve never paid to see Lollapalooza in its current incarnation in Chicago

The first year a friend got me in to the Lollalounge through a radio contest she won, and each subsequent year I’ve had press access. I’ve read and written countless previews and reviews of the festival, and it wasn’t until this year that I realized each and every one was basically flawed. Sure, they tackled the bands appearing, and attempted to capture the vibe, but they never really grappled with the most primal question surrounding Lollapalooza; should you go?

You see, most reviews you’ll come across are written by folks like me. We get in for free, are granted access to amenities 99% of attendees are not, and – this is most important – we come from a vantage point of relative privilege since most critics have probably already seen the vast majority of the bands appearing at Lollapalooza. What does this result in? Well, usually you end up reading uniform reviews semi-complaining about the line-up, flagellating the festival and the bands involved for sponsorship issues, gripes about ticket prices, and much hand-wringing over the infamous “radius clause.” Oh, and if you’re lucky, you get some griping about drunk meatheads, sound bleed, and general overcrowding. (And, yes, every once in a while, you get honest-to-god reporting on isolated incidences.)

The thing is, all those write-ups sort of miss the whole point of Lollapalooza.

To the average person, all of the above doesn’t mean shit. Look, let’s say you like only 10 of the 120 or so acts appearing at Lollapalooza, and let’s say of those 10, 4 are headliners. If you were to see those 4 bands alone in an alternate “shed” or arena sized venue, you’d be paying upwards of $50 a piece, before Ticketbastard even hit you with their own charges. By that math alone, you’ve already made out with a relative bargain.

And the line-up? Who the hell can legitimately gripe about a 120 band line-up? Sure we heard gripes there wasn’t enough local talent, but last time we checked, Lollapalooza was an international destination festival and we just happen to be its base. By that virtue, shouldn’t the festival bookers be more interested in a diverse line-up and not be beholden to sticking a couple Chicago band on the bill? I’d love to see more Chicago acts play Lollapalooza, but I’d like to think they got on the bill through the virtue of their music and their draw rather than because the organizers were guilted into including them. Right?

Sponsorship issues? Well, if Rage Against The Machine and Radiohead can play on the AT&T stage, I don’t think there are any sponsorship issues. I’m just as old school indie rock as the next grouchy music critic, and I actually remember the ‘80s and the corporate-directed anger that lay within that decade, but at this point, in this climate, the point is moot. I have no problem seeing a logo plastered across the stage if it means that logo is partially lowering ticket prices through subsidization. More importantly, does anyone actually think the current generation of concert attendees even notices sponsors anymore after navigating websites festooned with pop-ups, banner ads, and other various attempted attention-getters they’ve already learned to tune out?

I’ve also heard Lollapalooza is killing the local music scene through its “radius clause,” or the contractual obligation it asks of its band not to play shows in the Midwest for months before and after their Lollapalooza appearance. Now, this is a gripe I used to buy into, having been a local promoter in the past, and having seen the summer scene dry up over the last few years. This year I realized something important though; the local scene isn’t drying up because of Lollapalooza, it’s drying up because of heavier inter-club competition and a dearth of bands large enough to actually command large followings over repeat performances. This year any band playing the festival that I wanted to see play in a small club ended up playing a small club later on in the evening. And some smaller bands seem completely unaffected. For instance locals OFFICE ended up playing during the Pitchfork Music Festival weekend and are also appearing at a local street festival next week. Well, so much for that draconian “radius clause” choking the smaller working indie talent, huh?

And finally, here’s the most important thing every single review seems to miss; people go to Lollapalooza to have fun, and to check out a few of their favorite bands. By the sheer virtue of the size of the festival we applaud the bookers for including a wide swathe of music, and hold out hopes that many attendees end up stumbling across a new favorite band playing some other stage as they make their way to the next ticked box on their personal schedule, and from a critical standpoint that’s all I can really hope for. I think it’s incredibly silly and short-sighted to slight a festival of Lollapalooza’s size for booking acts they hope will draw a crowd. Not to mention any line-up that includes Dierks Bently, Amadou and Mariam, Explosions in the Sky, Spank Rock, and Kanye West can’t exactly be called either predictable or generically mainstream.

And the folks at the festival had fun. Even those that had to wait in line and pay for beer, wait in line to use a porta-potty, wait in line to struggle through the crowd watching Girl Talk, and wait in line to wait in line to get into the festival. I tromped from one side of Grant Park to the other at least a dozen times each day. I waded through the masses. I waited in line for beer next to drunk frat boys. I saw indie chicks in day-glo green gym outfits camped out on bright red blankets. I say kids passed out in the shade after one to many afternoon cocktails. I saw you. And in all of this I saw a mass of 75,000 people a day having a good time, mostly getting along, and all smiling while watching either classic favorites or new musical discoveries. I saw a small city of people unwilling to consume itself, and a community hell-bent on having a good time.

And that my friends, is what makes Lollapalooza worth it, for you and for me.

You can see all of the photos the author shot at Lollapalooza by visiting here.

The author at Lollapalooza 2008  shot by Clayton Hauck

As an artistic piece I still think Exile In Guyville is an amazing piece of emotional honesty. I could care less what motivated Liz Phair to write the songs, and from what I can tell she was an artist first and foremost, but she wanted validation from Nash Kato and that crew, so I think that supplied the drive to actually get her stuff released. I think the “potty mouth / slutty blowjob queen / Exile On Mainstreet / priveleged rich kid going bohemian” thing is an angle that lazy journalists employed then, and still employ. One watch of the Guyville Redux DVD that comes with the reissue is paints a much better representation of the indie scene at the time — Chicago in particular — and the way she actually fit into things at the time.

But I think she was/is an artist with a limited well from which to draw. There’s a reason the good songs on later discs were mostly reworkings of stuff from the Girlysound tapes. I think she hit upon a bright burst of inspiration at a certain point in her life and after that was gone she didn’t have anything else unique to say.

Another journalist and I were having an argument recently over whether or not Guyville is even a feminist work. I argued it wasn’t philosophically, but understood that since it empowered so many women some folks just lump it in as a “feminist work.” And I think that’s the most important thing, and one that gets severely overlooked since almost everyone that’s ever written about the album is male, and they totally fucking miss this point just about every single time, but when that disc came out there were a LOT of girls that were suddenly like, OH my GOD, I think those same things too. And it’s O.K. I’m not alone!”

Who cares if Phair never writes another decent song, or that her career nowadays is one naked grab for attention after another? That’s her business, and I don’t hold it against her one whit, and I think it’s idiotic for people to hate on her for trying to make a career within today’s totally fucked up music industry. What matters is that, once upon a time, she created a piece of art that gave a lot of people courage by shouting universal truths previously held behind closed doors. For that Liz Phair will always have my respect.

I wonder what happened?