Editor's Note
Hey there Surfers! Welcome to issue #31 of Chicago Crowd Surfer! We had a another huge week (they just keep on coming)! This week was Bottle-centric, as we took in three different shows at the ol’ EB! Chicago’s Twila Bent put out their new EP and performed live for the first time, Eleanor Friedberger visited on an odd Friday (to say the least) and Black Joe Lewis blew the lid off the joint the night before. There was also so many albums released last week that it left us spinning! There’s new records by Cat Power, Fucked Up, Phosphorescent, Coheed & Cambria, Cursive, and Chicago’s Mungion, just to name a few. Come on in and pull up a seat, this one's gonna take some time to cull through.

Keep Seeing Live Music!

KPL & JCB

 Twila Bent / all photos by KPL
 

Experimental music has long been an integral part of Chicago music, and Monday night the Empty Bottle served as a showcase of the genre’s up and comers on the local scene. It was the first live show by new psych rock outfit Twila Bent (also serving as their new EP release show), and a showcase for the jazzy feedback stylings of the trio Billington-Shippy-Wyche and cabinet synthmaster Bucket Brigade.

A free show at the Bottle is always a gamble crowd-wise, and only a handful had shown up by the time Jacob Kart (Bucket Brigade) took the stage behind his cabinet synth. If you’ve never seen one, it’s simply a box with a bunch of cables and dials and lights that takes an extensive amount of time to master. As he began the short (possibly one song) set, it became clear this was meant to be an experience that discouraged just standing there and staring at the musician. The long form ambient sounds and more present clicks, bangs, beeps, echos, etc. are best heard with eyes closed, letting your mind form a dreamscape in which the performer can build a world. Kart, who has been around for years in bands like Medium Sized Rabbit and Crush Kill Destroy, captivates aurally not visually. Watching someone plug cables in and out or twist dials and push buttons is not alluring to say the least, but if the listener shuts their eyes and lets his bizarre sounds transport them away, it’s an affecting and jarring experience. If you want some for yourself check out Kart’s work.

After only fifteen or twenty minutes, Kart was finished. He stepped back from his cabinet, took a drink of water and waved at the crowd to signal he was done. The gentle clapping was more indicative of the intoxicating nature of his sound than the crowds appreciation. We knew there was a long night of musical insanity ahead, and Kart was just the beginning. As he descended the stage, carrying his packed up gear, the venue had started to fill with all sorts of eclectic supporters. The Dad guys in khakis, button ups and sandals; the long haired rocker dudes; the college co-eds; and the usual Bottle hipster crowd all converged to expose themselves to something new, something daring. Which is what they got with the trio of Ben Baker Billington on drums, Mark Shippy and Daniel Wyche on guitars, and guest trumpeter Gregg Kelley.

To say these guys are abstract jazz is to minimize what they are accomplishing onstage. A mind meld of three—well this time four—musicians in an ever shifting aura of feedback, effects, and syncopated rhythm; held down by Billingtons impressive drumming. If you’ve ever experienced Grateful Dead do their “Space” improv, it’s sort of in that fashion. Billington holds down the back and forth, spotty beat while Shippy and Wyche build upon each other’s sound in layer upon layer of guitar jumbles. It’s clear all three of these men have spent more time than one can imagine learning and improvising with their instruments. Seattle based Greg Kelley’s (he was in town on another gig at Experimental Sound Studio and came over to sit in with these guys) insane trumpet playing added another layer of massive sound to their already overflowing reverberation. At one point he was playing his instrument sans mouthpiece by blowing through the end like a flute, producing a haunting sound that fit perfectly with the trios wall of persistent noise. It was a welcome release when they would cool it down; and it was in those moments that the beauty of what either Shippy or Wyche was playing would shine through. If you ever get a chance to see them. take it. It is a musical journey of epic proportions. In the meantime, you can find some of their tunes right here.

The lights lowered and the projected images began to wash across the four musicians who make up Twila Bent, the latest creation from Rabble Rabble vets Ralph Darski (cabinet synth) and Andrew Kittering (bass); and it became clear that there was another journey on the horizon again this evening. Their sound is as complex as the members’ musical past. With Phil Karnats of Tripping Daisy and Secret Machines on guitar, Jered Gummere of Ponys and Bare Mutants on drums this quartet has more music experience in its pinky fingers than many others have in their entire body, and they put it to excellent use. Darski was bent over his table size synth throughout the set, making sounds that varied from warbled squeals to ambient hums. He jabbed, poked, and lunged while squiggling a flashlight all over his machine. Karnats went back and forth from guitar to another odd cabinet synth that projected a constant creepy blue glow. The rhythm section of Kittering and Gummere were in a constant back and forth battle, and the cacophony of sound overwhelmed at its peaks and compelled in it’s valleys. This is a band we hope will continue as a unit. Their performance was downright insane and can only get better from here. Check out the new EP here, and prepare to be transported to Twila Bent world.

As always the scene at the Bottle couldn’t have been better, and we spotted various local musicians taking in the first performance of Twila Bent including members of Oozing Wound and FACS. Support local music and get your ass to a show.

-KPL

 Eleanor Friedberger / all photos by JCB
 

Friday was a weird day in Chicago. We received a verdict in a case that the whole country was watching and we were waiting on the confirmation on a supreme court justice that was basically set in stone from the start of the circus that is our political process. I don’t want to tell you what you were supposed to think about either of these, but it definitely had people a bit quieter than usual… at least in my opinion. Add to that some dreary fall rain, and you’ve got a night for either sitting on the couch with a book or checking out some great tunes. The wife chose the former, and I chose the latter. I’ve been a big fan of the Friedberger siblings for quite a few years, having known them solely from their Fiery Furnaces band. After they announced a hiatus, I wasn’t sure what to expect from either. Over the past couple years, I heard a few tracks from Eleanor that perked my ears up but it wasn’t until this year’s Rebound that I was completely wowed. I reviewed it a few issues back, and lamented that I missed the Lincoln Hall show, so a weird day and a little rain wasn’t going to stop me this time.

Brooklyn’s Pill is a hell of an opener for a sparse Empty Bottle. They’re a true punk band, featuring songs that furiously jump from such genres as no wave, post-punk, and even free jazz courtesy of Benjamin Jaffe’s sax work. The only thing to expect from them is unexpected artsy punk. Led by vocalist/bassist Veronica Torres, the music spirals around her. Torres gives the band their tone, not only with her politically charged lyrics but the bass lines that anchor the ship. From there, drummer Andrew Spaulding and guitarist Jonathan Campolo oscillate between melody and discordant schisms. But Jaffe was the star for me. There are plenty of post-punk bands that are angry and intense live, fueling their anxious music with guitar feedback, but having an unrestricted woodwind whirling in, through, and around the music made it a band worth paying attention to. 4 stars. Would see again.

The ex-Fiery Furnaces singer sauntered her lanky rock star visage on stage, clad in bright white pants and black leather jacket, Pacifico beer in hand, and without much bombast. Eleanor has a singular aura about her that proves impossible to ignore. Whether stoically serenading the crowd, hands casually clasped behind her back, or inciting a dancing snap-a-long to the infectious pop of her latest record Rebound, Friedberger commands the stage like a present day Patti Smith. She rarely addressed the crowd outside of a few quips between songs, except to tell us we weren’t being loud enough for her, but instead gazed out at and through us as if she lived in a separate dimension than ours. I’m not sure if she’s just tired and all out of banter (Chicago is the last US date for the year), but it didn’t affect the music at all. I spent most of the set singing, snapping, and swaying along with her.

Rebound is a great evolution of Friedberger’s brand of indie rock, embracing pop tendencies and electronic instrumentation, and it was a welcome relief to hear it in the tiny Empty Bottle on a rainy October night. Originally from Oak Park, the New York musician seems to feel right at home in the legendary venue. She invited Pill’s saxophonist, Benjamin Jaffe, on stage several times to round out her live renditions, and I’m not positive but it seemed like her parents might have been watching from the back. One of the few pieces of crowd interaction hinted at the catalyst for her new record. She hoped that a few of her songs would help people forget about the negativities that inhabit the world we live in. “Make Me A Song”, my personal favorite from her catalog, is a song about loving your neighbors no matter their beliefs. Friedberger wanted everyone to connect with each other over a common middle ground, which she believes could be her music. It was a good sentiment to leave us with, as we shuffled out into night… waiting for Saturday’s polarizing news which could challenge Friedberger’s goal.

-JCB

Black Joe Lewis / all photos by LPL
 

The thing about classic rock is that it is not an immediately pleasing genre. There is so much going on that you have to kind of pick out all the parts individually, then slowly piece them back together to make a full picture. This is a personal opinion here, but with most classic rock singers, once you get past the vocals, you find that the real talent lies within the story told by the lyrics and supported by the guitars and percussion. Some artists write as a form of diary, embracing their vulnerability as they share their stories on stage. Arakas poured his all on that stage last Thursday night, even though absolutely no one in the crowd seemed to care to return the favor. They were in fact standing at the maximum perimeter possible, not moving, not even swaying and with most people hanging at the bar. A show is what you make it: The artists brave the stage to bring you their material, and it is up to you to find a way to take it in—or leave it and go hang at the bar. The people on stage can see you making your decisions and the show goes on… with or without you.

Arakas’ EP Restless, released in March of this year, reflects on life in LA before moving to Columbus, Ohio in search of a new life. In Restless, he commiserates with LA-ers who are searching past the point of desperation, struggling to find certainty in the life they are living. The backing guitars and percussion on “Break Line” are in true ‘80s classic rock fashion, and finish the EP with a sense of hope that he just might be getting closer to that sense of certainty.

The Empty Bottle was really quite full by set break, and people began to claim their spots as close to the stage as possible to see the Texas-based blues-rock group that is Black Joe Lewis and The Honey Bears. KPL and I planted ourselves just off center and to the right, against the front speakers. I guess I hadn’t really ever noticed the stage floor at the Bottle. It is in fact carpeted, although it looks more like a textured concrete pour—the result of over 25 years of spilled beverages and stomped in shoe debris. Standing so close to the two well-worn saxophones on stage took a good deal of restraint. If I had less self control, I would have totally touched them to soak up their history in my fingertips.

It was like I had never left my first BJL & THB show. Coming up on 6 years ago now, the first show KPL and I saw together while dating was Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears at the Metro. Let me take a sappy moment here and say that was the night I knew I loved him. 💞 Tonight we picked up right where we left off and shook our hips, wound up our booties, shared glances of pure joy and watched BJL & THB in awe.

The current tour is in support of the band’s fifth studio album The Difference Between Me & You. With six members on stage, they took us through some new songs off of the album including “Handshake Drugs” and “Do Yourself In” plus a few timeless originals, “Sugarfoot” and “Boogie”. BJL & THB has said they are inspired by Albert King, R.L. Burnside, James Brown, Bobby “Blue” Bland and the Stones. That is a truly stacked group of powerful influencers. During “I’m Broke”, I could have sworn I heard The Screaming Eagle, Charles Bradley himself, dancing on Black’s Joe’s vocal chords to join the party that was happening on stage.

I took a little bathroom break and pulled out my phone to write a few notes on the show. Naturally I became distracted scanning through all my apps and found myself reading the news. I knew better than that. Pulling out my phone always messes with my mood and takes me out of the events happening in my present space (that is why I usually write in the single-function notepad). Tonight was harder than usual though. Reports and articles were rolling out regarding the history-making court case that commanded national attention. This is a reality that I cannot ignore, and do not advocate that anyone stop reading the news because it is difficult and, at times, downright discouraging. The reality of tonight though involved a group of musicians on stage also making history. I shook myself back to the Empty Bottle and tried to listen to the music from the bathroom. Black Joe was singing “I’m Broke”—a song about being broke despite the futile work of countless hours at a fast food chain and turning to the streets to supplement meals and income, while onlookers narrowly judge the protagonist's actions and character.

I returned to the front row to hear the next song’s lead-in “This is some real Chicago shit.” The band laid into a string of tracks, and the notes were literally swinging around in the air before dropping. At the other end of the stage, an inspired fan turned around to face her friend and began a one-on-one dance-off. And she didn’t stop there. She danced her way to the other end of the stage, one expecting fan at a time. No one denied her, no one broke the chain. Without hesitation everyone in the front row met her challenge—Soul Train style—right against the stage. She razzed my hair that I had up on top of my head after our dance. I had no choice but to let my curls fall and allow them to bounce along down my back.

There was also no hesitation for a comfortable EB attendee to satisfy Black Joe’s request for a bit of herbal enhancement. The resulting auditory evidence made a strong case for its use in relaxing the psyche. What came next could best be described as a green freneticism. Black Joe just went absolutely nuts on his guitar. The Honey Bears picked up and met him as he continued to gain speed and pluck with articulation. A guitar-off ensued with a stare down between two guitarists that, without speaking a word, filled in the crowd with the exact thought on both their minds: This is fucking amazing, let’s keep this up until we can’t!

BJL & THB stayed on stage straight through their finale. The guitarist played his strings so low that it sounded like a cave of crystals digesting the music, playing around them and chiming out the resulting essence of the genre. Man, these six geniuses really have a bond. They had as much fun on stage as we did off of stage, if not more. I will gladly jump out of my life and back into their show every time they come through Chicago.

-LPL

ALBUM REVIEWS

WHAT WE'RE JAMMING TO THIS WEEK

new releases we missed last week

THIS WEEK'S RECOMMENDED NEW RELEASES

Gregory Alan Isakov / Evening Machines / Suitcase Town Music , Dualtone

This talented folk rocker is swinging through the Vic on November 7th with a favorite of ours Haley Heynderickx in support. Scoop up some tix here.

Dom Kennedy / Volume Two / The OPM

The L.A. MC is coming to Park West on Halloween night! Get your tix here.

mewithoutyou / [Untitled] / Run For Cover

These Philly post punk hardcore vets are swinging through Lincoln Hall on November 30th. Grab some tix.

Vanessa Zamora / Tornaluna / Vanessa Zamora , Cosmica

T.I. / Dime Trap / Grand Hustle ,  Epic , Sony

Twenty One Pilots / Trench / Fueled By Ramen , Warner

These stars are hitting the United Center next week (October 17th) and it is harcore sold out. If you don’t already have tickets, good luck.

Jim James / Uniform Clarity / ATO

The My Morning Jacket frontman is hitting The Vic on November 9th and it is also very sold out. But he is also playing the Pabst in Milwaukee the night before and their are still tix available here.

Eric Church / Desperate Man / UMG , EMI

The Country superstar is doing a four night run at Allstate in March. He doesn’t need our help. Google it. You’ll find tix.

Lady Gaga , Bradley Cooper / A Star Is Born Soundtrack / Interscope , Warner Bros.

NOTES & ANNOUNCEMENTS

•  We are waiting patiently for the Tomorrow Never Knows Fest announcement! It normally drops around this time. The club fest takes place January 16th thru 20th at Lincoln Hall, Schubas, Metro, Hideout, Smartbar and (new this year) Sleeping Village. We’ll keep you updated when they make an announcement and you can start snagging tickets to the much anticipated fest.
  

• As you might have noticed we have started to make some layout changes around here—starting with album reviews and jams now being published on their own tabs, and the interview page got a bit easier to navigate. We listened to your feedback and are making changes to ensure that Chicago Crowd Surfer is the best way for you to get all your Chicago music news.  Be on the lookout for more changes in the coming weeks, and send along more feedback! Without further ado, here are your recommended shows of the week.

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See you at the show Chicago! 

Been inspired by a recent musical experience? Excited about an upcoming show? shoot us an email to GET STARTED.

Being a contributor has never been easier. All you have to do is enjoy music, have a good time and tell others about it. We are a community sourced web mag, that means our experts are music lovers in your community. Yes, you are an expert music lover. (We know because you are reading this site) Our goal here is to encourage people to see live music, and have a good time doing it. Get clever with how you would like to contribute, but here are some ideas:

• See a show and write about what made it great for you (and snap a couple pics)

• Tell people about CCS

• Listen to a new album and write a review

• Share the weekly issue post

• Buy us a ticket to see a show - we will try to cover the show if you can’t go!

• Post to our social media sites about news in the local music scene

• Help us make a connection to acquire:

  • Press passes

  • Photo passes

  • Promo materials (flyers, buttons, stickers, gear…)

With any written contribution, we request email submissions by the following Wednesday morning  (ex. If you see a Friday show, submit 4 days later; ex. Listen to a new album on Tuesday, submit the next day). Please let us know that you want to contribute so we can get you into that week’s issue. You can totally submit a review later than Wednesday, and we may include it. Not to put the pressure on, but we are a weekly mag so we like to keep content current.

-LPL

P.S. If you want a little extra confidence, we really do want to hear from you and expand our community. I am not a trained writer, and personally think my reviews need a good deal of improvement. I keep writing to get better, and people are still reading it!