By Drew Adamek

I can tell you almost exactly to the minute when I experienced the coolest moment of my life.
My absolute zenith of cool isn’t my mountaintop marriage ceremony on a glorious fall day and it isn’t crossing the stage to get my college diploma 10 years after dropping out of high school. It isn’t even the birth of loved ones.
Not even close.
No, the one time I was the coolest guy on earth involves Metallica, the Rolling Stones and the hallway of a loading dock in AT&T Park.

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Posted on January 12, 2010

By The Beachwood Neko Case Affairs Desk
Neko Case is no longer a Chicagoan – and no longer even on Chicago-based Bloodshot Records – but we still like to claim her as one of our own. We knew her when.
Now Case has wrapped up the biggest year of her career and the accolades have tumbled in; year-end best lists almost all include her release Middle Cyclone near the top. Let’s take a look.
Publication: Pitchfork
Year-End Ranking:: 21
Comment: “Arguably Neko Case’s best album in a decade, Middle Cyclone plays like the culmination of all her guiding eccentricities, as if Blacklisted and Fox Confessor Brings the Flood were just warm-ups for the real thing. Here Case sings about amorous storm fronts, menacing red tides, truly killer whales, alarming magpies, and other fauna that manifest particular conditions of the human soul. She’s singing about common alt- and mainstream country themes – broken hearts, wandering spirits, chilling loneliness, the nature of nature – but no one bends traditional Americana sounds to fit her eccentricities so perfectly, getting at these issues through tangential songwriting and force-of-nature vocals. Plus, with Middle Cyclone Case accomplished three undeniable superlatives: the coolest album cover of 2009, the most bizarre album closer (30 minutes of looped frog noises), and the loveliest love song, no matter that it was told from the point of view of a tornado in love with a lost child.” (Stephen M. Deusner)

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Posted on January 11, 2010

By Matt Harness
Happy 10, Bloodshot Briefing fans. Hope everybody enjoyed the tunes to end the Naughties.
The first music report from the Beachwood Music Desk in 10 is a big catch. After some consideration and handy connections, I reeled in Robbie Fulks, formerly of Bloodshot Records and now a self-releasing singer-songwriter who lives in the North Shore ‘burb Wilmette. Fulks, a Pennsylvania native who spent most of early years in the South, was one of Bloodshot’s first artists when he released Country Love Songs in 1996. He later left the label and began a journey that led to him putting out his own records with the help of his Web site (robbiefulks.com) and the various digital outlets. We talked about everything from his latest recordings to how to give a best man’s speech. The best news? Robbie is scheduled for a Hideout residency every Monday in February. Don’t forget to tip.
Beachwood Music: I must say I was confused. I know you’re a longtime Chicago resident, but I read where you moved to the hipster-haven Brooklyn last year. Skinny jeans?
Fulks: We lived there for part of last year as my wife took a job up there. I was more of a caretaker of the kids than a musician. I got enough music played, though. I lived there when I was young. It was more fun then, but it’s richer and safer now.

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Posted on January 8, 2010

By Matt Harness
Ever since I pulled up a chair to the Beachwood Music desk in April, I’ve been asking the Bloodshot artists I’ve interviewed how they would spend their last quarters of the night on the jukebox in the corner. Feel free to turn this list into your own private compilation.
*
“Ha Ha Ha” by Del Shannon
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“Whiskey River” by Willie Nelson
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“Freight Train” by Elizabeth Cotten
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“Five Years” by David Bowie

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Posted on December 18, 2009

By The Beachwood Priest Driven Ambulance Affairs Desk
It looked like New Year’s Eve and felt like Christmas for Flaming Lips fans at the Allstate Arena Friday as the band brought its confetti-strewn psychedelic circus act to one of its largest indoor venues to date. As part of WXRT’s Big Holiday Concert, and in support of the Lips’ freaked-out, meandering recent release Embryonic, the Oklahoma City group trotted out its usual theatrics on a grander scale: Vocalist Wayne Coyne surfed the sea of fans in his customary human-sized hamster ball, made confetti rain from the rafters, and sent flocks of bright balloons into the farthest depths of the stadium.
– Martina Sheehan
Some highlights.
1. The big open.

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Posted on December 15, 2009

By The Beachwood Surrender Affairs Desk
Cheap Trick wants you to want them, and they’re still mighty desirable. Thursday night at the Allstate Arena, the band blasted through a 75-minute set that featured four powerful songs from their 2009 studio album, “The Latest,” alongside timeless gems like “Surrender,” “Dream Police” and “I Want You to Want Me.”
– Bobby Reed
Some highlights. Where embedding has been disabled, we provide the YouTube URLs.
1. Rolling numbers.

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Posted on December 14, 2009

By Matt Harness
Most people in Chicago don’t know Joe Swank.
The 41-year-old from Marion, Illinois, a town known best for its federal prison, is a music industry insider. He works for Bloodshot Records as one of the label’s publicity experts, most notably by encouraging radio stations around the country to play Robbie Fulks, among others.
Now, Swank has another mission. That is to promote himself and his band the Zen Pirates, who recently released Hank Williams Died for My Sins. Swank, who calls his brand of music “aggressive hillbilly,” is unsigned but unworried. His work at Bloodshot is his main focus these days.
Beachwood Music talked to Swank about seemingly everything under the music tent, including his history with the Drive-By Truckers.

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Posted on December 11, 2009

By The Beachwood Jesus Affairs Desk
“David Yow didn’t allow bruised ribs suffered from an accidental fall during The Jesus Lizard’s first of two sold-out weekend shows at Metro to keep him from playing the second concert,” the Tribune reports. “Yet the vocalist’s injury, incurred while he was crowd-surfing to the closing ‘Wheelchair Epidemic’ at Friday’s unhinged 75-minute performance, significantly limited his trademark antics the following evening.”
1.

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Posted on December 1, 2009

By Matt Harness
In an effort to move forward and keep things smelling fresh, Beachwood Music is branching out from the Bloodshot Records tree. We aren’t going too far away, and we still aspire to be the top spot for all things Bloodshot with the weekly Briefing.
But there’s other Chicago-based music that deserves some attention.
Last week, Beachwood Music brought you an inside look into Coach House Sounds, which has recorded two Bloodshot artists.
Recently I spent some time with Matt Kerstein, singer, songwriter and leading force behind Chicago band Brighton, MA. Bloodshot fans maybe know him as a founding member of Scotland Yard Gospel Choir along with Elia Einhorn. Kerstein lives in Wicker Park and loves Piece’s pizza.

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Posted on November 25, 2009

By Matt Harness
Coach House Sounds came to life last year as Matt Baron ate lunch at Amitabul, which bills its food as “Healing Buddhist Spiritual Vegan Cuisine.”
Over his meal, Baron, a musician who is studying to become a teacher, read a story about Daytrotter, the music studio in Rock Island that records live sessions with touring bands, The Chicago native believed he could do something similar.
Not long after that seed was planted, he ran into Richard Edwards, singer and guitarist for Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s. Edwards was someone Baron thought he should record. And when Scotland Yard Gospel Choir’s Elia Einhorn also encouraged Baron’s entry into the Web-based taste-making market, that was enough motivation to get Coach House operation up and running.
Although Coach House Sounds opened its doors to bands last fall, Baron debuted the online community to the public this week at The Whistler in Logan Square.
I spent some time with Baron, who already has recorded sessions with two Bloodshot bands, this week.

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Posted on November 13, 2009