Chicago -
By The Beachwood Atomic Live Affairs Desk
“For most of the ’90s, the best live band anywhere was the Jesus Lizard,” Greg Kot wrote over the weekend. “Its cutthroat music may not have been for everyone, but the Chicago quartet’s performances were everything a rock ‘n’ roll show should be: a spontaneous blast of personality in which anything could happen, and often did.”
As a public service, we hereby provide you with a sampling of those live performances.
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Posted on July 15, 2009
By The Beachwood Fair Credit Affairs Desk
Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” is essentially a rewrite/upgrade of the 1973 song “Soul Makossa” by Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango; “Soul Makossa” is often credited as the world’s first disco song. Dibango was not, however, credited on the record.
While the African chant is the biggest giveaway, the distinctive cymbal flow is also obviously cribbed. Here’s the original.
Posted on July 13, 2009
By Matt Harness
* Exene Cervenka, recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, has finished her solo record for Bloodshot, though she is touring with X this summer.
“It has the passion of X without all the loud,” she told her Bloodshot minders.
It’s called Somewhere Gone and is scheduled for release in October.
* Bloodshot is hosting parties across the country to celebrate its 15th anniversary. The first was last weekend in Pittsburgh. Chicago will get its party on Sept. 12 at the Hideout (lineup TBA). Some other party dates:
Posted on July 10, 2009
By Steve Rhodes
While “Billie Jean” is probably Michael Jackson’s landmark song, and Thriller his landmark record, “Man in the Mirror” has an intimate, autobiographical yet universal quality about it that marks as an anthem of sorts and an appeal of the sort Jackson rarely made; let’s just say few of his songs had a “message.” And while the song annoys quite a few people I know, it’s always secretly been a favorite of mine. While the dance-funk-soul of Off The Wall was probably Jackson at his Michael Jackson-y best, this song, too, I think represents something about him. I was surprised, however, to learn that, like many of his songs, he didn’t write it.
Posted on July 7, 2009
By Matt Harness
A sampling of Bloodshot bands performing in and around Chicago in July.
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Artist: Jon Langford
Date: July 3
Venue: Hideout
Sample:
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Posted on July 3, 2009
By Matt Harness
Second of a two-part preview.
Five Bloodshot bands will take to the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage on Saturday for Bloodshot Records Day at the Taste of Chicago. One of them will be the Deadstring Brothers, playing their own brand of red-blooded rock and roll.
Beachwood Music caught up with guitarist and singer Kurt Marschke, a Detroit native, and asked about the band’s date in the Windy City and, as usual, touched on a few other topics, including the Motor City’s meltdown.
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Beachwood Music: Where’s the warm-up for Taste going down?
Kurt Marschke: Marshall, Michigan. In a little honky tonk place in the middle of nowhere with our friends, Whitey Morgan and the 78’s. They are an outlaw country band, straight up the real deal. We do a lot of gigs with them. They are our brother band in Michigan.
Posted on June 26, 2009
By Matt Harness
First of a two-part preview.
Five Bloodshot bands will take to the Illinois Lottery Taste Stage on Saturday for Bloodshot Records Day at the Taste of Chicago. We asked label co-founders Nan Warshaw and Rob Miller for some insight. We’ll have more on Friday.
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Beachwood Music: How did you get involved with the Taste of Chicago? How did you manage to get your own stage?
Rob Miller: Beats me.
Nan Warshaw: We’ve often had one or two bands play at Taste of Chicago, but this year the festival manager at the Mayor’s Office of Special Events contacted us early on to discuss ideas. The good folks at the Chicago Music Commission helped initiate these discussions.
The city wanted to step up the caliber of the Taste stage and keep it local. They embraced the idea of giving five local labels a day each on the Taste stage. With Bloodshot celebrating our 15th anniversary this year we were able to make this one of our big anniversary kick-off shows. We also like that the Taste is free and open to all.
Posted on June 25, 2009
By Matt Harness
In a little more than a week, five Bloodshot bands invade Grant Park and take over their own stage at the Taste of Chicago. We here at Beachwood Music decided to lick our lips early and asked Chicago treasure Dean Schlabowske to offer up a menu of his insights. The Logan Square resident plays guitar and sings in both Dollar Store and Waco Brothers, two of the bands that will shower suburbanites with their sweet sounds.
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Beachwood Music: “Schlabowske” sounds like one of SNL’s Super Fans. Where are you from?
Dean Schlabowske: Milwaukee, but I’ve lived in Chicago for 20 years. I’ve lived in the Logan Square/Humboldt Park area for four years. The whole other time I kicked around Bucktown, Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village. I lived in way too many apartments to remember. When I finally got around to buying a place, I had to move a little west.
The truly starving artists got pushed out of there, but I still own a business, the Cellar Rat, in Wicker Park. I’m still pleased with the nice mix of people. People talk like it’s another Lincoln Park. It’s not that quite homogenous yet.
Posted on June 19, 2009
By Matt Harness
Ha Ha Tonka releases its second album, Novel Sounds of the Noveau South, on Tuesday on Bloodshot Records, so we here at the Bloodshot Briefing desk caught up with lead singer and guitarist Brian Roberts, who lives in Santa Barbara, by phone from Kansas City, where he and the boys were getting ready to hit the road.
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Beachwood Music: Buckle in the Bible Belt went over huge; some publications ranked in the top 20 for 2007. How is this album different, if not better, from your debut?
Brian Roberts: I don’t know if it’s that different, maybe more polished, maybe a slightly bigger sound, a bit more expansive.
We tie in some of the same themes as the first one but to the greater South. The first track is a thesis statement for the record, basically about empowering the individual. People have an inherent goodness.
Whether we succeed or not is up to the listener.
Posted on June 12, 2009
