Welcome to the new, not-really-improved BabyStew This Week In Chicago listing. What's new about it, you ask? Absolutely nothing, except that it now covers the week from Monday through Sunday rather than Sunday through Saturday. It always seemed weird to me not to be listing Sunday shows until the morning of – when not many people are reading blogs – for the sole purpose of sticking with the conventional definition of "week" ( i.e. , Sun-Sat). But convention be damned. So here's what's going on in Chicago this "week". [...]
Crystal Stilts started as a band the same year that Slumberland Records got back up and running after a couple of years off. It makes sense that their paths would cross since the sounds of both seem to run parallel to each other. In 2008 they made it happen with Slumberland Records releasing the excellent debut LP Alight of Night . On Saturday they too will play the Slumberland Records 20th Anniversary Party at The Bell House! ( tickets ) Here's what they think about being [...]
Since starting up 20-years ago, Slumberland Records has been providing the world with some of the best and noisiest pop music around. Lately the label has really stepped up its game with a new crop of bands ready to carry the torch of the label for the next 20-years. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have to considered the cream of that crop of bands. Their self-titled debut perfectly captures the influence of early Slumberland acts, while also updating the sound and pushing it towards a more [...]
This is a #noshots zone. I have a lot of respect for what eskay and company have accomplished at Nah Right and I have benefited from their support from the beginning. That said, Nah Right hasn't had much value for me as a news filter in years and I haven't been a regular reader in a while. At some point receiving dozens of items a day that I wasn't going to care about, without any context or comment just became too much. I can't begrudge eskay for growing the site's page views by accelerating the post [...]
Anytime I receive a press release that labels a band " an extremely exciting arts collective [and] a perpetual multimedia art installation ", a tiny emergency klaxon in my brain - wedged somewhere between the hippocampus and the primary auditory cortex, so the sound is both unbearably loud and very memorable - goes off. The klaxon reminds me to regard the offending group with the kind of scorn you reserve for only the most pretentious of ponces, and also Nazis. Luckily for me, this has only happened one time: now. The band in question is Uniform Motion [...]
Trick or treat? It's a simple question, and the answer is almost always the same. Everyone knows little Billy in his homemade pumpkin costume couldn't pull a trick to save his life. No, he'll just repeat the Halloween catch phrase over and over again until he's halfway to a case of childhood diabetes. Charming, but boring. What good is Halloween without a spark of mischief? After all, not all Pumpkin Day tomfoolery turns into an Eric Draven murder-rape scenario. Break Yo T.V. is the perfect accompaniment to [...]
See everyone? Kirsten Dunst can revisit Bring It On levels of ridiculousness and still maintain credibility (kind of). Donning a Japanese school uniform, the Spiderman actress recently appeared in "Akihabara Majokko Princess" a Takashi Murakami video that was Co-Directed by Mr. Blockbuster McG (he of Terminator Salvation and ummm. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle fame). The video premiered at the Tate Modern's "Pop Life" exhibition and appears to combine Lost In Translation's enamored Westerner with a shade of Sailor [...]
So I've been listening to Idlewild's new album "Post Electric Blues", whose title by the way I love. First impressions: Idlewild seem to have left behind the murkier, grungier sound of their alt-rock, indie-rock, Scottish-rock, en fin whatever-you-want-to-call-it rock past and turned to the greener, sweeter pastures of folk pop. During so many of the songs, four words kept popping into my head: Noah and the Whale. The sound, the female vocals, the instruments, the soft melodic chords, the sweetness of it all. Now I know Idlewild have had songs like this in the past, but they were [...]
An email from James M points out that those who suggest that Liverpool has little to offer beyond an endless regurgitation of its past should eat their words: Why, they're about to promote some new, young talent : A BEATLES trail through Liverpool, taking in some of the most iconic locations connected to the Fab Four, is to be debated by city leaders. What would you call such an invention? Ideas for the trail – dubbed 'The Long and Winding Road' after the Let It Be track – include plotting the fateful route [...]
Motion Turns It On is releasing their first full length and kicking off an east coast tour on October 30th at Mangos. myspace.com/femaledemand myspace.com/goldencities http://www.myspace.com/limb198 5 http://www.myspace.com/motiont urnsiton This post was submitted by Bill Kenny .
A post- Mission - Impossible Peter Lupus on stage in Cactus Flower at the Carousel Dinner Theatre in Ravenna, Ohio in 1974. But you knew that. The same year, Peter Lupus starred in five installments of the radio drama Zero Hour ) (a.k.a. Hollywood Radio Theatre ), which was hosted by a post- Twilight - Zone Rod Serling and which featured theme music performed by a post- Exodus Ferrante and Teicher. We start with that Ferrante and Teicher track, which appeared under the title Try Again on [...]
Martin Scorsese's films often serve as cinematic history lessons in popular music. Sprawling, decades-spanning opuses like Goodfellas and Casino are perpetually laced with sonic nuggets of big band, blues, and straight up rock and roll that become a sort of audiovisual poetry when combined with stylized violence and drug use. Hollywood upstart P.T. Anderson took a page straight from Scorsese's fake book (he says so in the audio commentary) and cranked it up to 11 for his breakthrough film Boogie Nights , a glitter and gutter rollercoaster ride through the adult film industry in the [...]
Upcoming Show At Nacstock Looks very Promising for the Make A Wish Foundation. If you haven't already heard - October 17th and 18th over 20 bands from around Texas will come together in Nacogdoches, TX for a benefit for the Make A Wish Foundation. The event even has optional camping sites available so bring a tent, a bag "of clothes," and listen to some up and coming bands. Check out the Artists music below! Buxton [...]
"Give Up The Ghosts" is from Motion Turns It On's upcoming LP, Kaleidoscopic Equinox . audio: Give Up The Ghosts http://www.myspace.com/motiont urnsiton
Subscription Feeds: New Song Daily Only | All Podcasts E-mail Comments: phill[at]thephiller[dot]com Motion Turns It On "Give Up the Ghosts" from Kaleidoscopic Equinox ( Chocolate Lab Records ) Release Date: October 2009
SATURDAY, OCT. 3 12:00 noon Harvest Homecoming Parade begins at noon on Vincennes street and ends around 4-5 on Bank Street in front of the New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse. You can watch the parade from our bar or patio and warm your seat for the after-party. 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Fringe Fest kicks off with live "Jazz on the Patio" immediately following the Harvest Homecoming parade. Our friends from The Outfit will set the week into motion. SUNDAY, OCT. 4 12:00 noon - 3:00 [...]
I was engaged by the feature film I watched last evening. S and I laconically strutted down Eastgate Street and, with not one backwards glance, entered Gloucester's Guildhall Arts Centre in order to view Broken Embraces , the recent motion picture directed by Pedro Almodóvar. I enjoyed the fellow's last feature, Volver, and its star Penelope Cruz sparkled again in Broken Embraces. Cruz plays a secretary-cum-call girl whose attempts to become an actress impact on a range of finely crafted characters. The plot is fascinating, full of twists and turns, while the varied personalities' idiosyncrasies and nuances entwine with [...]
Since we capped off September with a bang , it's only appropriate we do the same to kick off the month of October. Boy, the year has flown by, eh? It's already time to start putting together new our year-end and decade-end lists , talk festival rumors, and maybe launch something pretty incredibly new and awesome. This and more will be coming in the month of October from your friends here at CoS. In the meantime, let's do that kick off with a band thingy with this week's edition of our Friday Mixtape... NEW Singles: [...]
Minus 8 recorded on Germany's downtempo and broken beat label Compost Records. I rather assumed that whoever was behind Minus 8 was German. Turns out it's Robert Jan Meyer and he's Swiss. Another who is probably most similar to Matthew Herbert, so it's no surprise he turns in a remix here. One of the few Swiss electronic dance music producers, Minus 8's myriad approach to the genre made his recordings some of the more championed albums by critics but also some of the least accessible for the populist audience, [...]
When was the last time you traveled? Where was it that you went? Remember those times in your childhood, when playthings were just an addition to the fully loaded amusement park that was built in your head? There was no need for airplane travel then. In that time, there were such things as bedtime stories, under-bed monsters, and wild dreams. In that time, there was a place where the wild things were. On October 16th, that place appears once more in the mind's eye of our [...]
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
WKND PLYLST!! This has nothing to do with NEW MOON!
HOT CHIP TAKE another crack at IT and I’m IN
The Beach House Theory of 2k10.
