list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.26.2004

For those of you keeping tabs on this sort of thing, still no word on gainful employment, but I expect to hear something soon. In the meantime, allow me to regale your inbox with tales of rock, stories of roll, and some, uh, limericks about jazz.

Yeah, I don't know what that means, either. Do please forward this to friends, though, would you?

Also, watch Arrested Development on Fox on Sundays. It's hysterical.

Pick of the week
If you're inclined to go out on Thursday, I don't think you can go wrong with either Gomez (The Vic) or OK Go (Empty Bottle), albeit for entirely different reasons. Backtracking a bit, Regal Standard hits one of the larger stages they've been on at Bottom Lounge on Wednesday.

And I'm not a big enough fan of Train to recommend trying to finagle tickets for their sold-out stand at Schuba's, and it seems like the anti-scalping measures they've got in place would make that prohibitively difficult anyway.

list.in.to.COZ
First off, I've got a show next week that you need to mark in your calendars. It's the debut show from another, entirely different cover band called The Honor Thieves, and it's Friday, February 6th at Goose Island Wrigleyville. More details to follow. Tuesday at Vaughan's remains Tuesday at Vaughan's, except this week I think I'm going to bring a small light so I can actually read the lyrics of the new stuff. And maybe more Bowie.

Recap
The recurring theme for the week was apparently crappy bands in the middle of the bill. The Changes were both entertaining and popular on Thursday at Schuba's, which meant the growing crowd made it a bad idea to flee during the band before them, who wasn't quite so good. Soulfix, similarly, rocked it out on Friday at Metro, and the headliner sounded interesting from descriptions, but the stuff in between wasn't compelling enough to warrant sticking around.

Finally, Scottinho did an admirable job winning over a very diverse audience with his Brazilian-influenced material (and I was very amused that his shoes were, natch, Sambas) on Saturday, and my interest was again piqued for Andreus, the headliner, who looked to be a sort of hip-hop/soul/rock crossover artist. But there was no way in hell I could endure the guy in between the two on a night I was flying solo and not drinking. Budgets can be a bitch sometimes, as can be crappy singer/songwriters.

1.26   monday
Patricia Barber Quartet (Green Mill)
Still holding down the Monday night slot with her intelligent jazz, Barber remains my favorite of the Green Mill regulars.

1.27   tuesday
Open Mike (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Once again, if you sing, come on down! Also, if you drink on Tuesdays, come on down! Not only will you likely get some eighties and some hard rock arranged for acoustic guitar from yours truly, I actually wrote a song over the weekend, and it doesn't suck. Still needs a bridge, so we'll see if it's ready.

1.28   wednesday
The Regal Standard with Van Allen Belt(Bottom Lounge)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Larry said just one sentence this time, but never underestimate the power of the comma. He also made a couple of hairstyle suggestions, which I think warrants a sentence of it's own, and I'll tack on the fact that it seems to be "The" Regal Standard again to that little tidbit.

Kick the Cat (Lyon's Den)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
They've revamped their material since late last year, but to be fair, I had only seen them once before, and haven't seen them lately, so I can't really speak to switching from what to what. That said, the band still features some of the best musicians I know, playing their collective asses off.

1.29   thursday
Gomez with Rachael Yamagata (The Vic)
I guess the best way to describe Gomez is as a British jam band. Which isn't entirely helpful, because they don't really sound like what we've come to know as a jam band. But they don't really sound like a "classic" britpop band, either. So you throw Travis and Phish (probably the wrong jam band example) into a blender, and see what happens.

OK Go with Spiraling (Empty Bottle)
This is either going to be a tough show to get into, or one more example of how the flavor-of-the-month culture of radio does serious damage to the long-term prospects of good bands.

1.30   friday
Giant Step with Caviar, The Silent Treatment, The Strategy Game (Double Door>
I wonder if, because they're more obvious about it, Monica Kendrick at the Reader has ever knocked Giant Step for sounding like Cheap Trick. I'm not still bitter about that, I swear. I thought it was funny. And hey, you can still buy URT discs at Amazon.

Lee Rocker with Back Porch Mary, The Riptones (Subterranean)
First we get Earl Slick with David Bowie, now this. Can a show featuring "Slim" Jim Phantom be far behind? Because who can forget 80s mainstays Phantom, Rocker and Slick? I know at least two of those guys were in a seminal band of the early MTV era, so that must be it, right?

1.31   saturday
The Muck Brothers (Double Door)
As far as I can tell, the big New Year's Eve show may have breathed some new life into one of Chicago's more prominent Irish bands. I'm pretty sure they've been playing small bar gigs here and there, but now they look like they've gotten back into the bigger venues.

Bumpus with Youngblood Brass Band (Martyr's)
These guys rehearse down the hall from me, and despite losing singer Rachael Yamagata to a solo career (see Thursday's listings), they continue to be one of the more recognizable funk outfits playing the north side circuit.

2.01   sunday
Sumo (Elbo Room)
I'll admit, I've been neglecting these guys for a while. I don't even know who's still in the band, but I do know that anybody this committed to large-scale improvisation deserves your attention. Even better 'cause it's funky, although the big "acid jazz" movement in Chicago seems to have died down a bit.