list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.17.2006

Today is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I feel like I'm melting. On the other, Monday morning with no Mancow? Gotta love it.

Pick of the week
I think The Effigies (Friday, Double Door) make the cut just for historical significance, and that first Headhunters (Saturday, Double Door) album also has historical significance, although in an entirely different genre. So it's another good week to camp out a North, Milwaukee and Damen.

list.in.to.COZ
Hopefully it will be a little less brutally hot this Saturday when Diver plays Summer on Southport. We go on at noon on the south stage.

Recap
Caught The Rakes at Double Door on Monday night, and they reinforced what I had concluded after seeing The Futureheads a while ago, which is that Americans get into rock bands to be cool, while the English would just as soon get into rock bands to be clever. There's such a huge difference in attitude with a lot of these U.K. bands. The singer for The Rakes also moved around a lot for a guy who didn't really step outside an imaginary 3' x 3' box, and their guitarist looked not unlike Anthony Michael Hall looking like Bill Gates.

Friday night was The Ladies And Gentlemen, and the songs are starting to stick. I also will always think their frontman sounds like Robyn Hitchcock after seeing the band cover the Soft Boys the first time I saw them. Since it was getting late after a full week of work, The Assembly needed to grab me by the lapels and demand that I be entertained by them, and it just didn't happen for me, so it was just a couple songs and out. There was also some real weird goings-on on stage between acts with a drag queen and a stunningly unfunny guy dressed as some kind of pimp, but the less said about that, the better.

7.17   monday
Jason Mraz (Schubas)   SOLD OUT!
I got nothin' here, other than the fact that Wingman plays "The Remedy," and that I've recently gotten to thinking that we should follow that up with "Remedy" from The Black Crowes. Any other "remedy" songs I'm missing? The Moon Martin classic "Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor Doctor)" might sneak in on principle.

Peaches with Eagles of Death Metal (Vic Theatre)
I think this merits a mention because I don't think I've ever seen the phrase "vulgar Canadian temptress" in a description of, well, anything. Lately, Peaches has been mentioned with or near fellow (in the non-gender-specific sense) Canadian Feist, although I don't think they're stylistically anywhere near each other. And I told the Eagles of Death Metal story last time they were in town.

7.18   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
I'm going to start the rumor that Jason Mraz will drop by on his off night between Schubas gigs. Feel free to run with it, but only if you don't say where you heard it. Because I'm making it up.

Office with Those Transatlantics, Giants (Abbey Pub)
Some band names carry certain connotations. For some reason, this one sounds like it should be one of those Joy Division-influenced British bands and not a local new new wave band pegged as an up-anc-comer by Spin magazine and South By Southwest. I blame Ricky Gervais.

7.19   wednesday
Jason Mraz (Schubas)   SOLD OUT!
See Monday's listing.

Def Leppard with Journey (First Midwest Bank Ampitheater)
Pretty soon, they're just going to call this venue "Tinley Park" and be done with it. And I find it humorous that Journey's Steve Perry clone got sick, so they hired another Steve Perry clone to fill in some dates.

7.20   thursday
Helicopters with Foster Walker Complex, Skybox, Stanley Ross (Martyrs')   CO-WORKERS OF COZ!
Okay, so I actually did a show with these guys back when I was in Soma Star and when Soma Star was called Small Creatures. Then one of the members of the band started working at my company. That said, I don't actually remember much about them. They might have been the very sparse, electronic band on that bill, or that might have been Biirdie.

7.21   friday
Garaj Mahal with MWC (Martyrs')
I want to like these guys. I really do. But despite the serious jazz pedigree, the music just comes across as the noodliest of the jam band noodlers to me. Maybe that's changed since I saw them a couple of years ago, but I think they get some unfortunate positive reinforcement of their worst tendencies from the jam band crowd.

Bon Fuckin' Jovi with Nickelback (Soldier Field)
When I was in Germany, I saw this band play in a beer garden outside the stadium in Nuremberg, and they played Bon Jovi's "Runaway." I wish I had my pictures from the trip in front of me so I could remember the band's name and see if they had a website with what had to be one of the most ridicuous band pictures I've seen in my life, and that includes Rock and Roll Confidential's legendary Hall of Douchebags.

The Cells with The Javelinas, Spring, Phil Rockrohr and the Lifters (Kinetic Playground)
I haven't been able to figure out if this venue doesn't consistently have live music, or if they just don't consistently run ads or online listings. When they do pop up on my radar, it's invariably with someone who has been on the scene a long time, defined here as going back to the URT days.

The Effigies with Dummy, The Phenoms, Muchacha (Double Door)
I'm not exactly the right guy to comment on the Chicago post-hardcore punk scene of the late eighties and early 90s, but these guys were right at the top of it. I don't know if this is a one-off, a reunion, or if the band is back as an ongoing concern.

7.22   saturday
Diver (Summer On Southport)   SEE COZ LIVE!
This is the only festival show we've actually been able to confirm for the rest of the summer. While there may be others, they're not quite nailed down just yet. As of press time, we don't know if it'll be a trio or the full quartet. If you want the full band, go rent an apartment from Anto during the week.

The Headhunters (Double Door)
A pioneering instrumental jazz-funk band from the seventies, I'm curious if they can both capitalize on the current popularity of guys like Karl Denson and offset the absence of the most recognizable name associated with the band, that being piano legend Herbie Hancock.

Ozzfest (Alpine Valley)
Either they routed the tour in a weird little circle, or it takes them a week to get set up in a new location. I'm not sure which, and I'm too lazy to check.

The New Duncan Imperials with The Sleepers, The Greenwoods (Beat Kitchen)
I'm convinced there are some Chicago bands that would survive a nuclear explosion. Of course, the way world events are unfolding these days, we could soon find out if I'm right. Anyway, NDI is one of those bands.

Your Little Ponies with Zack Hexum, Fluid Minds, 7th Kind (Elbo Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Ran into the bass player for this band just last week, and he said things are going great. He did not, however, help my nunchucks go faster, but you have to have seen these guys a few times for that to make any sense whatsoever.

7.23   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Man, I remember when I used to actually go out on Sunday nights. Often. Of course, that was when I emphatically didn't care too much about my day job. Things change.

Charlemagne with Nick Castro and The Young Elders, Campo Bravo (Schubas)
Okay, this alt-country act absolutely has to tour with new-new wave band Louis XVI. I don't care if they don't sound anything alike.

Division and Honore with Days Off, Out Of The Dumpster (The Note)
Anyone want to venture a guess as to where these guys live and/or rehearse?