list.in.to.chicago this week: 01.29.2007

The moral of this week's episode is "let the bass amp hit the ground."

Pick of the week
I'll go with my buddies and former rehearsal space roommates in Frisbie, opening for Redd Kross on Saturday at Double Door. That same night, the Scott Amendola Band would be a good jazz option at the Empty Bottle.

list.in.to.COZ
A double-shot of Coz this Friday night with what could possibly be the last Diver/Wingman double-bill out at Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire. Yes, the rumors are true and the lineup will be changing in the near future. I may only be in one band (Diver) for the first time in I don't even know how long.

Recap
Okay, so we punted on the winter theme last week. It's been such a mild winter, I think that maybe that's appropriate.

Other than that, it was a largely non-musical week. Jake Johannsen was pretty darned funny on Thursday, although I've forgotten most of the specific jokes already, and, well, the Tenacious D movie is certainly about music. I can see why it didn't do all that well, as you sort of have to buy into the D in the first place for it to work. And there was no love interest, which seems odd for any movie out of Hollywood these days. Even Borat had a love interest. There was a gratuitous car chase, though.

1.29   monday
Hinder with Finger Eleven, Black Stone Cherry (Congress Theatre)
I've heard this band mentioned in the same breath as Nickelback, which pretty much tells me all I need to know -- attend this one only to satisfy sociological curiosity, and by that, I mean be on the lookout for unironic mullets.

M. Ward with Freakwater (Park West)
I almost went to see this guy in Seattle, but the call of John Hodgman and Dave Eggers was too great. He seems to have a lot of friends who guest on his country-folk-esque records, if I remember correctly. That probably makes Freakwater, the "other band" of Eleventh Dream Day's Janet Beveridge Bean, a good fit on the bill, I think.

1.30   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
In honor of Sunday's game, any songs about winning, champions, football or bears are encouraged, along with anything recorded in 1985.

1.31   wednesday
Oxford Collapse with Thunderbirds Are Now!, The Narrator (Subterranean)
One of those bands I hear mentioned a lot on them there Interwebs. The AMG description is kind of intriguing, claiming the Brooklyn band find "the link between the dark and angular side of the synth pop scene and the equally off-kilter indie rock of the '90s." I thought I gave their 2006 Sub Pop release a listen, but they're not in my big list of records that fed into my Top Ten list for the year.

moe. (Park West)
I thought these guys were a bunch of capital letter-defying, arbitrarily-punctuating hippie-wannabes from Boulder, CO, but apparently, they're a bunch of capital letter-defying, arbitrarily-punctuating hippie-wannabes from upstate New York. The best part of their AMG bio is that they formed in 1990, but it was 1997 before they "placed increasing importance on the traditional song form." I can imagine that rehearsal. "Oh, you mean we should be writing songs? Whoa."

56 Hope Road with Down Lo, John Wasem (Wise Fools Pub)
With moe. in town, and nearby at Park West, this follows as the logical afterparty.

2.01   thursday
Alison Breitman with The Lesser Scene (Subterranean)
My friend Dana has been all about Breitman for a while now, but I still haven't had the pleasure of hearing her perform.

The Rikters with Villains Of Verona, Amsterband (Schubas)
I feel like I'm supposed to know who these guys are, or maybe actually know these guys. I'm terrible like that, and yes, that's all I've got. Apparently this is their CD release party, so there's that.

2.02   friday
Diver with Wingman (Cubby Bear North)   SEE COZ LIVE!
This is your next-to-last chance to see Wingman with its "classic" lineup! Lincolnshire is easier to get to than I thought, too, with the trick being not crossing over to Milwaukee Avenue too early. Diver is likely a three-piece again for this one, although I'm trying to get the full band there so we can record the show.

The Assembly with Swizzle Tree, Roosevelt Jenkins, The Lifeline (Double Door)
Another of those local bands I keep hearing about, but not hearing.

The Count Basie Orchestra with The Joey DeFrancesco Trio (Symphony Center)
All during high school, big band was about playing difficult pieces at breakneck speed. It wasn't until much later that I really got a good feel for what the genre was really about, historically, and you can't do much better than the Basie band for a quick primer.

2.03   saturday
Frisbie with Redd Kross (Double Door)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I ran into Steve Frisbie shortly after he and the band had finished up their new record, and he was very excited about it. No idea who else is actually in the band right now, but I suspect they'll be very good. Power pop doesn't get much better than these guys.

Rock Star Supernova with The Panic Channel (Rosemont Theatre)
If you visit the website proper, you probably know that I was pretty obsessed with the Rock Star: Supernova reality series over the summer, even once Hoffer got voted off early. Jason Newsted was subbed out for the tour after trying to catch a falling bass amp and wrecking his shoulder, so we don't even know if his replacement even likes Lukas Rossi. I still would have gone with Magni. And the record isn't terrible, having at least more memorable tunes than Dave Navarro's Panic Channel. I would have figured one of the other contestants would have replaced that singer by now.

The Scott Amendola Band with Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Jenny Sheinman (Empty Bottle, early show)
Amendola first surfaced in the early nineties with guitarist Charlie Hunter in both his own band and T.J. Kirk, and has since developed into one of the more interesting young jazz drummers that you've almost certainly never heard of.

The Dials with Bottomless Pit, Lee Rays (Empty Bottle)
This is being billed as the Second Annual John Glick Memorial show. Glick, as regular readers know, was one of three local musicians killed in a car crash a year and a half ago, along with original Dials drummer Doug Meis and Michael Dahlquist.

Camera Obscura with The Essex Green (Logan Square Auditorium)
The press blurb on Empty Bottle's website speaks of "Scottish moody, whimsical pop."

Eddie From Ohio (Black Orchid)
I inherited a couple of CDs from these guys as raffle prizes at a party before the Major League Soccer championship game way back in 2000. Never listened to them.

2.04   sunday
Nicholas Barron's Hyperactive (Long Room)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Not a lot of listings for Super Bowl Sunday, but the free-form funk and soul would be my pick to celebrate a Bears victory in the big game.

Diamondback (Carol's Pub)
Not a lot of listings for Super Bowl Sunday, but the old-school country band would be my pick to drown your sorrows after a Bears loss in the big game.