list.in.to.chicago this week: 09.20.2010

Mr. Floyd calling from America for Mrs. Floyd, will you accept the charges?

Pick of the week
Despite having not ever actually heard them, I'm leaning towards Built To Spill on Friday night at The Vic. And having both Holding Mercury and The Maybenauts on the same bill on Saturday night at Cubby Bear would make that one a no-brainer if I didn't have a gig of my own.

list.in.to.COZ
Tony and I will be playing up in Edison Park at the Curragh Pub on Saturday. Regular office hours (Tuesday @ Vaughan's, Wednesday @ The Globe) are in effect.

Recap
If Of1000faces reminded me of anyone on Thursday night at Bottom Lounge, it was actually Meat Loaf. And I really, truly, don't mean that in a bad way. I think it may have been the sheer number of people -- maxing out at nine band members at one point -- that gave the proceedings a certain "rock opera" feel.

Musically, there were a lot of the tightly manicured compositions that I think we've come to expect from Matt Walker when he's in a lead role. It was modern rock, and kind of hard to put a finger on past that. Except maybe for a bit of a Radiohead vibe and the Jeff Buckley-esque vocals from a singer with some serious, serious pipes. My one quibble is that, with so many people on stage, do you really need to have backing tracks, too?

9.20   monday
Roger Waters (United Center)
I saw the rest of Pink Floyd back in 1986, and lately I've been thinking maybe I should have gotten tickets to see Waters play The Wall to complete the experience. I think tickets still remain for the four-night stand, so we'll see. I'm a little wary of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" with anyone other than David Gilmour playing that guitar solo, but he said he's going to drop in unannounced on one show from this tour, so maybe Chicago will get lucky.

Biffy Clyro with O'Brother, Empires (Lincoln Hall)
One of my Britpop-loving friends really digs these guys, and his taste in modern UK bands is pretty good. Personally, I can't quite get past the dreadfully stupid name in order to give them a listen.

Crocodiles with Radar Eyes, Heavy Times (Empty Bottle)
Another friend of mine has been talking this band up lately. I think the reference point was more shoegazer, but I may be making that up.

The Gaslight Anthem with Fake Problems, Bridge and Tunnel (Riviera Theatre)
From what I've been reading, expect to see the New Jersey band on a lot of year-end top ten lists.

9.21   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
We'll have rhythm, and we'll have music, but we could ask for one thing more -- you. We'll also have beer.

Zakir Hussain with Niladri Kumar (Pritzker Pavilion)
This free show is part of the World Music festival and features probably the most well-known Indian percussionist in the world. With apologies to Trilok Gurtu, who is really, really great, but not nearly as prominent as Hussain.

Shonen Knife with Aleks and The Drummer, Santah (Schubas)
Naoko Yamano has been leading this all-girl Japanese punk trio for nearly thirty years.

Roger Waters (United Center)
See Monday's listing.

9.22   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
We've been getting some new players every week for a couple of weeks now, but the next trick will be to get them to come back so they're all in the room at the same time.

Alberta Cross with Dead Confederate, J. Roddy (Double Door)
Saw this band open for Them Crooked Vultures, and dug them a lot. As I recall, it was Southern rock played by British ex-pats who live in New York, and carried a bit of all those geographies with them in an interesting way.

Stan Ridgway with Jon Langford (Abbey Pub)
As someone who has been playing "Mexican Radio" ever since the first or second time I attended the Open Jam at Vaughan's ten or so years ago, I'm totally bummed that I have to be at The Globe when the singer of Wall of Voodoo is playing in town.

Satya with Jazzmata, Red Baraat (Chicago Cultural Center)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
More free shows from the Chicago World Music Festival, as part of a program called "India Calling!," and featuring my good friend Scott Anderson coming back to town to play guitar. He describes Satya as a unique mix of "Bombay, Brazil and Brooklyn," and I believe him.

The Tallest Man On Earth with S. Carey (Park West)
Pitchfork calls him a "Swedish folk yowler," which either does or doesn't explain why all the hipster kids seem to dig Kristian Matsson.

9.23   thursday
Jackson Browne with David Lindley (Chicago Theatre)
For what it's worth, a friend of my parents invoked Browne upon hearing the Andrew Fraker & Sons demos, and it's not a bad comparison. I think he gets overlooked, outside of making news when some politician uses "Running On Empty" without permission. At least I think someone did that once. McCain, maybe?

Ed Kowalczyk with Thriving Ivory, Miggs (Park West)
The (former?) Live frontman is in town on his own. At Lollapalooza, he was playing on the kids' stage, so I don't know if this this an adults-oriented show or not. I would imagine so.

Street Sweeper Social Club (Bottom Lounge)
It's the latest project from Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, but I don't think I've actually heard anything from them in the two or three years they've existed now.

Papa Roach with The Last Vegas, The Frantic, The Fireship (Congress Theater)
With all the talk of bed bugs in the news, it was only a matter of time before other annoying insects showed up. I think the EPA would make an exception on the DDT ban in this case.

Roger Waters (United Center)
See Monday's listing.

9.24   friday
Built To Spill with Revolt Revolt, The Stay Lows (The Vic)
I've been hearing good things about this band for probably a decade now, but haven't been nudged enough to actually check them out.

Foals with Esben and the Witch (Lincoln Hall)   SOLD OUT!
Wikipedia lists the Mercury Prize-nominated band from Oxford as both dance punk and math rock. And now my head hurts.

Roger Waters (United Center)
See Monday's listing.

9.25   saturday
Holding Mercury with Spacehog, The Maybenauts (Cubby Bear)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Oddly enough, I don't think I've been hit up by Holding Mercury on Facebook or by The Maybenauts via e-mail yet for this show. Or I have and I just tuned it out, because both bands -- and I like both bands -- are nice enough to keep me posted on lots of shows.

Tony and Coz from DIVER (Curragh Pub)   SEE COZ LIVE!
So July had a lot of full band gigs, August was kind of slow, and now September seems to be the month of the acoustic percussion gig. I may need to switch to a stand instead of the shoulder strap, though, as two gigs in a row this past weekend started to weigh on me, literally.

Of Montreal with Janelle Monae (Riviera Theatre)
Most of what I've read recently about this Athens, Georgia band is that they've traded the introspective ork pop for something a bit more energetic and better suited to whatever sort of dance floor hipsters like to inhabit. Is there a such thing as an ironic dance floor?

Little Feat (Park West)
The legendary Southern rockers lost drummer Richie Hayward just a month and a half ago, but continue to tour with a guy named Gabe Ford behind the kit filling those big, eminently tasteful shoes. I think my first introduction to Hayward was actually on a Robert Plant solo record before I discovered this band during their eighties comeback.

The Vibrators with The Wanton Looks (Reggie's Rock Club)
Since The Wanton Looks are a "girl group," I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that, with a name like The Vibrators, they're in the same boat.

9.26   sunday
The National with Owen Pallett (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
So far I'm doing a good job of going to see the bands I had to skip at Lollapalooza because they were up against someone else I wanted to see more. First up is the laconic indie rock of The National, whose vocals sometimes seem just a step or two higher than Crash Test Dummies. As a deep-voiced individual myself, I don't see that as a bad thing.

Caribou with Emeralds (Metro)
Nominally a solo electronica artist, Daniel Victor Snaith typically plays percussion with a larger group on tour.