list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.23.2011

Programming note: There's a good chance next week's list will come out on Tuesday.

Pick of the week
In introducing the show on Monday night, XRT's Terry Hemmert used the proper, slightly incredulous inflection of "Paul Simon...at THE VIC?!" The tunes were great, the band impeccable, and the sense of intimacy was just wonderful. I'm not sure if it breaks into the top five, but I'd venture that it was one of the top ten shows I've been to. Even my mom was jealous. Pictures will be on Facebook eventually.

Friday night's set from Andrew Fraker & Sons picked up an extra three and a half songs once we found out we were headlining, including in impromptu couple of choruses of "It's The End of The World As We Know It" right at the end to celebrate the coming non-Rapture. Great fun.

Speaking of "Rapture," we did actually vamp on the Blondie tune while Tony changed a string at Diver's Saturday night Fado gig, but neither Sue nor I felt like tackling the rap. Not quite as much energy there, possibly because two out of three of us had put a lot into the Schubas show the night before.

list.in.to.COZ
Lots of guitar and vocals this week, with open mics Tuesday and Wednesday, and then a full evening on Sunday at The Globe. And, in the event the list goes out either late on Monday or on Tuesday, I'm playing with The Ripleys at Navy Pier on Monday afternoon.

Recap
Lots of the good ones are sold out, although a quick look over Craigslist or StubHub for Lykke Li, Adele and/or Janelle Monae might be worth it. Of the remaining, you've got a couple of solid options Thursday night with Sloan (Subterranean) and Eisley (Bottom Lounge)

5.23   monday
Bonnie "Prince" Billy with Eleventh Dream Day (Pritzker Pavilion)
Twitter tells me that EDD drummer Janet Bean broke her foot over the weekend, but they've got a sub. This is the first of the free Monday night "Downtown Sound" shows in Millenium Park that were such a hit over the last summer or two.

Lykke Li with Grimes (Metro)   SOLD OUT!
I got to see the diminutive Swede on Jimmy Fallon a few months ago, and as a result, have had her single "Get Some" lodged in my head ever since. As a single, it's infectously catchy, although taken as part of the whole record, it's maybe just a bit too reverb-drenched.

5.24   tuesday
Adele with Plan B (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
Lately I've been describing 2011 as the year of strong, catchy songs, and a big reason for that assessment is "Rolling In The Deep" from Adele. This record snuck up on some people, but mostly because they weren't paying attention, as her last album was considered pretty strong as well.

Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
For those of you who didn't get tickets for the Riv, I can regale you with my solo acoustic version of the aforementioned Adele tune. It helps that her voice is high enough that I can just sing an octave lower and get away with it.

5.25   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
Beware enthusiastic drunken roommates of open mic performers. I'm hard-pressed to believe that an impromptu duo performance of "House of the Rising Sun" was quite as transcendent as that one guy said it was.

Crash Test Dummies with REGO (SPACE, Evanston)
David Lowery with Johnny Hickman (Lincoln Hall)
Relive the early nineties with one of the guys from Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker (although he'll probably be favoring his new-ish solo record) and the band that sings the "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm" song whose name you can never remember.

5.26   thursday
Sloan with Dearly Beloved (Subterranean)
Kind of a small venue for the Canadian power-pop band touring on either their twentieth album, or twentieth year, or something like that. It's instructive that, after giving their new record a listen, I then got a Cheap Trick song stuck in my head.

Eisley with The Narrative, Christie Dupree (Bottom Lounge)
The new record from this band of four siblings plus one family friend bursts out sounding like a slightly less weird Dirty Projectors -- which is to say, twin female harmony vocals that don't quite sound like King Crimson interlocking guitar parts, and a slightly heavy jangle behind it all.

I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business with Into It, Over It, Mansions (Beat Kitchen)
Not quite Band Name of the Week, but notable nonetheless. I find it dangerous to give your band a name that opens the door to excessively pithy reviews from lazy critics, like "they proved that in spades at this show."

5.27   friday
Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae with Mayer Hawthorne and the Country (Aragon Ballroom)   SOLD OUT!
That more people have probably heard of Mars is unfortunate, as Janelle Monae's 2010 release The Archandroid lived up to all the year-end top ten lists it found itself on. It can probably be considered a hip-hop record at its core, but there's a lot more going on than just that, in that Monae clearly finds influences well beyond the genre.

Summer Camp Music Festival (Chillecothe, IL)
On the one hand, you've got over a dozen different variations of moe. and Umphrey's McGee over the course of several days of camping, along with jam-band mainstays like STS9 and Widespread Panic. On the other, you've got sets from De La Soul, Girl Talk, The Wood Brothers, The Avett Brothers and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, as well as one particular variation of Umphrey's McGee fronted by Huey Lewis.

Fareed Haque's Flat Earth Ensemble (Green Mill)
The jazz guitarist is in town to play an afternoon set at the Summer Camp festival with his Math Games project, and picked up a more traditional (for him) two-night engagement in Uptown while he's here.

5.28   saturday
Fareed Haque's Flat Earth Ensemble (Green Mill)
See Friday's listing.

Summer Camp Music Festival (Chillecothe, IL)
See Friday's listing.

5.29   sunday
She Wants Revenge with FFM (Double Door)
I'm totally getting this Los Angeles darkwave duo (augmented with two other musicians for the live show) simultaneously confused with Semi Precious Weapons and some other band that had a big controversey about their last release, but whose name I can't remember right now.

Coz Sings! (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
The Sunday night series at The Globe has pushed back the start times until around 9:30pm or so, at which time I will take you for a guided tour through my book of random songs I like to cover. It's not like you have to go to work on Monday. Unless, of course, you do.

Summer Camp Music Festival (Chillecothe, IL)
See Friday's listing.