list.in.to.chicago this week: 09.05.2011

I wonder if Fox News gives it's employees the day off today, seeing as how Labor Day has its origins with, you know, those unions they keep saying are destroying America. Whatever, there's still lots of music to talk about.

Pick of the week
The Onion AV Club is remarkably solid in their music coverage, so I defer to their judgment on their inaugural Onion AV Fest on Saturday and Sunday outside the Hideout, not to be confused with the Hideout's own block party in a couple of weeks.

list.in.to.COZ
With the business trip in the middle of the week, I do not think I have any gigs this time around. Tony will tell me if I've forgotten something over the weekend.

Recap
So, despite a weekend committed to being a total hermit and barely leaving the house, I did make it down to the Chicago Jazz Festival on a nearly perfect (if not for the downpour that hit me on the way home) Sunday night to catch sets from David Sanchez with Stefon Harris and the Roy Hargrove Quintet. Sanchez and Harris were anchored by a fantastic Puerto Rican drummer that propelled the Afro-Cuban underpinnings of most of the music. Also, props to Sanchez for telling the crowd to buy his CD if they liked what they were hearing, and if they didn't, buy it anyway and give it to someone they didn't like.

Hargrove came out in a tux and shades that, as a trumpeter, couldn't help make him cut a figure not unlike Miles Davis. That had to be intentional. What I liked about his tunes is that they weren't all play the head, then everybody gets a solo, then the head again, then out -- there was method to the arrangements and who got a turn on each tune. His drummer struck me as sort of more traditional, and maybe pre-bop, particularly on his very non-abstract solo turns later in the set.

9.05   monday
Robbie Fulks with The Hoyle Brothers (Hideout)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions (Beat Kitchen)
A couple of Monday regulars that may or may not be happening because it's a holiday, so call first. Extraordinary Popular Delusions, if I recall correctly, is a jazz group that features Mars Williams from Liquid Soul on tenor. Might be experimental in nature, but given that it's still going, maybe not.

9.06   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
So, I'm out of town again, but Tony will certainly be holding down the fort, along with, I would assume, the regular cast of characters.

9.07   wednesday
Sing Along With Oakley (The Globe Pub)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Not getting back until after the Open Mic nominally starts on Wednesday night, so the esteemed Oakley Stevens will be presiding this week.

The Autumn Defense with Plush, Dorian Taj (Lincoln Hall)
I liked last year's record from Wilco vets John Stirrat and Pat Sansone, but it didn't quite punch through into year-end list territory.

Tributosaurus X (Martyrs')
The anniversary year of shows continues with Elton John.

Blondie with The Handcuffs (House of Blues)
The original "comeback" album from Debbie Harry and band was a bit lackluster -- although I liked the first single -- so I'm a bit apprehensive about another new record. Harry herself is still pretty much a badass, though.

9.08   thursday
Fruit Bats with Vetiver, Breathe Owl Breathe (Lincoln Hall)
Knew the name looked familiar when I saw the listing. Started as a solo project for Eric D. Johnson when he was in Califone, then they started touring with the likes of Modest Mouse and The Shins until Johnson joined the Shins outright, at which point it went back to being a side project, albeit one whose fifth album was released last month on Sub Pop.

Black Moth Super Rainbow with Dosh, Marshmallow Ghosts (Metro)
This band first made some noise in Chicago opening for The Flaming Lips, and while they sound like they should be a Japanese psychedelic noise-rock band, they're actually from Pittsburgh. The rest still applies.

Graham Czach with Ben Keeler and the 500 Club, Rob Nicholas (Double Door)
I've still only seen Czach the one time, he's got a great voice and some powerful riffs in his music, but I may have been holding him to a pretty high standard that he wasn't able to quite meet for the final product.

Robbie Fulks and Nora O'Connor with Dick Prall (Scout's)
Free XRT Local Anaesthetic show at the bar on South State Street.

Tributosaurus X (Martyrs')
See Wednesday's listing. Are they really doing two nights each with the anniversay shows?

9.09   friday
Alison Krauss and Union Station (Chicago Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
It's entirely possible that Krauss could have sold this room out without doing an album with Robert Plant, but I'm sure that helped. And I wonder how many people are going to accidentally go to Union Station to see Alison Krauss and the Chicago Theatre.

The Waco Brothers with The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, Danny Black and Nora O'Connor, Deadstring Brothers (The Hideout)
This is the 15th Anniversary celebration for Bloodshot Records, although it's mostly indistinguishable from an average Friday night at the Hideout, sorta.

Motopony with Tiny Fireflies (Schubas)
I have no idea if you pronounce it like "motorized pony" or like "monotony" with a p. Probabl the former, and they had one of those free download cards at Starbucks about a month ago.

Mutts (Reggie's Music Joint)
This band is friends with a co-worker of mine in New York who shares my last name and who used to live in Chicago, so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt despite a questionable recommendation for Pitchfork.

Ganglians with Mannequin Men, Soft Speaker (Beat Kitchen)
Another friend-of-a-friend recommendation, this time for Mannequin Men, but I absolutely don't remember who I know who knows them. Someone at The Globe, I think. UPDATE: See MM's comment below.

9.10   saturday
The Onion AV Fest (The Hideout)
Clearly, the folks at The Onion looked at the scene in Chicago and decided it didn't have enough curated weekend festivals, so they've added their own. Hum headlines, along with The Thermals, Disappears, and -- I'm not making this up -- someone or something named Eef Barzelay playing the music of Journey.

You Am I with Farewell Captain (Schubas)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
I feel like I've seen Farewell Captain on a handful of listings after not seeing them for a while. And I feel like I checked last time to see if Chris Frantisak was still playing with them, and at that point, he was.

Marc Ribot with David Safran (Martyrs')
There was a moment in the late 80s when I thought itinerant journeyman guitarist Ribot might actually go mainstream, right about the time of his "Rootless Cosmipolitans" band. It might be that I just liked the name.

Stanton Moore Trio (SPACE, Evanston)
The pre-eminent New Orleans drummer leads his band north of the city proper.

9.11   sunday
The Onion AV Fest (The Hideout)
Day 2 features Archers of Loaf at the top of the bill, with Tokyo Police Club, Maps & Atlases and 3 other band I haven't heard of filling out the day.