list.in.to.chicago this week: 05.21.2012

I'm kinda glad I didn't get in the habit of mourning recently deceased musicians in this space, because that would start to overwhelm the show listings at the current rate of obituaries.

Pick of the week
I'm more intrigued by a few shows this week than I am totally dying to see anything. Those shows include Dry the River on Thursday at Beat Kitchen and Third Coast Percussions playing the music of John Cage on Friday at Mayne Stage. There's also Saturday's CD release party for Holding Mercury at Lincoln Hall.

list.in.to.COZ
Regular office hours only. There may be a new Fraker show on the long-range radar, but I don't know if it's confirmed. More news as it becomes available.

Recap
I managed to get tickets to see Garbarge in August. That counts as a recap, right?

5.21   monday
Lee "Scratch" Perry with Subatomic Soundsystem, Illuminati Congo, Impala Sound Champions (Lincoln Hall)
One of many reasons I actively resist dubstep is that I feel like it steps on the toes of dub reggae. Or at least jumps in front of dub reggae in an alphabetically sorted list of music genres.

5.22   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Join us as we celebrate the ability to move unfettered through our fair city once more. Not only is NATO gone, but they finally finished that construction at Congress.

M. Ward with Lee Ranaldo (The Vic)
Sonic Youth's Ranaldo has just released, or is about to release, a solo album that features the likes of John Medeski and Nels Cline. As for M. Ward, I may need to ask Siri for a good Zooey Deschanel joke.

Vanarays with Blue Eyed Jesus, Tomorrow The Moon (Marytrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
When we last checked in, Tomorrow The Moon included two-thirds of one of my favorite local bands of all time (Phantom Helmsman) and one other friend. That other friend doesn't seem to stay in bands for very long, so I don't know if he's still involved.

5.23   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
Last week I had an aspiring singer from New York hand me a bunch of charts for songs I didn't know, including ones from Carla Bruni and Shakira. If it went badly, at least there was barely anyone in the room to notice.

Alejandro Escovedo with Jesse Malin (Lincoln Hall)
You can take the musician out of the punk rock band, but you can't take the punk rock out of the musician. I can think of few people that applies to more than Alejandro Escovedo, whose dark alt-country and rock brims with a certain punk spirit from his earlier days.

Eric Howell's Greatest Hitch (Martyrs')   FRIENDS OF COZ!
So this will be a screening of Eric's biographical documentary that debuted last year, along with a musical performance. Having seen it when the film was originally completed/released, I think the documentary I'd like to see is about the long reach of bands like Cheap Trick and Stars over the local power pop mini-scene to which Howell belongs.

5.24   thursday
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros with He's My Brother She's My Sister (Riviera Theatre)   SOLD OUT!
I don't know that I have room in my brain for more than one psychedelic musical collective, and I like Polyphonic Spree better. Still, that one tune on that one commercial with the whistling is pretty catchy.

Dry the River with Otter Petter (Beat Kitchen)
Must have seen something about this English folk-rock band a few weeks ago, because I had some songs saved in my Rhapsody player when I last opened it. Also, nice win for Beat Kitchen with an up-and-coming international act.

M13 with Psycles (Reggie's Music Joint)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Between the forward-thinking big band and Chris Siebold's eclectic ensemble, this might be the most adventurous show of the week, the John Cage thing notwithstanding.

Chris Greene Quartet with Paul Abella Trio (Mayne Stage)
It's almost hard to believe Greene's been going at it for at least fifteen years now, but doesn't seem to quite have the name recognition of other local saxophonists. Or maybe he does and I'm just not plugged into the jazz scene as much as I'd like.

The Dead Kenny G's with Furious Frank (Martyrs')
Speaking of saxophonists, this band features Skerik, who you may know from Steps Ahead and Les Claypool's band, but probably don't. He seems to have a new band, or at least a new band name, every time he comes through town.

Eef Barzelay with Heligoats, Shannon Stephens (Hideout)
Even if he wasn't a former member of Clem Snide, I would point this out just because it's really fun to say "Eef Barzelay."

5.25   friday
Third Coast Percussion (Mayne Stage)
Performing works from John Cage as part of the celebration of the avantgarde composer's centennial.

De La Soul with Sidewalk Chalk (The Shrine)
Legend has it that some of us on the concert board at the U of C took the hip-hop trio to a south side restaurant after playing Mandel Hall some 23 years ago, whereupon patrons saw the band and yelled out "hey, it's De La Soul!" When they noticed the three scrawny white guys with them, they added "and the Beastie Boys!"

Bobby Conn with Cave, Starring (Empty Bottle)
I haven't seen Conn with the Glass Gypsys in quite some time, so I'm starting to think that incarnation is done. And Cave is still riding a bit of local buzz.

Waco Brothers with Riptones (Beat Kitchen)
Okay, so Beat Kitchen is going very British this week, although I'm not sure if Leeds transplant Jon Langford still counts.

David Guetta (Congress Theater)
All I know about this guy is that, as per the Internet meme, he leans on things. Seriously, that's it.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus with Sparks the Rescue, Namesake (Bottom Lounge)
These guys came along late enough in the post-punk "active rock" era that I didn't think they'd last very long. On the one hand, congratulations for proving me wrong. On the other hand, they already have more former band members than current band members, so that's an odd sort of longevity.

5.26   saturday
A Friend Called Fire, Holding Mercury, Workout Music (Lincoln Hall)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
This is a CD release for the good men of Holding Mercury, capping off a good week for "Friends of Coz" shows. That's a nice turn of events, because I was starting to feel like I don't have as many musician friends as I used to. That, or I'm just in bands with most of them.

Poi Dog Pondering (Double Door)
This may be the smallest venue I've seen the relentlessly happy world-pop band play in quite some time. Frank Orrall and company also have a penchant for playing on the Sunday of a three-day weekend.

LMFAO with Far East Movement, Quest Crew, Sidney Samson (Allstate Arena)
I cannot bring myself to actually do any research on this execrable pop duo, but I feel like I came across a comment about how one of them is the son of somebody powerful in the music business, which pretty much explains everything. Kudos to Time Out Chicago for the witheringly erudite takedown "the reductio ad absurdum of all that is imbecilic," while the Reader seems to be riding some sort of meta-backlash just to be contrary.

5.27   sunday
Mighty Blue Kings (SPACE, Evanston)
Here's a blast from the past -- MBK owned the local jump swing scene back when that was a thing, playing weekly at the Green Mill.

Poi Dog Pondering (Double Door)
See Saturday's listing. And take Monday off. You earned it.