list.in.to.chicago this week: 07.16.2012

I didn't list them all, but there are enough street festivals in enough different neighborhoods this weekend that you may as well just abandon all hope of getting anywhere by car because of all the street closures.

Pick of the week
I'm contractually obligated to mention non-Coz shows here, so I need to pick one that won't interfere with your completely-set-in-stone plans to come to Double Door on Thursday night. How about Charles Bradley tonight at Pritzker Pavilion? It should be a really good show, for one, and you should totally have recovered from the heat stroke by Thursday.

list.in.to.COZ
Thursday night is a rare live appearance from (hopefully) all four members of Andrew Fraker & Sons at Double Door. If you need a doctor's note when you call in sick on Friday, we'd be happy to oblige. Just keep in mind that none of us are actualy doctors. Or even play one on TV. But you should come anyway, because it'll rock and stuff.

Plus, regular office hours, which will be officially changing as of next week. Read on for the details.

Recap
Ended up going to see the live taping of Sound Opinions at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, with the Ty Segall Band and Japandroids both giving performances and (somewhat prickly, in the case of Japandroids) interviews. If those two bands were among the high points of this past weekend's Pitchfork Festival, I'm definitely not second-guessing my decision to skip it. Not bad, but doesn't quite reconcile with the amount of critical praise. On the other hand, both bands are pretty visceral guitar bands, which would have been a big improvement over last year's bored Scandinavians with laptops and bad dance bands.

7.16   monday
Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Abigail Washburn (Pritzker Pavilion)
Sharon Jones is still the primary attraction at Daptone Records these days, but Charles Bradley is making a strong case with mostly the same formula of an authentic R&B artist surrounded by hipster musicologists. What's a hipster musicologist? Well, they look mostly indistinguishable from hipsters, but clearly know their shit when it comes to playing music of a certain genre/era.

Robbie Fulks (Hideout)
This week is a tribute to the late Levon Helms, titled "Lovin' on Levon, with a (not 'The') Band."

Paper Mice with Lovely Little Girls, Frank n' Stein, Unmanned Ship (Empty Bottle)
No idea who Paper Mice is, but their new album -- for which this is a release party -- is streaming for free on the Chicago Reader website.

7.17   tuesday
Open Jam (Vaughan's)   COZ SINGS!
Might have to learn some Deep Purple to pay tribute to the band's keyboardist, Jon Lord, who passed away today.

A Place to Bury Strangers with Hunters, DJ Bud Sweet (Empty Bottle)
I still haven't seen this band at an indoor venue, and I'm still kind of afraid to. They're very, very loud.

7.18   wednesday
Sing Along With Coz (The Globe Pub)   COZ SINGS!
After weeks and weeks of bitching about it, I'm putting the Globe open mic out of its misery. This will be the last one. I thought going in that I had a strong enough network of musicians to make this into something cool, but it just didn't happen.

7.19   thursday
Andrew Fraker & Sons with Polarcode, Soulfix, Mason's Case (Double Door)   SEE COZ LIVE!
I can think of no better way to spend your Thursday night than with a potent lineup of local rock bands. Some may call this a failure of imagination, but they're jerks who you shouldn't listen to anyway. Plus, you get Andrew Fraker & Sons AND our good friends in Soulfix, all on one bill.

Chris Siebold's Psycles with The Renegades (Reggie's Music Joint)   FRIENDS OF COZ!
Nice little interview with Uncle Siebs in the Examiner recently. Curious to see how this band has grown since its inception, and how much of that growth is just Chris as bandleader, or from interaction among the players.

Liars with Joan of Arc (Metro)
This is one of those bands that has floated on my own periphery for a long while, to the point where I feel like I should give them a listen, but nothing about I read about them is really making that strong of a case, so given the choice between checking out if they have, in fact, "traded in the angular guitar and disco beats for droning, ethereal soundscapes whose stillness is as fraught with tension and threat as dusk on the Serengeti" and listening to something else, door number two always wins. That's Kevin Warwick of the Reader with the ridiculous critic-speak, in case you were wondering.

7.20   friday
Disappears, Mutts, This Is Cinema, Shannon Hayden, and others (Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival)
The backlash against the frat-rock cover band street festivals has been both strong and sustained. And mostly located where you would expect it, as this festival is in Logan Square, on Milwaukee between California and Kimball. It's nice to see so much original local music on these outdoor stages, but I do wonder if there will be a meta-backlash at some point.

Baby Teeth (Lincoln Hall)
The local band is doing a Band-esque blowout with a ton of guests (including, notably, Bobby Conn and Jason Narducy) for their last show ever. Apparently, their bass player is moving to L.A., which gives me some comfort that it's not just my bands that can't hang on to bass players.

O.A.R. with Rebelution (Charter One Pavilion)
Okay, now the portal to Northerly Island got switched from "eighties" to "suck."

7.21   saturday
Gomez, Ike Reilly Assassination, Nadas, New Policies, and others (Sheffield Garden Walk)
This street festival has been bringing in national acts for a while now, and for once, they've got one that I might actually want to see.

Trippin Billies, Van Ghost, Liquid Soul, Scott Lucas & the Married Men, and others (Roscoe Village Burger Fest)
Not so interested in a Dave Matthews cover band, but the combination of the rest of the acts, along with being a block away from my house, makes this somewhat appealing.

7.22   sunday
Cowboy Mouth, Michael McDermott, Mr. Blotto, Vintage Blue, and others (Sheffield Garden Walk)
Of course, the Sunday lineup for this festival consists almost entirely of bands that make me want to gouge my eardrums out with a dull spork, and actually makes me think a bit less of Gomez for participating. Unless they saw the list and demanded to play on a different day.

Kelly Hogan with Chris Scruggs (The Hideout)
Two shows, with the early show already sold out. But if Kelly Hogan is on stage, who's behind the bar?