Music

Vic Chesnutt

Vic Chesnutt: Warm Heart, Dark Folk

Before passing in late 2009 (shortly after this piece was written), folk-rock troubadour Vic Chesnutt had released 20 years of albums imbued with his infectious passion and collaborative spirit. The triumphant final album At The Cut is a fitting swan song.

Deerhoof

Record Review: Deerhoof’s Deerhoof vs. Evil

Deerhoof: Deerhoof vs. EvilDeerhoof: Deerhoof vs. Evil (Polyvinyl, 1/25/11)

Deerhoof: “Merry Barracks”

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It’s so easy to get caught up in Deerhoof’s little eccentricities that it’s worth reminding people that the quartet is also a solid rock outfit — albeit with a supremely jagged sense of rhythm. Deerhoof tends to play these sides against each other expertly: Satomi Matsuzaki’s vocals are usually the first thing to throw people off, but they also often center the songs with hooky energy. Greg Saunier’s scurrying, splattered drums give the songs a feeling of constant ambush, but also let you know that all this madness is definitely going somewhere.

Deerhoof’s work often shows how much craft, instinct, and care goes into sounding bonkers. Deerhoof Vs. Evil bets that those qualities can remain when the racket is turned down. That’s not to say the record lacks the band’s usual joyous frivolity, or even that there’s less of it going on at once; it just offers chances to slow down and appreciate how pretty Deerhoof’s music can be.

That’s a refreshing direction to hear after the band’s last full-length in 2008, Offend Maggie. For as strong as that album is, the blocky, straining chords of “The Tears And Music Of Love” and “My Purple Past” sound like a band trying to wear itself out on blunt-force rocking for good. Evil looks for resources outside the drum-driven rock format and exerts unabashed, spit-shined control over what it finds.

Wu-Tang Clan

Concert Photos: Wu-Tang Clan @ Congress Theater (Chicago, IL)

Everyone’s favorite original rap super-group Wu-Tang Clan rolled through Chicago over the weekend to perform a set in the Congress Theater. Though its individual members have each gone on to do a number of other things, including RZA‘s foray into Hollywood and recent work on Kanye West‘s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it’s nice to see them unite forces once in a while. ALARM contributing photographer Elizabeth Gilmore waded through the head-nodding masses to snap these stellar photos.

Wu-Tang Clan

Moses Supposes

Moses Supposes: Will HD Radio lead to “hear ‘n’ buy” technology?

Moses Avalon is one of the nation’s leading music-business consultants and artists’-rights advocates and is the author of a top-selling music business reference, Confessions of a Record Producer. More of his articles can be found at www.mosesavalon.com.

You want the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in one sentence? 3-D TVs, every iPad accessory you can think of, and competing tablet computers. There, I just saved you a trip to Vegas.

Think you’ll never want a 3-D TV or an iPad? You’re wrong; trust me on this. Sony, LG, and a few other minor players are going to make you want 3-D so bad you’ll buy personalized eyewear just for the experience. And as far as juice for the iPadophiles — I cover that after this next thing.

What’s above is for the general public. But for us in the music space, I saw just one significant piece of new technology. Granted, I only got to cover 200,000 of the 1,000,000-square-foot show, so I’m sure I missed a few cool production gizmos. But I’m not impressed anymore by all the studio toys. Show me a new way to sell millions of records, and then I’ll get a woody.

And one exhibit did: HD Radio.

Alash

Alash: Tuvan Throat Singers

With a layered, complex, and indigenous sound, Tuvan throat singers Alash sound like a mix between Tom Waits and a flock of swallows — all while inviting listeners back to their geographically diverse homeland.

The Get Up Kids

Pop Addict: The Get Up Kids’ There Are Rules

Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.

The Get Up Kids: There Are Rules

The Get Up Kids: There Are Rules (Quality Hill, 1/25/11)

The Get Up Kids: “Regent’s Court”

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Seven years removed from Guilt Show, the album that marked the end of The Get Up Kids, the popular emo rockers will release their fifth full-length, There Are Rules, on January 25, 2011 via its own label, Quality Hill Records.

The Kansas City five-piece, which had been disbanded since 2005, returned to the studio in 2009 following a series of rehearsals to promote the tenth-anniversary tour of Something to Write Home About.

Recorded at long-time producer Ed Rose’s Blacklodge Recording studio in Eudora, Kansas, and mastered by Chicago’s Bob Weston (Shellac) — who recorded Four Minute Mile in 1997 — the album sprouted from the release of Simple Science, a four-track EP that was meant to serve as the first of three vinyl EPs in 2010.

Instead, the band pulled together the remaining tracks and, with the addition of new material, released a full-length record.

World in Stereo: Sidi Touré’s Sahel Folk

Each week, World in Stereo examines classic and modern world music while striving for a greater appreciation of other cultures.

Sidi Touré: Sahel Folk (Thrill Jockey, 1/25/11)

Sidi Touré: “Bon Koum”

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It has been 13 years since Malian folk artist Sidi Touré released a solo album. Touré’s 1998 debut, Hoga, is a bluesy, foot-stomping, electric-overdrive kind of record. At the time, Touré and many of his Malian contemporaries were on the cutting edge of the evolving Afro-pop sound, just before its revival hit the West by the turn of the century. Now at 51, Touré’s sound has definitely changed, but it’s as powerful and provocative as ever.

Sahel Folk, the West African musician’s debut on Thrill Jockey, is informed by the people and places most important to him, making for a record that comes off naturally introspective. Direct from the stunning red-dirt roads of Bamako, Mali, Touré and his unmatched guitar playing have made an album that’s nothing short of inspirational.