The Inexorable March Of Music

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I went live with this website. The time has flown by thanks to all of the amazing people I’ve met and great times I’ve had working to bring some lesser-known bands to the foreground. There are so many thanks I’d like to give and so much respect I’d like to show for all those who have supported me in this endeavor.

When Kari and I came back from Austin last March after a few days at the SxSw music festival, I was excited to get back into the groove of writing about local bands, but I was also a little tired of being held up by others. There was a specific way things were done where I wrote before, and it wasn’t the way I liked. After a week or so of wrestling with my idea of loyalty and my desire to be able to write what I want and post it immediately, I decided to end my relationship with the other site and hopped on WordPress to start up my own thing.

Luckily I already had a couple things lined up at the time. I had cemented myself a spot on The Mountain Goats guestlist to review their show at The Vic. I had a show with local group Molehill at Bottom Lounge. And of course I had a show with Chaperone on the horizon. So I wasn’t worried about a lack of content, but I was a little worried about choosing a direction for the site.

After my initial run of shows, Record Store Day was here. I dedicated a whole week to it, talking about previous purchases and things I was looking forward to. It was a nice distraction for me to avoid thinking about what I really wanted to do. And then it dawned on me that the track I had been following-writing about Chicago bands almost exclusively, denying music from other cities their due, was idiotic. After I ran a piece I did with Neutral Uke Hotel (members of Golden Bloom and The Michael J Epstein Memorial Library), I started getting a lot of emails from people out of Boston.

Then I ran a special one-off little essay about The Hysterics. I was merely wondering what had happened to them, as I was astonished by their talent for such a young group, and it managed to find its way to former Hysterics member Oliver Ignatius. Based out of New York, he’s a producer and musician-talented as ever. He wrote to me and ended up doing a interview where he told the story of what happened to the band. So then I started getting a lot of music from New York. All of a sudden I was getting way more submissions from the east coast than I ever did in Chicago. Some time later I wrote about my friends in The Poison Control Center. And that got some notice from bands that played with them on the west coast. Out of nowhere my site was representing bands from all across the nation.

It’s been a lot to take in. Honestly, I never expected to reach anyone outside of Chicago. That I can look on my stat sheet and see that people from Malaysia and Cyprus are reading things that I’ve written is beyond my comprehension. Really, it’s just amazing. And like I said, there are a lot of people to thank for this.

First and foremost, of course, would be Kari. Not only has she been nothing but one hundred percent supportive, she’s also turned into a very talented photographer. Some of the shots she’s captured are really amazing, and in the future I’ll set up a separate site for her photos. For now, you can check most of them out on our facebook page.

Second, I’d like to thank all the bands for giving me the opportunity to work with such talented and courteous people. The ideas about musicians I had before I started writing about music were mainly formed from reading stories and watching movies, most of which were completely off. My biggest thanks goes to Miles and the rest of Chaperone for being such amazing people and letting us come to their shows for free and chatting with us. Same goes for Gabe and the crew of Dastardly. David McMillin of Fort Frances deserves a special shout out. Of all the bands that I’ve talked with and ended up getting along really well with, he’s the only one I hang out with somewhat regularly.

Third, and probably finally, I’d like to thank Rick at Handwritten Recordings for letting me use his studio and take up his time doing our Hasty Revelations sessions. Each one of them has been a triumph, and I don’t know that I could say that if we were at another venue. He knows what he’s talking about when it comes to getting the sound you want, and he’s also just a hell of a nice guy. If you’re a band looking to record, definitely check them out.

I’d like to leave with some video highlights of the last year. There have been a lot of cool things I’ve been able to check out over the last twelve months, and I’m hoping it doesn’t end any time soon.

From the first time I saw Chaperone after starting the site, this is “Son Of Love Control.” Beforehand I saw them all sitting in a booth at Beat Kitchen and I let them know that I had broken away from my old site, and they were happy for me. Miles even went so far as to make a comment about it during his onstage banter. That was nice of him, but I’m sure everyone else in the crowd was wondering what the hell he was talking about.

Neutral Uke Hotel is one of those shows you just have to see to believe. When you hear it described, you think “That’s odd.” But when you get there and allow yourself to get into it, there’s nothing like it. We had been to Empty Bottle and seen them open for Warm Ones the year before, but on this night at Schubas, they were the main attraction. The way they were able to do it was actually really cool. Instead of just playing as NUH, they opened with separate sets by each members band. So The Michael J Epstein Memorial Library played, then Golden Bloom. On a normal night, those two sets would have been good enough. Standing with a couple hundred people all singing along to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is something every music lover should do before they die.

A couple months later we were back at Schubas for a show with Dastardly. At this point the band was getting some good buzz, and they were about to embark on a tour to the west coast. I recorded the entire show and then broke it down song by song. If you’d like to see the rest, you can check out my YouTube channel.

At the end of June I was able to get a spot on the guestlist for Sleeper Agent‘s show in Chicago. They hadn’t released their album Celebrasion yet, and this single had just started making the rounds. They’re a good group of kids, and they have a good time making music together. Since this show, I think they’ve played Chicago three or four more times, so they’re definitely putting in the work.

My old friend from Des Moines, Patrick Tape-Fleming, also deserves a big thanks. His band The Poison Control Center has been kicking ass and taking names for a decade now, and he’s an inspiration to many DIY bands in the midwest. He allowed me the great honor of debuting a track from Stranger Ballet on my site, and he even wrote a nice piece about where the song came from and what it is about. This is not that song.

Lollapalooza returned to Chicago, as it does every year, in August. The lineup was atrocious (almost as bad as this year), so we didn’t go. Instead we bought tickets to two after shows. The first was Smith Westerns with Tennis as the opener. The show was awesome. If you haven’t already, check them out. Smith Westerns are so talented, and they’ve also had a bit of good fortune on their side, opening for Wilco and the Arctic Monkeys.

In November I got to try something I had been thinking about for awhile. I had done a lot of interviews with bands or artists, but that gets old after you do it a few times. I wanted to get a panel together to discuss something. Like a Charlie Rose-type discussion that went more in-depth than the average “What’s your new album sound like?” interview. I got my chance, kind of, with the Chicago Roots Collective. We had members of four bands up in the dressing area at Elbo Room to talk about the Collective and music in general. It didn’t go perfect, but I think we touched on some interesting things.

Very recently, two weeks ago in fact, we were at the Hard Rock Rising Battle of the Bands cheering on our old friends Molehill. They won the contest, moved on to the online voting portion, and were in the top ten when I last checked (go vote for them now!). It’s funny how a year later I’m right where I started. I’ve been lucky to work with bands who seem to like what I do and keep inviting me back for more. These guys are great, and I hope to see them many more times before they tire of me.

And lastly, just to show how powerful the internet can be, is Bhi Bhiman. When I was at SxSw last year, I saw him open a show with Josh Ritter. I thought they were both excellent, and I wrote a little thing (a very short thing, barely a blurb) about how good Bhi’s songwriting is. He found his way to it somehow and sent me a message on facebook letting me know that he appreciated it. I didn’t think much of it, just a guy being nice. Then I started up the Hasty Revelations sessions and I sent him a message about doing one. He came into town to play a festival and stopped by Handwritten to do a song. The thing is, he finished up recording and was happy with the way it turned out, then hung out for 45 minutes just chatting with us. Then I went and saw him open for Martin Sexton at Park West and the same thing happened. He might be the nicest guy in folk music. This video is from his most recent appearance in Chicago. Also featured are the members of Rosie Thomas’ band.