The Black Crowes were something of platinum-record selling anomaly during the grunge-pop ’90s with a Stonesy swagger and the Southerned flavored bluesy rock that was more traditionally rock n’ roll than the punk-inspired fare from Seattle. But after talking to Crowes drummer Steve Gorman earlier this week, I’m more convinced than ever that the Crowes were a key band of the ’90s and not so different from the underground acts of the same era, at least in attitude. Tonight, Atlanta’s Black Crowes take the stage the Riviera.

Here are some of the highlights from my rather lengthy conversation with Gorman. Thanks Steve.

On recording Before the Frost… Until the Freeze live with an audience at Levon Helm’s studio in Woodstock, New York…
It was very inspiring, but it wasn’t an intentional Let’s go try to capture something The Band was into. The more we plan, the less we get done. How we get from A to Z is anyone’s guess. We were picturing a conventional studio and inviting 20 or 30 of our fans in. What would that do? Chris went to see one of Levon’s Midnight Rambles. And he went This is it. And we thought What if we get a live record out of it? As it turned out, we got a full live album out of it because we thought it was good enough.

On being on an independent label vs. working with a major…
The thing is, when we were dealing with record companies which tend to be full of strongly opinionated people, we never cared what they thought anyway. I’m not saying that with bravado or isn’t that funny, it kind of hurt us in a lot of ways. I wish we had been more amenable to working with people, looking back. We were stubborn just to be stubborn. We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face. We can say we will get in line to work with people, but we haven’t found people we trust enough so let’s quit kidding ourselves, we’re not a part of that machine and when that machine still existed and helped us greatly—we didn’t get it, faked it and tried and ended up pissing people off. We felt, as young guys, Who are you to tell us what to do with our band? And okay, that makes sense to a point, but everyone is just trying to do their job.

This time around, labels were saying Let me hear some songs and we were like You know what, we don’t what to play demos for somebody and get an approval. Let’s just do this one ourselves. I wasn’t offended by that at all. If I started a record label, I wouldn’t be signing anybody I didn’t have demos on. I get it.

Read more »

This Saturday night at Lincoln Hall, reissue label Numero Group presents its Eccentric Soul Revue. In anticipation of this rare event, we invited Syl Johnson of Twinight Records fame into the TOC studios for a conversation and live performance. Syl, a prolific and oft-sampled singer and producer of Chicago soul, has a lot of great stories, so we let him do his thing—as for the conversation, it might start a bit quiet, but hang in there, it gets louder and richer. Revelations? Johnson popularized the phrase “sock it to me,” used Minnie Ripperton’s laugh on a record and hangs out with the Wu Tang Clan. If you love this, check out the video of Syl’s performance.

With the recent economic downtown, major public programs in music, art, and culture around the country risk funding cuts. The TOC blog recently reported, then confirmed the death of the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. With Chicago City Council meeting this week to decipher the city’s budget for 2010, Chicagoans are wondering, what else is going to get cut?

The thought of not having Movies in the Park, or free concerts at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park next summer is nothing short of heartbreaking. Besides adding to Chicago’s rich cultural diversity, these programs also create jobs and contribute to Chicago’s increasingly tourist-friendly climate. As a preemptive measure the Friends of Chicago Music have started an online petition against cuts to Chicago music, arts, and cultural programs. The petition currently has 750 but they are aiming for a 1000. You too can sign the Save Chicago Music petition.

But, do not run to the picket line just yet. The Department of Cultural Affairs, which takes care of programming at Millennium Park, among other things, received its budget hearing yesterday. As Chicago Sun Times reporter Fran Spielman reported, the Aldermen mostly argued over preferential seating at Millennium Park. But no budget decisions have been made, yet.

Today, I spoke to the Department of Cultural Affairs assistant commissioner Kimberly Costello and she pointed out that all City of Chicago programs, not just cultural programs, are receiving budget reductions. Each department has yet to determine, however, how it will redistribute its budget. In the DCA’s case, no major programs–like SummerDance or the World Music Festival–will be cut entirely, Costello made sure to add. That’s good news—but it doesn’t mean we won’t see some scaling back in 2010.

Found magazine co-creator Jason Bitner’s latest book and web project, Cassette from my Ex, inspired me to dust off a late-90s mix tape from an old college boyfriend. The tunes were a pleasant mix of hip-hop from the era—think Souls of Mischief, Rasco and Colt 45—while the B-side delivered indie rock stars like Yo La Tengo, Shellac and Jon Spencer. With boom boxes in short supply this decade, I wondered how hard it would be to digitally re-create the mix on a well stocked digital play-buy-and-share site like LaLa.com. The results were a little surprising.

The tape: Made in Madison, Wisconsin, circa 1998. Not withstanding the requisite intro, outro, instrumental interlude, Bill Cosby comic bit and a track by the mix maker’s own cheeky rap act, the original tape was packed with 27 proper songs. Nothing on the tape was more obscure than early Quintron and nothing was more mainstream than Rick James’s bawdy classic, “Give it to Me Baby” (subtle, I know).

The site: With more than 7 million songs in its library, LaLa.com seemed a promising source for turning up music that’s at least a decade old, plus it’s fully licensed so you get the convenience without the guilt. The site also lets you listen to songs in their entirety for free, buy unlimited web-only plays for 10 cents per song or download MP3 versions for 79 cents. One of its best features is that it gives you access to any existing music library you might have such as iTunes so you can listen to your music on any computer anywhere. It also lets you share playlists with friends via email or embed your playlists on a web site.

Results: The site’s offerings are vast, especially when it comes to new music. Older material wasn’t as easy to come by: Of the 27 songs I searched, only ten turned up. I was pleasantly surprised to find Thee Headcoats’ “I Don’t Like the Man I Am,” although the lack of Black Sabbath’s “Supernaut,” Yo La Tengo’s “Somebody’s Baby,” the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Cool Vee” and Shellac’s “Mouthpiece” was disappointing. Worse, a search for Fugazi resulted in this message: “This artist’s albums are not yet available for listening on Lala,” though we wonder if that might have more to do with persnickety frontman Ian MacKaye’s famous indifference to making a buck.

In expectation of the Numero Group’s Eccentric Soul Revue this weekend at Lincoln Hall, we invited Chicago legend and former Twinight Records artist and producer Syl Johnson adn Uptown Sound guitarist Billy Bungeroth into our State Street studio, er, conference room for a little chat and a little live session. Syl and Billy performed “Is It Because I’m Black?,” a contemplative, classic for conscious crate-diggers that still resonates today. We trust you’ll dig it as much as we did. Highlights from the interview to come later.

The two members of electronic band Simian Mobile Disco played an energetic live set tonight—twisting the knobs of modular synthesizers and beat sequencers and controlling rhythms that issued forth from the club sound system at a bone-rattling volume. With an accompanying massive light show, it didn’t really matter whether or not you wanted to dance—it was a spectacular experience. The duo played mash ups and remixes of its own tracks that made you sway and bob your head instinctively. Check out the photos of SMD and opening act Phenomenal Handclap Band in the slide show above.

Photos: Amy Mokris

It’s absurd that the Congress Theater staff can coordinate the systematic and thorough wrapping of all of the venue’s valuables in plastic before the Faygo-fueled shit show that is an Insane Clown Posse concert, yet is unable to develop an efficient will-call system. The venue could easily reap increased revenues by scooting concertgoers inside so they can purchase $8 mixed drinks instead of having them sulk in the laughable lines outside. This could easily be done by opening the will call earlier in the day so people can pick up tickets without much hassle, or adopting a printer-friendly system. Instead, it seems as if Congress would rather cause customers to spend nearly 90 minutes in line just to irk a handful of scalpers. Thank God everyone was drunk Friday night for the “Freaky Deaky” Halloween extravaganza.

Read more »

Still upset about the lack of hip-hop on last year’s Lolla lineup? Maybe you think the annual music fest behemoth should take on more country acts, or (gasp) jazz artists. As announced earlier on Twitter, fest organizers are taking virtual requests. Submit your own Lollapalooza requests now. Make your voice heard, whether you think the Polkaholics still haven’t gotten their due, or that it’s high time the Waco Brothers headlined the whole shebang. There’s an additional suggestion box on the ballot, so don’t be afraid to air any other grievances. After all, it’s our world. Lolla’s just living in it.

Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo started the Halloween weekend right Friday night at the Congress. With blog favorites of the laptop inside dance set Crystal Castles and the hard-hitting beats of Germany’s Boys Noize on the bill, it was a dancestravaganza not to be missed. We came, we took pictures, we danced—somebody brought a football.

Photos: Jeff Catt

No one knows what powers of performance and stamina a proper purple zoot suit confers on its wearer—no one except for perhaps Little Richard and Bob Dylan, who sported one with a black bolero-style hat at the Aragon last night. The suit must have some magic in it, for Dylan, who plays the second of three nights in Uptown, had a sprightly way about him last night. He knee-bopped a bit, almost dancing at times. This is a revelation, because as even casual Dylan fans know, the man was known to turn in just as many half-baked sets as fearsome ones back in the ’90s. I had heard such good things about Dylan tours around the albums Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft when Charlie Sexton was on board, but even so, I wasn’t confident he’d be with-it and suitably accompanied.

There’s no getting around it—Charlie Sexton puts on a damn good show, plays a mean rockabilly-style guitar and looks so ridiculously cool doing it, you get a bit of the buzz that young folks must have had seeing Elvis or Eddie Cochran the first time. Texan Sexton’s guitar work provided a counterpoint, not just to Dylan’s warm growling vocals—which sometimes slip into an inarticulate croak, but to Dylan’s work on the (portable-style) Hammond organ. The two seemed to trade some riffs when the band slipped into a rockabilly, Sun-studios, It Came From Memphis mode, as it often did. But they never cheesed it up—thank the Lord.

As for a set list, the band stuck pretty close to Dylan’s recent studio albums (with tunes such as “‘Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum’”), ignoring his slightly bizarre holiday album from this year, and peppering us with Dylan classics with special attention to the material from Blonde on Blonde. “Just Like a Woman” came early in the set, “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” a bit later.

While many might know the names of Dylan’s classic material, he and band gave many of the tunes a roadhouse boogie or a pre-’60s feel that they don’t have on album—toss in Dylan’s gruff delivery, and some songs were less than instantly recognizable. Many artists head down the retro path, but few change the course of the culture only to decide to reference the mythic time that came before them like a musical Eden. Dylan seems to find some legitimacy and inspiration in playing the part of a rocking journeyman who’s never heard of Woodstock or Newport Folk. But some tunes did betray more modern arrangements. “Like a Rolling Stone” was performed with an unusual amount of barnstorming flourish with some nods to the melodicism of the Byrds. The regular set ended with “Ballad of a Thin Man,” and the encore closed out with “All Along the Watchtower,” both down with the rockin’ flair of the Sexton band.

Live, of course, Dylan doesn’t give a lot away emotionally outside of his songs—but as a presence, he’s large enough that he doesn’t need to charm. Todd Haynes might have had us believe Dylan is the nowhere man of modern culture—but last night, he was in the same room with us and sounding pretty great. Can you ask much more from a legend in a purple suit?