New Zealand, a country that’s delivered more than its share of great guitar pop in the last 20-odd years — the Chills, the Clean, the Verlaines, the Bats, Split Enz, and Crowded House, to name a few — has done it again. The Phoenix Foundation, a six-piece from Wellington, deserves to be mentioned in the […]
Music
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
CD EXCHANGE: This fall you’ll find Vinyl Static holed up in a closet somewhere with headphones and a compact-disc player — is Vinyl Static the only one still using a CD player? — indulging in the musical glut that litters the calendar with releases from early September until the end of November. At the top […]
Posted inMusic
Get your Goat
Last year the Mountain Goats released The Sunset Tree, an aural exorcism inspired by the abusive childhood of the band’s frontman and only permanent member, John Darnielle. Like its predecessor, the speed-freak saga We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree was loosely autobiographical and boasted a professional-studio sheen, especially compared with earlier Mountain Goats […]
Posted inMusic
Bob, John, Rodney and Chris
Today, Thursday, Aug. 24, 6:30-9 p.m. on the patio of Cheddar’s (3151 Horizon Dr., 217-525-3820), Bob Katt and the Missing Lynx entertain with a wide variety of vocal jazz tunes featuring the brilliant sax playing of Mr. Katt (a.k.a. Kevin J. Cox). Good food and music outdoors, and before 10 o’clock — Cheddar’s is taking […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
CD EXCHANGE OutKast is back, finally. Last Tuesday the Dirty South duo unleashed Idlewild, an album to accompany the new film, set in the Prohibition era, that’s coming out Aug. 25. The release finds the pair’s house divided — another split disc of Big Boi and Andre 3000 tracks — and rarely do the two […]
Posted inMusic
A little goes a long way
Is it dirty art rock or arty dirt rock? Rock music you can dance to or dance music you can rock to? Whatever you want to call Derdang Derdang, the Archie Bronson Outfit’s second full-length, the word “rock” had better be in there somewhere because, whatever its other qualities, rock it most definitely does. Pitched […]
Posted inMusic
Our cup runneth over
August always seems to be one of the busiest times of the year, and this year is no exception; the coming weeks are filled with glorious opportunities to enjoy some fine live music. On Saturday, Aug. 19, the Underground City Tavern hosts a unique show aimed at the music lover and the history buff in […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
SINGLES ONLY John Legend has doled out the first single from Once Again, the yet-to-be-released 2006 follow-up to his Grammy-winning debut Get Lifted. “Save Room” finds the dapper piano man channeling Nat King Cole and Otis Redding in a vintage tune bearing traces of cocktail-lounge smoothness. That’s no disrespect: Legend channels the Rat Pack’s head […]
Posted inMusic
Enlightened thumping
The title of DJ Logic’s new album is a stumper: What does logic, the science of abstract reasoning, have to do with Zen, a Buddhist philosophy that honors direct intuition through meditation? Despite the apparent paradox, Zen of Logic is an excellent title for this release, which skirts the often arbitrary border between instinct and […]
Posted inMusic
Vinyl Static
CD exchange Experimental electro-punk trio Erase Errata released their third album, Nightlife, on July 25, unleashing a collection of punk tracks that slide in where riot grrrls such as Bikini Kill left off. The San Francisco-based female group’s Kill Rock Stars debut features the single “Tax Dollar.” Crunchy guitars kick off the song, ushering in […]
Posted inMusic
Nothing fair about it
It has come to my attention that certain citizens of Springfield don’t like the Illinois State Fair. Ooh! Ouch! What sacrilege! Such blasphemy! Who could ever show any disrespect for the grand and venerable institution of “the fair”? I’ve learned that families plan vacations around fair time just to avoid the blessed mess. On the […]
Posted inMusic
Cooking with Neanderthals
As Springfield continues its slow yet steady infiltration of the world with homegrown musicians, few fellows have traveled as far and as much in as little time as 1994 Springfield High grads, Ranjit “Raj” Prasad and Steve Mitchell. According to a reliable source (Harry Mitchell, Steve’s dad and a respectable VP at Horace Mann), the […]
