The music of Mayor Daley is most likely what would be broadcast out of failing loudspeakers in a post-apocalyptic city, where the dilapidated streets are overrun by cyborg bounty hunters and the word “government” is only used as a punch line. The band has a flair for sludgy noise punk and capricious song arrangements that can at once inspire veneration and hyperventilation. It’s the kind of unsympathetic music that can’t be understood rationally, it just needs to be.

The anarchical nature of Mayor Daley’s sound is an ironic juxtaposition to what the band’s name evokes, although that wasn’t necessarily what the group was aiming for.

“The idea of Mayor Daley, whether it’s the former one or the current one, is like a presence that just drapes over Chicago in general,” says drummer Paul Erschen. “So whether you find that a negative name or a positive one, it’s a marker of that place.”

It’s doubtful that the real Mayor would have Mayor Daley on his iPod, but it’s tickling to imagine his reaction if he stumbled across the band. Read the rest of this entry »

By John Alex Colon

For Gavin Harris, Timbuk3′s timeless lyric—”the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades”—must ring true on a daily basis. Harris grew up in Bristol, right around the time that Roni Size and Full Cycle Records were drawing attention therein. Bristol was already getting attention from Portishead’s seminal releases, but the jazz-fueled drum ‘n’ bass phenomenon was taking shape with Size’s Reprazent project, and Bristol would soon grab musical street cred for multiple genre hotspots.

Back to Harris, aka Xample, who not only grew up in this electronic-music equivalent of San Francisco in the late 1960s, but also relocated to Liverpool—of all places—and teamed up with local drum ‘n’ bass jocks, including Futurebound, to become a resident himself at some of the region’s best club nights. Harris, after some time behind the decks, wanted to try production and soon found his tunes released on labels like Hard Leaders and L Plates. Read the rest of this entry »

Though never sabotaging her respectability, somewhere along the line Tori Amos became totally unbearable. Too much fairy dust, one could imagine. A poster woman for feminism in nineties alt-rock, Amos has been churning out her pop music for nearly twenty years. She’s released five records in this decade (really?), including “American Girl Posse,” in which she takes on five different personae, and this year’s “Abnormally Attracted to Sin,” a seventeen-song exploration of men and women and religion, which is terrible. Going back and listening to Amos’ earlier output, it’s clear it doesn’t age well. “Little Earthquakes,” “Under the Pink” and “Boys for Pele”—her first three records, and her best—still have their own charms, but overall lack the debilitating left-hook they once had—like much of 1990′s pop culture, it’s just so dated. Amos went wrong, as a songwriter, with 1998′s “From the Choirgirl Hotel,” which saw her almost completely ditch the piano and take on all sorts of electronics and even dance beats. No one can blame her for wanting to branch out to try something new, but this is a mistake from which she’s never quite recovered. (“Sin” boasts sounds that immediately bring to mind the lesser material from “Choirgirl,” as if Amos has been making the same record over and over for ten years.) However, rabid fans still obsess. It would be cool to see her make a really sparse record with just piano and vocals, but don’t hold your breath. (Tom Lynch)

August 3 at Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, (312)263-1138, 7:30pm. $39.50-$59.50.

RECOMMENDED

Chicago’s own Baby Teeth has guts. Playing goofy bar-rock/pop won’t put them on the fast track to success (unless they hire the publicist for The Darkness), and it’ll probably earn a few dirty looks from elitists, but this trio still has the balls to play some sort of “prog meets soul meets the cheesy instruments from the 1980s” concoction, and while that sounds like a complete, utterly embarrassing disaster, it’s actually a shitload of fun, as evidenced by the band’s newest, “Hustle Beach.” From opening track “Big School,” a song about going to a frat party at a mega-university (featuring synth-work straight out of Van Halen’s “Jump”) to the Booker T and McGs-esque funky electric organ solo on “The Part You Play,” Baby Teeth sounds unabashedly cocky with its musical direction. I can’t say whether Baby Teeth started as a joke or not (I imagine the band’s origins involve Elton John and massive amounts of alcohol), but it’s pretty evident that the band is having too much of a blast to care at this point. (Andy Seifert)

August 1 at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, (773)525-2508, at 10pm. $10.

RECOMMENDED

Chicago electronic innovator Traxx is pulling out all the stops for his birthday party at Smart Bar, bringing together a group of compelling artists for a Nation label showcase that will also serve as an album release party. Traxx himself has released music on Spectral Sound, International Deejay Gigolo Records (both solo and as a member of The Dirty Criminals), Crème Organization and his own Nation, among others, and is considered one of the finest producers and DJs to hail from Chicago. Musically, this event may be the summer’s most unique, and Traxx has basically organized a dream team of performers. Expect an impressive showcase of techno, house, jackbeat, electro, EBM and acid tracks. With an emphasis on collaboration and live performances, you’re not likely to see many laptops behind the booth tonight. Both Traxx and fellow Spectral artist James T. Cotton (aka Tadd Mullinix) will perform hybrid live/DJ sets, and will also perform collaboratively under their Saturn V moniker. Producer/DJs Nancy Fortune and D’Marc Cantu will also perform live. Finally, producer/DJ Josh Werner, who released an EP on Frigio Records with Traxx last month, will drop a DJ set. (Elly Rifkin)

Traxx performs July 31 at Smart Bar, 3730 N. Clark, (773)549-0203.

RECOMMENDED

Taking advantage of the law of music that says no one can honestly despise warm pop-rock, local indie-rockers Yourself & The Air continue to produce emo-ish rock with an ever-growing range of instruments. The band’s latest EP, “Friend of All Breeds” is a crisp, lively five-song jaunt, complete with pleasant choruses, tinkling xylophone and dueling reverb-heavy guitars. But I’m more excited by the unreleased tracks the band performed in its recent Daytrotter sessions, which show just how expansive and flexible the band is trying to sound. Blending in harmonica and synth, Yourself & The Air doesn’t come off as the work of a mere quartet. Plus, the most climactic track of the bunch, “Bicycles Plus,” is supposedly about the bicycle-flying scene in “E.T.” Looks like somebody is going twee! (Andy Seifert)

August 1 at Subterranean, 2011 W. North, (773)278-6600, at 9:30pm. $10.

RECOMMENDED

Local quartet Speck Mountain doesn’t shy away from open space. The recent “Some Sweet Relief” (Carrot Top), a psychedelic nighttime dream that seeps atmosphere from its first chord, opens with the patient, soulful “Shame on the Soul,” dominated by organ and Marie-Claire Balabanian’s unbelievable voice. Smooth, wise, devastating. “Angela,” a later track, recalls Yo La Tengo’s most inventive “I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One” period, with subtle tropicalia backed by heavily reverbed, nearly shoegazer vocals. Small elements of rootsy folk emerge as well. Make no mistake, “Some Sweet Relief” is a soundtrack for the late hours, when the bars have closed and you decide to have just one more drink before heading to bed. Balabanian’s voice will haunt your mind, and her backing band—Karl Briedrick, Kate Walsh, Tim Daisy—provide suitable, sharp accompaniment. Some songs, like the sprawling and huge “Backsliding,” sound almost spiritual, as if they’re actually played from the top of a mountain. If this is your sort of thing, you’ll love it. (Tom Lynch)

Speck Mountain plays August 5 at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, (773)276-3600, at 9:30pm. $8.

RECOMMENDED

Can any band match the eclectic resume of Jon Langford, Tom Greenhalgh and the rest of British post-punk vets The Mekons? They’ve mastered the role of cheeky punks, delved into country and folk (and have even received a few “godfathers of alt-country” votes for 1985’s “Fear and Whiskey”) and cleverly wielded humor and politics into a thirty-year catalogue, all after contributing to the late-seventies new-wave Brit-punk movement. Since 1977, The Mekons have released seventeen albums (most of them ridiculously titled, like “Pussy, King of the Pirates” or “The Mekons Honky Tonkin’”), but “Fear and Whiskey” has rightfully been considered the cream of a pretty damn good crop. These anarchists effectively claimed back a piece of country music for the (extreme) left, wrestling away what had become a right-wing dominated genre while reforming their sound by blending punk impudence with fiddles and slide guitar. The Mekons may not be as self-destructive as The Pistols or possess the rebellious reputation of The Clash, but, unlike those two bands, these guys have been together (and stayed alive) for thirty years. (Andy Seifert)

July 30 at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, (773)525-2508, at 8pm. $20.

Karen O and crew return to Grant Park to fill the void.

Alright, I know that they had to make the move quickly to fill the spot left The Beastie Boys. But I was really hoping they would book an artist who hasn’t played Lolla before, and I don’t think I’m alone in this. YYY’s are perfectly fine—the band’s newest record is pretty great, actually—and the trio consistently puts on a fine live show. But, you know, been there, done that. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Walsh

Summer is the season when legions of trucks hit the roads bringing dozens and dozens of bands in touring festivals to every major city across the country. This year’s biggest metal smorgasbord is the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, with co-headliner’s Marilyn Manson and Slayer leading the pack with some of the world’s most heavy-hitting outfits in tow. The madness comes to Chicago this summer as the carnival of brutality descends on the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre on July 26.

Undisputed masters of thrash metal, Slayer, who have spent the past quarter century defining the true nature of the genre of which hundreds of bands have followed in their wake, co-headline. Guitarist Kerry King says he’s excited about being on the bill with Manson for a second year in a row. Read the rest of this entry »