Allison Wasilewski/Photo: Dee Fabricattore

Logan Square is finally getting a record store. Not that we were expecting it, really, but local music label and distributor Carrot Top Records thinks it’s the perfect neighborhood to open their new 1,300-square-foot retail space, Saki. So, why the location?

“Because there’s nothing else here,” jokes Carrot Top general manager Allison Wasilewski. “Being in West Logan Square, there’s nobody out here to directly compete with.”

Saki will carry a mish-mash of music, magazines, turntables and other knick-knacks for the indie-music lover. Behind the retail floor, the store stocks more than 500 different labels and 18,000 records. One thing’s for sure: these guys support Chicago’s music community full force. Read the rest of this entry »

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“That cat blows me away: he’s better than I am,” was Jimi Hendrix’s response when he first heard late Chicago (the band) guitarist Terry Kath, when the group backed up Hendrix in its early days. In January of 1978, Kath was killed in a highly publicized freak gun accident, leaving the group paralyzed emotionally and totally uncertain about its future.  Kath had been the musical soul of the band, the glue holding everything together by seamlessly straddling between the brass and rhythm sections. “Terry really drove the band rhythmically, like an engine,” keyboardist/singer/songwriter Robert Lamm told me in 1991. “His importance to this band could never be overestimated.” “In the long run,” assessed Chicago saxophonist and group co-founder Walt Parazaider, “it took many years and two people to fill Terry’s slot.”

That legacy will be celebrated tonight in a special Terry Kath Tribute Concert at Kath’s old high school with original Chicago drummer and band co-founder Danny Seraphine appearing with his band California Transit Authority, and an ultra-rare performance by legendary reclusive producer James William Guercio, who is billing himself more modestly these days as “Jim” Guercio. Read the rest of this entry »

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Late CSO music director Sir Georg Solti used to say that a conductor should ideally record three Beethoven symphony cycles during his career: once as a young man, again at middle age and another in old age. Now an octogenarian, CSO principal conductor Bernard Haitink has already made two complete sets of Beethoven symphonies, the set from his years as music director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra made in the 1970s documenting his “middle age” accounts, if we go by Solti’s designations, and another live set made with the London Symphony Orchestra five years ago documents Haitink’s approach at age 75.

Assuming that the CSO wants to release live recordings of the complete Beethoven cycle that Haitink is performing with the Orchestra over the next couple of weeks, what should we consider that set? Post-old age?  Are Haitink’s interpretations likely to be significantly different than a mere five years ago? I am guessing probably not, and thus it comes down to the difference in orchestras. Read the rest of this entry »

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Coupleskate’s 2009 record “Don’t Scare the Horses” finds its way into my personal rotation probably more often than it really should, as it soothes the ache I get every six weeks to bathe myself in all-girl alt-rock. (Does that sound disgusting? I think that might sound disgusting.) The Chicago four-piece constructed one hell of a mish-mash of lush pop numbers and punk-influenced frenzies. Coupleskate layers its material methodically and douses it with reverb; the feel is nostalgic, the emotion is real. Singer and guitarist Andrea Bauer makes the most of her primed-for-indie voice and stays ahead of the band’s thunder—in the quieter moments, the sound of the pieces all coming together is serene. I expected Coupleskate to play out a lot more than it did after “Horses” was initially released. I’m glad to see the band hitting the stage again, on this night at Hideout and again in June at Double Door. (Tom Lynch)

May 28 at Hideout, 1354 West Wabansia, (773)227-4433, 10pm. $8.

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Broken Bells—the new project of Shins’ frontman James Mercer and Gnarls Barkley producer Danger Mouse—is one of those unexpected, sort-of-bewildering collaborations, two seemingly exclusive entities attempt to mesh aesthetics, that turn out to be precisely what the other needed. Danger Mouse’s neo-soul/psychedelic production is a much more natural fit to Mercer’s currently weary pop than anticipated, and while the duo’s self-titled debut may have been reduced to the second tier of anticipated releases in the middle of a strong year for music, it’s still a tight, well-executed collection that subtly impresses. Broken Bells lets its intricate, deeply layered production wrap around Mercer’s swooning vocals, changing up its arrangements depending on how playful, menacing, or woeful the song wants to become. To the group’s credit, the effort never comes across as merely “The Shins: remixed.” Opening is San Francisco’s The Morning Benders, an up-and-coming group that makes sometimes hazy, sometimes piano-thumping sixties sunshine-pop—well worth showing up early. (Andy Seifert)

May 31 at Vic Theatre, 3145 North Sheffield, (773)472-0449, at 7:30pm. $31.

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Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, or The Tallest Man on Earth, may trick some into thinking he’s from the backwoods of West Virginia, with his nasal twang and fluent acoustic-guitar picking. “Shallow Grave,”Matsson’s 2008 breakout record, is a staggering endeavor comprised of the songwriter’s deft guitar-work and down-home lyrical storytelling; Matsson’s ability to seamlessly shift speeds and styles of finger-picking mid-song takes your breath away at moments. His new record, titled “The Wild Hunt,” works in almost exactly the same way, a lone man with his gee-tar and that strange and wonderful voice. He sounds like the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle a little—or the way Darnielle used to sound before he reduced his output to whispers.  (Tom Lynch)

May 28, Lincoln Hall, 2424 North Lincoln, (773)525-2501, 10pm. $14. Sold out.

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You’ve got to hand it to the folks behind the Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays. Along with booking topnotch up-and-coming talent, they’ve also excelled in creatively booking bands that missed their heyday, or perhaps were gone too soon and unjustly forgotten. Take, for example, the Feelies, who gave a fantastic performance last summer that surely won them new fans who had never heard their work before. Tonight’s headliner perhaps fits the same space, with Hum gracing the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Almost fifteen years ago, they were arguably the hardest-rocking band on a heavy-handed Champaign, Illinois indie-favorites bill at Metro (with Menthol and Poster Children) at the height of their Buzz-Binned MTV status, as the loud-quiet-loud buzz-saw attack of “Stars” propelled them to near-rock-stardom. And then, time went by, and Hum was mostly forgotten, discarded along with most of the grunged and alienated remains of the nineties. The great Pumpkin Corgan became a joke, trashing our formative years with his current abomination, somehow tarnishing an entire era, genre, scene… but then, someone started thinking, let’s sell Cadillacs with “Stars,” and somehow, the familiar adrenaline rush from that wall of distorted sound sounded really, really good again—even more striking than Kate Walsh’s slowburn grey eyes and CTS-hawking innuendo. What does this have to do, really, with Hum? Who knows? But what is clear is that tonight’s show will be the rockingest show to date at the Pritzker Pavilion, and it will be good to welcome back an old friend like Hum under the stars. But maybe “You’d Prefer an Astronaut?” (Duke Shin)

May 31 at Millennium Park, Michigan and Randolph, (312)742-1168. 6:30pm. Free.

Credit: Stephen Salyer

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Singing in the Abbey, the Chicago chamber-rock group led by vocalist and pianist Annie Higgins, succeeds at the complex and tricky blend of classical music and pop while draping a gothic vale over its sound. “Wake Up, Sardis!” is the band’s debut record, released back in February, and it lives and breathes on Higgins’ deep, haunting voice and swift piano-playing. The band sells itself as a Thom Yorke/Julie Andrews hybrid, and as odd as that sounds, it’s pretty accurate. The string arrangements dreamily complement Higgins’ songs, and one of the best of which, “The Sweetness of Ophelia,” will break you in two with its sweeping grace. While classical piano, string sections and gothic shading may indicate a big production, Higgins and her team manage to keep Singing in the Abbey rather minimalist, simple in a good way, which is no small feat considering all the moving parts. This is music for those who dream under overcast skies. (Tom Lynch)

May 27 at Hideout, 1354 West Wabansia, (773)227-4433, 9pm. $8.

San Francisco shoegaze-pyschedelic act Brian Jonestown Massacre isn’t for everyone–few have the patience to endure BJM’s current incarnation of endlessly droning jam sessions and repetitive waves of distortion. Nevertheless, for those who do have that patience, BJM makes for an intense, spacey trip, and those fans will easily sink into the band’s latest release, “Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?”,  which sees the band merging its usual “far-out” experimental aesthetic with fuzzy dance beats, holding tight to sounds long associated with drugs, space and the dance floor. Frontman Anton Newcombe’s supposed proficiency with more than eighty instruments–including the hurdy-gurdy, the samisen and the bagpipes–has naturally sent BJM into several interconnected genres, mostly successfully three Stones-esque garage rock albums in 1996, since recently sliding back into the neo-psychedelic racket. For fans with the time to delve into Newcombe’s deep, complex world, it’s surely rewarding; for everyone else, it’s best to just read the band’s killer song titles, like “Bring Me The Head of Paul McCartney on Heather Mill’s Wooden Peg (Dropping Bombs on the White House).” (Andy Seifert)

May 30 at Metro, 3730 North Clark, (773)549-0203, at 7pm. $21.

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A funny thing happened on the way to this decade. French duo Daft Punk, somehow rescued from “One More Time” last-dance-at-wedding status, became relevant again. And it was awesome. And then their bastard children started making noise, inseminating themselves into Ed Banger Records, evolving their sound by removing the filtered house and disco influences and replacing them with drunken, amped-up audioSparx, ready to intoxicate and sicken all who drank the chemical garbage. I shudder to think that I once wondered if Scott Bakula’s Dr. Sam Beckett was needed to jump back in time to destroy the wonderful and awesome Daft Punk to simply eliminate their nefarious Ed Banger offspring from being shat into existence. (Ziggy said there was a 89 percent chance that Ed Banger would ruin the face of the electronic music scene of the Aughts). Read the rest of this entry »