When you hear that a band is from Seattle and you learn that their debut was produced by Steve Fisk (Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.) you feel like the music will be heavy and moody.  Not so when the band we’re talking about is The Volcano Diary. Led by Alicia Dara, the band just released their eponymous debut.   By far my favorite song has to be “Freezer Burn” a song that is just so damn catchy and fun I’ve had it on repeat while I’ve prepared to write this.  Other standout tracks include “Lightning Seed” and “Volcano.”

WHO:              Cory Chisel

WHEN:            Friday 12/3/10 at Double Door with The Right Now and Great Divide

WHY:              I like him.  It’s really that simple.  A Midwestern boy (Appleton, WI) raised by a Baptist minister father who remained largely sheltered from pop music until an uncle introduced him to blues greats like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson which in turn led to Dylan and beyond.  (Ed Note: doesn’t it always end up at Dylan?)  His sound is the evolution of blues and bluegrass while still remaining steeped in its lyrical traditions – songs of love and spirituality that rely heavily on religious imagery.  Below is “Born Again”.  Of note, “Born Again” was in a rough draft form when Chisel met with Brendan Benson who helped him finish and arrange the song.  Swooon.

WHO: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

The story goes: Alex Ebert, the hard partying lead singer of Ima Robot breaks up with his girlfriend, moves out of his house, joins then quits AA and begins working on a book about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. Sharpe, in Ebert’s words, “sent down to earth to kind heal and save mankind.” Still with me? Ebert meets Jade Castrino’s outside a café in LA, the two hit it off and soon form a band.

Fascinating bit o’ trivia – the late Heath Ledger fronted the band the seed money used to record their debut, “Up From Below”. Apparently Ledger had notions to begin a record label out of the artists / bands he funded.

So the band procures an old 24 track tape machine and get to work. “Up From Below” has a whimsical hippie folk-revival sound as does the band’s aesthetic. Ebert and Castrino sing to each other in a sweet conversational manner, much like Johnny and June – without Mrs. Cash’s sassiness though. They converted an old school bus into a tour bus (hippies, you see) and hit the road soon becoming one of the most talked about acts of the summer festival circuit. Their ‘big’ hit off the debut is “Home.” Lyrically the song’s only success comes with the lines: “Home, let me come home / Home is wherever I’m with you”, it’s pretty corny but the song is catchy and uplifting.  But you know where the kids with the good pot will be.  You can see them Saturday December 4 headlining Congress Theatre.

Van Ghost

Perhaps it was the sunshine or the slightly warmer temps but Day 2 at North Coast had a much more jovial feel than Friday’s cloudy cool evening.  My day started with the tail end of New Mastersounds‘ set.  They had a funky jam band sound and must make it a point to further investigate.  I peeked in at Strange Arrangement at the Red Bull Local Stage.  I did see a baby front and center (with headphones on for protection) rocking out before making my way back to the Groupon stage.    I was excited to see Van Ghost live as I have recently started following them and have fallen for their hard rocking brand of Americana.  Michael Harrison Berg looked every bit the rock start and Jennifer Hartswick’s vocals gave me goosebumps. Seriously. Homegirl will knock you over the head when she sings.  I quickly ran off to the Coast Stage to check out Laidback Luke and by 4 p.m. he had turned the Coast Stage’s area into an afternoon rager. I came back and caught the end of Van Ghost then marched my butt over to the North Stage for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals.  Holy shit! That’s my reaction to seeing her live.  I was blown away and I didn’t even sit through the whole set because I wanted to catch the beginning of Daedelus who was a super last minute fill-in when Benga was unable to make the fest.  She was like Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner all rolled into a blonde leggy package.  Her cover of “While Rabbit” was the highlight of a fantastic set, Grace Slick would’a been proud.

Grace-F*cking-Potter, Bitches!

I headed back to Groupon for The New Deal who promised the crowd to turn the fest into an afternoon dance party.  I peeked in at The Comeups at the Red Bull Local Stage and at this point I found some friends and took a much needed break to chat and regroup.  I soldiered on and headed to Jay Electronica who I’m sorry to say was a big disappointment.  After an introduction by a local radio personality, Jay sauntered on stage and began his set. He stopped several times to talk, he kept stopping the music to do a verse acapella, brought a massive crowd of people to the stage, and weirder still gave the mic to some kids in the crowd who wanted to rhyme on stage.  I don’t know what’s worse: giving those kids the mic or how badly they bombed when they got up there.  How many dead rappers can someone give shout outs to before rapping and how many “yo yo’s” and “What’s up Chicago’s” can you squeeze in before doing any actual rhyming? Answer: a shit-ton.  The end was a disaster and wasted a good 10-15 of his set that could’ve been used to entertain.  I overheard someone say, “Well at least he played the 2 or 3 songs everyone wanted to hear.” I guess.  I hustled over to the Coast Stage which was packed tight with kids dancing and caught the end of DJ Thibault and the beginning of Noise Boyz’s set.  Then it was time to get some pics of Chicago’s own Umphrey’s McGee.  I’m not a huge fan of jam bands but I was genuinely excited for the kids up at the front who’d been waiting a long time for that set.  I closed out my night at the Coast Stage for a little bit of Moby before heading to Schuba’s for Rita J and Bumpus with La Blue Eyes.  2 down, 1 to go. I don’t think my feet are going to make it!  This is a crappy stream of consciouness post, yes, I’m sorry but I’m tired and excited and all over the place.  The full photo album of Day 2 is on the ol Facebook page so check it out!

Umphrey's McGee

I’m getting ready to head out the door and induce a music coma at North Coast Festival but before I do let’s talk about some of the fun stuff going on around town this long weekend:

First up is Brighton Park Fest. Starting tomorrow you can head out to Archer Ave (between Sacramento & Kedzie) for food, rides and 2 stages of live music featuring local acts: [.DESCARGA.] (my favorite latin alternative band), Maladicto, Legion, Soul Pollution, Maria Blues Trio, the lovely La Gitana, Malafacha and DJs Angelfuk and Nando to name just a few.  Descarga’s very own Jose Calvo says, “people should come out and enjoy this festival because it’s something special for the community, there are few festivals like this in the city that celebrate latino unity, but the number of them is growin! So come out and enjoy the food, the rides, the arts, and the music, which will be awesome because the line ups are made up of talented local latino bands. I am very honored to be part of this great festival.”

Also, don’t forget that last weekend’s featured girl crush, Rita J will be at Schuba’s Saturday night with Bumpus.

Jazz Fest returns to Grant Park and the always awesome Chuchito Valdez goes on Saturday at 5.

Lastly, the inaugural run of Joyous Outdoor Event (J.O.E.) kicks off at South Belmont Harbor this weekend featuring a main stage ‘curated’ by the Metro and Smart Bar and will include hometown rocks The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir Saturday at 7p.  A $15 ticket gets you all day general admission, for $25 you get all day access plus entrance to that evening’s main stage.  You can get the full schedule and more info HERE.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend! Check back for North Coast recaps, follow me on Twitter for live updates and check out the Facebook page for more photos and video.

Preview 6 – The Chemical Brothers have been around forever haven’t they, or at least it feels that way.  When they first arrived on the scene you felt as if you were listening to the future, always one or three steps ahead of their contemporaries.  They weren’t like the Prodigy – they didn’t make big fat acid beats; their sound was smarter, lighter, much more danceable.  Unlike the Prodigy they never saw a real lull or dry-spell in their careers; they have plugged along producing albums like clockwork for almost 20 years.  But it’s the ‘second wave of dance’ (thank the likes of Deadmau5) that has put them back on mainstream music’s radar.  Their latest release, “Further” is a throwback to their original danceable beat-heavy sound and they wisely ditched any collaborations with vocalists this time around (remember that Noel Gallagher collabo everyone went bananas for a few years back) and have focused on making “Further” a multi-media experience for fans.  Check out the video for Galvanize below. They’ll close out Friday night on the North Stage at 8.30p

Official Site

Preview 5 – Do I really have to sit here and list a number of reasons why you need to get your ass to the Group: What’s A Music Stage? at 7:30 on Saturday to see De La Soul?  Right, didn’t think so.  Instead I’m going to make this today’s earworm and post one the ultimate earwormy-single: Me Myself & I.  I dare to get that song out of your head today! P.S. How fantastic to see they’re still touring all over the world?!

Preview 4 – Today’s featured band: Chicago math rockers Maps and Atlases.  The group met as student’s at Columbia College, released a couple EPs and earlier this summer showed how musically they’ve matured with the release of their first full length “Perch Patchwork” (Barsuk).  Their music is very technical, textured, rythmically and structurally complex so it will be interesting to see how this will play out on a large outdoor festival stage.  They are virtuosos with their respective instruments often playing the necks of their guitars like pianos, plucking away at each note.  Catch them on the Coast Stage, Sunday at 3p.m.  Below is “Solid Ground” off Perch Patchwork.

Official Site

MySpace

Preview 3 – Today’s preview is an earworm of sorts. Mayer Hawthorne and the County is the name of one Andrew Mayer Cohen and his band.  The LA-based singer/songwriter/mulit-instrumentalist/producer has a deep soulful voice that you wouldn’t believe comes out of a 29 year old white boy from Michigan.  After a stint through Europe, Hawthorne made the summer festival rounds in the US and will be stopping by the Groupon: What’s a Music? Stage at North Coast on Sunday at 5:30p.m.  His music has been labeled as “retro”, anything that sounds like it was recorded in the 1960s – think Mark Ronson or Amy Winehouse and the influence of musical greats like Curtis Mayfield and Smokey Robinson and it evident especially in songs like “I Wish It Would Rain“. His first single (released on a red heart-shaped 7″) “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” is below.

MySpace

Preview 2 – Our second featured can’t miss band is Loyal Divide.  Formed about 5 years ago, the band currently resides in Chicago and is gearing up for the September 2010 release of their first full length LP Bodice Ripper. They’ve released two previous EPs: Loyal Divide E.P. and Labrador, both available on iTunes. Their sound is all about textured psychedelic-electronic-pop full of quirky electronic sounds, gliding vocals and angelic/atmospheric synths.  Below is the video for “Vision Vision” off their digital 7″ DDF which is available as a free download on their bandcamp site.  The video is done is live action done with gaff tape and directed by BBGUN – it’s pretty fucking cool.  They’ll hit the Groupon Stage at North Coast on Sunday at 1:45 p.m. – BE THERE!

Official Site
MySpace
Facebook