Riot Fest Wishlist

Yesterday, Riot Fest made the first lineup announcement for Toronto. 

This has sparked a lot of discussion among my peers - how many of these acts can we expect in Chicago? 

Unlike last year, I am completely in the dark & believe it or not, I am kind of happy about that.  The anticipation is building!  I still get occasional glimpses into all the blood, sweat and tears that pour out behind the scenes of this festival, so I am rooting for the organizers like they are family. 

What I do know about Riot Fest Chicago is what everyone knows, we have one more day than Toronto AND a bigger park which means more stages, which means many more bands.

So let me be clear: this is NOT a post where I am suggesting to the good people of Riot Fest to take my advice and book headlining acts that I just thought of on a whim.  I have to book just one benefit concert a year and I can't stand when someone rolls into my office and suggests I contact Neil Young or Aretha Franklin because, well hey...you never know, right?

Because they do know; they know what they are doing and they know who is "get-able."  So, the major draws are their responsibility because they have earned their reputation and have my respect. 

But they DO have a lot of stages to fill for three whole days.  They are working around the clock to book bands.  So, I have been asking around to friends who they would like to see at Riot Fest and this is what has come up. 

Consider this post to be a festival organizer version of Fantasy Football; how do you round out the team after the several rounds of draft picks have gone by? 

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Dem suggested Future of The Left and the Jim Jones Revue and I gotta say both are great live acts. 

I recently joined Dem to see the Jim Jones Revue at Schuba's and they are amazing performers.  Punk Boogie swagger done to perfection. 



G$ suggested The Spits and Radar Men From The Moon and I have to second those two choices as well.  You give The Spits a 30 minute set and you are going to get a lot of punk rock!



Claire wanted to see the Flaming Lips and since they are on the Toronto bill our fingers are crossed. 

I have a few bands to add, of course:

Doomtree - last year Dessa kicked off Friday at Riot Fest, why not bring the whole fun-lovin' crew?  They have a bit of a punk rock ethos, their fans are fervent and it is short drive from Minneapolis to Chicago.  Last year, fans were treated to the mighty Public Enemy and Saul Williams.  We need some agitprop hip-hop to carry on that tradition in 2014.



Danko Jones - Danko delivers arena sized hooks regardless of the size of the venue he is playing.  In a world of unsalted rice cakes, Danko Jones is cheese fries.  I have dragged a LOT of people to see Danko perform over the years and they all leave the show forever in my debt.  Discovering Danko is like tripping over a briefcase full of cash.  



Yes, that video features the acting talents of Mike Watt and Lemmy!  Not to mention Elijah Wood and Selma Blair.  Danko Jones has a million friends who would probably pretend to be his enemy in a video if he asked them. 

Killing Joke - I know this band has Visa issues now and again and that Jaz Coleman goes missing from time to time.  But hand to God, this band is worth the potential headache because they deliver the goods.  Their sound and schema are as relevant today as ever.  



Is Jaz Coleman batshit crazy or the sole sane man in a world gone mad?  I will leave that up to the listener.  I just want to see him do his Perry Farrell as Frankenstein lurch in front of thousands of people.  

Godflesh - kinda along similar lines to KJ, Godflesh would bring us older people out.  I saw them at the Metro in April and I have no doubt that nearly every person at that show would pay good money to see them again so soon.

  

Beaches - So, when I saw on the Toronto announcement, The Beaches were playing I hoped that it was a typo and that it was this quintet from Australia but that really doesn't make sense. I mean, that shit gets proofread, right?



So please consider Beaches my first entry on the wishlist for 2015 because that would be too cruel to put a band called Beaches on a lineup with another band called The Beaches.  UNLESS they got together and agreed that one group of Beaches would put stars on their bellies so we could tell them apart. Then I am sure that Dr. Seuss would approve.  

Savages - This last one kind of goes beyond the concept of "get-able" because I am sure they are taking a much needed break after touring the globe.  But hey, the title of this post is Riot Fest Wishlist. 

So have you seen this video that came out a couple of days ago?  I realize they played Pitchfork just last year but still...god damn!  They are amazing.  I actually went and saw them the Monday night after Riot Fest last year even though I just wanted to soak in a tub of Ben Gay. Not only do I not regret it that decision, it was one of my favorite shows of 2013.  



Well, this was fun.  What do you think?  Who would you like to see at Riot Fest Chicago 2014?

Guilty Pleasures

My homeboy Danko Jones writes a blog for the Huffington Post.  His latest entry was a fairly passionate tirade against the concept of musical guilty pleasures.   

Danko detests the term and he claims that it only exists because self-appointed "style bullies" act as musical gatekeepers to deem what is cool and what is not.  

"You should never feel guilty about the music you like," Danko asserts at the end of his post. 

Now my admiration for Danko knows practically no bounds.  It is uncomplicated, like having a taste for french fries.  I don't understand why Danko isn't among the most well known and loved musicians on the planet.  The man is bona fide.

So, it pains me to call bullshit on him and his assertion.  He doesn't actually believe it and furthermore, it neglects to consider many beneficial aspects of guilt when mixed with pleasure.

Proving that Danko is just as complicit in passing judgement on another's musical taste is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel but should be done regardless so we can move on...  

Consider Exhibit A: His blog post at the end of last year where he describes  his reaction after finally watching the video for Gangam Style:   

Upon watching the video (on Dec. 9 at 12:55 p.m.) and seeing the view count, I promptly tweeted this to the world:

"This Gangnam Style phenomenon is more proof we are on a planet overrun by village idiots." 

He then goes on to say that his tweet got "over 100 retweets and 100% support."  Does that sound like someone smugly claiming to having a mob of gatekeeping, taste-making bullies behind his knee-jerk tweeting to you?  Yeah, me too.    

C'mon Danko!  Do you really expect me to believe that you don't believe in rules?  You opened your set proclaiming The Rules for over a year and we loved you for it. 

Now, maybe what those interviewers should be asking Danko and other musicians is something more akin to: "What musical styles or artists do you enjoy that your fans might not be able to easily discern based on a similarity to your own style?"  It is a bit more of a mouthful than just asking for guilty pleasures but maybe Danko truly does listen to everything guilt-free. 

But the claim that feeling guilty about some of the music you like is solely a insecure byproduct of external forces is pure scapegoating.  Being a lapsed Catholic myself, I have an admittedly complex relationship with guilt. But I am here to tell you that a little guilt can help you to refine, defend and explore the emotional underpinnings of your unique and personal relationship to music.  

In other words, guilt is sometimes (not always) good for you.  Thanks to guilty pleasures, you get to experience more types of music and enjoy them in different ways.  

Hallmarks of a true guilty pleasure can be any one of the following:

Pop Candy: You know from the start that it isn't going to stand the test of time and that eventually you will grow tired of it.  It is cheap and easy. If they routinely play this music on a station that you don't have pre-programmed into your car, then you are a taking a detour in the candy aisle. 

The Ted Nugent Stranglehold Defense: You find the musician(s) that created this music morally repugnant.  Or you find the lyrical content to be vile and reprehensible but you keep coming back.  

Eye Candy: A variation of the pop candy guilt, this time the factors that drew you to fixate on this music heavily skews towards the sex appeal of the performer.  Do I really like Shakira's music that much? 

Apple Polishing a Tarnished Legacy: When your rock gods start delivering substandard fare and you just are not willing to admit it.  Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation was a favorite guilty pleasure of mine for quite a while.   

Stroke of Luck: This music gets bound up to some pivotal memories and then is powered by that context.  If REO Speedwagon "I Can't Fight This Feeling" was playing during your first kiss at the sock hop with your sweetheart, that song is lashed to your life, like it or not. 

For example, I like Gagnam Style even though I happen to agree that the song is an insipid fad.  My appreciation may have started as purely contextual - you can blame my kids.  

They started hearing it sung by other children on the playground.  That was their only experience with the song so they would come home and ape what they heard and it would come out like this when they sang:  "Whuppa-cana-stile.  Ohhh, Saxy Lady.  Saxee Lay-DEE!"  

First this confounded it me but soon it delighted me to hear my baby girl playing with her blocks while softly singing to herself about a saxy lady. 

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My friend Brian V. told me back in college that people have more fun when they are dancing to music that in some ways they consider bad.  If you have been to a wedding in the past thirty years your own experience should bear witness to this.  

Do you know anyone that is a devout fan of Kool & The Gang,  B-52s, Village People and Nick Lowe?  And yet the removable parquet dance floor is full of people dancing like simpletons that were handed sparklers at all those staples of the Wedding DJs set. We are all guilty of banality sometimes and occasionally we wallow in it together to absolve ourselves of our private sins.

Top 10 Sleep Songs

So I didn't get to post last night because my daughter would not stay asleep. It was like she was jacked up on some kind of stimulant.

As I lay on her bedroom floor, trying to lead by example, I started to formulate a list of songs with sleep in the title.

None of these are lullabies and very few could be put in the category of "soothing" but a few of them do tap into the frustration that I (and probably many insomniacs) felt last night.

Search "Sleep" on your iPod. I bet you have at least ten songs to make a completely different list. How do they rank against these? I leave that to you to make your case. Here's my Top Ten.

10) "Talking In Your Sleep" - The Romantics - aka their other hit. This catchy little number came up quick during the process and lodged itself in my head.

9) "Sleep!" - Big Black - not exactly what I would wish for my child or any other. But this whole exercise was a catharsis really.

8) "Sleep Tonight" - Rolling Stones - an overlooked song on an underappreciated album, this one probably comes the closest on the list to my paternal tone as I occasionally rubbed my wired child's back

7) "Sleeping With The T.V. On" - Double Dagger - I love this song from their last EP, Masks & I regret not making it out to their final show here in Chicago.

And hey, by coincidence my last post references falling asleep with the t.v. on, which is something I personally never do. Weird.

"Remember that night when my mouth forgot how to work? And you said 'we are most beautiful when we struggle'. Well, sometimes my life has more beauty than I can handle."

6) "No Sleep Til Brooklyn" - Beastie Boys - thank you Beastie Boys, now I have two catchy choruses running through my head and my daughter is still restless and it is quarter past one.

5) "Sleep Is The Enemy" - Danko Jones - it is sure starting to feel that way. This is a tough track off their last truly masterful album.

4) "I'm Only Sleeping" - The Beatles - thanks to Terri Hemmert's Breakfast With The Beatles program Sunday mornings on XRT, my son can usually identify who is handling lead vocals on a Beatles track. So the Fab Four get the #4 spot because this one might make it on a mix cd soon.

3) "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" - Nirvana - I realize that this is a Leadbelly tune. But I was first introduced to it during the Unplugged session. Ever since the reissue of Nevermind came out I have been pining for Nirvana. I held the $79 4LP set in my hands today and gave it some serious consideration before opting to pay $20 for a Le Butcherettes album. Having a Reckless Records in the Loop has made my lunch hour a dangerous and seductive thing.

"My girl, my girl..." - please go the f*ck to sleep!

2) "When You Sleep" - My Bloody Valentine - I remember reading how Kevin Shields and Co. were trying to capture the sensation of having just woken up from a deep sleep with the vocals on Loveless. They certainly nailed it.

1) "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - The Tokens(?) - I am not 100% who did this tune originally. This is the one that I know and I have heard about a gazillion times. We put it on the first mix we made for my son because he was so into animals at the time. How many car rides have I belted out this song? Impossible to count, really. But in the end, it gets the top spot because it is truly a unique and rocking good time. Just try and keep up with all the crazy stuff they throw in there.

Hush, my darling don't fear my darling, the lion sleeps tonight.