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Bandwidth Preview: DJ LA*Jesus

Finally, in our series of Bandwidth previews, we have a recent interview with the man with a plan himself, DJ LA*Jesus, whose increasing presence in the ever-growing live DJ/rock show arena, is due to his reputation as a true entertainer. With his saint-like skills behind the wheels of motion and his effervescent personality, DJ LA*Jesus is determined to get you on the floor and shake your body to salvation! How did this LA*Jesus phenomenon get started? It started Halloween '02: after resisting it for years, I'd decided to go as Jesus. I had avoided it for so long 'cause I thought it was too obvious -- I already bore a slight resemblance with the hair and beard. The "LA" was added after a dude at a party, whom I didn't know, referred to me as "LA Jesus" and it stuck. Well, folks reacted very well to it, and I had a ball, so I decided to wear the costume to some shows in the effort to get people excited and dancing. At a Flaming Lips show in May '03, one thing lead to another and I found myself dancing onstage with them. This lead to several subsequent onstage appearances and -BAH-BAM!!! it was a hit. The F'Lips even went on to include a small cameo from me in their Fearless Freaks documentary released last year. What's your philosophy when it comes to DJ'ing? It's my view that the folks on the dancefloor should be taken for a ride! They should be surprised and psyched to hear a song they love, and equally so when hearing a track they've never heard before. Good DJs know how to do that. I've always appreciated a DJ that challenges me when I'm on the dancefloor, so I try and throw things out there that may be risky -- I know that's what makes a good experience for me, and I can't be alone. Furthermore, I think it's very important to play what's true to yourself, to play what moves you. How does LA*Jesus plan to save the dancefloor? When DJ LA*J takes the stage you know it's time to really let go and lose yourself in the moment. I'm out to not only make you wanna shake what the Good Lord gave ya, I want to make you laugh, smile, feel alive. Up, Bustle and Out have a track I spin that says it all, "Dance your troubles away / every weekend you got bills to pay / BUT RIGHT NOW / Dance your troubles away..." After a recent performance, one individual commented on my myspace, "You made me see God" -- so there you go ;) If you could make a mix cd to give to God, what 3 songs would have to be on it? A mix for the big man... hmmm... "I Just Want To Celebrate" - Rare Earth "Just A Thought" - Gnarls Barkley "Kooler Than Jesus" - My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (yeah, God's got a sense of humor, don't worry). I'm sure he does. So, what's up next for LA*Jesus? Working on remixes -- particularly a series called The Prophets of the Modern Age. The first of which, entitled "All We Have Is Now (She Moves She: 23)", places The Flaming Lips atop the beats from two different Four Tet tracks. This mix, amongst others, is available on my myspace. Also, folks can catch me live Oct 25 (w/ Flosstradamus & Mickey Avalon) at Darkroom and Oct 27 (w/Islands) at Metro. Who are you listening to at the moment? Aceyalone - "Lost Your Mind"... now the wonderous Party Shuffle has selected: "We Listen Every Day" - The Go! Team. Nice. Ah, yes, Party Shuffle, a miracle of modern science. Thanks for your time, DJ LA*J! For more miracles and to feel and breathe the dance gospel of DJ LA*Jesus, be sure to stick around after the live bands for his DJ set tonight at Bandwidth (around midnight?), sure to make a "believer" out of even the toughest music agnostic. Download: DJ*LA Jesus Mix - "Come in Out of the Corner" (MP3)

Tonight...

Already have plans to see Ladytron, Sunset Rubdown, The Long Winters, etc? No problem...our party goes 'til 4a.

Bandwidth Preview: Coltrane Motion

One of the first bands to hop on the Bandwidth bill was Coltrane Motion, and we are proud as hell to have them. You might be asking...who is Coltrane Motion? Shame on you. Coltrane Motion is "heartbreak you can dance to," as their press bio states. A delicious blend of "indie guitar fuzz with a mess of synths, samplers, and laptops tearing it all to pieces." RFC first caught up with the band last year and since that time these Ohio expats have continued touring and recording their asses off. This summer, they released a tour-only single, with two new tracks and a data side of the disc full of instrumentals, beats, and other goodies for people to remix, sample, etc. (They will be selling the remainder of this single at the Launch Party this Friday, and giving away the 2007 Datawaslost sampler) We can look foward to (finally) a full-length release from Coltrane Motion next Spring. After this show they will not be doing any shows till around Christmas, so don't miss out your chance to see these guys to tear it up on stage before they go back into hibernation to polish up the forthcoming full-length. -Brian J Download: Coltrane Motion - "Supersexy '67" (MP3)

Live Review: Nous Non Plus w/Hello Stranger @ Double Door 9/27/06

Every few months, without fail, I thoroughly convince myself that this 80’s revival/trend/fad/ whatever it's labeled these days, is on its last breath. Not only have I been wrong every time, but I have grossly underestimated just how far people are willing to go. I comfort myself in the certainty that it will run its course eventually. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the 80’s too, but when the worst elements of a decade start to resurface it becomes just downright troubling. With this in mind, I entered the Double Door last Wednesday night. As I made my way into the main room, I glanced toward the stage to make sure I was not as late as a clock would have me believe. As I peered from the back of the room something returned my gaze from the stage and it was front and center. It was unmistakable what stared back at me, it was a key-tar. Yes, that hybrid mutt of an instrument, half keyboard, half guitar and unofficial spokesman for 80’s music. I panicked and immediately descended for safety into the depths of the lower bar. I figured I could wait this one out until the set came to an end. I am all for hearing new music and keeping an open mind but, it was too early in the night and I was far too sober to face a key-tar. I approached the bar, ordered a beer and quickly gulped some of it down to keep composed. I could still hear the music, muffled above me, penetrating my temporary place of refuge. “Hmmm” I thought, after a few minutes “it is actually a pretty catchy little number.” The bartender turned toward the only other patron below and said, “Man, that keyboardist is killer.” The patron agreed. I wondered if they even knew the sound they were hearing was coming from a key-tar. Regardless, I couldn’t help but agree with them on the matter. I decided it was my duty to go upstairs and get a closer look and I am glad I did. The band, Hello Stranger, does subscribe to that 80’s pop sound, much in the way “the Sounds” do it. Keyboard, or rather key-tar laden tracks filled with hook after enticing hook all played with a genuine vitality. All this was funneled through lead singer Juliette Commagere, who was dressed as if she just walked off the set of Pat Benatar’s “Love is a Battlefield” video, while combining Patti Smith grit with the sex appeal of a younger Debbie Harry. What can I say, I have always been a sucker for Debbie Harry. Sure they closed with "Thunderstruck," complete with a key-tar intro channeling Angus Young's classic guitar line...and sure this only cements the fact that this 80’s revival is alive and well with no apparent end in sight, but when it is done well and delivered in such effective packaging, who cares? At the very least this Los Angeles-based band allowed me to make peace with the key-tar for an evening, and that has to stand for something. I had definitely missed the buzz about Hello Stranger because by the time Nous Non Plus took the stage the crowd was noticeably smaller. I can’t recall where I first heard about Nous Non Plus, but I admittedly knew very little. Early on it became apparent that the band was not to be taken very seriously. As the show progressed, this idea only became more evident, thus the music a bit more palpable and entertaining. At times the band could rock, much in the manner the soundtrack to European Vacation could rock. After listening to a song about Paris Hilton, whose title shares the very same name as said celebrity’s infamous sex tape, I had to wonder if there was anything remotely serious about the band. Perhaps they are more of a French version of Spinal Tap, only they are supposedly not actually French. Nonetheless, the band did seem to get pockets of the crowd dancing about, including openers Hello Stranger. I suppose the music might make some good background music at a party, but I wouldn’t give it much more credibility than that. Click here for the complete photoset (Words and photos by Rory O'Connor) Download: Hello Stranger - "Take It To The Maxx" (MP3)

All City Affairs added to Bandwidth bill

If you didn't catch Carlo's comment earlier, All City Affairs have graciously agreed to join the Bandwidth bill, after our little flake-out debacle earlier left us minus a band. Huge thanks to All City Affairs for coming on board, and huge thanks to Carlo for his crazy 11th-hour booking skills. Speaking of which, Carlo also somehow managed to whip up an interview with the band already, and his post follows below...

Bandwidth Preview: All City Affairs

When he's not spinning records as DJ Hugsen Kissus, or pounding away the funk beats in local 3-piece Baby Teeth, Peter Andreadis is working like a busy bee on his solo project All City Affairs. With the recent release of ACA's latest LP "Bees" on Lujo Records, All City Affairs is primed to bring it's vibrant infusion of rock, funk, reggae, jazz, and hip-hop sound to a wider audience with an upcoming tour and even a new album in the works. Peter took some time in his busy schedule to answer a few questions for RFC. How long have you been working on All City Affairs? Where did the name come from? All City Affairs has been around since about 2000. It started as a band under my real name and then became a band-band, and then became just me again with no band and called All City Affairs. I wanted to call it All City Affairs, because when I was playing with live musicians we were from all over Chicago. What are your plans for ACA? My plans with ACA are to finish the next record and play as much as I can in the fall. I'm working on booking for out of town dates. So, you perform primarily as a one man band, what can an audience expect from a live ACA show? An audience can expect me to be selling the songs in a very genuine way. When I am at home working on these tunes I can get lost in them. Really get carried away and all. Now that they are finished and I am performing them in front of people, I get the same feeling. It's my time alone up there and I'm just trying to give people the same experience of what I felt in my room at conception. What is the most difficult aspect to recording as ACA? I would say the most difficult thing about recording ACA is that there is no one there to edit but me. I have to be conscious of what is relevant and interesting and what is just musical vomit that I've decided to throw out that day? or week? After a few listens I can usually tell if a particular song will be compelling to audiences or whether it's only compelling to me, because I've created it. What inspires you as a songwriter? At the core of songwriting, the artists that inspire me are Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Sly Stone, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, and Neil Young, etc. I can listen to any number of those artists' tunes and just break down and cry at how beautiful they are. As far as sounds are concerned and production, I would say Dr. Dre, the Neptunes, Timbaland, Squarepusher, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Aphex Twin. I'm very interested in rhythmic patterns and what makes things progressive and moving underneath the melodic and harmonic structure of a song. If you don't have a moving rhythm, what do you have? You are in constant motion yourself, does that motivate your work on All City Affairs? Yes. A dominant influence on All City Affairs is my reluctance to relax. I don't like idle time. It makes me nervous. I'd rather strum out some chords on my guitar or tap out some rhythms and walk down the street and beat-box something. What's your favorite part of Chicago and the local music scene? Chicago feels like a small town. You can see the same people walking down the street everyday if you wanted to stay in the same neighborhood. If you move around a lot, like I do, you see new people. But sometimes I like to visit some old haunts and see old friends. I also like the fact that there are many, many talented musicians here and the bar is always set high. I like the pressure of knowing that there is a bit of competition. I work best under pressure, I always have. Finally, who are you listening to these days? I'm really into the new Baby Dayliner CD called Critics Pass Away. His name is Ethan and he is from NYC. Great pop tunes, with a dance floor appeal. I'm also listening to Donald Fagen's Morph The Cat, Broadcast's Tender Buttons, The Roots' Game Theory, and Ludacris' Release Therapy. Oh, and I checked out a copy of Company from the library, which was a Stephen Sondheim musical from 1970. Thanks for your time, Peter! You can "send yourself to work" on the dancefloor at The Kinetic Playground this Friday, when All City Affairs takes the stage as part of BANDWIDTH: A Launch Party Revolution. Download: All City Affairs - "Send Yourself To Work" - (MP3) Download: All City Affairs - "Man Of Modern Times" - (MP3)

Bandwidth Preview: Skybox

Tuesday night I sat down with newly deemed Bandwidth headliners Skybox for an interview and acoustic session live from their Edgewater apartment. Download the podcast here or simply hit play on the player below:
powered by ODEO Also, be sure to check out this infectious lead single from the band's self-released debut, Arco Isis:

Skybox - "Various Kitchen Utensils"(MP3)

Live Pics: Thunderbirds Are Now! @ Beat Kitchen 9/29/06

I caught an early show with Thunderbirds Are Now! Friday night and caught a few pics for the photoblog. The Beat Kitchen has become a pretty impressive venue- great sound and a very well-lit stage that makes it incredibly easy to take good pictures without flash! (Thax's crusade should be about better lighting, not flash cameras!) The only difficulty this time was getting the band to stand still long enough to snap a non-blurry photo- TAN! is about as high-energy as it gets. They played a lot of older favorites like "Eat This City" and "This World Is Made of Paper," as well as debuted some new tunes from their forthcoming album, Make History. A good time, as always.

New Releases Tuesday - 10/3

Another big name New Releases Tuesday...featuring new albums from the likes of Beck, The Decemberists, The Dears, Jet and The Killers. The New York Times did a nice job of profiling the heavy hitters yesterday, but there's still plenty more to check out: Ad Astra Per Aspera - Catapult (Calypso) Akron/Family - Meek Warrior (Young God) Air - Late Night Tales (Azuli) J.B. and Nicholas are the latest artists to contribute to this great compilation series created by Azuli Records. (think of it as a downtempo version of the DJ Kicks series) The French lounge masters feature a few obvious choices like Sebastien Tellier, Lee Hazlewood and Scott Walker, but they also drop a few surprises like tracks from The Band and Black Sabbath. Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 - Ole! Tarantula (Yep Rock) In 30 years of recording with the Soft Boys and solo-wise, Robyn Hitchcock's enduring brand of madcap mayhem has raced between English punk, acoustic folk and sonically lush pop. But by teaming with Seattle pals Pete Buck (REM) and Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5), Hitchcock has made a return to garage rock not heard since 1989's Queen Elvis...Buck's indelible guitar instills a chiming luster to songs like "Underground Sun" and "Red Locust Frenzy," while McCaughey provides a random, finger-snapping piano to the delightful "Belltown Ramble," which finds Hitchcock serving as the clever hobnobbing tour guide of his favorite Emerald City neighborhood. As usual, a sharp cockney twang is Hitchcock's best instrument, carving up the scatty title song as aptly as his ode to San Francisco "(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs" or his salute to "NY Doll," late bassist Arthur Kane. --Scott Holter (via Amazon) Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant) Craig Finn loves books and bars. It's not just that he pinched the title of he Hold Steady's third album from the ultimate manual for boozehounds, Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" ("Boys and Girls in America have such a sad time together"), but that every leery line of every song is crammed with the wayward poetry and passion of someone who is more familiar with the bottom of a whiskey glass than the sun. Thanks to his raucous Brooklyn band, his music--louder than its predecessors this time, with a few more ballads--also happens to make a great soundtrack for an all-night bender where broken-hearts and broken bottles become one. -Aidin Vaziri (via Amazon) Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out (Astralwerks) Sean Lennon - Friendly Fire (Capitol) Make Believe - Of Course (Flameshovel) Pernice Brothers - Live A Little (Ashmont) Subtle - For Hero For Fool (Astralwerks) Thunderbirds Are Now! - Make History (Frenchkiss) Various Artists - DFA Remixes: Chapter Two (Astralwerks)

(Doh!) Bandwidth Headliner Flakes Out

This is so ridiculous that I can't even get mad about it. Seriously, I should've been pissed, but all I could do was laugh when I heard the news. Barely a week before our big launch party at Kinetic Playground, came word that our headlining band, The Dirty Things, broke up and won't be able to play our gig. RFC's Chief Launch Party Coordinator, Brian J, got this message via a MySpace email message late Friday afternoon: hey brian, i hate doing this to you. things we're in utter turmoil on wednesday (if i seemed a bit strange) and we were hoping the show would lift our spirits but it didn't help. looks like we're calling it quits. i really would like to fullfill our obligations but we just can't. i can throw you some names of some bands if you like. i'm so sorry for the last minute notice but our lead singer is a bitch. i will be starting a new project and i hope to work with you again in the future. thanks so much for making it out to the show and i hope there's no hard feelings. let me know if there's anything i can do: 312-7xx-7xxx sincerely, josh Josh never did return messages from Brian or myself this weekend, so now we're scrambing to find a replacement band. "Work with you again in the future???" "No hard feelings???"Are you serious? We plastered your name all over our site, Future Perfect Radio, MySpace and any other form of media willing to list our event, and even printed up 1000 glossy flyers all with your name at the top of the bill. We did all that and you can't even return a phone call after leaving us high and dry? Wow Josh, we can't wait to promote your next band and work with you again in the future! Gossipy Update: In fairness to Josh, Brian J said that he did finally email him back this afternoon and suggested some other bands. Though, four days off, this hardly absolves the situation. Gossipy Update #2: Josh responds to my email from last Friday: ...i will attempt contacting the other guys and see if we can work something out but i will say it is unlikely. i feel terrible about this. in my defense, i want the band to carry on but the singer/guitarist does not. i'm gonna brainstorm about other possibilities...i am truely sorry for this situation.

Beck Listening Party Tonight

Damn, that was quick. After Guero and Guerolito last year, Beck is already back with a brand new full-length, The Information, out tomorrow. "Be the first on your block to hear it..." by going to the official listening party tonight at SmartBar: Monday October 2 Interscope Records Presents... BECK CD LISTENING PARTY FOR THE INFORMATION FREE! / 21 & over / Doors: 6:30pm / Show: 6:30pm Come to Smart Bar and be the first to hear Beck's new album The Information (due in stores on 10/3) and enter for your chance to win tickets to see Beck at UIC Pavilion

Also, it's "Beck Day" today on the Beeb's 6Music channel, where they'll be spinning tracks from the new album as well as featuring a plethora of classic Beck jams. John Peel heir apparent Steve Lamacq will also be sitting down for a chat over tea and crumpets with the man himself at around 12p local time.

Happy Rocktober!

It's back...that magical time of year known lovingly as "Rocktober." To celebrate, all this month Radio Free Chicago will be playing 20-minute Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Van Halen rock-blocks every hour! OK...not really, however today does mark the debut of the Radio Free Chicago audio player (aka "The Local Band Listening Post"), powered by Future Perfect Radio. We'll have a direct link up on the new site next week, but for now you can preview the player directy on the Future Perfect Radio homepage.