Anni Rossi gets an 8.0 on Pitchfork

Download: Anni Rossi - "Ecology"

If you haven't already picked up Anni Rossi's latest record, Rockwell, named for the street she lives on in Chicago, then you absolutely should. Personally speaking, I'm more partial to the Afton EP which came out last fall (which I retroactively put on my best-of list for 2008, b/c I'm a dumbass), but Rockwell has more than its fair share of viola-plucked charms and unique vocal stylings. After being released on March 10th, Pitchfork has finally gotten around to reviewing Ms. Rossi's disc, and they've bestowed upon it a very great score of 8.0.

Here's the a key paragraph:

Anni Rossi's 4AD debut full-length, Rockwell...is the conclusion of a series of recording experiments taken over the last few years. Her instrumentation is so sparse that it naturally calls for the highest standards of recording to fully translate the relationship between the vocals and strings, so it's not surprising that she chose to record Rockwell with Steve Albini, albeit in a day

Read the rest of Mia Clarke's review here.

Check out video of Rossi performing in the MPLS right here.

Read my review of Rockwell for Decider Chicago here

Anni Rossi MySpace Page

(actual words by Jon Graef, but written in spirit by Ian Anderson)

School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

School of Seven Bells
Alpinisms (Ghostly International, 2008)
Grade: B

Download: School of Seven Bells - "Connjur"
Download: School of Seven Bells - "Chain"

Just to get this out of the way: Alpinism, in its singular form, is another name for climbing up mountains (which at least explains the album cover). Alpinisms, the debut record from School of Seven Bells, a trio featuring former members of The Secret Machines and On! Air! Library!, certainly feels as if its trying to scale newfound creative heights by incorporating many ideas into their music.

By incorporating elements of world music, synth-pop from late-80s era of new wave (the guitar tones on “Connjur” directly emulate Depeche Mode’s work circa Violator), and psychedelic sound-shifting, School of Seven Bells create a diverse mélange for the listener to explore. Opening track “Iamunderdisguise” suggests Enya discovering dub reggae, but with much, much more listenable results, and “Wired for Light” incorporates Middle Eastern motifs. Most of the tracks on Alpinisms are backed up by steady electronic hi-hat drums, much like the ones heard on My Bloody Valentine’s classic “Soon”.

Paradoxically, Alpinisms’s main flaw is that these elements tend to blur together over the course of an entire record. Not helping matters is when the dual female harmonized vocals veer toward the melodramatic, especially on tracks where Kate Bush’s ethereal singing style serves as a one-way ticket toward weepy willow territory, as on “White Elephant Coat”.

But Alpinisms is at its best when School of Seven Bells write straightahead pop songs with ambient twists, as on album highlights like “Face To Face on High Places”, the dreamy “Half Asleep” and soothing album closer “Canal”. Before returning to the world-music motifs that were present earlier in the album, the record takes an epic turn toward Krautrock with an 11-minute epic “Sempiternul/Amaranth”.

The song itself encompasses what’s both wrong and right with Alpinisms as a whole. At the track's beginning, the witchy vocals tend toward the grating. Once the group settles into a motorik groove, then it gets really interesting, as the trio finds new and exciting ways to explore sound and texture. By being experimental within some degree of convention, School of Seven Bells create compelling dream-pop music. It’s unfortunate that their dabbling with other forms doesn't succeed as well as it perhaps should, but hopefully future releases will retain that sense of adventurism while maintaining a greater compositional success rate.

School of Seven Bells MySpace Page

Cross-published on MFR.

Fucked Up's Father Damien Bares Soul, Ass, at Reggie's Rock Club

Download: Fucked Up - "Twice Born"
Download: Fucked Up - "No Epiphany"

Fucked Up
The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador, 2008)
Grade: A

There's been a lot of talk about common life these days, whether it's political campaigns talking about "Joe the Plumber", or economists talking about how the pure free-market has failed some 40 million Americans without health insurance (to be fair, some of them have undoubtedly made the choice on their own not to have it), or average folks simply discussing how hard it is to get by these days. The significance of a title like The Chemistry of Common Life to current events in 2008 is probably unintentional, but the record's startling contempt for the status quo, it's search for deeper solutions to life's problems, and it's reinvention of hardcore punk's sonic and musical vocabulary (flutes, bongos, multi-tracked guitars) all practically guarantee this album's relevance this year, next year, next decade...well, next century seems to be pushing it. But those listeners who want to be pushed, challenged, and thrilled by the Father Damian's John Brannon-esque roar, or the compositional diversity of his group, can look no further than Life

The Chemistry of Common Life retains all of the righteous fury of first-and-second-wave hardcore bands (and even second-wave emo on "Black Albino Bones") while at the same time introducing a multitude of ambitious ideas--I get a chill down my spine every time the serene, but fatalistically angry, "No Epiphany" comes on, as the track's layered guitars and angelic vocals unquestionably foreshadow a hardcore Loveless. That's not the only song with psychedelic aspirations though. "Royal Swan"'s neo-psychedelia stands up to anything that Black Mountain has released this year (and then some), and "Golden Seal" is the kind of instrumental segue track that would have Kevin Sheids envious. But before you can lull yourself in a droney haze, Fucked Up come back with hard-fisted hardcore, including "Twice Born" and the epic closing title track. Simply put, this is one of the best albums of the year.

Fucked Up recently played a show at Reggie's Rock Club, where they bared their souls by way of the philosophical lyrics, and where singer Father Damien bared his ass using more conventional methods. All photos by Jimmy Farabi. Check them out below:


(Father Damien)













For more, including the opening bands, go here.

(Jonathan Graef)
chicagoismildlyinteresting@gmail.com

Photos by Jimmy Farabi

Head of Femur - Great Plains

Download: Head of Femur - "Jetway Junior"
Download: Head of Femur - "Isn't It A Shame?"

Note: This Post Contains Previously Published Content

Orch-pop, for those who may not know (though the people who do not will dwindle each time another superb record from Chicago’s scene emerges), is a sub-genre of indie music in which the group in question makes eminently tuneful pop music with orchestral embellishments such as violins, woodwinds, or even brass, in addition to the good ole’ fashioned guitar, bass, and drums (and, maybe, keyboards). Of all the acts in Chicago's very own orch-pop scene (including terrific acts like The 1900s and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir), Head of Femur have not only been around the longest amount of time, but have the largest amount of recorded output. Their third LP, Great Plains, was released earlier this year. If there’s any justice in this musical universe, then you’d can expect Great Plains to show up on many people’s lists of 2008 albums which have been unjustly overlooked, at least by blogosphere standards. (Pitchfork rewarded Great Plains with a solid 7.3).

Consisting of one of the year’s most flawlessly executed sequence of songs, Great Plains is an album whose brand of baroque orch-pop flourishes to perfection. The group makes effortlessly melodic music that is simultaneously contemporary and timeless. While there are many orch-pop touchstones, listeners should be able to piece together a nerd-pop influence here (the quirky-catchy Pavement/They Might Be Giants amalgam of “Where’s The Fire?”), a Beach Boys influence there (check out the sighing, wistful harmonies of album opener “Whirlaway”), and the sunny, kaleidoscopic pop of such classic influences as the contemplative balladry The Beatles (“By The Red Fire”) and modern ones like the boyishly effervescent pop of Apples In Stereo (“Jetway Junior”).

It would be natural to assume that, because of the shock-and-awe name-bombing campaign I’ve inadvertently waged in the previous paragraph, Head of Femur are mere sonic impressionists and that listening to Great Plains is just an ostentatious game of spot-the-influence. (Is now a bad time to mention that the singer Matt Focht sounds a whole hell of a lot like Elliot Smith?). But while its first two proper songs (after the Beach-Boys lilt of “Whirlaway”) ultimately distract the listener with unnecessary anxiety and business, once the steady guitar-and-snare-driven strut of “Jetway Junior” arrives, Great Plains begins an utterly remarkable stretch of fantastic songs, each one arriving with a greater sense of relaxed confidence than the next. “Jetway Junior”, “Where’s The Fire?”, album closer “Isn’t It A Shame?”, and “Covered Wagons”, which is the album’s centerpiece (and a more subdued version of Arcade Fire’s “Intervention)— are prime examples of what happens when a veteran, or even just an established, group of songwriters, or musicians, grow comfortable, but not complacent, with one another: They focus on, and complement, each other’s strengths and, as a result, are able to churn out one great piece of work after the next. After a bit of an awkward stumble, Head of Femur stridently regain their footing and deliver one of the year’s best records. Great Plains is simply…well, you’ve gotten the picture.

Read a longer version of this review over at Stereo Subversion. 

Head of Femur MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)