Pearl Jam to play Wrigley Field in July

Pearl Jam has announced that it will play July 19 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Tickets go on sale Feb. 9 at www.tickets.com.

Chicago's The Jordan Years releases vibrant new album

 

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

One of the things that sets the Chicago music scene apart is the sheer diversity of it.

Chicago band The Jordan Years, www.thejordanyears.com, is adding to the vibrancy of the scene through its first full-length album, "Homemade Hustler," set for release on Feb. 1.

The band, comprised of Wes Restless on vocals, Michael Andersen on bass and Roger Panella on guitar, will perform the album in its entirety Feb. 1 at Subterranean, 2011 W. North Ave., Chicago.

The show will also feature The Congregation, DJ Intel and The Skinny, and will be hosted by Andrew Huff of Gapers Block. The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and presale tickets are available at www.subt.net, or at the door for $10. 

I had the chance to talk to the band about the new album.


Q - Great to talk to you. I understand you will be playing the new album live in its entirety on Feb. 1. Do you think "Homemade Hustler" is made to be played live? What made you want to do a concept album for your first full-length album?
 
Thanks for having us. The album is 10 songs in 30 or so minutes.  It's great to play it live. 

It moves along nicely and gets to the point. The audience is kept on their toes. 

It's a story of a guy who gets cast aside by the corporate world, takes matters into his own hands, falls in love, makes some money and ends up getting in some trouble, but realizes that he wouldn't have it any other way.  

Eric, you're intrigued...yes?  The concept is true to our own lives and tells the story of a lot of our friends.

Q - In sitting down to make "Homemade Hustler," what were the band's goals and do you think you achieved them?

We wanted to to step our game up as songwriters, musicians, collaborators, and project managers.  We're proud of the way we're presented here but there are always things that you wish you could fix.




Q - The album has a real '70s vibe to it. Who are some of your musical influences? Why do you think there is a renewed interest in soul music these days, including on the Chicago music scene with such bands as The Congregation and JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound?

Well we're all huge fans of Queensryche.  They originated in the late '70s  I think...so maybe that's the connection.  

People are interested in live instruments nowadays because they like to watch musicians play their hearts out.  We love The Congregation and JC Brooks.  Gina Bloom is wow.

Q - Explain the band's name. Is it a homage to Michael Jordan and/or Chicago?

It's an homage to Chicago's winning spirit and it's ability to produce champions.

Q - "Homemade Hustler" was self-recorded and produced. Do you prefer making music on your own? Do you think today's technology gives musicians freedom they didn't have before? Would you ever sign to a label?

We're very fortunate to be able to produce and record our own music.  Technology definitely gives us an amazing level of freedom.  

We will never sign with a label no matter how many tacos they feed us.

Q - Is writing songs a collaborative effort for the band? Did the band's chemistry come together right away or was it something you worked at?

We write together and separately.  The final product is always a group effort though.  

We also work with a lot of talented musicians/friends who help our vision become real live audio cassettes for the children.

Q - How do you see The Jordan Years fitting into the Chicago music scene? How do you think the Chicago music scene compares to other parts of the county?

The Jordan Years are the band that makes you proud to be from Chicago.  No frills, no hype, just hard work and heart.

Q - What are the band's short-term and long-term goals?

Short Term = Have Fun
 
Long Term = Get Money

Liquid Soul celebrating 20th anniversary with Double Door show

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

With its innovative blend of jazz, hip-hop, world music and other genres, Chicago band Liquid Soul caused quite the stir when it burst onto the scene in the mid-'90s.

Led by innovative saxophonist Mars Williams, the band quickly gained a following that included Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman and President Bill Clinton.

Liquid Soul, www.liquidsoul.com,  will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a Jan. 20 show at the Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.

I had a chance to talk to Williams about Liquid Soul and its recent activities.


The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are $10 to $20, available at www.ticketfly.com.

Q - All of the original members of Liquid Soul will be featured in the 20th anniversary show. Was it hard getting everybody together?
 
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to get everybody together. Five years ago, we did a 15-year anniversary show at the Double Door and most of the guys were there. 

Everybody had a great time, so getting those guys on board for this one was pretty easy. Then word got out to the other guys that missed the first show about how much fun they missed out on and they all jumped in for this one.
 

Sell Music online at ReverbNation.com

Q - Why was it important to do a 20th anniversary show?
 
Liquid Soul was a big part of the Chicago music scene in the 90s. Liquid Soul Sundays was the happening place to be and be seen. It wasn’t just a concert, it was an event! 

We had loyal and amazing fans. They were the reason for our success. The buzz about our Sunday night residency became known internationally!
 
The 20th anniversary show is a way for us and them to relive those amazing times.
 

Q - Will this anniversary show be the start of new activities for the band? Are you guys working on new music?
 
Except for the couple of years when I put the band on hold, the band really never stopped performing. There have been different musicians throughout the years, but the band still continues to kick ass!
 
A new record is definitely in the near future, and I’m compiling a lot of live archived recordings from the Sunday night shows at Elbo Room and Double Door.
 
I’m also in the process of finding a venue for Liquid Soul to do another residency. Residencies give us the opportunity to hash out & try new ideas. I also plan to record a live record and a record of freestyle jams.
 
Q - When the band formed, did you think you were breaking new ground?
 
In the early 90s, there was some experimenting going on with DJ’s mixing hip-hop and jazz. Especially in England, NYC, and LA. DJ Jesse De La Pena was very knowledgeable of this scene, and would spin a lot of this new style called “acid jazz” in his sets. 

He was responsible for bringing this music to our attention. When Jesse, Tommy and I first came together, we were experimenting with playing jazz standards over beats Jesse would lay down, and just improvising over these beats. The Sunday night residency gave us the opportunity to continue exploring and layering different styles.
 
From there, I started writing music that would work in this context. I don’t really know if we broke any new ground, but I think that bringing together our diverse musical personalities created a unique new sound!
 
Q - What were the band's goals and do you think you achieved them?
 
What I wanted was an outlet to play and collaborate with great musicians in a FUN musical environment, encompassing & fusing all the styles of music I love to play, with a focus on groove. I think we achieved that!
 
Q - In 2001, Liquid Soul received a Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Record. How did you view that? Were you surprised?

Being Grammy nominated wasn’t on even my radar. It definitely wasn’t a goal of mine when we started out. When I found out about the nomination, I thought they made a mistake! Seriously! Eventually it sunk in that “Wow, we’ve been Grammy nominated!”. It was humbling to know that there was recognition from our peers.
 

 
Q - You have been very much in demand over the years. What do you think it is about your saxophone playing and musicianship that attracts bands like The Waitresses, The Psychedelic Furs and others to want to work with you?
 
I don’t know, you would have to ask them... Maybe my warm fuzzy personality! Ha!
 
Q - It seems like you are always working on different projects. Do you have any new projects for 2013? Will we hear more from Soul Sonic Sirkus this year?
 
Hell yeah! They are so new that I don’t even know what they are yet!
 
I intend to remain active in the Chicago free jazz/ improvising community, where there are always new opportunities and collaborations with international artists, and I plan to continue the Monday night series at Beat Kitchen with Extraordinary Popular Delusions. 

The Soul Sonic Sirkus is an on going project. I’m hoping we will be invited to more festivals this year. It is
an extremely unique, spectacular show that must be seen!
  
http://youtu.be/Lx9gFaqRK68

You can stay up to date with my projects and events by visiting www.marswilliams.com.

Supporting Chicago's pop-punk scene

By Eric Schelkopf

From Screeching Weasel to Sore Subjects, Chicago has been at the center of the pop punk scene since the beginning.

Bradley Adita knows how important Chicago has been to pop punk's evolution. And he is helping to support and promote Chicago's pop punk scene through his website, www.poppunk.com. 

I had the chance to talk to Adita about his website and other topics.

Q - How did you get involved in the punk/pop punk scene?

During adolescence I was a huge fan of three bands: Weird Al Yankovic, R.E.M., and They Might Be Giants, but I didn't know a thing about punk rock. 

In February of 1994, I was a freshman at Glenbrook South High School, in Glenview, Illinois. I was looking for a place to showcase the juggling skills I had developed in Junior High and found a small, student-run theater group called Paradox. 

While rehearsing for the show, I met a Junior named Emily who made me a punk rock mixtape with Screeching Weasel, The Queers, NOFX, Op Ivy, Rancid, Pseudo Hippies - to name a few. My family didn't have cable or MTV, but a couple months later, I started hearing Green Day songs on Q101. 

As I drew connections between the bands on the radio and the songs on the mixtape, I began to embark on my path into the mysterious vortex of punk rock.

Q - You took over Pop Punk Dot Com in 2009. What made you want to get involved in the website?

Yeah, it was late 2009 when Steve Neurotic and I negotiated a purchasing price, but I didn't officially take over the site until around March 2010. When I moved back from Iowa to Chicago in 2003, it was a time of taking stock of my previous experiences and trying to figure out a plan to go forward. 

While in Iowa, hardcore had become a way of life for me, but as I transitioned back to the area I had known growing up, it seemed like pop punk kept popping back up, and I remembered all the fun and good music from earlier times, and I started focusing more attention on the genre of pop punk. 

The more I listened and the more bands and music I discovered, the more I wanted to learn about this often maligned punk rock subgenre. Soon, I was doing research and hoping to find a book about pop punk, but when I couldn't find one, I realized that it was an opportunity to somehow produce one myself. 

So the original impetus to acquire the domain was out of service to the idea of creating a book about pop punk.

Q - PPDC celebrated its 15th year anniversary in 2012. What can people expect from PPDC in 2013?

Actually, www.poppunk.com was registered on June 8, 1998, so the 15th anniversary will be on June 8, 2013. I guess that's good, because I didn't do anything in 2012 to celebrate!

In 2013, I hope to continue with the Weekly Featured Shows series. I also plan on continuing to try new things to figure out what works and what doesn't. One plan I've been thinking about involves completely re-hauling the website, but that's gonna take a lot of time and money and I'm not sure if its going to happen in 2013, but a good goal would be to have the update done and ready to launch for 2014. 

So there's that, and now that I'm aware of it, I'll probably plan to have a PPDC party on Saturday, June 8th, 2013, for the 15th anniversary - so look for details about that.

Q - How does PPDC go about about choosing the bands to feature in its weekly concerts?

For the Weekly Featured Show, I keep abreast of concerts and shows around the Chicago area and keep a schedule of possibilities. Based on a number of factors, I decide which show seems most likely to be the best match for the week. 

I have a really great relationship with www.mpshows.com, which books shows at Township, Ultra Lounge, Stage Bar, and sometimes at Reggies and Bottom Lounge. They have been super helpful in getting this series off the ground. In addition, I've also promoted shows at Mayne Stage, Brauerhouse, Beat Kitchen, and more recently, Quenchers and Elbo Room.

Q - How does the pop punk scene in Chicago compare to the rest of the country?

It definitely depends on who you ask, but Chicago really has one of the best pop punk scenes in the world. 

What's great about pop punk in Chicago is we've got a solid punk rock history dating back to at least 1977. Then we've got bands like Naked Raygun who survived hardcore's heyday, but who nevertheless kept a strong sense of melody in their songs. Then, in the mid-to-late 80s, you've got Screeching Weasel coming up and laying down many of the main components of what pop punk would become. 

In the early-to-mid 90s, the underground suburban scene really made waves with bands like Smoking Popes, Winepress, The Vindictives, The Bollweevils, AYA, The Fighters, The Mushuganas, 88 Fingers Louie, Allister, and on and on. 

Underdog Records, Rocco Records, and Harmless Records were just some of the many labels that had sprung up and released some of the best pop punk records at the time. Even Victory Records has released a handful of notable pop punk records over the years. 

The pop punk scene kind of boiled over in the late 90s, but even then you have bands like Lawrence Arms, Rise Against, and Alkaline Trio busy cutting their teeth. By the early 00's you've got the whole emo-influenced style of pop punk coming into the forefront with Fall Out Boy leading the way, followed by others on Pete Wentz's Decaydance roster and also Spitalfield, Plain White T's, and beyond. 

Then in the mid 00s you have The Methadones, The Copyrights, and others turning back to a sound and style more similar to that of the early-to-mid 90s. In recent years, Red Scare has easily become the best local pop punk label (even being named Chicago's Best Local Label 2012 in the Chicago Reader). 

And now you've got newer bands coming up such as Sore Subjects, Sass Dragons, Downtown Struts, Stay Golden, and The Fur Coats representing just some of the best of the latest crop of artists who mix their punk with some pop. New York City city has a richer punk history, and the San Francisco Bay Area may lay claim to Gilman St., Lookout Records (RIP), and Green Day, but no scene is as layered, consistent, and multifaceted as Chicago.

Q - Where do you see Chicago's pop punk scene going from here?

Obviously, no one can tell the future precisely, but I think Chicago will continue to have one of the best pop punk scenes in the world, and now with Pop Punk Dot Com located in Chicago, hopefully we can build even more connections and strengthen the scene at large. 

And while there are many pop punk sub-scenes (which don't always get along and see eye to eye), it's my hope that Pop Punk Dot Com can be used to build bridges between these factions, and provide more opportunities for dialogue and idea sharing, but only time will tell.

Q - You've been involved in other projects, such as the zine "A Day In The Air." What made you want to publish your own zine? What other projects are you working on?

Projects, projects, projects! Yeah, I guess I am sort of notorious for always having some kind of project that I'm working on. My history with zines and self-publishing goes back many years (I even found a small zine/book I made when I was 5 years old), so in some ways, self-publishing comes second nature to me. 

My mom is a CPS Special Education teacher, so I think having her around a lot when I was growing up, with all those creative ideas she exposed me to, really helped to foster my own creativity. I've always got one or two other projects going, but recently, I have narrowed it down to really focus on Pop Punk Dot Com. 

One auxiliary project for 2013 is do the final sale and distribution of the IowaHardcore.com(pilation) CD which I put out as A Day In The Air #15, in 2003. I have around 300 copies left and it's time to celebrate the 10 year anniversary since it came out, so I'm looking at the possibility of organizing an anniversary tour around Iowa and free bandcamp anniversary compilation. 

So if you are interested in that, please get in touch with me. I'll also be tabling at this years Chicago Zine Fest, which is March 9 at Columbia College's Conaway Center (www.chicagozinefest.org).