Latest blog headlines Moby, "Wait for Me" (Mute) [3.5 STARS] (6/30/2009 12:03:39 PM) Demo2DeRo: The Yearbooks (6/30/2009 12:00:52 PM) Celebrate the 4th with some presidential rock at Taste (6/30/2009 11:43:54 AM) This weekend: Hair-metal nostalgia, and Man Man (6/30/2009 11:42:29 AM) The Feelies: Those rhythms are still crazy after all these years (6/29/2009 10:37:29 PM) Where does Michael Jackson fit in the pop pantheon? (6/27/2009 9:41:04 AM) Michael Jackson, dead at 50: A complicated legacy (6/25/2009 7:25:00 PM) This weekend: Van der Graaf Generator, Shellac (6/24/2009 4:16:06 PM) Coroner: Jay Bennett died of an accidental drug overdose (6/23/2009 1:06:17 PM) Richard Marx defends the RIAA's $1.92 million scapegoat (6/23/2009 9:49:26 AM)
The young Chicago pop quintet of vocalist Sars Flannery, guitarists Billy Friel and Eric Hehr, bassist Drew Potenza and drummer Adam James -- collectively known as the Yearbooks -- are remarkably Spartan with their presence on the Web: Their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/theyearbooks, doesn't include a bio, and they've posted only one track. But when the song is as strong as "Season of Love," a wonderfully effervescent bit of power pop that brings to mind the Zombies or the Byrds reimagined in the new millennium by musicians who've also listened to plenty of Matthew Sweet and Britpop -- you don't really need to hear a lot more or know the whole story to be hooked.
Jim DeRogatis: Like millions of Americans, Christian Kiefer, a history teacher in Sacramento, Calif., spent last Nov. 4 glued to his television, watching as events unfolded in Chicago's Grant Park. Now, on Saturday, Kiefer will be onstage in the same park performing the song he wrote about Obama, "Someone to Wake," as part of Taste of Chicago's celebration of indie rock.
Few bands stay broken up anymore, even those that sucked the first time: Witness the return of Creed and Third Eye Blind. But like the best of their peers -- Mission of Burma, Wire and the Buzzcocks -- New Jersey art-punks the Feelies avoided the taint of nostalgia at the Pritzker Pavilion on Monday, their first Chicago show in 18 years.
Few bands stay broken up anymore, even those that sucked the first time: Witness the return of Creed and Third Eye Blind.
With millions around the world mourning his death and some commentators hitting outlandish heights of hyperbole while trying to assess his cultural impact, Michael Jackson poses two fascinating questions for students of popular music. Where does the self-professed King of Pop fit in the pantheon of musical greats? And will his recordings continue to endure 10, 20 or 50 years in the future?
As the music world begins to assess the complicated legacy of the man who crowned himself the King of Pop, there is no denying that Michael Jackson's climb from humble beginnings amid the belching smokestacks of Gary to the top of the charts and worldwide superstardom will rank beside those of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beatles as one of the most extraordinary rags-to-riches stories ever.
When the Feelies last performed in Chicago, at the Vic Theatre in 1991 during a show broadcast live on WXRT-FM (93.1), the legendary New Jersey art-punks were at the end of the second phase of their career.
Michael Jackson's music often seemed to comment directly on the events and issues in his life, with the topics shifting from the challenges of growing up to chronic complaints of being persecuted.
Jim DeRogatis: On a scene that's too often about poses and posturing, the Roots have spent two decades focusing on the music, and they've never had much competition for the title of the best live band in hip-hop. Rather than empty boasts about bling and bitches, racial identity and the need for community are the topics drummer and producer Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and rapper Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter have most often explored since they first connected.
In a ruling that already is infamous as one of the most wrong-headed in the history of the American judicial system -- not to mention that it will forever stand as the best evidence of the contempt of the old-school music industry toward the music lovers who once were its customers -- Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a divorced mom from Northern Minnesota, was found guilty last week of illegally downloading 24 songs, with a penalty of $80,000 per track and a grand total of $1.92 million.
Jim DeRogatis: In these times of harrowing financial uncertainty, most major U.S. corporations are struggling to determine how to stay profitable in the face of a skittish and turbulent marketplace. In this regard, Disney's reigning teen-pop behemoth the Jonas Brothers is no different than General Motors.
At their invigorating best, as on the rollicking "See Her Dead" or the anthemic "Sinners on a Sunday," the Chicago quartet TAxi offers yet another take on that never-gets-old brand of tuneful Midwestern garage punk, with a focus on melody that barely (just barely) contains the chaos threatening to erupt. Other times, as on "Chinatown," the band plays it a bit too safe, and the polish veers dangerously close to Dave Matthews Band territory. Thankfully, those moments are in the minority.
Jim DeRogatis: The best blues always is a little frightening: As the greats pour their souls into a cathartic purging, a listener often is just a little bit worried that all of that pain and anger might backfire in their direction.
Jim DeRogatis: Though it has garnered much less attention than many of the albums in her stellar career, the first disc that PJ Harvey released as a full-on collaboration with frequent sideman and multi-instrumental wizard John Parish, "Dance Hall at Louse Point" (1996), stands as one of the most creative of her career.
Ever since their calculated reinvention from a politically conscious, bargain-basement version of the Roots into a pop-conscious, genre-blurring hip-pop combo circa "Elephunk" (2003) -- their third studio album but first with Stacy Ferguson on vocals -- the Black Eyed Peas have been the modern equivalent of those '70s cartoon bands like Josie and the Pussycats and the Banana Splits, devoted to sugary hooks, silly lyrics and lowest-common-denominator dance grooves.
