Chicago Indie Rock and Stuff: July 2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Lollapalooza's Last Band Standing for DJs this year...again

Maybe Lollapalooza's "Last Band Standing" contest should change its name. For the second year in a row, there are no bands in the contest. Like last year, the contestants are DJs. There have been no bands since 2008 when The Melismatics won a spot at Lolla. The winners last year, Punky Fresh & DJ Pasha, yes, there were two DJs standing at the end, played on first thing in the AM on Perry’s stage, one per day.

This year, it's a DJ remix contest. They have knocked down 500 contestants to four finalists, Craig Williams, DJ White Shadow, Lucky Date, and Professor Purple. The final selection will be made August 1st, when they will battle it out live at Double Door. And below, through the magic of embedded MP3 players, you can sample all four DJs before you head out to Double Door for the show. My vote is for Professor Purple. The show is FREE, but you should go early, there will be a big crowd.

There are also some nice prizes...

Winner:
An opening slot at Lollapalooza on Perry’s stage
Two Pioneer CDJ900s?
Set of Shure SE535 sound isolating earphones
$250 gift certificate for SatelliteRecords.com
Winning remix featured for free download on SatelliteRecords.com homepage for one week
Eight hour custom one-on-one training in topic of choice, courtesy of Music Industry Workshop
4 hour hands-on training program in Digital Mastering day of finals competition, courtesy of Music Industry Workshop
$1,000 cash
Lollapalooza artist pass and artist guest pass
Hotel for Lollapalooza weekend

?Remaining three finalists?:
Two three-day passes to Lollapalooza?
Pioneer HDJ2000 headphones?
$150 gift certificate to SatelliteRecords.com
4 hour hands-on training program in Digital Mastering day of finals competition, courtesy of Music Industry Workshop
$750 cash

Smashing Pumpkins raise a fortune for Matthew Leone

According to published reports, the Smashing Pumpkins benefit show at Chicago's Metro on Tuesday night raised anywhere from 60-80 thousand dollars for Chicago musician Matthew Leone. Kill Hannah opened the night.

Tickets were sold by a raffle system, $10 for a raffle ticket that gave you a chance to win 2 concert tickets. VIP and meet and greet tickets for $100 and $500 a piece were also sold out. Between encores, Billy Corgan auctioned off the guitar he was playing for $10,000. Other memorabilia was action off between sets, $1,600 for a bag of collectible Pumpkins memorabilia, $2,500 for a signed event poster and $4,000 to meet Billy after the show.

Illinois Governor, Pat Quinn was at the concert and proclaimed Tuesday Matthew Leone Day in Illinois. "We have a true American hero right here in Matthew Leone," the governor said. He presented Matthew's twin brother, Nathan with a plaque.

Reviews of the show were mixed (video below). Smashing Pumpkins are now Billy Corgan plus three new members, Mike Byrne on drums, Nicole Fiorentino on bass, and Jeff Scroeder on guitar. Here's my review from a Pumpkin's show Monday in NY City. This show, however, was more about compassion than music criticism.

"I couldn't believe how wonderful Billy Corgan was," Giulio Leone, Matthew's father, said after the show. "It was a wonderful evening. It's sort of the positive ending to a very negative situation."

Matthew Leone, from the band Madina Lake, survived brain surgery last week to replace part of his skull that was removed almost a month ago after injuries suffered in a terrible attack on June 30th. He is now home from the hospital. The surgery was successful. He is recovering, smiling, and walking, but said to be in great pain.

Matthew was the victim of a severe beating when he tried to aid a woman that was being choked by her husband in the street. Matthew had just left his brother's apartment on his way to meet a friend around 12:45am when he saw the argument. The woman yelled for Leone to help her and he tried to break them up and calm the situation. The husband, later identified as Justin Pivec, brutally attacked Leone and left him unconscious with many head injuries. Pivec, as reported here, has been arrested and charged with domestic battery for the incident with his wife and with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a felony, for attacking Leone.

Matthew has no medical insurance and faces large bills for his stay in the hospital, his surgery and subsequent treatments. Sweet Relief kindly started a fund for Matthew and has raised over $30,000, this is aside from the concert proceeds. Donation are still being accepted, click "Chip In" on the box below.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Attention musicians, MuckWork will do your uncreative dirty work

Attention musicians, MuckWork will do your uncreative dirty work
Like the one man band, fledgling musicians are expected to do everything themselves. They are promoter, designer, publicist, agent, and much more. Their careers depend on these skills as much as their musicianship. Currently in beta testing is a site that aims to aid performers in those skills they may not possess.

MuckWork.com is a site for musicians to find competent virtual assistants to do the mundane non-creative work that helps them reach success. The assistants will be qualified, reliable, and paid hourly by artists to do work in their specialties; copyrighting songs, trademarking band's names, managing email lists, booking shows, designing, and promotion. They'll do just about anything requested so that musicians can concentrate on the work that only they can do, create their music and play it.

Now you may think this is a great idea, but come on, it won't work. How can you be sure the work will be done? The site takes responsibility for the work. If one assistant can't get it done, it will be handed off to another. You may be thinking, who could possibly organize something so seemingly open ended and complex? How about a guy that started out selling his own Cds online and ended up selling the Cds of over 150,000 independent musicians. The former owner of CDBaby.com, Derek Sivers, is behind the idea and is capable of executing it.

In 2008, he gave up ownership of CDBaby.com. He put it into an irrevocable charitable trust to benefit music education charities. A few months after he made the trust (containing CDBaby.com), it was purchased by Disc Makers. The trust received $22 million dollars for the sale. Sivers gets an annual income that is the minimum required by law from the trust and yet he points out that he is free to donate that as well. The man is a true philanthropist, he is passionate about helping musicians.

Send your musician friends to MuckWork.com to sign up for beta-testing and let us help Derek get started with his latest project.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Free streaming concerts all week at Spin.com

Free streaming concerts all week at Spin.com
Spin Magazine is celebrating their 25th anniversary with live streaming shows all week. The concerts are sponsored by American Express and Spin.com asks you to connect through Facebook, make a click to "like" an AE product and then you can watch the show. It's a small price to pay to watch some great bands. The Smashing Pumpkins are just now finishing up their show in my other window!

I'm sorry for not writing sooner so you didn't miss the Billy Corgan Quartet! You probably know that Billy is the only one still in the band from the original lineup. It's a good show tonight. The new kid on drums, Mike Byrne is great, but eh, there's no soul. He's super quick and plays a spot on beat, but it's too mechanical. I feel like I am watching him play along with the recorded versions of these songs. The new guitar player, Jeff Scroeder is damn good. He played some absolute monster solos on Tarantula! Yet the Pumpkins have almost become a self-cover band for Corgan. Everyone is playing their parts, but there is not much magic. New bass player, Nicole Fiorentino looks bored and has barely moved while playing fine. Don't get me wrong, this new band is very good and I am sure that all of their playing is directed by Billy, so running anywhere but straight on track is probably not allowed. The Smashing Pumpkins are in Chicago, July 27th playing a sold out benefit at Metro, so I'll probably have another review for you soon.

This link at Spin Magazine will take you to the stream. Save it because The Flaming Lips play tomorrow and you never know what they will do. Their shows are very theatrical and full of props. The rest of the shows are running all week, schedule above.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Kill Hannah is Chicago's favorite band contest winner

Kill Hannah is Chicago's favorite band contest winnerFirst off, my friend Jyn Radakovits is the Kill Hannah Examiner, bookmark her or subscribe for the latest KH news. She has the KH band members phone #s and texts them for updates (and no, you can't have Mat's number.)

Last week I held a contest to find the most popular band in Chicago. I sure found out which band has the most active fans! Kill Hannah won, almost doubling the votes of runner up, Black Actress. They won due to the Kill Hannah Kollective, a fan site that is very active and well organized. Someone posted a link to the contest there and instantly they filled the comments with votes. I must admit that I sent them a message, but I also sent emails to Smashing Pumpkins' fan sites(no response at all), and direct messages to every Chicago band I could think of on Facebook, MySpace and their own sites. The Kill Hannah Kollective defeated everyone!

Kill Hannah was formed by lead singer Mat Devine in 1993 and have slowly gained a following in the US and Europe. They have opened for Jane's Addiction, Everclear, Eve 6, Mindless Self Indulgence, 30 Seconds To Mars, and The All-American Rejects. They are on tour now with Smashing Pumpkins. Current members are Devine, Dan Wiese, Greg Corner, Elias Mallin, and Michael Maddox. Their fans are so loyal because besides their musical talents they are simply really nice accessible guys. Every year in Chicago they have a Christmas show, New Heart for Xmas. I went to one in 2008 at Sub-T on North Ave. and the place was packed, more than sold out. These guys spent hours hanging out with fans, signing anything and everything, and taking photos with them at a meet and greet before the show.

Their music is memorable, Alt Rock, heavy on guitar affects and Devine's vocal piercing all. It's a very tight band that grabs the audience wherever they play and doesn't let them go. They are the only band I know that has laser beams on their frickin guitars!

They are in Chicago on July 27th for a sold out show at Metro with Smashing Pumpkins, then they are back here August 22nd at the Hard Rock Hotel. Both shows are fundraisers for Matthew Leone, an injured Chicago musician without health insurance.

First, a promised video and then more photos below in the slideshow...

Snoop Dogg leaves 800 fans hanging in Schaumburg

Snoop Dogg leaves 800 fans hanging in SchaumburgAs reported here earlier in the week, Snoop Dogg was in town to promote his Snoop Youth Football League.

He was seen at press conferences for the league and at the Adidas and Best Buy stores on Michigan Ave.

According to NBC5 Chicago, Snoop was supposed to be at John Barleycorn's Schaumburg location late Friday night. 800 people paid $25 each to get into the club. The place was packed and the Gin and Juice was flowing, but Snoop Dogg was a no show.

NBC5 Chicago said, "Club management announced at about 1:45 a.m. that the rapper was not going to appear, causing the crowd to boo and throw items at the stage. Schaumburg police dispatched officers to the scene, but no arrests were made."

John Barleycorn in Schaumburg seems like an unlikely location for Snoop Dogg to appear considering that all his other appearances were downtown. He was seen earlier in the night attending a fashion show at Crimson Lounge in Hotel Sax downtown. I have been to bars in Schaumburg and I think Snoop made a wise decision!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Thom Cathcart CD release show July 31st at Martyrs

Beware touring musicians the IRS has their sights on you

New Daft Punk from TRON: Legacy Soundtrack (MP3s & Video)

Winner in the Favorite Chicago Band Contest

Friday, July 23, 2010

Billy Corgan passes out at Smashing Pumpkins concert (Video)

Wednesday night at a concert in Tampa Florida, Billy Corgan blacked out and fell down in the middle of the song 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'. Though it looked like he just tripped back wards into the drum area, he reported it differently.

Yesterday from his Twitter account...

"Thanks a million to the fans in Tampa last night for a tremendous show! We can't tell you how much we appreciate you today," he wrote. "And for those that saw me fall last night during 'Bullet,' that wasn't a stage move or clumsiness, that was me blacking out and wiping out.

"I have no memory of falling against the drum riser and my guitar cabinet," Corgan continued. "But I can tell you I've got quite a good bruise and am moving slow."

The Chicago musician seems to be fine and has given no reason is given for his collapse. You can view it on the video below, the sound is terrible, but you can clearly see him tumble.