Dave Chamberlain

Citing a capacity that's too small, Derron Swan, owner of House Call Entertainment and the man who put the Beat Kitchen on the rock 'n' roll map, has decided to move on to a bigger venue.

In a move that basically takes effect this week, Swan has moved a number of concerts he originally booked to play at the Beat Kitchen to the more spacious Subterranean, an under-used concert space that's part of the music-based orgy that is Damen, North and Milwaukee. Among shows that were originally booked to the Beat Kitchen but have been relocated to the Subterranean are British garage-blues lady Holly Golightly (pictured) and country guitar-wizard Junior Brown.

The move represents more growth for Swan as a talent buyer than anything else. "I've had so many shows in the last month," he says, "where there were people waiting outside to get in. I just can't do that to people coming here anymore."

Though he anticipates the deal with Subterranean working for both him and the venue, he's hardly cut his ties with the Beat Kitchen. "As long as the room is still a vital room," he explains, "I'll still consider booking bands there."

More wings:

Local musician-of-all-trades Andrew Bird (who plays April 5 at the Old Town School of Folk Music) sure had done some interesting about-faces since I first talked to him upon the release of his Rykodisc debut (as Andrew Bird and the Bowl of Fire), some five years ago. In fact, were you to listen to his just-released "Weather Systems" along with that first record, "Thrills," it would be a stretch to recognize the same artist. Gone are Bird's overt refurbishes of small-band swing, gypsy and New Orleans jazz, replaced with more somber, gentle rock, played by a simple quartet of Bird, Nora O'Connor on vocals and guitar, Kevin O'Donnell handling percussion and Mark Nevers adding more guitar. For those not already in the know, Bird earned a degree in music theory at Northwestern, and really made an initial splash with his violin alacrity. But in six years, his songwriting has come so far that it's almost astonishing. Of the nine tracks on "Weather Systems," all but three (all instrumentals) border on genius underground pop songwriting and execution, a languorous, tender and poignant assembly of ballads and almost intense melodies that occasionally travel by country roads. The three atmospheric instrumentals (two unnamed and "Skin") seem almost unnecessary, as they take attention away from Bird's melancholic singing and band leadership. As I've listened to this record--as I did his last, more pop-rock effort, "The Swimming Hour"--I constantly wonder why Bird hasn't become huge. Then I remember, and lament, the fact that someone as smart as Bird will likely never get the attention he deserves.

Still not clean:

One of the great Touch and Go! bands ever, Australia's Dirty Three, returns to Chicago for the first time this millennium (at the Metro, April 4), with a new record in tow, "She Has No Strings Apollo." I recently saw the band described on AMG's All Music website as "post-rock/experimental," and to that only one response is appropriate: fuck off. There never was and never will be a post-rock outfit that plays with the intensity of the Dirty Three's focal point, violinist Warren Ellis. He takes the task of leading an all-instrumental, almost compositionally experimental ROCK band on stage with a violin as his only weapon, but he plays with the visual energy of a rubber super-bounce ball, guiding the tracks to build-and-release after build-and-release. That said, "She Has No Strings Apollo," although not necessarily the band's most emotional record, certainly marks its darkest output since 1998's "Ocean Songs." Songs sweep in and out of historic musical genres, at times providing a soundtrack worthy of "Dead Man," and other times acting the part of disjointed, asylum soundtrack. Regardless of the recorded product, on stage the Dirty Three is as good as it gets.

Sunday driving:

Local label Victory Records has hit a touch of mainstream paydirt with Taking Back Sunday, whose "Tell All Your Friends" went as high as number 27 on the Billboard charts. The New York-born quintet plays a high-energy version of the emo-tinted, alternapunk that gets propagated by Jimmy Eat World and the like, and, quite frankly, makes me want to puke. It's bland, but far from uninspired; odd what the kids call punk nowadays. Taking Back Sunday plays April 6 at the Metro in a sold-out matinee performance that starts at 1:15pm.

Not the radio promoter:

Abusive Welsh rockers McLusky kick off a short American tour right here in Chicago (at Schubas, April 15), though the band is hardly traveling far to start things off. In fact, more observant fans might see them around town until then, as McLusky happens to be in Chicago recording an as-yet-unnamed follow-up to its breakthrough, "McLusky Do Dallas," with Mr. Steve Albini at Electrical. Albini was also behind the board for the band's "Dallas" effort.

(2003-04-02)

Also by Dave Chamberlain

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hough the heart that pumps blood to the band's extremities is a four-chamber organ of post-rock, that's an uninformed and unappreciative diagnosis of this unique conglomeration of ideas.
(2003-03-19)

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Music 45 2003
(2003-02-26)

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