So I’m not sure where to begin with my Chicago trip, so we’ll start with last Friday – I’ll cover Saturday tomorrow. Left Toronto with no incident, and while I’m not religious, it was comforting to see a gaggle of nuns get on my flight. After landing in Chicago, I caught the El into downtown – okay, having a direct rail link to the airport is brilliant. Toronto has GOT to get off our asses and get to work on that.

Downtown Chicago is something else – epic and monolithic, it’s like the streets were carved out by narrow glaciers. Even on the sunniest days, the streets are predominantly in shadows and it’s like being in a canyon made of stone, glass and steel. The Sears Tower is one of the tallest buildings in the world, but if you look at the skyline of the city, it really doesn’t seem that tall – because they’re ALL that tall. It’s quite amazing and rather intimidating. As for the Sears Tower, I did the tourist-y thing and headed up to the observation deck. Nice view and all, though not as freaky as being up on the skydeck of the CN Tower, with the see-through floors and all. But the architecture around downtown was something else, though my favourite sighting were the two apartment buildings that adorn the cover of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Yah, big geek me. Millennium Park with the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Concert Pavillion was also a real sight, and the Lincoln Park Zoo was fun. Hooray for free zoos and monkeys – actually my timing was excellent as pretty much all the animals were awake and active and otherwise doing stuff. I took a batch of pictures at most of these locales, which I’ll have online with more commentary sometime in the next few days. This post is going to be long enough as is.

And on the topic of scale (was I talking about scale? Well I am now…), I hadn’t realized that it was the third largest city in America, nor what that really meant in terms of scale. The place is huge – Toronto is hardly a rural outpost, but Chicago is a CITY. Here, everything interesting (at least by my measure) is located pretty centrally in the downtown – you could concievably walk from Little Italy to Yonge St, up to the Annex and back down to Queen West without really killing yourself. In Chicago, no way. There are countless districts, all of which have their own scene and things to do, and they’re not necessarily close to each other as I learned to my dismay. I don’t know how Larry and Balki managed to squeeze all that sightseeing into the opening credits of Perfect Strangers. As I mentioned before, I got lost on a couple occasions – with no CN Tower to use as reference, I had no concept of direction after coming out of an El station. Let me tell you, I felt like a winner getting off a bus after going a couple miles in the wrong direction, then standing at a bus stop for a half hour waiting for one heading the right way. Winner!

I did my best to dine on the local fare, including a deep-dish pizza at Pizzeria Uno and some interesting Mexican grub at Flash Taco in Wicker Park. The food at Schubas was quite good as well. I don’t know if I had everything I was supposed to, but I’m impressed I ate at all – usually when I travel, my meal schedule goes all to hell and I’m lucky if I get some McDonalds into my system. The number of actual sit-down meals I had this time was unprecedented.

Seeing the sights and savouring the flavours and all was nice, but of course I was here for the music – and there was good music to be had everywhere. Hell, even just waiting in line at the Chipotle for lunch, I heard native sons Jim O’Rourke and Wilco over the PA, as well as Luna in a Best Buy (don’t ask what I was doing in a Best Buy) and Sparklehorse on not one but two separate occasions. The record stores were also excellent – though I didn’t manage to find Championship Vinyl (har!), Reckless Records’ two locations were more than up to the task of taking most of my money – check out my haul over on the sidebar. All I have to say is thank God for the strong Canadian dollar.

And to get more specific on why I was in Chicago, we’ll just fast-forward to Luna’s show at the Abbey Pub on Friday night. Barring some sort of freaky temporal/physical displacement phenomenon, this would be my last time seeing Luna, so it was a little bittersweet. The Abbey is smaller than Lee’s Palace, where I saw Luna last Sunday, but has a capacity of 700 versus Lees’ 500 on account of a second balcony level around the perimeter. The upshot of all this was a much more packed and boisterous house than the Toronto show at this, the second of a two-night stand for the Luna. And speaking of Hogtown, opening things up was our very own Apostle Of Hustle. It seemed a little strange to travel 700 km to see a guy who could very well live down the street from me, but there we were. His set was interesting, combining instrumental and vocal numbers with a loose, jammy feel. I particularly liked the Cuban-inflected piece that he introduced as, “inspired by a place you’re not allowed to go”. It was certainly interesting to see a show from the perspective of an American audience.

Luna then came out to rapturous applause and got right to work. There’s not much to say that I didn’t already say in regards to last Sunday’s Toronto show, so I’ll keep this one brief. The setlist was pretty different from the Toronto show, thankfully for me. This night had a slightly mellower feel than the more rocking Toronto show and incorporated more Pup Tent and Days Of Our Nights material. Treats were “Bonnie and Clyde” with the audience covering Sean’s whooping background vocals for him, the first encore set of “Season Of The Witch” and “Indian Summer” and the appearance of Dean’s Galaxie 500-era black Gibson ES-335 Studio for a couple numbers. He didn’t actually play it when they did G500’s “Fourth Of July” for the second encore, but you can’t have everything. I’d also never noticed that Lee only plays a 3-piece kit. Even more respect to the man for doing what he does on just a kick, tom and snare. And cymbals. All in all, it was another excellent show that I’m glad to have caught. Here are my pics from the show – I wish I’d adjusted the white balance better. Everyone looks fine except Dean – the combination of his white outfit and the yellow spotlights make it look like he was soaked in pee or something. He wasn’t. The Chicago Tribune has a review of the first of the two shows (login: katie/navin) and there’s a set list here. And finally, a special thanks to Erik from the FDP for identifying a solitary Canuck in the audience and giving me a lift back to the hostel. I don’t want to guess how long it’d have taken me or how much it’d have cost me to get back from the Abbey. That place is in the middle of nowhere, or at least nowhere near transit.

Oh yeah, it was… interesting to be in a bar where smoking is allowed. I’m spoiled up here at home, I guess. I’d forgotten how much I hated having smoke waft in my face or leaving a club stinking of stale cigarettes.

I’ll save the American Music Club review for tomorrow. But if you want to see the pics, they’re already up here. Sneak preview – it was a GREAT show.

The Pernice Brothers live DVD/CD set has a name – Nobody’s Watching (har har) – and is now going to be coming out in late January. Maybe. And the new studio album is February/March. Maybe.

Okay, so I’m a little late on the news that Death Cab For Cutie has done the expected and gone major, signing a worldwide deal with Atlantic. Barsuk retains all rights to the back catalog and will be releasing a new live EP in the near future. I will be disappointed if there’s any sort of backlash by the indie kids – Ben and the boys have been courted by Atlantic and other majors for several years now, I imagine that they’ve taken the time to sign a deal that’s right for them and ensures they’ll remain creatively in control. Of all the indie-pop bands around, they have the most obvious cross-over appeal and they’d be silly not to try and capitalize on it. My goodness they’ve come a long way since I saw them play a half-full Horseshoe in October of 2001. Good luck, DCFC.

Chicago Innerview finds out from Jay Farrar just what went wrong with the Son Volt reunion.

Matador has updated their discography page. Get a sneak peek at what’s coming out next year! Triple-disc Yo La Tengo best-of with b-sides! New New Pornographers and Cat Power! No further info on these yet, but if the label is expecting them and has set aside catalog numbers, you can expect to see them in the first half of next year, at least. And on that topic, DJ Martian has a list of records that should see the light of day in 2005. From LHB.

Also from LHB – Wired talks to Wilco about the future of music and technology.

Bradley’s Almanac was at the Arcade Fire show in Boston this past weekend and even taped the thing. Sounds pretty good, too.

Good – Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy trailer and artwork. The movie is out May 6 of next year.

Bad – Elektra trailer and poster designs.

np – The Essex Green / The Long Goodbye

I swear, sometimes I just can’t seem to get out of O’Hare airport. When I was 16, I got stuck there on New Year’s Eve for six or seven hours while they changed planes. Today wasn’t nearly so bad – at first my flight was scheduled to leave the most remote gate possible, but then they found an even further one and switched us there, making sure to delay the flight an hour further for good measure. As a result, I spent the afternoon sitting in the departure lounge reading the print version of The Onion and trying not to eat anymore crappy airport food (I failed). Either way, I didn’t get airborne till early evening and just got home now. But at least I can watch Arrested Development.

That is all. I will drag out my trip rememberances over the next couple days. Be warned.

np – Wire / Chairs Missing

Hello from Chicago. I meant to make a quick post this morning from the hostel, but their internet terminals go down like plague victims, so it’s taken me a little while to find an internet cafe.

Chicago is good. Chicago is big. Very big. My usual strategy of ‘walk in one direction until you get where you want to go’ is proving kinda painful. The El goes everywhere except, seemingly, where I need to go. Anyway, I’ve been abusing my 3-day pass quite nicely, even though I’ve managed to get completely lost twice already. Nothing like realizing you’re in a foreign city where you know no one and have no idea where you are, especially late at night. Nothing like it at all.

Quickly – I’ve done the Sears Tower, Lincoln Park Zoo, Wicker Park, heading up to Wrigleyville now. Luna last night were terrific, and now I’m sad I’ll never see them again. Umm…. what else. My legs really hurt, but I’ve implied that already. Weather is beautiful, people are nice. Wish you were here, etc etc.

That’s all for now. American Music Club tonight. See y’all tomorrow.

So I’m heading out to the Windy City bright and early this morning, hence the early and brief post. This will be my first time in Chicago and I’m pretty excited about it. As per my anal habit of daily posting and because I do love the novelty of posting from a foreign country, I’ll probably do a quick ‘hello’ tomorrow, but I wouldn’t expect any real posts till I get back. But fear not, the mp3 of the week should roll over like clockwork… and if it doesn’t, well you’ll just have to wait until Sunday evening then.

But, as I depart this country to check out some top American talent, I want to boost a couple of local acts putting on shows tonight. The SS Cardiacs are fronted by Jessie Stein whose squeaky-girl vocals belie the rock action and pop smarts underneath. For a variety of reasons I haven’t actually gotten the chance to catch them live yet, but one of these days… They’re playing at Sneaky Dee’s tonight with The Pauls and the Lullabye Arkestra, cover $5.

Or, down on Queen St at the Rivoli, you can catch The Gardens Faithful celebrate the release of their debut album Damn The Committee with comedy troupe Truthhorse. Andrew from the Gardens Faithful was good enough to give me an advance copy of the album and I have to say, it’s pretty good. There’s a real New Wave vibe going on, but more in the vein of Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello rather than the XTC/Talking Heads sound that de rigeur these days. More classic keyboard-led pop sense than herky-jerky guitar jags. Check them out. Sample tunes New Music Canada.

Ummm, yeah. I think that’s it. See you on the flip side.

“See you on the flip side”?? What the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway? Yeesh. I’m outta here.

I know nothing about Jonathan Richman. Okay, that’s not entirely true – I know he fronted The Modern Lovers, that he is enormously influential and that he was in Something About Mary. And that my brother has an inexplicable hatred for the man. But besides that, nada. So when I was persuaded to go see him on the final night of his three-night stand at the Lula Lounge, I figured, “why not?” It’s not like I go to many shows, it was nice to have a night out.

I’d never been to Lula Lounge before, and now that I’ve been, I can declare it as having possibly the most unforgiving floor for standing in the Greater Toronto Area, save maybe the Opera House. Dear God did that hurt. Otherwise, it’s kind of a weird joint, very much a restaurant with a stage, giving the place a dinner theatre vibe. Considering that it’s way out in the west end of the city (way out relative to my usual turf, anyway) and they rarely book acts I’m interested in, I don’t think I’ll have to get too acquianted with the place in the future.

Opening things up was Jesse DeNatale, who seemed to epitomize Atlantic City – he looked like a cross between Bruce Springsteen and Dean Martin and sounded like he was closing out a late set in an almost-empty casino showroom. These comments are meant to be complimentary, by the way. He played a very brief set, but I liked it.

As for JR, well it was strangely entertaining. The guy has a very particular and peculiar onstage persona, with his facial expressions vascillating between looks of intense joy and intense pain. Song topics ranged from girls, girls and girls, but also classic painters like Van Gogh and Picasso, and how they related to girls. He occasionally did little dances, told sing-songy stories that may or may not have actually been part of the song and frequently fidgeted with his mic setup or the mixer he had in back of the stage. Sometimes he’d just stop and stare out into the audience with this wide-eyed look of amazement that all these people were clapping for him. I actually recognized a few songs, but was enjoying the performance even though it was mostly all new to me. The latter part of the set was done largely in Spanish or Italian, but whether they understood or not, the crowd ate it up. Jonathan Richman fans do love Jonathan Richman. Me, I was more impressed with his drummer Tommy Larkins who had the daunting task of anchoring space cadet Richman and performed with great aplomb. He had a tiny, basic kit but absolutely made the most of it. Impressive.

Overall, I enjoyed the show despite the aching back and knees (damn you, floor!). It’s nice to go see someone entirely new and be impressed. Photos here. Michael from For The Records was at the Monday night show and has a review of that performance.

NOW asks Sufjan Stevens about God and his part in the ‘indie-folk’ movement. The Toronto Star as well (login: stinky@youstink.com/stinkypete). I’m seeing Sufjan on Tuesday at Lee’s Palace and I’ve still not heard one note of his music. In fact, if I’m being completely honest, the main reason I’m going is that everyone is telling me I need to and that Stereogum pointed out that Sufjan’s xylophonist is uber-cute. I’m not too proud to admit that.

Gothamist’s Sets In The City feature talks to Arcade Fire’s Win Butler.

Blah blah Ann Arbor Paper blah blah Luna breaking up blah blah From Whatevs blah blah.

Idlewild’s fourth album is complete and due out in early March.

Billboard has this little piece on the Pixies and how they’re releasing live discs of the show for sale immediately after the show ends through DiscLive. They did this on the Spring tour, so yes, it’s old news, but what I found interesting was that while every other city has their quantities limited to 1000 pieces, they’re making 1500 for each of the two Toronto dates. Do we have some reputation for being more open to buying shiny trinkets and gewgaws? Maybe so. Did anyone get one of the live discs from the Spring and if so, how do they sound?

Ashlee Simpson – Ho Down! Classic. From Miss Modern Age.

np – Interpol / Antics