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

January 25 is shaping up to be one of those huge new release days. On top of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead’s Worlds Apart, Low’s The Great Destroyer, Mercury Rev’s The Secret Migration (from which Fluxblog has an mp3), Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning and Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, M83’s Before the Dawn Heals Us and the Fountains of Wayne b-sides comp, Rhino is releasing fancified reissues of all the Warner Bros-era R.E.M. albums.

That’s right, everything from 1988’s Green through 2002’s Reveal as well as the In Time best-of comp is getting a cash-grab double-disc makeover with bonus tracks. Just think about it – even MORE copies of Monster to end up in the cut-out bins! Cynicism aside, I don’t know exactly how deep the vaults run on these albums, but I am curious to see what gets tacked onto some of these records – Automatic For The People and New Adventures In Hi-Fi in particular… I could see myself upgrading those editions if it proves worthwhile.

The inclusion of the compilation in the reissues is particularly curious – a version of the original issue already came with a bonus disc of rarities. What’s going to be on this one? Will it contain the best of all the bonuses on the other reissues? Wouldn’t that just be nutty and a completist nightmare? I bet their heads are exploding as we speak. I can’t seem to find any further info on these reissues, so if you want to know more, ask someone else. My info came from Pause & Play – go bother them. Update: Upon closer inspection, I see that Automatic For The People is NOT listed at P&P as one of the albums to get the reissue. What the hell? We get the best-of but no Automatic? That’s dumber than leaving The Times They Are A-Changin’ out of the Dylan reissues. Update 2: Dumbek points out that Amazon has an Automatic reissue listed as coming out on January 25 after all. So P&P must have just missed one. There you go, complete Warners set after all.

Oh yeah, R.E.M. are in town tonight at the Hummingbird Centre.

Pics from the Matthew Sweet show on Monday night are up here. Pretty pretty Mod Club lights. I know it seems I’m fairly ubiquitous around town with my trusty camera, but that’s nothing compared to Jasper of jenyk/dot/com in New York City. If you’ve never been to his site and are interested in concert photography, check out his site. The breadth and quality of his work is staggering. It makes me want another (better) camera and, uh, more talent.

P-Fork has the lowdown on the new Wedding Present album. Take Fountain is out February 15, and word is there will be a North American tour in Spring of next year – European dates are already confirmed through early April. I’d love to see the Wedding Present live – The Gedge mans his own merch table, you have to respect that.

Metromix conducts the mandatory, “why you breaking up?” interview with Dean Wareham. Y’know, Dean is much shorter than I would have expected. From LHB. I had the strangest dream last night that Britta left the band and they replaced her immediately. What is going on in my head when I imagine that bands that are breaking up break up even further?

The Guardian really doesn’t like Neko Case’s The Tigers Have Spoken. Me, I love it.

Local stalwarts Blue Rodeo are celebrating their 20th anniversary with a DVD release party at Lee’s Palace next Wednesday the 17th, and will perform with the original lineup. Tickets $20 at the door, crazy wristband policies in effect – full details on the Lee’s Palace website. It’d be very cool to see them with Bobby Wiseman again, but you can bet this will be an insanely tough show to get into. I mean, they’re starting to hand out wristbands at 2:30 in the afternoon. That’s… yeah, never mind. I’m an old-school Blue Rodeo fan from way back but I’ll sit this one out.

Because apparently the joke still isn’t old yet, the Scissor Sisters are coming to town January 17 to play the Guvernment. Tickets $22.50, on sale November 18.

Gothamist has spawned Torontoist. What does this mean? I have no idea. From For The Records.

np – American Music Club / 1984-1995