Another 90's post

I'm not there yet. The 90's are not back yet... not for me. The closest I've seen grunge make a comeback are folks wearing plaid shirts, but the long hair isn't there yet, nor are the Vans, the JNCO jeans, or Daria. What are back are the early 90's, only insofar as an extension of the 80's. Case in point:


Lady Miss Kier

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In the Heart ... and video



Many moon ago at Coachella 2007, I was walking along and heard some real grooves coming out of one of the side dance tents. I'm always a fan of the fag jams, and with the boys' presence on stage, that solidified the atmosphere. It was a big girl, with big hair, and a hot dress pushing up her girls, going all out with her mix. "Damn she's the jam." Who was it? It seriously wasn't until a couple of days ago when I became reacquainted with Deee-lite when I heard that Lady Miss Kier was DJ'ing at Berlin this Sunday (seriously, a gay club on Easter Sunday and a school night?) and hence this post. Now I can't get enough of her.

Reading about her influence on the NYC dance scene in the early 90's and the fact that she was already heavily a club fashionista makes me even more drawn to her. Her relations with Grace Jones and Bootsy Collins make my social libido percolate and her rampant self-canvasing makes me want to be my future-daughter's tailor. Now that she's coming (back) to Chicago, I can only imagine what she's got in store for the current scene... and what she's wearing.


Oh by the way, I hope she wears her hair up.

WLUW Hints Part 1

Living under a rock does have it its advantages...

1) You get more time to yourself
2) Nobody will judge that 6" beard after you keep telling yourself you'll get around to it
3) You can appreciate Lady Gaga two years later after The Fame since you just got it

Trends have flown past tending not to knock on their way through town. Fortunately, your radio that interprets frequency modulated air waves have given you a cracked-open window view of the music world. Enter WLUW, Loyola University's radio station. It's rare to hear the same song twice during any given month of listenership, so the opportunities to write down picks is on par with a grizzly bear catching horny salmon.

Enter White Mystery.


This is the kind of band that I want to see in my brother's basement, the Ice Factory, or the Mopery. (Oops, those are all gone.) Gruff, sweaty, and on Whistler Records, this pair are like a garage band for your next beach party: gleefully serrated. Alex White's sweet voice balances out the over-the-top drums of her brother Francis and is a perfect complement to her bad axe (do people still call it that? and bad = good, duh). Try their single on for size:



White Mystery - Powerglove

See them at Pancho's on April 20th or at the Abbey on May 7th.

So Much

There is a small barrage of random events that are going on. For one, I just experienced Baconfest for the second time. From 12 vendors to 60 influential Chicago restaurants, this thing has grown like crazy. Bacon bloody mary's (bacon encrusted rim, bacon vodka, strip of bacon), chocolate bacon topped smoke-flavored ice cream with salted caramel at the bottom tip of the waffle cone, and souvee'd pork-belly over polenta with blue cheese sauce are some of the items that caused me to buckle over after about 30min (pace yourself!). Oh and this isn't just Chicago apparently, it's nationwide per google. I had a hummus/sprout sandwich for dinner.

Next a recent find via Lincoln Hall is their Chicago Rock Stars tour where they go visit various musically important sites with respect to Chicago between 1980 and ~2000. Wilco, the Smashing Pumpkins, Ministry, and Liz Phair. Amongst the Untouchables gangster tour, the haunted tour, and architecture tours this is a welcome addition.

Also at Lincoln Hall on 5May, they are going to have Del Rey (local, modern psych-rock) do the instrumentals to Fantastic Planet, a 1972 Cannes-winning animated film allegory of humanity. What I've seen so far of the original has been well done (think Monty Python for animation). You can watch it in all 8 parts starting with...


Finally, this guy popped in firefox via my friend Mike. Thanks.