Today, Empty Bottle Presents announces WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS, a newmulti-genre festival taking place September 28th and 29th at The Salt Shed. Featuring the triumphant return of The Jesus Lizard (their first Chicago show in over 6 years), as well as Kelela, Floating Points, Sister Nancy, Shabaka, Sextile, King Woman, and more, WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS is a two day, thoughtfully curated festival with no overlapping sets, each day feeling like a progression through a mixtape. Inspired by a line from Nelson Algren’s novel The Man With The Golden Arm, the criteria for the curation was to have each day of the festival occupy a side of a spectrum, from the fervid and energetic WARM LOVE to the calm and misty COOL DREAMS.
Each day’s programming will move through a carefully crafted sonic spectrum, defining WARM LOVE and COOL DREAMS as their own micro-genres. Artists falling into the WARM LOVE category speak to the more experimental, fiery, and untamed, the likes of which you’d hear from Jesus Lizard, Sextile, and King Woman. Meanwhile, COOL DREAMS leans into the more inviting or chill tones, the likes of which you’d hear from Kelela, Floating Points, and Sister Nancy.
WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS continues Empty Bottle Presents’ legacy of deeply adventurous and thematic programming, building off their Beyond The Gate shows at Bohemian National Cemetery, immersive Plantasia events at Garfield Park Conservatory, and annual Music Frozen Dancing winter block party outside of Empty Bottle.
“The simplicity and beauty of the ideas of warm love and cool dreams was something that occupied my mind for many years,” explains WARM LOVE COOL DREAMS curator Brent Heyl. “ We wanted to build a festival framework that creates an opportunity to showcase the artists we love in a way that is concise, unique, and also rips. Playing into these two concepts feels like the way to do just that.”
Tickets are on sale now, with general admission tickets for the weekend set at $90 and premium tickets at $200. Single day tickets will be $49 and $115, respectively. All tickets will be available at www.emptybottle.com. The full daily lineups can be found below, with more auxiliary programming to be announced soon.
WARM LOVE LINEUP (Saturday, September 28th) The Jesus Lizard Sextile Provoker King Woman Bendik Giske Aitis Band Stress Positions
COOL DREAMS LINEUP (Sunday, September 29th) Kelela Floating Points Sister Nancy Shabaka 454 John Glacier SML
Earlier this month, the ever restless King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard announced their 26th album, Flight b741, out August 9th via their own p(doom) records. Today the group share their new single, “Hog Calling Contest,” and announce a mini-documentary about the making of the album,“Oink Oink Flight b741: The Making of…”
Directed by Guy Tyzack, the mini-documentary captures the band’s creative process on 16mm film, which restricted Tyzack to shooting about five minutes of film per day, waiting for the right moment while sitting discreetly in the corner. “We were tasked with capturing the band make an album from scratch in two weeks, they purposefully didn’t prepare much for the recordings so it was very difficult for me to plan what to film,” Tyzack says. “I just knew they’d be in one room and three of them might drop out at any moment because they were expecting babies. The room looked brown and boring so I painted it like the sky to match the theme of the album in one 17hr stretch with three friends and a slab of mids.”
On the inspiration for “Hog Calling Contest,” the band explains: “While recording Flight b741, we occasionally had these ultra inspired tune-up/warm-up jams. Of course, we were never actually recording during these moments though. Lost to time. Except one time; This time. We learnt to record these moments; ‘Daily Blues’ came together this way too. But ‘Hog Calling Contest’ retains a unique unhinged-ness that only comes when you’re fooling around with your mates and you don’t think you’re being recorded. Happy in mud!”
As the band’s first release on their own newly minted p(doom) records imprint, Flight b741 showcases a remarkable change-of-pace, swapping the big picture ambition for the intimacy of six good friends enjoying each other’s company and collaborating on perhaps the warmest, most bonhomie-laden set the group have yet committed to wax.
With a recent run of expansive and conceptual albums behind them, which have spanned from a thrash-metal epic dealing with the current climate crisis to a Moroder-esque pre-digital synth album of proto-Kraftwerk bangers, Flight b741 sees King Gizzard ditch all the high-falutin’ scheming in favor of irresistible country-fried rock’n’roll and the kind of effortless songwriting that comes as second language when you’ve been playing music together 24/7 for almost a decade-and-a-half. The concept this time is ‘no concept’.
All hopped-up on early Steve Miller Band and the infinite wonderfulness of The Band, King Gizzard laid down the riffs, the grooves, the choogle. Once it was time for the vocals, however, they took a brand new tack – passing the mic, leading to what has become the most collaborative record in the group’s expansive discography.
King Gizzard will be undertaking a massive U.S. tour this coming fall, which includes 3 hour marathon sets in New York, Chicago, Austin, and Quincy, WA, 3 headlining sets at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and a performance at The Forum in Los Angeles. Tickets to all dates are available here.
KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD TOUR DATES Thu. Aug. 15- Washington, DC @ The Anthem % [SOLD OUT] Fri. Aug. 16- Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium * % Sat. Aug. 17 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium * % [SOLD OUT] Mon. Aug. 19 – Boston, MA @ The Stage at Suffolk Downs % Tue. Aug. 20 – Portland, ME @ Thompson’s Point % [SOLD OUT] Wed. Aug. 21 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage & Fri. Aug. 23 – Detroit, MI @ Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre ^ & Sat. Aug. 24 – Cleveland, OH @ Jacobs Pavilion & [SOLD OUT] Sun. Aug. 25 – Newport, KY @ MegaCorp Pavilion Outdoor & Tue. Aug. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Dell Music Center & [SOLD OUT] Wed. Aug. 28 – Richmond, VA @ Brown’s Island & Fri. Aug. 30 – Asheville, NC @ ExploreAsheville.com Arena & [SOLD OUT] Sat. Aug. 31 – Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater & Sun. Sept. 1 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island * & [SOLD OUT] Tue. Sept. 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory & Wed. Sept. 4 – Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre & Thu. Sept. 5 – St. Louis, MO @ The Factory & [SOLD OUT] Fri. Sept. 6 – Omaha, NE @ The Astro Amphitheater & Sun. Sept. 8 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre & [SOLD OUT] Mon. Sept. 9 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre [EARLY SHOW] & Mon. Sept. 9 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre [LATE SHOW] & Wed. Sept. 11 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Amphitheater & [SOLD OUT] Thu. Sept. 12 – Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Coliseum & Sat. Sept. 14 – Quincy, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre * % Fri. Nov. 1 – Inglewood, CA @ The Forum @ Sat. Nov. 2 – San Diego, CA @ The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park ^ @ Sun. Nov. 3 – Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre @ [SOLD OUT] Mon. Nov. 4 – Stanford, CA @ Frost Amphitheater at Stanford @ Fri. Nov. 8 – Las Vegas, NV @ Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood @ Sat. Nov. 9 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre # Sun. Nov. 10 – Albuquerque, NM @ Revel Entertainment # Tue. Nov. 12 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion # Wed. Nov. 13 – Fayetteville, AR @ JJ’s Live # [SOLD OUT] Fri. Nov. 15 – Austin, TX @ Germania Insurance Amphitheater *# Sat. Nov. 16 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall # Sun. Nov. 17 – New Orleans, LA @ Mardi Gras World # Tue. Nov. 19 – Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre Atlanta # [SOLD OUT] Wed. Nov. 20 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre # Thu. Nov. 21 – Miami, FL @ Factory Town # Sun. May 18 – Tue. May 20, 2025 – Lisbon, PT @ Coliseu do Recreios Fri. May 23 – Sun. May 25, 2025 – Barcelona, ES @ Poble Espanyol Thu. May 29 – Sat. May 31, 2025 – Vilnius, LT @ Lukiškės Prison 2.0 Wed. June 4 – Fri. June 6, 2025 – Athens, GR @ Lycabettus Theatre City of Athens Sun. June 8 – Tue. June 10, 2025 – Plovdiv, BG @ Ancient Theatre
* 3-HOUR MARATHON SET ^ ACOUSTIC SET % w/ GEESE, DJ Crenshaw & w/ GEESE @ w/ KING STINGRAY, DJ Crenshaw # w/ KING STINGRAY
Keep your mind open.
[Fly over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Slowdive announce a fall North American tour in support of everything is alive, their “hypnotically gorgeous” (Vulture) album released last year via Dead Oceans. Following an appearance at Austin’s Levitation Festival, they’ll return to New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, plus visit cities throughout the Southeast where the band hasn’t played in many years. On their last US runs, Slowdive routinely sold out shows, filling rooms with longtime listeners and younger fans alike. As the Chicago Tribune praised, “experimental and shimmery, [everything is alive] packs a lush and enigmatic punch. Don’t take their latest releases and live shows for granted.” Tickets for all shows will be on sale this Friday at 10am local time and a full list of dates can be found below.
Slowdive Tour Dates (New Dates in Bold) Sat. Nov. 2 – Mexico City, MX @ Hipnosis Festival Sun. Nov. 3 – Austin, TX @ The Far Out Lounge (Levitation Festival) Wed. Nov. 6 – Queretaro, MX @ Cerveceria Hercules Fri. Nov. 8 – Guadalajara, MX @ C4 Concert House Sun. Nov. 10 – St. Augustine, FL @ St Augustine Amphitheatre Mon. Nov. 11 – Charleston, SC @ The Refinery Tue. Nov. 12 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz Thu. Nov. 14 – Richmond, VA @ The National Fri. Nov. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall Sun. Nov. 17 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem Mon. Nov. 18 -Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount Thu. Nov 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Fri. Nov. 22 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! Indoor Stage Sat. Nov. 23 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
As usual, Desert Daze has a killer lineup this year.
Jack White, Fleet Foxes, and The Mars Volta are sure to have packed crowds, but don’t miss Sleep, Thundercat, The Kills, All Them Witches, Temples, Frankie and The Witch Fingers, or Psymon Spine.
There are plenty of great bands on this list, and plenty of cool things to do when you’re not rocking out in the desert. Yoga classes! Messages from David Lynch! Art installations!
I was stunned to discover that blues-punk garage rock and roller Jon Spencer was playing a gig a mere forty-minute drive from my house at South Bend, Indiana’s Stockroom East. It’s a small venue made for intimate shows, and I’d hadn’t been there before July 11, 2024.
My first thought upon entering was, “Spencer’s going to flatten this place.” I hadn’t seen Mr. Spencer perform in many years, last catching him with his fellow members of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Bloomington, Indiana on their Plastic Fang tour in 2002. They blew the walls off the place then, and I wondered if most of the audience in attendance knew what they were about to hear and feel.
First up were Chicago post-punks The Sueves, who put on a fun set of power trio crushers. A good number of their friends and family members made the drive from Chicago to see them, and the energy among them was great.
The Sueves!
A pleasant surprise with Spencer’s set is that his current rhythm section consists of The Bobby Lees‘ Kendall Wind on drums and Macky Bowman on bass. In case you missed it, The Bobby Lees’ Bellevuealbum was among my top ten albums of 2022.
Sure enough, the trio of Spencer, Bowman, and Wind came out and proceeded to sonically punch everyone in the face from the first note.
Spencer and crew played a wild set, barely taking time for anyone (let alone them) to catch a breath. The set spanned tracks from the JSBX, Pussy Galore, The Hitmakers, and more. They started with “Skunk” from Now I Got Worry and it was off to the races.
“Bellbottoms” was a big hit with the crowd, and so was every damn song they played, really. The crowd was at first stunned by the magnitude of sound they put out and soon absorbing it as fast as Spencer and his bandmates could dish it.
There was no encore. They didn’t need one. They left us all sweaty and wanting more.
Many thanks to Mr. Spencer for signing my copy of Meat and Bone after the show!
LEVITATION returns this Halloween weekend, taking over Austin, Texas music venues with an eclectic and expanded menu of music and art October 31 – November 3, 2024!
4 Day Passes and Single Show Tickets are available now, here.
For over a decade, LEVITATION has delivered lineups that span psych, dream pop, punk, indie, metal, darkwave and electronic music. It’s a beloved record collection manifested into a 4 day weekend, with lineups that span continents and generations: a heady amalgamation of vintage gear, immersive light shows and visuals, buzzing amps, moody synths, and good times in Austin, Texas.
This year’s festival brings a full platter of psychedelia, shoegaze, punk, metal, and electronica – a collection of underground legends, music vanguards and pillars of modern music and indie music culture.
The multi-venue format encourages fans to choose their own adventure through the weekend – you can buy single show tickets for over 30 different shows, or go all in with a 4 Day Pass and indulge in the entire 4 day Halloween weekend.
Many of the shows are mini-festivals in their own right. Slowdive, Drop Nineteens, Airiel, Ringo Deathstarr and Glare close out the weekend, topping off a 4 day shoegazer’s dream across 4 venues, including lineup highlights Panchiko, Swirlies, Julie, and Wisp. Punk legends the Jesus Lizard top off a stacked bill with Gang Of Four, Dry Cleaning, Special Interest, Pissed Jeans, Fat Dog and more – all on one ticket on Friday at The Far Out Lounge. Jazz Is Dead brings a 3 night residency with French greats Cortex and Adrian Younge. Psych punk titans OSEES make a 4 night stand at Hotel Vegas, an Austin tradition that’s seen them play nearly as many Levitation events as festival founders The Black Angels – who top off a Halloween night show brimming with international talent: Niger’s Mdou Moctar, and Brazil’s Boogarins. Local heavies The Sword ride high at Stubb’s on Sunday, with highly influential proto-metal outfit Pentagram, local rippers Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, and The Well. Saturday night brings Texas thrash giants Fugitive with hardcore heroes Integrity, plus more across a two stage lineup. Indie dream team Soccer Mommy and The Drums pair up to crush Stubb’s on Friday night, while Tycho, Washed Out, Hania Rani, Wu Lu, Arushi Jain and more bring bliss across a two stage lineup at The Far Out Lounge on Saturday night. LEVITATION 2024 adds a new downtown venue, Kingdom, which will host late-night sets from the likes of genre-defining and expanding DJs and producers such as The Dare, Axel Boman, and Patrick Holland with more to be announced.
More highlights include French heavy space-rock masters Slift who headline Mohawk, London’s Nilüfer Yanya, and Japan’s Boris bringing their album ‘Amplifier Worship’ on a two stage lineup with A Place To Bury Strangers. Australia’s Mildlife team up with UK chill auteur Arc De Soleil. The UK makes a strong showing with EMB pioneers Nitzer Ebb, Manchester stalwarts The Chameleons performing their 1986 classic ‘Strange Times’, and first wave post-punks The March Violets, all performing headline sets at Elysium.
The lineup is better than Lollapalooza or Pitchfork Music Festival this year, but that’s not a new thing. The Slayer reunion was rumored to be defunct, but is now apparently back on the schedule. Beck will be a must-see, as he hasn’t toured in a few years. Public Enemy will also be a good set, and seeing all of the Marley Brothers on the same stage would be wild.
It’s nice to see a big punk rock lineup at this year’s festival, including a final NOFX tour, Circle Jerks, Descendents, and Buzzcocks. Don’t miss The Hives, as they’re one of the best live bands of the last twenty years. Clutch are always good, and Cypress Hill is enjoying a big resurgence right now as people are discovering their classic records.
Go see Dead Milkmen and The Dickies if you want some fun. Go see Pixel Grip if you want sexy synthwave, and The Mysterines if you want good garage rock.
Find the shady spots while you’re there. There aren’t many around SeatGeek Stadium, so grab one whenever you can.
I hadn’t seen The Damnedin a while, but when I heard that their 1980s lineup, the lineup from when I’d discovered them (via TheYoung Ones airing on MTV in, most likely, 1985), was doing a tour, I knew I had to catch one of their shows. Who knows when I, or anyone else, would get to see Paul Gray (bass), Rat Scabies (drums), Captain Sensible (guitar), and Dave Vanian (vocals) together on stage again? It was the first tour they’d played together since 1989 – the year I graduated high school. Long-time keyboardist Monty Oxymoron had also joined them for the tour.
The Dictators, legendary punks in their own right, opened the show with a great dose of garage punk and had a fun banter with the crowd with tracks like “Pussy and Money” and a cover of Blue Öyster Cult‘s “Dominance and Submission” – which was all the more of a treat when you consider that their drummer is BÖC founding member Albert Bouchard.
Getting a good spot to see the stage at Concord Music Hall means you need to get there early, so we scrambled for a spot upstairs where we could see The Damned launch into their fun set and my girlfriend could lounge on a bench seat when she wanted.
The Damned broke out with a good mix of older and newer tracks, opening with “Ignite” and “Wait for the Blackout” (always a cool tune) and “The History of the World (Part 1)” and “Melody Lee.”
“Generals” and “Stranger on the Town” were nice to hear, and their cover of Barry Ryan‘s “Eloise” was a big hit. Vanian’s voice, as always, was in great form, and pretty much perfect on “The Invisible Man.” They had stomped the gas pedal to the floor by the time they hit “Noise Noise Noise” and never let up after it.
It took a while for a pit to get started, but it was in full swing by the time I joined it during, of course, “Neat Neat Neat.” I’m happy to say that the pit was started by people at least thirty years younger than I and that I wasn’t the only guy in his 50s in the pit and the young’uns loved having us older folks in there.
After ending the main set with “Smash It Up,” the band came back on and the young folks started an appreciation chant for Rat Scabies, who was humbled by it and stood up from his kit for a bow. It was great to see and hear that, as he’d been long missed by fans (although he has released material on his own, mind you).
Ending with “New Rose” and a psychedelic cover of MC5‘s “Looking at You” was a great way to send all the punks, goths, and weirdos out on a high note. They’ e wrapped up their U.S. tour, so I hope you got to see them. Go see them in the UK and Europe this fall and winter. You won’t regret it.
It was the third night of a four-night residency for LCD Soundsystem at their favorite Chicago venue, the Aragon Ballroom. They’ve done shows there in the past, and it was the last place I’d seen them years ago. It was good to catch them again. One can’t help but wonder if James Murphy is going to pull the plug on the band for a second time.
They got off to a great start with “Us V Them” and soon surfed into “I Can Change.” “Tribulations” was another great spot in the set, and one I hadn’t heard live in a long while.
The crowd was great, many of whom had been to the first two shows and were already planning on coming to the fourth. It was warm in the Aragon, as it always is, but a little more so since everyone was dancing and going wild as they turned the whole place into a disco.
“Yeah” was a great touch, as it was the first time they’d played it on this tour (which they called the “Kinda Tour”), and “Losing My Edge” was, as always, an absolute ripper. I’d forgotten how good a track “Tonite” is until they played it live.
“Dance Yrself Clean” and “All My Friends” made for a great encore, but the nicest moment of the night was their tribute to the late Chicagoan and music producing legend Steve Albini during “Someone Great.”
It was great to see them again, and great to be in such a fun crowd. LCD Soundsystem never disappoint.
The Black Angels are soon back on tour, this time heading to Europe in mid-September through early October with pals The Dandy Warhols.
A good chunk of those shows probably will sell out, so don’t hesitate to get tickets.
Not to rest for too long, the psych-giants come back to the U.S. afterwards to embark on a west coast tour just ten days later, this time with Soriah and Daiistar.
They’ll also headline a stage at the 2024 Levitation festival sometime during Halloween weekend as well. Don’t miss them. They never disappoint.
