Located at 1808 South Allport Street in Chicago, Illinois, 606 Records is a nice vinyl and cassette store (as well as books and magazines devoted to music) conveniently located across from Thalia Halland in a booming part of the city. There’s a large Hispanic community in the area, so there are some good Mexican restaurants nearby as well.
606 Records has neat art inside and a wide selection of good vinyl ranging from gospel and world music to rock and rap.
They were playing some neat psychedelic rock when I arrived there on March 10, 2016. I was tempted to flip through the rock records while I was there, but I was running short on time and wanted to get to the Levitation Chicago festival at Thalia Hall before the first band started. I spotted this groovy graffiti art as I left.
It’s a neat store with a slick look. I recommend it for vinyl lovers and for anyone checking out a show at Thalia Hall.
Brazilian singer extraordinaire Ceuhas released tour dates for this summer.
I hope to catch her at that Chicago date on June 24th. I’ve yet to see a live bossa nova show, let alone one that combines electro beats with the genre. Catch her if you can.
Canadian psych-rockers Suuns have started a PledgeMusic campaign and a Bandcamp page for their upcoming album Hold / Still. The first two released tracks, “Translate” and “Paralyzer,” are good cuts that lace their weird psychedelic sound with electro touches. Hold / Still is sure to be a good record if the rest of the tracks are as good as these.
Keep your mind open.
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[Rewind Reviews are reviews of records at least a year old that I haven’t heard before.]
Lee “Scratch” Perry is the father of dub and one of the greatest reggae legends to walk the Earth. His 1976 Super Ape record with his backing band the Upsetters (Boris Gardener – bass, Mickey & Denbow – drums, Earl Smith – guitar, E. Stirling – piano, Skullying – conga, Bobby Ellis, Dirty Harry, H. Marquis, and Vin Gordon – horns, E. Evans – flute) is considered by many to be one of the greatest dub records of all time.
“Zion’s Blood” delivers what would become classic bass lines in dub music, while “Croaking Lizard” has that great itchy percussion, distant echoing guitar, and mantra-like lyrics you’ve come to expect.
“Black Vest” lets the horn section stretch its muscles, while “Underground” has a crispy beat backing reverbed female vocals and a guitar that sounds like it was recorded on a space station. I love the way the horns and flute mesh on “Curly Dub,” and “Dread Lion” is a classic dub song with references to the Almighty.
“Three in One” melds into “Patience,” as both have great spacey vibes to them. “Dub along with me” sing Scratch’s back-up singers before the title track floats into the room like a stoned ghost and creeps into your mind.
This is where dub starts, as does a few other genres. House music, hip-hop, dubstep, ambient, trance, and even some punk and shoegaze started here. Super Ape is essential if you’re a fan of dub, reggae, or milestone records.
Keep your mind open.
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Prolific Australian psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have another album ready to roll on April 29, 2016. Nonagon Infinity is now available for pre-order through the band’s Bandcamp page and the first single, “Gamma Knife,” can be heard there. It’s a loud rocker with heavy harmonica and some of their fastest drumming.
Nonagon Infinity will be released the first day of Levitation Austin, at which King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are playing, so I’m looking forward to hearing this album live.
Keep your mind open.
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The last night of Levitation Chicago was a good one. It started with local acts Natural Information Societyand Bitchin’ Bajas. They played a beautiful set of trance-inducing instrumentals combining jazz, world music, and electro.
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas
Up next were one of my favorite bands, Night Beats. They get better with each performance and are slaying it right now. They never turn in a bad performance. I got to chat with them after their set. They were all humble and appreciative. Drummer James Traeger was surprised that I’d been promoting them since 2013.
Night Beats
Another group of humble, appreciative guys I got to talk with were Earthless. They flattened the place with an epic three-song set of their space / stoner rock. Afterwards, a young man next to me asked if all their songs were so big and long. “Yes,” I said. “All of their stuff is that epic.”
“They just don’t stop,” he said. “They just keep going.” He’s right. They lift off and like a rocket and don’t come back for a while.
Earthless
I took a break and came back for part of Faust‘s set. They had four women knitting on stage to “keep things from getting out of control.” It was weird and quirky.
The night ended with a loud, powerful dark wave set from Chelsea Wolfe. Her voice is as powerful as her heavy sound. She slithers like a snake and sings like a siren.
Chelsea Wolfe
It was a good end to the festival. I’d like to come back next year, and need to track down more new music now.
Keep your mind open.
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Chicago’s The Luck of Eden Hall(Greg Curvey, Mark Lofgren, Carlos Mendoza, Jim Licka) have decided that everyone needs to groove out more in these crazy, hectic times, so why not double your groove dose with a double album – The Acceleration of Time?
The album starts with bell chimes that become something like a warning klaxon until we’re dropped into “Slow” – a solid rocker with prog-rock guitar and vocals that remind me of King Missile if King Missile decided to rock out more. “Blown to Kingdom Come” ups the reverbed vocals a bit and has more killer drum fills than I can count. It also has a damn catchy melody that gets your toes tapping.
“A Procession of Marshmallow Soldiers Across the Clockwork Pudding,” an instrumental, is the best title to a psych-rock song I’ve heard all year. I love bands that include instrumental cuts, and this one has soaring guitar work from Curvey.
The title track appropriately starts with a ticking clock that becomes weird piano you might hear in a haunted saloon. It has heavy George Harrison and Tom Petty influences that work well. The whole song crackles and is a fine showcase for the band.
“Channel 50 Creature Feature” is a favorite, as I grew up a “monster kid” watching such programs. It doesn’t have a lot of creepy organ or Theremin like you might expect. It has the sound and feel of an epic Frank Zappa jazz track. Imagine something you’d hear at a late night chill-out party in Klaus Kinski’s house and you’ll get the idea.
The guitars on “Arthropoda Lepidoptera” soar like the butterflies in its namesake. “The Family Timekeeper” continues the theme of time and the perception of it. The drums tap out a clock-hand beat and the guitars have this weird jangly sound that slips into a nice alt-rock riff between verses. “You Asked About Water on Mars” is appropriately spacey (the synths) and cosmic (the guitars).
“Only Robots Can Search the Deep Ocean Floor” follows it. “We’re empty vessels. In the end, it’s all for naught. Some find love, some find luck, some lose touch,” Curvey sings. If only robots can search things we can’t reach, we can at least search deep into ourselves if we brave the journey.
“Another High Speed Blowout” starts off sounding like a New Pornographers track with its groovy beats and growing synths, until it goes from a rolling boil to a simmer and lulls you into a warm trance. “The Happiness Vending Machine” is great power pop and about the benefits and (mostly) hazards of money. Hard-hitting bass combines with slightly fuzzy guitars and rock drumming. It’s an instant hit.
The twelfth track is appropriately named, “Twelve.” The song takes us from noon to midnight as a couple deals with what appears to be a relationship that is turning into a boring routine. Can they break the monotony and save each other, and will they have the same battle the next day?
“White Caps in the Wind” is over eight minutes of lush dream pop. Flute (or flute-like synths, I’m not sure which) floats along as more clockwork guitar guides you like the wind mentioned in the title. “The Saints Are Quiet Above Us” is something you hear in a dream while sleeping in a desert lodge with the window open and sandalwood-scented air blows over you. The closer, “A Man of Conservative Style,” has crazy Beefheart saxophone, strangely syncopated vocals, and more good guitar work from Curvey, who has convinced me he’s one of the best unheralded guitarists out there right now.
This is one of the best psychedelic rock records I’ve heard all year. It succeeds on all fronts: psych, power pop, dream pop, prog-rock, and alt-rock. The Acceleration of Time is so good that it seems to go by too fast for a double album, which is only fitting for its title. The album alters your perception of time and the world around you while you listen to it.
Keep your mind open.
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Night #2 of Levitation Chicago didn’t have the same “wow factor” of the first night for me, but there were still some good moments.
The first was a good shoegaze performance from Nite Fields, who came all the way from Australia. I was glad that more people showed up by the end of their set because it got better with each song.
Nite Fields
Blanck Mass came out next and put down a great set of electronica that had people dancing and trancing. Each song flowed into the next without interruption and ended with a dropped beat and a wave good-bye. I need to pick up his full-length album.
Blanck Mass
One neat thing about a Levitation festival is that you can jump genres on the same stage and both performances will be good ones. Ryley Walker and his band came out after Blanck Mass and performed a fine set of blues-influenced Americana rock. It made me think of the Allman Brothers Band in their heyday.
Ryley Walker
I ended the night a little early when I couldn’t bear any more of Lightning Bolt‘s set. They continued their tradition of setting up on the main floor and being surrounded by the audience. The set was punishing. I was about ten bodies back and the force of their bass-drums combo literally hurt my stomach. I dared not get close enough to get a photograph. I had to walk away and decided to call it a night.
Tonight’s line-up for me is Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas, Night Beats, Earthless, Faust, and Chelsea Wolfe.
Keep your mind open.
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I first discovered The Dunes(Stacie Reeves -vocals and percussion, Matt Reiner – guitar, Adam Vanderwerf – bass, Jess Honeychurch – keyboards, Brett Walter – synths, Clair O’Boyle – drums) in 2014 when I was writing for Outlaw Music Magazine. These Australian psych-rockers create music as big as their homeland and trippy as the night skies above the desert there. I don’t know if they’ve ever toured the United States, but getting this fine live recording is a good appetizer for a future full course live meal.
The album opens with “When You Wake Up,” which plunges you into their deep, dark psych-rock at the first note. It’s almost induces a trance with its droning synths, fuzzed-out guitars, echoing vocals, thick bass, and drums that sound like they’re being played in a red rock canyon, so I imagine the band is referring to waking up from illusions and seeing true reality rather than waking from a good night’s sleep.
“Badlands,” the title track to their September 2014 release, is nearly ten minutes of freak-out mind-warp madness. The synths spin around you, the drums would fit in a pow-wow, and the bass buzzes like a drunken hummingbird. We get an extended cut of “A Thousand Crimes” after it, and I like how the synths sound like a sitar and the guitar work has a bit of a surf edge to it.
“End of the Beginning” is strong and bold, with great shoegaze guitars and heavy bass and percussion while the keys, synths, and vocals float along like a weird fog. The use of a tambourine on this track is both excellent and jarring. “Door to the Mind” blends shoegaze and psych-rock so well that I’m not sure where one ends and the other begins. It definitely will open your mind as it blends Doors, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus and Mary Chain. It’s an amazing track with some of the finest guitar and rum work on the record.
“Lunar Effect,” all eleven minutes and six seconds of it, ends the album on an uplifting note with vocals that rise like the sun. The band goes out on an ethereal note as they flow back and forth until the final chords.
This is a fine psychedelic rock record and one of the best live albums I’ve heard in a long while. The Dunes need to get to the U.S. soon so more can hear them.
Keep your mind open.
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I headed to Chicago’s Thalia Hallafter a fine Mexican dinner in time to see Vadaat Charigim, who put on a fine set of shoegaze dream-rock. Yuval Haring‘s spaced-out guitar sounds like he’s playing it from across the street yet it’s still loud enough to hear. Yuval Guttman has some of the best cymbal fills I’ve heard in a long while, and Dan Fabian Bloch looks like Julian Cope and plays bass like Peter Hook.
Vadaat Charigim
Up next was the avant-garde legend himself Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates. Let me say right away that the Blind Dates are a killer band who can give anyone a run for their money. They’re probably the closest I’ll get to seeing the Mothers of Invention. Mr. Wilson came out in a floor-length smock, scarf, and his ubiquitous sunglasses and dishwashing gloves and carrying a large piece of thin plastic tarp and a female mannequin’s head. He started with a classic, “6.4 = Make Out,” and went on to tear through a stunning set with songs like “Linda Wants to Be Alone” and “Gary’s in the Park.” He freaked out a girl to my left, who couldn’t bear to look at him as he nearly crawled off the stage toward her while holding the mannequin’s head in his hand. I will see him whenever possible, as should you.
Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates
My night ended with Health, who flattened the place with a big set of booming industrial rock and some of the best drumming I’ve heard from any band in a long while. I seriously don’t know how Benjamin Jared Miller makes that much sound with a snare, kick drum, floor tom, one mounted tom, two cymbals (one with about a 3″ x 3″ piece missing from an edge), and a high hat.
Health
It was a good time, and Thalia Hall is a nice venue. Tonight Nite Fields, Blanck Mass, Ryley Walker, and Lightning Bolt are on the list for me.
Keep your mind open.
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Located at 1808 South Allport Street in Chicago, Illinois, 606 Records is a nice vinyl and cassette store (as well as books and magazines devoted to music) conveniently located across from Thalia Hall and in a booming part of the city. There’s a large Hispanic community in the area, so there are some good Mexican restaurants nearby as well.
