Psychedelia sans psychedelics: Chicago's CAVE
I thought I'd follow up my San Francisco c. 2003 scene report with something much closer to home, though I offer this local roundup with the significant caveat that I don't go to a whole lot of shows and hardly listen to new records--my scope here is necessarily limited. Still, I'm not sure I'm alone in finding the whole underground scene here in Chicago a bit lackluster lately--last summer's infamous final show at the Mopery seemed to close out a particular chapter, and I'm not sure a new narrative has yet taken shape.
The Chicago underground c. mid-2011 is still seemingly awash in 'psychedelia', which wouldn't bother me in and of itself, if only there weren't a continued dearth of actual psychedelics in the city. Maybe I just don't run in hip-enough echelons, but I haven't seen or heard of any 'cid going around for at least a calendar year; psilocybes pop up only sporadically (pun intended) and fleetingly, and even the general quality of grass leaves a lot to be desired. Not to say that the music doesn't have its own merits, but the stretched-out Krautrocking of bands like Cave and Ga'an could really use some corollary chemical enhancement. Just sayin'--when your band releases albums with names like Psychic Psummer and pulsating, day-glo cover art, you're kind of making an unspoken promise that there will be good drugs available in the vicinity of your act.
Psychic Psummer was way back in 2009--I'm not seeing a whole lot of forward-motion, Chicago bandwise, since then; in fact, the tripped-out bongwater-treading has only become more egregious. I'll admit that I haven't heard a lot of this stuff, but a sampling of band names culled from the show calendar over at Acid Marshmallow (see what I mean?) is demonstrative: Dark Fog, Red Plastic Buddha, Nude Sunrise--it reads like a shopping list from post-peak Haight-Ashbury. One wonders what Steve Krakow (aka Plastic Crimewave/Psychedelic Steve),Chicago's banner-carrier for hallucinogenic music back when it was not very hip, makes of all this weak-dose noodling that masquerades these days as 'psychedelic'--perhaps he could remind the kids that the word's literal meaning (derived from the Greek) is SOUL-MANIFESTING,and it's not something that can be bought from Guitar Center. Anyway, it's not quite as stultifying as the noise/drone snoozefest that reared its head in the late 00s, but clearly the whole neo-psych thing has run its course, if it ever had one to begin with. Unless you're going to dose me up good and heavy before the show, I'm calling a moratorium on droney jams and one-chord freakouts, 'K?
There are, to be fair, a few bands taking the drug sound to new and interesting places. The great Mayor Daley, for instance, who have a long history of pothead bassists (I was one of them, c. 2006), have been gradually creeping toward a stoner-metal approach, their charred, resinous compositions regularly exceeding the 10-minute mark; the songs, however, are rigorously crafted, the product of much sober, industrious rehearsal, propelled by Paul Erschen's painterly drumming and Kelly Carr's nuclear-siren wails. Their comrades in Cacaw, meanwhile, still play with building-burning fury, with ex-Coughs Carrie Vinarsky and Anya Davidson vying for the city's most alarming vocals. It's been consistently fascinating, in fact, to watch various ex-Coughs forge their own musical paths since that band broke up in 2006--saxophonist/noisenik Jail Flanagan virtually inventing a genre with the flailing, operatic Forced Into Femininity; former drummer Jon Ziemba applying a soulful falsetto to the minimalist R&B of Bomb Banks; percussionist Seth Sherchanneling Italo-prog with the aforementioned Ga'an.
And while it's great that these veteran weirdos continue to make gutsy, challenging music, I keep waiting for a new generation of upstart freaks to come charging out of the city's basements with a whole 'nuther program. Aren't kids dropping out of the Art Institute any more--a grand Chicago tradition--to pursue reckless noisemaking? Or maybe there is a whole new crop of interesting bands and I just don't know about them cuz I'm not on facebook or whatever? Of course, I could mention some great shit coming out on Chicago's own Moniker Records, but that would be a touch incestuous and not at all in keeping with my stringent standards as a totally professional music writer...
The Chicago underground c. mid-2011 is still seemingly awash in 'psychedelia', which wouldn't bother me in and of itself, if only there weren't a continued dearth of actual psychedelics in the city. Maybe I just don't run in hip-enough echelons, but I haven't seen or heard of any 'cid going around for at least a calendar year; psilocybes pop up only sporadically (pun intended) and fleetingly, and even the general quality of grass leaves a lot to be desired. Not to say that the music doesn't have its own merits, but the stretched-out Krautrocking of bands like Cave and Ga'an could really use some corollary chemical enhancement. Just sayin'--when your band releases albums with names like Psychic Psummer and pulsating, day-glo cover art, you're kind of making an unspoken promise that there will be good drugs available in the vicinity of your act.
Psychic Psummer was way back in 2009--I'm not seeing a whole lot of forward-motion, Chicago bandwise, since then; in fact, the tripped-out bongwater-treading has only become more egregious. I'll admit that I haven't heard a lot of this stuff, but a sampling of band names culled from the show calendar over at Acid Marshmallow (see what I mean?) is demonstrative: Dark Fog, Red Plastic Buddha, Nude Sunrise--it reads like a shopping list from post-peak Haight-Ashbury. One wonders what Steve Krakow (aka Plastic Crimewave/Psychedelic Steve),Chicago's banner-carrier for hallucinogenic music back when it was not very hip, makes of all this weak-dose noodling that masquerades these days as 'psychedelic'--perhaps he could remind the kids that the word's literal meaning (derived from the Greek) is SOUL-MANIFESTING,and it's not something that can be bought from Guitar Center. Anyway, it's not quite as stultifying as the noise/drone snoozefest that reared its head in the late 00s, but clearly the whole neo-psych thing has run its course, if it ever had one to begin with. Unless you're going to dose me up good and heavy before the show, I'm calling a moratorium on droney jams and one-chord freakouts, 'K?
There are, to be fair, a few bands taking the drug sound to new and interesting places. The great Mayor Daley, for instance, who have a long history of pothead bassists (I was one of them, c. 2006), have been gradually creeping toward a stoner-metal approach, their charred, resinous compositions regularly exceeding the 10-minute mark; the songs, however, are rigorously crafted, the product of much sober, industrious rehearsal, propelled by Paul Erschen's painterly drumming and Kelly Carr's nuclear-siren wails. Their comrades in Cacaw, meanwhile, still play with building-burning fury, with ex-Coughs Carrie Vinarsky and Anya Davidson vying for the city's most alarming vocals. It's been consistently fascinating, in fact, to watch various ex-Coughs forge their own musical paths since that band broke up in 2006--saxophonist/noisenik Jail Flanagan virtually inventing a genre with the flailing, operatic Forced Into Femininity; former drummer Jon Ziemba applying a soulful falsetto to the minimalist R&B of Bomb Banks; percussionist Seth Sherchanneling Italo-prog with the aforementioned Ga'an.
And while it's great that these veteran weirdos continue to make gutsy, challenging music, I keep waiting for a new generation of upstart freaks to come charging out of the city's basements with a whole 'nuther program. Aren't kids dropping out of the Art Institute any more--a grand Chicago tradition--to pursue reckless noisemaking? Or maybe there is a whole new crop of interesting bands and I just don't know about them cuz I'm not on facebook or whatever? Of course, I could mention some great shit coming out on Chicago's own Moniker Records, but that would be a touch incestuous and not at all in keeping with my stringent standards as a totally professional music writer...
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