MFR

Show Announcement: Yo! The Movement 7th Anniversary Celebration

Minneapolis in Chicago: STNNNG at the Empty Bottle

Download: STNNNG - "Dubbed Warehousing"
Download:STNNNG - "My Golden Oldie"
Download:STNNNG - "...And Then It Was Vanished"
(all via STNNNG Webpage)

Here's what the Chicago Reader had to say about STNNNG:

Though this Minneapolis quintet covers territory familiar to fans of the Fall, Big Black, Jesus Lizard, and the smart, aggro posthardcore of the 90s—the underrated Dazzling Killmen are a good example from close to home—the predictable elements fall together and come apart in ways just unpredictable enough to keep pushing you back to the edge of your seat. Stnnng has released two gripping albums on Modern Radio in four years, but the real reason this band exists has got to be the live shows, where everything the records threaten to do to you gets done—repeatedly—in a sweaty sausagefest of stage abuse. I’m forced to agree, as the song title says, that “The Id Is a Dude.”

Here are the details for the show, taking place at one of my favorite places in the city:

STNNNG
Comedian Brett Erickson
Miracle Condition
Gay Baby
10 PM,
Empty Bottle,
1035 N. Western

Tickets are $8. The band will also back in Chi-town in October for a gig at the Beat Kitchen. So if you miss this one, fret not.

STNNNG MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Labels: Minneapolis In Chicago, Shows, STNNNG

Chicago in Minneapolis: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

Download: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - "Young Shields"
Download: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Graceland" (Paul Simon Cover)

Droll, lo-fi indie-tronica artist Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (aka Owen Ashworth) is playing a show tonight at the 7th Street Entry. Tickets are $8 for a 21+ show.

Though his last full-length LP Etiquette came out in 2006, CFTPA has been keeping plenty busy in the interim. In addition to numerous Daytrotter sessions, Ashworth has been releasing a plethora of singles and downloads through his website, as well as touring, touring, touring. If Ashworth keeps up his prodigious place, he may no longer be able to effectively convey the sense of mid-twenties ennui which saturates his bedroom-conceived brand of electronic pop-music that sound like little pocket symphonies for answering machines.

Etiquette broadened Ashworth's sonic palette by adding numerous other instruments and a warmer, more analog, sound; tracks like "New Year's Kiss" and "I Love Creedence" revel themselves to be wry observations about the overall banality of urban life. Which is a worldview that may not necessarily translate to a David Lee Roth-esque stage presence, but then, misery prefers company that doesn't really rock out with its cock out. But, based on the response to Ashworth's recorded output, it's not only the lonely who will commiserate with his grandly subdued songs.

CFTPA MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Labels: 7th St. Entry, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Shows, चिकागो