The guys in Geronimo! are many things – smart, hard-working, insanely talented. And you can also add “generous” to that list: for a limited time, they’re offering their excellent full-length album Fuzzy Dreams for free, right here on the internet. They’re also playing a free show at Chicago’s Double Door on March 29 with local favorites Kid, You’ll Move Mountains. (Also: Brontosaurus and The Soil And The Sun. I haven’t personally checked those  bands out yet, but chances are they’re pretty rad.) Further details about the show can be found here.  Even if you can’t make it out to Double Door that night, GET THE ALBUM. I guarantee you don’t have another record in your collection that sounds like Fuzzy Dreams, and at this price you’d be an absolute fool not to at least give it a courtesy spin.

From everybody here at Assault: Congratulations, Geronimo!, on being three years old. And also on being so ridiculously awesome.

Like rock ‘n’ roll? Also like formal wear? The Grape Juice-sponsored Windy City Winter Ball, now on its third glorious year, presents an opportunity to put on your finest clothes and then spill beer all over them. On the bill: Detroit Cobras, Hollows, Rambos, and DJ Billy Ocean (WLUW 88.7). Shit pops off at Double Door at 8pm February 5th -- this Saturday -- so purchase tickets now and take your tux to the dry cleaner. $10-$12 seems almost too reasonable for an evening that promises so much excitement and enchantment, so why you hesitating? (The show is 21+; mature, sophisticated, and very drunk adults only.) Here’s a little promo video to seal the deal:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjrLuq1Xa3M

Smith Westerns’ self-titled 2009 album was full of good songwriting buried deep in distracting lo-fi, and the T. Rex comparisons were even stronger back then. Their singer and songwriting already sounded like Marc Bolan, but on “Girl In Love” their guitars did, too. The problem with Smith Westerns is that no matter how good of an album they make, I’ll be comparing it to Electric Warrior and The Slider. Fortunately, with Dye It Blonde, Smith Westerns have made a very good album. They’ve polished it up and made it sound dreamier and more anthemic (so basically they got…even closer to T. Rex). It’s frustrating that Smith Westerns’ formula is rooted almost solely in the sensibilities of other bands, especially because they’re so talented, but they don’t help themselves in that respect.

Dye It Blonde kicks off with a phenomenal track, “Weekend,” built around an adorable central thought: “Weekends are never fun unless you’re around here too.” With the way that last word rings out, it’s the first huge chorus of many on the album. Smith Westerns have no problem making themselves endearing, creating the image of a boy longingly looking into his girl’s eyes and telling her to stick around more. With that playful opening riff, the cutesy “na na na na na, a girl like you,” and those glammy guitar flourishes, “Weekend” echoes The Beach Boys along with T. Rex, and it highlights all of the album’s strengths.

The album would feel slight if this was their only approach, though. They boldly title a song “Imagine Pt. 3” and earn it, and they end two songs with titular, arms-in-the-air chants. “All Die Young” is particularly brilliant, and its “All die young/When love is love and when you are young” marks the album’s climax.

It’s hard to think of Dye It Blonde as particularly substantial, because Smith Westerns borrow their sound from so many places: T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra, and on and on. However, they’ve put together ten grand songs, each backed by sweet sentiment. Listening to Dye It Blonde along with Electric Warrior and The Slider, the album is a success in that while Smith Westerns might follow their early glam idols too closely, they live up to T. Rex’s golden years. It’s a musical direction that you might wish Bolan had taken.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=roUxwXHHW3A

Smith Westerns:

• MySpace
• Twitter
• Last.fm

The Shams Band, a rambunctious and eclectic alt-country band based here in Chicago, are headlining the Chicago Roots Collective One Year Anniversary Showcase January 27th at Lincoln Hall. (Also performing: Derek Nelson & The Musicians and Cole DeGenova & The People’s Republic. The show starts at 8pm and tickets are $8.) One of the group’s three songwriters and singers, Donnie Biggins, answered some of our questions in the days before the show.

Assault.it: Your new thing is this record Champagne.

Donnie: Yes.

And that came out last year.

Yeah, it came out September 2010.

And before that you had an EP, right?

We had a three song EP that came out a year before that.

So this is your first full length album.

It’s a nine song -- you know, some people call it an EP, some people call it a full length. Definitely a larger project than the previous stuff.

How did you guys approach that differently?

We basically waited until we were ready to -- we actually recorded twelve songs. We just approached it by being fully prepared to go into the studio and get the drum tracks for twelve in a weekend.

Where did you guys record this at?

We recorded at a place called Kilo Studios in Pilsen.

Did you guys have a producer?

In a way. Paul [Gulyas], my bandmate, is a sound engineer and he did the majority of the recordings. But at the studio, we worked with a guy that we credited, Mitchell Cepaitis, who also mixed and mastered Champagne.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NIaExbH2bQ

You guys split the songwriting up 3 ways, right?

Yes.

How does that work itself out -- how did you come up with these 12 song?

They were just our favorite songs that we had been playing, and the majority of the songwriting is right now coming from Paul and myself. Brian [Patterson] is still pretty new to songwriting, and we have two of his songs that we play and that we actually recorded. But how we go about it, presenting songs to one another, is we kinda come up with them on our own and then present them to the group. Then we read off each other how it’s coming out, people’s reactions and any ideas that come up for the first time when we play a new song.

What instrument do you like to write with?

I’d say all the songwriters start with an acoustic guitar.

What’s your personal process for coming up with lyrics? How do you decide what you’re going to sing about?

I use straight life experiences. I never try to sit down and force songs out of me. It has to happen kinda in the moment.

What are some of your favorite places to play in Chicago?

I think we’ve played all the 500-person venues, but some of our favorites would definitely be Lincoln Hall and Schubas. Double Door. We actually we like playing out in Berwyn, at FitzGerald’s. It’s a real good country bar.

How would you classify the sound of the Shams Band?

I think it’s kind of a country rock / alternative country type of band. A lot of music, no matter what, stems from the blues, and you can hear that naturally coming out of us. But when you start with an acoustic guitar, a lot of it tends to be a folk song that’s then turned into a rock song when you add electric [guitar] and bass and drums.

How did you get interested in this particular kind of music?

Had to be from listening to a lot of Woody Guthrie in my early 20s. Just spending a lot of time listening to him, learning his picking techniques. So basically from Woody Guthrie.

Who were some other influential artists?

Definitely Jeff Tweedy. Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes. People still that I’m listening to today would be Avett Brothers, they’ve got a big influence on me.

Who are some of your favorite local bands?

Well, we’re luckily sharing the bill with one of our good friends and probably my favorite songwriter right now, Derek Nelson. There’s also a rock band called the Ornery Little Darlings -- their album has been on rotation a long time on our record player.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV1TTqO8r94

Do you guys play mostly around here, or do you go out a lot?

We’ve gone out a few times in the past year. That’s definitely the goal of 2011, is to be going out a lot more around the Midwest. We’ve been to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa -  we’re just trying to revisit those places and add more dates in different towns. You know, an ideal places we like to find are the small town bars that maybe don’t have venues but they have a small stage and they give you a beer deal. That’s the environment we thrive in.

What do you like about that?

The people. The kind of people who hang out in dive-y bars always seem to just have no care in the world. They just want to enjoy themselves and dance. They’re not judging you, or even caring about anything -- they’re just there to listen to music and move their body.

When you guys play a place like that, do you throw in a lot of covers, or do you stick to your own stuff?

When we first started, we learned a few covers, just ’cause we were a young band. I don’t know if we ever practice them, but we have been known to pull them out sometimes. But we always try to stick to our originals, and we try to make sure that our originals are worth playing. We don’t want to play a cover song to get a crowd excited -- we’d rather be playing one of our own songs.

How’d you four guys start playing music together?

We have known each other since high school. We’re all from Oak Park. Brian and Paul were in a high school band together. And then while I was in college, I started playing music, so when I came home we just kinda got together. We signed up to play a small street festival in Forest Park. It was kinda just for fun, and it’s still for fun, but we started presenting our own music and it’s just continued to grow ever since that. And we do have a fifth member now, that we’ve been playing with for a year -- well, not a full year yet. He kinda committed around the time we were releasing the CD so we didn’t have him on the picture yet. Ben White, he’s a banjo player, and a percussionist, and a cello player. We haven’t featured the cello yet.

What are your goals beyond going out more this year? Are you gonna work on a new record?

Yeah, we’ve started that. We don’t have any prediction for when we’ll be finished with it, but we’re back in the studio, probably once a week. We do two or three practices and try to spend some time recording, too, every week.

Are you guys moving in any different directions?

Um, I don’t really know how to answer that. There is some similar stuff in the type of energy that we’re bringing into the songs, but I think a lot of it is different. We recorded our EP, and then Champagne ended up sounding different from the EP. So I think there’ll be some more, and I don’t know what some more will be, but I think it will be a little bit different.

How have you guys progressed since the early days?

I think one thing that we’ve definitely improved on throughout our whole career so far is the live performance, and engaging our audience. I think that’s something that happens naturally the more you’re playing out, and the more you’re playing for people who aren’t your friends and family. That’s when you really improve, because you have to grab a stranger’s attention.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcqbqrl0_rc

The Shams Band:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Bandcamp

The first time I heard Santah, I thought they might be a jam band -- mostly because I’m worried that every new band I hear is a jam band, but also because the singer had long hair. But, anyway, this was during their days gigging around Champaign; I caught them playing a borderline-decent frat party, notable for its seemingly endless reserves of Keystone Light. Santah have moved on since then -- they’ve added an “h” to their name, they play cool venues in Chicago, and their sound is unmistakably part of that city’s rich pop-rock tapestry. Santah occupy the same stylistic space as your Pet Lions, or your Jonny Rumble: gorgeously melodic and romantic music with plenty of open space and earnest, intelligent lyrics.

White Noise Bed, Santah’s follow-up to their winning EP My Bones, is a grower in the traditional sense. The songs here, which are all exceedingly fine, do not scream for your attention, or jostle unnecessarily; the most remarkable thing about this record might be the pacing of it, both patient and generous. There’s no one song that overshadows the others, and the goodness is doled out in thick creamy dollops at a rate not exceeding the average rock fan’s appetite for hooks. The band’s mastery of recording technique helps; White Noise Bed feels real (by which I mean, really played by actual human beings with quirky flourishes) but it also sounds sculpted and manicured, mixing dissonance with melody in a manner similar to Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, although the general mood here is significantly peppier. The guitars in particular sound ecstatic, like they can’t believe how good they sound. I can hardly believe it myself.

“Chips Of Paint,” the third track, is a great entry point for the curious listener; the beginning sounds a lot like Billy Joel’s “Sleeping With The Television On,” which puts it in some pretty esteemed company. But Santah seal the deal on the chorus, with guitar lines that flow like molten lava. (Might sound like hyperbole, but it’s not -- I have to wear thick rubber gloves while I’m inserting the CD into my Discman. [For this reason I recommend you download the mp3s.]) Another key instrument in the mix, while we’re on the subject of key instruments in the mix: the piano, which is used both moodily (to great effect) and rockishly (to even greater effect), the way Spoon or the Hold Steady might do. Don’t even get me started on the bass work, which is rich and satisfying but largely beyond my descriptive abilities.

If you’re getting the sense that I love this album, it’s probably because I’m trying to express here how much I love this album. Loveability is its greatest asset, perhaps: these are just damn good songs, the kind that nobody else could write or play except this band. Which makes White Noise Bed a completely singular thing that is also incredibly approachable and fun to listen to. Which means this would’ve been on my 2010 year-end list if I hadn’t had my head so far up Rick Ross’s ass this summer, when it was released. (To be fair to both myself and Rick Ross’s ass, it wasn’t only me in there.) But I’m enjoying this late-blossoming romance all the same -- Santah have proved themselves very nice company in the early part of this year, thawing my frozen heart and lending the freezing landscapes of suburban Illinois a glow that I don’t know, now, what I would do without.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwdZYvlF8mw

Santah:

• MySpace
• Bandcamp
• Facebook
• Last.fm

Holy shit – check out this free compilation from Grape Juice Records! (Download here.) Apparently it’s Grape Juice tradition to release a compilation of all the artists they worked with over the year. At the price of $0, you really can’t go wrong. So get it while it’s fresh! Included in the comp:

Jon Drake & The Shakes
Julie Meckler
Will Phalen
Rachele Eve
Musikanto
Rambos
Curtis Evans and Our Friends Electric
Derek Nelson and the Musicians
No Ordinary Oswald
The MPLS Henrys
The Shams Band

In this most special of episodes (no, seriously, it is quite special!) Oswald interviews rock ‘n’ roll legend Coley Kennedy. They talk about his voice, how he writes songs, and why he can’t get any traction on the radio. Interspersed are some tracks from Mr. Kennedy’s various projects. If you’ve never heard this dude, you are missing out on just about everything great.

Coley Kennedy:

• Welcome To Ashley
• Coley Kennedy & The Warm Regards
• Candy Apple + The Buddies
• Download “End Of The Line” from WTA’s Beyond The Pale for free

In this exciting new episode of Audio Assault, Oswald talks to Jim Hanke of the phenomenal Chicago band Kid, You’ll Move Mountains. They discuss songwriting, opening for the Dismemberment Plan, Milwaukee vs. Chicago, and trying to get Justin Bieber to join the band at Summerfest. All in all, it’s exactly what you’ve been waiting for your entire life.

Kid, You’ll Move Mountains:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Jim interviews Eric Axelson of Dismemberment Plan for Sock Monkey Sound

Oh snap! Local sleaze-rockers (and Assault favorites!) The Streets On Fire have released a new video for their song “Astronaut Love Triangle”! The video was filmed right here in Chicago, and was directed by Daniel Ryan and Aaron Edwards. This shit is so tight that Kanye West could conceivably wear it as pants while performing at an awards show. If you like it, make sure to pick a copy of their record This Is Fancy; your best opportunity to do so is this Friday (12/3) at Beat Kitchen, where they’re performing with Emcee Phase and Magic Milk.*

*In case you don’t know, Magic Milk is fucking amazing. I watched them decimate a crowd of Wrigleyville Chads at Rockit two weeks ago, and it was phenomenal.

In this, the landmark twentieth episode of Audio Assault, Jere and Oswald dissect Kanye’s new masterpiece and the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise. Plus: Oswald interviews Miss Alex White of White Mystery -- they talk about booking shows, writing songs, and making buttons.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE9gh4COMdI

Hey! Look at this! On the official Assault.it list of Special Favorites, Chicago’s own Geronimo! rank pretty close to the top. They blend mathy aggression with the hypnotic jangle of post-punk indie rock. And they absolutely decimate their enemies in a live setting. The trio recently released a video for “Design Yourself A Heart,” a definite highlight from their debut full-length Fuzzy Dreams (which you can buy on iTunes or directly from the band [for only $5!!!]). It’s a strange and somewhat disturbing video, and you probably won’t want to drink any water for a couple hours. Good job, Geronimo! – you’ve kicked our asses once again!

Geronimo! – “Design Yourself a Heart” from Northern Outpost on Vimeo.

Photo by Laura Gray

There are awesome bands in Chicago. The problem is that nobody listens to them. And it doesn’t matter how many times I say the words “Welcome To Ashley,” “Jonny Rumble,” and “Maybenauts” – crummy pop-punk bands will always draw a larger audience. I’ve come to terms with that sad reality. What I absolutely cannot come to terms with is you passing on the new California Wives EP – it’s called Affair, and it will make you fall in love with pop music all over again. From the first chords of “Blood Red Youth,” which conjure weird images of Rush discovering a MacBook in the pre-civilization desert, to the frenzied “wearing your fancy shoes tonight” climax of “Twenty Three,” California Wives deliver the goods.

These guys are one of those bands that seem to spring fully-formed from the ether, even though the secret is always practice, practice, practice. California Wives have practiced; they are tight the way professional bands are tight. They own their shit. I saw them open for Jonny Rumble at Beat Kitchen a couple months ago and they were scarily focused and taut; I overheard their set at a street fest a few weeks after that, while I sweated it out in the Assault tent drinking beers with @eddieftw, and I realized that this was something truly special – what Affair does is similar to what M83′s Saturdays = Youth did in 2007. When I listen to Affair, I feel like I am in the greatest John Hughes movie that was never made; I feel like I’m walking not just on the clouds, but amidst the clouds; all my emotions are pink and fluffy, like cotton candy. This band is better than Prozac.

But, seriously: what sets this EP apart from the thousands of others that get released by unsigned bands every year? First, there’s the production – the songs are arranged artfully, with exactly the appropriate amount of bells and whistles. You could break these tracks down to their essentials, play them on an acoustic guitar, and they’d still be fantastic. But dressed up in the fanciest clothes that the band could find, these compositions reach for a different level. Do they grasp it? Yes, of course they grasp it. California Wives are major! Second: this is sensitive, emotional music that still finds the time and wherewithal to rock out – when the guitars start chuggin,’ you know they’re gonna build to a massive, awe-inspiring melodic drone, one that perfectly complements the sophistication and craft on display. California Wives are nice, but not too nice – they do fuck shit up when it’s necessary.

Do you need any more reasons this is great? Okay, here’s one more: they are nice, normal-looking dudes that take obvious joy in creating music. They were not formed by accident at Hair Cuttery. I’ve taken to calling California Wives “the Walkmen of Chicago”; that might not be fair or accurate, but that’s the vibe I’m picking up, whatever they happen to be putting down. Affair makes me want to go back to college and major in poetry. This band is eerily precise and absolutely breathtaking in their ability to create polite, pretty soundscapes that dudes like me want to live in. In a world where everything seems crazy, California Wives make sense; they also make great music, and Affair is incontrovertible proof of that fact. I always say I want more when a band drops a decent EP, but this time it’s serious – my skin itches.

California Wives:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last.fm

One of our favorite local bands, Kid, You’ll Move Mountains, recently contributed a couple tracks to Switchboard Sessions, a site that records bands performing tracks over the phone. (Landlines – it’s analog!) The band (or, rather, Jim and Nina, the group’s main vocalists) performed “No Applause” (from their fantastic LP Loomings) and a cover of Queen’s “Nevermore.” Click on the link-y titles there to download the tracks from SoundCloud.

Kid, You’ll Move Mountains:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Facebook
• Switchboard Sessions

That’s right – everybody’s favorite scuzzy brother/sister garage combo are preparing to lay it down all across the nation! (“It” being some of the most ridiculously awesome noise put to tape this year.) I have no problem recommending this band to you, but meet me halfway and exercise some caution when you actually check ‘em out: their songs have been known to spark riots when introduced to otherwise tranquil environments. Take two Ambiens before you press play.

White Mystery tour dates:

Jul 27 2010 9:00P The Turf Club Minneapolis, MN
Jul 29 2010 9:00P Gallery Show Missoula, MT
Jul 31 2010 8:30P KEXP Seattle Radio Seattle, WA
Jul 31 2010 10:00P The Funhouse Seattle, Wa
Aug 1 2010 9:00P Slabtown Portland, OR
Aug 2 2010 9:00P East End Portland, OR
Aug 3 2010 9:00P Johnny B’s Medford, OR
Aug 5 2010 9:00P The Hemlock San Francisco, CA
Aug 6 2010 11:00P Ghost Town Oakland, CA
Aug 7 2010 9:00P El Rio San Francisco, CA
Aug 8 2010 9:00P Redwoods Los Angeles, CA
Aug 9 2010 8:00P The Soda Bar San Diego, CA
Aug 10 2010 2:00P Cheap Tricks El Centro, CA
Aug 12 2010 8:00P Beerland Austin, TX
Aug 13 2010 9:00P Saturn Bar New Orleans, LA
Aug 14 2010 9:00P Glenn Danzig’s House Nashville, TN

Read our review of White Mystery’s excellent record HERE.
Sign up for the band’s mailing list HERE.
Peruse the band’s recently re-designed website HERE.

Let me put it to you this way: if I were throwing a party in my grandmother’s basement, I’d play This Is Fancy at maximum volume for the entire duration, with the possible exception of a couple slow dances set to pre-Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees. But, yeah, this would be the main course, because Chicago’s the Streets On Fire are putting it to us in an old-fashioned way, making obnoxious, scuzzy dance rock that looks backward to analog recording equipment and real rock ‘n’ roll instruments without ever once apologizing for the racket. It’s hot shit, etc.

The press release tells me these guys are more “collective” than “band,” but they sound like a band – you can hear the sweaty chemistry in every note they squeeze out. If you want an approximation of their sound, think “The Bravery, if the Bravery were any good.” The general aesthetic can be summed up in one word: sleaze. Hell, the album starts with a song called “Nobody’s Fucking To The Radio” that will make you want to grab your significant other and drop trou on the spot. The sound is sexy because it’s muscley without getting dense – there’s plenty of air circulating, no matter how much distortion they slap on the guitar.

The lyrics approach perfection in their dumb simplicity: “Hey Lou, what you got in that bag?” goes one chorus, ad infinitum, until you’re doing Jersey Shore fist bumps in your office chair. “Fancy” is the record’s centerpiece, a stripped down nü-bluez stomper that recalls the White Stripes but beats them at their own game with ghostly background harmonies and positively thunderous handclaps – this is the kind of arrangement Jack White used to dream up, before he went soft from one (or two) too many side projects. It’s the kind of song that you drunkenly decide your neighbors really need to hear at 1am.

I’ll admit: I had reservations about the Streets On Fire. Could a record this janky, greasy, and outright fun be any good for me? Probably not. It’s an indulgence, like the deep dish pizza of the band’s hometown. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, This Is Fancy could become one of your go-to spins when the chips are down and it’s time to fuck shit up.

(The Streets On Fire are playing a record release show at Double Door this Friday (7/2). You can grab a copy of This Is Fancy there, a full eighteen days before its actual release. Do it, do it, do it. Also playing: Big Science, Blah Blah Blah, and America Owns The Moon John Rambo & the Vietnam Wars. Doors open at nine and, of course, it’s 21+ – get a babysitter for the kids and drink  a bottle of whiskey. Guaranteed party.)

The Streets On Fire:

• MySpace
• Last.fm
• Twitter
• iTunes

The first song that clicked with me on Jonny Rumble‘s new album JR was the mid-album barnburner “Courtney’s Basement;” it sounds exactly like Kings Of Leon’s early stuff, with a straight-forward arrangement and spazzy riffs. The rest of the disc, I wasn’t so sure of – so I kept listening. And that turned out to be key, because Jonny Rumble do so much stuff here, jumping from style to style and throwing so many melodic curveballs, that JR is just not easily digestible. But: it’s pretty short at thirty minutes, which means you can listen to it 48 times in one day. That should be enough spins to get you acclimated.

The band’s influences range far and wide; the disc can feel a little schizophrenic at first. There are three constants, as I can tell: 1) They like to keep things funky – the vibe is that of a crowded city street at night, with touches of reggae and soul that elevate their blend of alt-country and garage-y punk to “instant party-starter” status. 2) Brian Webb’s passionate vocals, which make every song feel like a shot to the gut. And 3) These guys really dig in and play; the songs don’t merely sit there and request your attention, they reach out and invite you to dance. (Or, in the case of first single “BRZRKR” and the aforementioned “Courtney’s Basement,” they karate chop you in the neck.)

Opener “Cox Road” is deep and wide, with slinky wah-wah’ed guitars and some tinkling piano. I usually like a record to start with the hardest and fastest material first, just to wake me up, but this is more of a head-nodder than a foot-stomper, and that’s okay too. In fact, the band’s softer moment’s are some of JR‘s best – “Stumped” has a spaced-out Flaming Lips vibe that’s a nice contrast to all of the head-bustin’ and booty-shakin’ going on around it (and the “ba-ba-bas” will steal your heart, as “ba-ba-bas” are prone to do), and “Time,” the album’s last song, throws some glorious pedal steel into the mix.

JR is a textbook grower; what all seemed like a little too much at first now makes perfect sense, and I want more. If your tastes run toward the eclectic (and you think it would be awesome for Kings Of Leon to cover an Elvis Costello song from 1983, which is kind of what the best moments sound like), this is the disc for you. It’s available now for free download from Rock Proper, although I recommend you scoop up the $13 vinyl edition. It may take a few listens, but you’ll get hooked. Jonny Rumble is a hell of a drug!

(Jonny Rumble are playing a record release show tonight [6/25] at Beat Kitchen. California Wives and You Can Be A Wesley also throw down. The doors open at 8:3opm, it’s 21+, and tickets are $6. Be there, or miss the Assault Party Death Squad getting buckwild on the dancefloor.)

So, this is kind of a strange video. It involves both Tila Tiequila AND a glory hole, but I assure you that it is safe for work. It is also, at the end, somewhat reminiscent of Zoolander. The song is pretty tight – at first I thought it was gonna be weak dad-rock, but there are enough weird flourishes (especially via the keyboards) that it becomes enjoyable and almost Wilco-ish. Also, the lead singer is hilarious looking, and I want him to come to our next party and make weird faces at us. Anyway, here’s the video – “My Own Adventure,” by Chicago’s own Oh My God. (The song is from their latest album, The Night Undoes The Work Of The Day, which is out now on Split Red.)

Do you remember the Fireside Bowl? I use the word “legendary” a lot, but this place was actually LEGENDARY. A decrepit, smelly bowling alley that hosted punk & indie shows all throughout the 90s, the Fireside always looked like it was going to collapse. Seeing a show there was exciting, not just because you were getting a fix of raw, awesome music, but because you could quite literally die. I unfortunately never got to see any of the really legendary shows there (Third World Timmy, to this day, still talks about the time The Fux became his favorite band, based solely on one live performance there; he still has a Fux poster in every room of his apartment), but last week I got an email from our friends in Geronimo! telling me that they’d be performing there this Tuesday. (That’s TODAY, if you’re reading this right now.) How pumped am I for this show? Well, let’s see. Geronimo!’s Fuzzy Dreams is one of the best rock records I’ve heard this year – a unique blend of post-rock, punk, and prog, featuring keyboards that don’t sound like keyboards and guitars that’ll slice your head off. And the drums? Don’t even get me started on the drums, mostly because I don’t know the correct terminology to describe what Matt Schwerin does, and also because I will never stop talking. Sometimes I’m air-drumming along, using every available surface, and it gets so intense that I have to punch myself in the face. That’s the kind of band Geronimo! is. Plus, I haven’t been to the Fireside since 2002, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s goin’ on there. (It was used for the bowling scenes in The Break-Up, so I’m thinking there’s been some serious renovation.)

Also playing: Warren Franklin, Bust, and The Please & Thank Yous. I don’t really know those bands, and I don’t like to try and do a rundown just based on their MySpace pages or whatever. But I’m willing to bet that they’re all cool, since they’re down with Geronimo!, and this show will probably be one of the most bro-tastic things you see all year. When I found out about this show, I immediately googled the Fireside to try and find out if they were going to have shows there on a regular basis; all their website mentions is bowling, so I don’t know exactly what the story is behind this. If you’ve never been there, I suggest you check it out – it’s part of Chicago history, and, besides, what else are you gonna do on a Tuesday night? GO TO THIS!

Hey! It’s the weekend. Here’s what you should do, if you’re looking for musical entertainment. Just add beer:

FRIDAY

I Lost Control bring their weird, bracing post-punk amalgam to the Abbey Pub on Friday, w/ support from Magatha Trysty, The Hurtin’ Kind, Alexander Webb, and London Anderson. I Lost Control should appeal to anybody that likes gloomy British music from the ’80s, but they’re a little more interesting than most of their immediate peers. You can check out their MySpace to get an idea of what they’re doing -- my personal fav is “I Lost Control,” for two reasons: 1) The track sounds like Ian Curtis lounging around on a Sunday afternoon with Robert Smith, both of them in bathrobes and too tired to work up a real bad mood. 2) Saying “‘I Lost Control’ by I Lost Control” just sounds awesome. Doors open at 8 and tickets are ten bucks. Third World Timmy will be there taking photographs with his expensive camera, so if you see a muscley guy with wicked tats in the front row, go up and buy him a beer. (Also: This isn’t really relevant to anything, but Magatha Trysty is the best/worst band name I’ve ever heard, and I really wish I was going to this show so I could see how, exactly, they back that up musically. Oh well.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpr_XxlKTfc

SATURDAY

Continuing our current trend of hyping the shit out of darkroom, I’m going to recommend you check Gospel Gossip’s set there on Saturday. The singer kind of sounds like one of the Indigo Girls totally losing her shit, and this is accompanied by the kind of warm, fuzzy alt-rock that makes me miss watching MTV late at night in the ’90s. Also: they’re from Minnesota, and Minnesota bands know how to party -- it’s colder than shit there, which gives them plenty of time to stay inside and practice wailing on their instruments (while drinking copious amounts of Natural Ice). Check out the MySpace for a little preview, and I think you’ll agree when I say that this is a pretty cool band. And darkroom is obviously awesome, since we talk about so much on this website. Also playing: Spouse, Bully Pulpit, and Matt Crews. Thangs pop off at 8pm, and tickets are ten bucks at the door. Do it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4X_QY_t2W4

SUNDAY

I’m going to be honest with you: I’m leaving for vacation in a few hours and I really want to wrap this up, and it’s somewhat of a slow weekend in Chicago. So, fuck it: Liza Minnelli is playing the Chicago Theatre. She’s kind of weird, and I’m personally not crazy about her voice, but… whatever. She was on Arrested Development, and that is the best TV show of all time, so fork out the $55 for a ticket and make it work! The show starts at 7:30, and you should probably ask your grandmother if she wants to come, too.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7DSHs8aJw

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND, LIL ASSAULTERS!

Welcome back to the Load, where we cast our eye towards the latest and greatest in independent rock ‘n’ roll. Now available in capsule form:

I Call Fives -- Bad Advice

The mildly-addictive pop-punk on I Call Fives’ new digital EP Bad Advice is kind of like Dairy Queen’s soft-serve ice cream -- it’s sweet, but not decadent, and delivers exactly the right amount of gratifcation without spilling into overindulgence. If you like The Wonder Years or Set Your Goals, this’ll be right up your alley, and even moreso if you regularly update your tumblr with particularly trenchant lyrics from your favorite bands. This is mall punk at its shiniest and most compressed; if you welded a bunch of power chords together, melted them down into a silver bullet, and shot it into your ear, that’s kind of what I Call Fives is like. (This presupposes that you have technology that can transform sound waves into metal; simile does not apply for all listeners.) They have some cool tricks, too -- the way they layer a few voices together into an overlapping round on “Two Days Or A Lifetime Of Failure” is a nice substitution for the typical double-kick throat-buster breakdown that most bands would’ve gone with. I’d object to the set-closing ballad “Take The Fall” simply on the grounds of unearned wussiness, but it breaks into warp speed at the end for a nice little cherry on this low-cal sundae. I Call Fives basically sound like any other pop-punk band, and they need to find their own twist on the genre before they can create something truly compelling, but I could still listen to this stuff all day. It’s the pleasure principle, man.

MySpace |  Last.fm |  Facebook

The Viaducts -- EP

I recently caught the Viaducts live at darkroom, and their unique take on classic power-pop compelled me to drop $3 on this self-released EP. The ‘Ducts, as I call ‘em, have a true independent spirit -- this is music that acts like other music doesn’t even exist. Their big hit (judging from the drunk dude who kept yelling for it at the show I attended) is “Drive-Thru Girl,” which is pretty much the same thing as Bruce Springsteen’s idiotic “Queen Of The Supermarket,” if you stripped off the studio gloss and slowed it down (and somehow made it more idiotic). I prefer “Tell Me Sister,” which is, I think, a pretty sincere request of the singer’s sister, imploring her to tell him why she’s so sad. Speaking of the singer, his name is Jimmy Rane and the EP’s credits make sure to let you know that he wrote all of the songs included here, so he obviously takes himself pretty seriously as a songwriter. He shouldn’t -- this is about as basic and bare-bones as you can get, especially since the guitar is mixed so low that you can only hear it during the solos - but I find it pretty cool that he does anyway. When I was twelve I received the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack as part of a wildly off-kilter trade with Cory Tendering, and my first thought upon hearing the Viaducts was “These guys should’ve been on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack.” You can take that however you want to; the Viaducts are gonna take their schtick straight to the bank. Could this be a contender for album of the year? No. But it’s the most fun I’ve had for $3 since I bought a handjob from Robert Downey Jr in 2002.

Official Site |  MySpace |  Facebook

Balance and Composure / Tigers Jaw -- Split

Balance and Composure is an odd name for a band so totally committed to losing their shit at such regular intervals. The first four songs of this split are theirs, and, were I in charge of such things,  I might’ve flipped that around -- Tigers Jaw (hailing, I kid you not, from Scranton, PA) are more tuneful and reserved, with better potentional for easing casual listeners into the balls-out maelstrom that B&C set loose. Balance and Composure (also from Pennsylvania, although not anywhere funny) do the real tight-wire stuff here -- their songs are long, complex, and hard, with plenty of pummeling riffs and explosive tempo changes. The band is great at the sharp, angular stuff that gets all the math nerds fondling their calculators, but they don’t neglect the sensitive, thoughtful side of their persona -- they’re all over the spectrum. Chaos is always exciting, but especially when it’s executed with  this much verve and precision. Tigers Jaw are less exciting but more consistent and listenable; they throw some moody keyboards into the mix, giving their music a softer, more inviting feel. They also kind of sound like Brand New. Overall this split is exactly what you need if you aren’t feeling angsty enough today; listening to this for a few hours got me firmly back into my old awkward teenage headspace, and that’s actually a pretty cool place to visit. I am totally surprised by how much I enjoy this record. Road trip to Pennsylvania, anyone?

Balance and Composure: MySpace |  Last.fm |  Facebook
Tigers Jaw: MySpace |  Last.fm |  Tumblr

How To Destroy Angels -- EP

How To Destroy Angels (or, as I call them, Trent Reznor’s Crystal Castles) have shrouded themselves in mystery so far, offering only vague info about the makeup of the group and some pretty weird videos on their Vimeo channel. But now we have this whole EP, full of industrial squelches and blips and bloops, and I must say: this is the best thing Reznor’s had his name on since The Fragile. It further explores his recent ambient-leaning tendencies while also making time for some dance-ready beats. Vocals are supplied by Reznor’s wife, former-West Indian Girl singer Mariqueen Maandig, who has a pleasing if somewhat affectless voice. Her pipes are best put to use by “A Drowning,” which sounds like M83 getting gently roughed up and wouldn’t feel out of place on the Lost Boys 3 soundtrack. Where the disc  falters a little is on the clubbier stuff -- “BBB” and “Fur Lined” are marvels of tech-geek compositional flair and they move with a sleek, streamlined economy that Nine Inch Nails, as tied to total sensory overload as that band/concept was, never quite managed, but Maandig lacks the personality to really push them through the speaker. Hardcore Trent-heads should enjoy “The Space In Between” and “Parasite” for the way they polish up and advance ideas Reznor first started exploring in the late 90s -- the dirty, heavy, impressionistic stuff that’s become his bread-and-butter since shunning the commerical spotlight for the sterile confines of his studio. This EP covers basically all the bases you could ask it to, and ends just before the group’s kinda limited aesthetic can grow tiresome. I’m psyched for the eventual full-length, but I hope they discover some new colors in their palette before then.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWbfgGDl6XE

Official Site |  MySpace |  Vimeo

The Webelos -- Model Citizen

I am, generally, not a huge power-pop guy. Wasn’t always that way; I used to blast Michael Penn’s first record at full volume all day long. But somewhere along the way, I lost my taste for the genre. It all flooded back, though, when I popped in Model Citizen, the debut EP from Chicago’s own The Webelos. Billing themselves as “America’s #1 scout-rock band” and adopting a genially dorky aesthetic (the CD looks like it’s some kind of interactive learning game from 1993), The Webelos definitely stand out -- there’s a refreshing innocence to their music that speaks to the eight-year-old boy inside me. But the hooks are straight-up adult: imagine if Fountains of Wayne copped their moves from Trust-era Elvis Costello and didn’t bother with all the jokes. The surging guitar riff that anchors ”Peace For The Wicked” pretty much steals the show by virtue of its overpowering melodic aggression, but you’ll find plenty to love on the other five tracks. “Oh Miki” is a welcome country excursion, complete with some sweet pedal steel, and “Lucky Roll” captures the essence of ’90s Costello without succumbing to arrangement overkill. Model Citizen is a fine entry in a long and proud pop tradition, and something genuinely interesting from our hometown. Is there a merit badge for fun?

Official Site |  MySpace |  Twitter