Happy Birthday Joe Tex

Yesterday was the anniversary of the birth of 60s/ 70s soul singer Joe Tex. He is somewhat underrated, but lays down a mean groove. Check out this video of his hit "Show Me" for evidence.



Somebody show Joe. If you're a fan of fairly down home soul, he is definitely worth seeking out.

It's OK To Like Nick Lowe

Especially since today is his birthday. Nick Lowe is The Man. Check out this live video of his song "So It Goes" (with Rockpile) if you need proof.



Gentleman Jesse and his Men from the ATL appropriated the guitar riff to amazing results. Check them out if they ever come to your town.

Funky, Funky Birthday

This morning my handy Life In Hell calendar and Facebook informed me that my friend Griffey shares a birthday w/ soul legend Wilson Pickett. I couldn't find video of Griffey singing karaoke or anything, so please enjoy this ferocious live version of "Mustang Sally." I dare you to not shake what the good Lord gave ya in your cube/ office.



Right on.

Experimental Jetset, Trash and Sushi

Oh hi, you're still here? Don't you have anything better to do? No? Ok, I'll try to start posting regularly again.

I've been getting more and more interested in graphic design since I started working in publishing. I've always been fascinated by signage and things like that, but I've really started becoming more actively interested in the theory behind design from a marketing and aesthetic perspective. So much so that I've started seeking out books by Edward Tufte, despite his hated of PowerPoint. Which is not inherently evil.

As part of this newfound interest, I recently Netflixed a great movie called "Helvetica." I meant to check it out when it screened a couple of times in Chicago, but never got around to it. Yeah, yeah. A movie about a font. But it really is an interesting overview of modern and postmodern graphic design. And how both designers and consumers, for lack of a better word, react to visuals, especially the presentation of the written word.

I'm a pretty huge fan of helvetica the font. Despite it's ubiquity, I'm a big fan ofthe modern look and the clean lines, and use it as my standard presentation font. The film does a great job of outlining the history and development of helvetica from the Swiss school of design to becoming a major corporate style in U.S. advertising and marketing. The anti-corporate reactions to helvetica are pretty interesting, with one designer semi-jokingly saying that it was responsible for the Vietnam War. These reactions, along with the influence of drug and music culture on the design world, influenced a move to more freeform, hand drawn typeface and design. And eventually to so-called "grunge" design, typified by Raygun Magazine.

I always had a love/ hate relationship with Raygun. Copies would show up in the mail when I worked in a library periodicals department, despite us not having a subscription, and would usually find its way home with me. The unreadability sometimes drove me nuts, even if it did look cool. In "Helvetica," the editor of Raygun tells a hilarious story about receiving a very cliche, and not very good, article about Brian Ferry (which probably mentioned repeatedly how suave he is and that "Avalon" is a great album), and running it completely in wingdings to make a point about the disposable quality of the writing.

{pretentious attempt to write in wingdings thwarted by Blogger}

But since all things are cyclical, reaction to the over-the-top nature of the more cluttered style led to a return to the helvetica-based, cleaner design done best by the super cool Dutch firm Experimental Jetset. Anyway, check out "Helvetica" the film if you are remotely interested in graphic design or good documentary film making in general.

There are some bands I like to name check, and one of them is Pavement. But I've never been a huge fan of Stephen Malkmus solo for some reason. So I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm digging his new album "Real Emotional Trash." Nice random lyrics and delivery backed by some interesting languid, jazzy stoner rock. Good guitar solos too. And one section of the title track has a definite "LA Woman" vibe. Not too shabby.

This week's consumable is sushi. Tasty, tasty sushi. On Saturday evening I went to a great sushi place called Tank in Lincoln Square. They do sushi the arty way, with interesting ingredients, flavor combinations, and presentation (follow the Flickr link for specifics). I think I still enjoy Tanoshii better for high end sushi goodness, but Tank is worth trip. And the perfect start to a square dance evening in excellent company.

Smash Your Head On The Mashup

Sound Opinions on Chicago Public Radio (and syndicated elsewhere and available as a podcast) is becoming one of my favorite things on the "radio". This week featured a very interesting interview with mashup (for lack of a better word) artist Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk. Gillis uses a laptop to create musical collages from loops of various popular and obscure songs. I'd heard his stuff before and it really is some of the most innovative mashup/ dj type things out there. But maybe the most interesting thing about Girl Talk is his live shows, which are total punk rock dance party insanity. The Sound Opinions guys called him the Iggy Pop of djs or something like that. Take a look at this video to get an idea what he does and see some live clips.



If you dig it, check out this cool movie of him taking a show out on the street in Montreal. And his show at Pitchfork last year got shut down due to crowd control issues. Remember, he is actually playing music live on a laptop by adding and subtracting various loops during all this.

Oh yeah, all of this music is totally illegal. In fact, Gillis records for a label called Illegal Art which is run by someone using the name Philo T. Farnsworth as a protest of copyright law. There is a very thoughtful discussion of the implications of sampling/ mashups/ whatever near the end of the Sound Opinions piece. This undated interview gives some details about the philosophy behind Illegal Art too. Interesting stuff! I'm personally all in favor of this sort of flaunting of our outdated copyright laws. And I have no problem saying that Gillis is as much of a musician as someone who plays guitar or drums or sings. What do you think?

And just to make you hungry, I had an awesome brunch of Huevos Diablos and a bloody mary at the Handlebar in Wicker Park today. Handlebar probably has my favorite brunch and bloody mary in Chicago right now. Sorry Silver Cloud fans (you know who you are). I left my phone in the car, so no documentation. But here is a picture of a spicy alligator sausage from Hot Doug's.



Hot Doug is as much of punk rock mashup artiste as Girl Talk. He just works in encased meats.

Lebanon, Mississippi

Nothing to do with libraries, but there was a fascinating story on Morning Edition this am about Lebanese food culture in the Mississippi Delta. A lot of the story took place in Clarksdale, which I visited several times when I lived in Georgia and made semi-regular trips to the Memphis area. Apparently there is a decent sized population of people of Lebanese heritage in the area. I've actually visited at least one of the BBQ places in the story that serves kibbe every Sunday. It is definitely worth a listen, and the text on the Morning Edition page is pretty comprehensive too. And now I am hungry for some Taste of Lebanon.

Thanks to a conversation on Twitter, I am now listening to the first album by Chicago (or Chicago Transit Authority, as they were called then)on Rhapsody. I actually like the first 3 or so Chicago albums. They have a pretty interesting mix of heavy guitars, vocal harmony, horns, and not much Peter Cetera sappiness. The guitars on CTA are especially nice and psych-ish. Worth a listen for free at least.

I'm going to try to return to the regular weekly publishing schedule this weekend. And am still going to write about the Midwinter experience from the staff side as well. I promise.

Surly Bender Phonebooth

No, I didn't forget your weekly consumables post. Just didn't want to include it in the Twitter Is Like... post.

This week I went on a Surly Bender. Literally and figuratively. There's a ton of new stuff on the menu at my local Belgian beer watering hole. One of which is called Surly Bender. Or the brewery is Surly, from Minnesota, and the beer is Bender. It is a brown ale/ porter/ APA hybrid with a tons of malty flavor. And is yummy. Very, very drinkable and has a low ABV even. Nice. And if you drink it when you're still somewhat sick and in a terrible mood you can text your friends that you are on a surly bender and convince them come hang out with you.

Fortunately for my week of being sick, I received a nice order of records from Goner. Including the new album my ATL acquaintances The Carbonas. It is the best thing they've recorded yet, and that includes some pretty monster 7 inches. Great songs, nice recording by Dave, short, sweet, and excellent. I'd heard all of the songs many times at their live shows when I lived in Atlanta, but I'm psyched to have "Phonebooth" an "Didn't Tell You A Lie" on the vinyl. Very nice melodic punk to play too loud when you come home from a surly bender.

Oink If You Love Community

Holiday shopping time is upon us. Which brings up the question of what presents to buy folks. Or what, if anything, to ask for. I was talking to a friend the other day about updating our Amazon wish lists and we were both having trouble coming up with present suggestions. One option is to look at the automated "people like you like" suggestions on Amazon. But do you really ever use those? They often make me scratch my head and wonder why some algorithm thinks I would like band x or movie y. I'm way more likely to find stuff I like through various online boards, blogs, and forums where actually, real, like minded humans are talking about what they are into.

This was the point of an article in last week's Chicago Reader about the now-defunct bit torrent site Oink. I wasn't all that familiar with Oink, but it was an invitation only site for hardcore music snobs, for lack of a better word. And that community aspect, along with consistent tagging and file quality, was what drove people to use the service. The article argues that there is a lesson to be learned by major online music retailers from the community model of Oink:

"Microsoft has recently started hiring experts to help round out the Zune Marketplace’s low-traffic departments, like folk music. It would’ve been more cost-effective for the company to take a hint from Oink—if it could connect a bunch of brilliant music freaks with an appreciative audience for their comprehensive knowledge of vintage Turkish psychedelia or obscure Japanese noise or insane Bollywood soundtracks, the Zune Marketplace might start looking more like Amoeba Music and less like Borders."

Right on! That lesson can be applied across online retailers, and really to any 2.0 type service. Its all about community.

And speaking of Amoeba Music and Zune, when I was in San Francisco I picked up the latest album by the Oakland band Rogue Wave at the Haight Street Amoeba. And then discovered that one of the songs, called "Lake Michigan" for some reason, is in a Zune ad. The Zune ad that doesn't feature the female singer who sounds like Cat Power but isn't. The album is relatively hit and miss, like their past two releases, but is worth checking out for some fairly solid, interesting indie pop stuff. And not one, but two, songs that reference Chicago.

In fact, I listened to Rogue Wave on the bus from Lincoln Square back to the 40 last Sunday. And then proceeded to enjoy a yummy Gouden Carolus D'Or - Cuvée Van De Keizer* at the Hopleaf while reading about Oink in the Reader. The D'Or is a very nice, sipable wintery beer with mild spice and fruit undertones. Only about half the people I've recommended it to like it, kind of like Houblon Chouffe, but those that do love it. So give it a try.

*Beer Advocate requires registration to search beers but it's free, so go ahead and register now. We'll wait.