Friday 28
The Essex Green headlines, Tapes ‘n Tapes play second, and Brighton, MA opens. 10 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, 773-278-6600 or 800-594-8499, $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
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MANISHEVITZ Apart from some occasional touring, often with singer-songwriter Edith Frost, the local art-pop combo Manishevitz has kept a relatively low profile since the release of 2003’s minor masterpiece City Life. They’ve split with their label, Indiana-based Jagjaguwar, and have begun recording a self-financed follow-up, funded in part by the money generated from the appearance of City Life’s leadoff track, “Beretta,” in an episode of The O.C. The half-dozen songs in progress from those sessions show the group’s Eno-period Roxy Music influence has deepened, and Adam Busch’s Ferry-esque warblings and lithe melodies have only gotten sharper. This set at the Bottle should preview the group’s new material, including standouts like “Bluebird” and “Cincinnati”; the new disc is due in the fall. Detholz! and Volcano! open. 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $10. –Bob Mehr
PEZBAND, CHAMBER STRINGS Reviewing the CHAMBER STRINGS’ second disc, 2001’s Month of Sundays, Peter Margasak anticipated that the band’s third one “should be an instant classic.” Unfortunately that soul-pop masterpiece hasn’t been made yet; around the time Month of Sundays came out front man Kevin Junior slipped deeper into a drug habit, and in the years since he’s dealt with depression and the deaths of close friends, including frequent touring partner Nikki Sudden earlier this year. Junior bounced around Europe for several years before moving to New Orleans a few months ago; in an effort to put his life back together, he plans to return to Chicago this summer to relaunch his career. “The only things I know how to do are write songs and park cars, and I can’t get a job parking cars ’cause they took my license away,” he recently told me. “So, music it is.” Junior’s former bandmates have gone on to form San Tropez (who’ll be performing at the early International Pop Overthrow show today), but he ultimately plans to put together a new Chamber Strings lineup and start recording again. This acoustic gig is his first Chicago performance in more than four years. –Bob Mehr
Sunday 30
GOOD STUFF HOUSE I didn’t really expect something like Alan Thicke’s TV music when I first heard the chipper sobriquet of this Zelienople side project. But I suppose Good Stuff House’s entrancing self-titled debut (on Time-Lag Records, the sometime home of Charalambides and Six Organs of Admittance) could be a sitcom theme. That is, if the opening credits were 40 minutes long. And if the “house” were populated by Matt Christensen and Mike Weis of Zelienople and experimentalist Scott Tuma of Souled American and the Boxhead Ensemble. And if the “stuff” were pump organs, piano guts, contact mikes, a harmonium, a guitar strung with cables, and a “Universaltor” (a guitar string attached to a ceiling fan that strikes a homemade banjo). And if by “good” you meant “hypnotically eerie, with moments of apocalyptic hyperorchestral drone.” The seven-track CD-R, limited to 150 copies, is packaged in a lovely hand-assembled and numbered paper cover, with disquieting black-and-white photos glued on the front and back. Tanakh headlines and Number None opens. 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $8. –J. Niimi
