curious about monkeys

I'm sort of confused and curious as to why there was a monkey at the beach the other day. with a leash on. wearing a diaper. (I'm not making this up). I guess the diaper part makes sense...

the show goes on without you, jazz showcase

steve colson & ernest dawkins at the velvet lounge, july 14th.

"The intricate textures and gnarly harmonies of his work certainly attest to the influence of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of CreativeMusicians (AACM), a music collective that was in its first ascendancy when Colson arrived here in the late 1960s..."we've always stayed connected to Chicago," says Colson, who considers the city's penchant for the farthest reaches of jazz experimentation one of its greatest cultural assets." -- Howard Reich, Tribune arts critic.

May/june album recommendations

minus story "my ion truss": one of the many things I like about this album is that none of the songs sound like each other, and the album as a whole is really well-arranged.

maps "we can create": good album and not memorable all at the same time. weird.

Hallelujah the hills, " collective psychosis begone" : this band makes great use of different instruments (the cello!). though, you have to wait till halfway through to get to the good stuff.

Andrew Pekler "cue": mellow post-rock. good stuff, though repetitive.

the shaky hands: sounds a bit like wilco at times. this album is GREAT and totally under-rated.

electrelane: awesome. their best album yet - more coherent than other albums. each song and even the album as a whole. on par with stereolab (of emperor tomato ketchup) as of this album. esp like the tempo pickup on track 3. nice.

handsome furs: pretty good, but not great. I think its actually more creative than his work in wolf parade, but maybe less catchy.

slaraffenland "private cinema": this is a pretty damn good first album, but not something that I'd actually really recommend - yet. I think they'll probably put out a really solid album at some point. I sort of feel like they aren't used to playing together yet - the problem might be that each of the members of the band haven't totally settled into their roles. anyway, there's some good stuff worth listening to here.

merzbow/carlos giffoni/jim o'rourke "electric dress": I'm not actually recommending this album, but I wanted to mention it because I respect O'rourke's work (esp the first sam prekop album). anyway, I'm not sure if the rock world is ready for 52 minute musical works. I guess expectations really drive perception - I can sit through a 52 minute symphony, but I can not sit through 52 minutes of something that is supposed to be rock music (or, post-rock, as the case may be) .

people, 3; whisper