WHAT: Yo La Tengo Day
WHERE: Exile on Main Street (free)
WHEN: Tuesday, January 15th at 6 p.m.
In what is becoming a more regular thing down at Exile on Main Street, Yo La Tengo Day is happening tomorrow, as the band releases their predictably excellent new record, Fade. Isaac Arms, Tractor Kings, and Edward Burch (who’s performing Fakebook in its entirety) will serenade patrons with their favorite tracks from the band’s catalog. Check out the first song from the new record “Ohm” below.
[[mp3 yo_la_tengo_ohm]]
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WHAT: Jeff Arrigo, Cody & The Gateway Drugs
WHERE: The Clark Bar (free)
WHEN: Tuesday, January 15th at 7 p.m.
The C-U Singer Songwriter series gets back up and running with a full month of events to start out the year. Headlining is Jeff Arrigo, and four piece outfit Cody & The Gateway Drugs join in for (what I believe to be) their first appearance in the Clark Bar series.
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WHAT: The Felice Brothers, Morgan Orion, Tractor Kings
WHERE: The Highdive ($12)
WHEN: Wednesday, January 16th at 8 p.m.
Folk rockers The Felice Brothers, lead by brothers Ian and James, invade Champaign this week with a couple of country/folk staples in town. The band’s last record, Celebration, Florida, came out a couple of years ago in 2011, and they released a collection of tracks last year on their website called God Bless You, Amigo. Definitely worth going to if you’re into indie-folk or country. Check out “Ponzi” from Celebration, Florida below.
[[mp3 felice_brothers_ponzi]]
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WHAT: Emancipator, Mux Mool, Tor
WHERE: The Canopy Club ($10 advance/$13 door)
WHEN: Wednesday, January 16th at 9 p.m.
Doug Appling takes his producer moniker Emancipator to a place in town used to hosting shows like this. His new record, Dusk to Dawn, is being released at the end of the month on Loci Records. You can stream the single “Minor Cause” below.
[[mp3 emancipator_minor_cause]]
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WHAT: Mister Lies, I am God, Kirkwood West
WHERE: Mike ‘N Molly’s ($7)
WHEN: Thursday, January 17th at 8 p.m.
Chicago’s Mister Lies has had a good amount of buzz around his project over the last six months or so. If anything creates buzz, it’s a Pitchfork “Rising” feature with your name on it. A lot of dub influences (Burial, especially comes to mind) for this producer. Glitchy locals I am God and DJ/producer Kirkwood West support. Here’s one of his singles, “Dionysian.”
[[mp3 mister_lies_dionysian]]
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WHAT: California Wives, Shadows on a River, Decadents
WHERE: The Canopy Club ($8 advance/$10 door)
WHEN: Thursday, January 17th at 9:30 p.m.
Chicago’s California Wives pay a visit to Urbana this week after releasing their most recent record, Art History, late last year. A lot of good indie-pop and dream-pop sounds coming from that new record, to say the least (you can check out “Tokyo” streaming below). They’ve had some good publicity and will most certainly have a growing fanbase in 2013. Supporting are locals Shadows on a River and Decadents.
[[mp3 california_wives_tokyo]]
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WHAT: The Fights, Jet W. Lee, Paper Thick Walls, Coed Pageant
WHERE: Mike ‘N Molly’s ($5)
WHEN: Friday, January 18th at 8 p.m.
Alt-country rockers The Fights aren’t so new anymore, having a handful of shows under their belts at this point. You can check out our extensive interview with the band from last year here and hear their track “Graffiti” below. Joining them is a band familiar to C-U: Jet W. Lee, Chicago’s Paper Thick Walls, and The Palace Flophouse side project Coed Pageant.
[[mp3 the_fights_graffiti]]
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WHAT: Earth Witch, Poundcake, Chasing Mars, Shy Guy Says
WHERE: Mike ‘N Molly’s ($5)
WHEN: Saturday, January 19th at 8 p.m.
Psychadelic/stoner rock outfit Earth Witch and a handful of others should make some serious racket in the upstairs of Mike ‘N Molly’s this weekend. There’s not a lot of information out there about Earth Witch, but you can check out their demo sampler below, streaming from C-U’s Error Records to get an idea of what you’re in for.
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EDITOR’S PICK: THE GREAT COVER UP
The Highdive ($7 door/$15 for 3-night pass/$20 for 4-night pass)
Saturday, January 19th at 9 p.m. and Sunday, January 20th at 9 p.m.
In what continues to be one of the more exciting and suspenseful events of the year is the 22nd annual Great Cover Up series at the Highdive. Once again this year it’s four nights of local(ish) acts showing us their best impressions of their favorite artists. Name any act you might enjoy, and it has most likely been covered at this point. Nevertheless, every year there are more exciting surprises from our local musicians.
The first two shows (of four, total) take place, with the lineups below. If you’re interested in seeing all of the bands for the whole series, check out the Facebook event linked above.
Saturday Lineup
Amy Mitchell Band
Carnivale Debauche
Brother Embassy
Acme Principle
The Duke Of Uke
Lonely Trailer
Jim Hewitt
The Keylocks
Sunday Lineup
Curb Service
Mike Ingram
Kayla Brown
Scathe
Sugar Prophets
Coco Butter Kids
Beeson Brothers
Here’s one of my favorites from a few years ago: The Dirty Feathers featuring Kayla Brown as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: