Friday Feb. 14 @ The Abbey Pub
Flosstradamus $7
Show love for independent radio this Valentine’s Day. The third annual benefit show for CHIRP, the Chicago Indie Radio Project, is the best hipster dance party this side of Girl Talk. DJing duo Flosstradamus (Yes, that’s “Floss” as in jewelry, and Nostradamus, as in the 16th century prophet) is a new addition to the mash-up tradition. A clever name must make for good music, right? They take songs from radio and blogs, and run it through a laptop all at once to make you dance. Your $7 will go to launching Chicago Indie Radio, so maybe next year Flosstradamus will have better source material than Sigur Ros mashed with Kanye West.
Saturday Feb. 16 @ Metro: Super Furry Animals, Times New Viking, Jeffrey Lewis $16
Of the night’s three acts, Welsh Brit-poppers Super Furry Animals sound the best. Slick production and a commanding use of end rhymes make their half-assed songs sound fully realized. Think what Oasis would’ve been without Noel Gallagher. Compared to the night’s openers, their hi-fi popslaught (wait, mashups are fun!) will sound out of place. Well that, or Times New Viking’s lo-fi garage punk and Jeffrey Lewis’ talking-over-folk/punk will annoy you beyond end. But they’re the acts worth seeing. Times New Viking is the most exciting thing to come out of Cleveland since LeBron James. Jeffrey Lewis comes from New York’s Lower East Side and plays a mix of homegrown folk and punk music. He can’t really sing, but his wit is charming, his lyrics insightful, and at the end of the night, his songs will be playing in your head.
Tuesday Feb. 19 @ Subterranean: Russian Circles, Dalek, Young Widows $10 adv. /$12 door
Do you need more arithmatic in your school week? Catch Russian Circles at Subterranean Tuesday night. They’re a local Chicago duo who play a mix of math-rock, progressive metal and post-rock that sounds like Drive Like Jehu crashing into Mogwai. They’re great players and can move easily between ethereal passages and raucous riffs. But the soft/loud dynamics are a tired ploy. Watch for the guitarist’s foot above the effects pedals on stage. But all that reverb’s got to be worth 12 bucks on its own.
