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Chicago/Lollapalooza Review + August Mail-Bag!













Back from Chicago! Had a great time in the Windy City, almost didn't wanna come back. It's a beautiful city with huge NY Style Skylines, a beautiful river runs right through downtown, safe/clean streets and friendly ass people! Everybody we asked a question spoke to us for like 30 mins, asking us were we're from and recommending places to see. That just doesn't happen in Miami. Most people here ignore you or say they don't know if you ask them anything on the streets. Definitely a great city. Go to my facebook (Ray Milian) and check out some more pics I posted, got some pretty sweet ones on there. The only thing the locals kept telling us is that the winter months sucks there. Oh well, we have Hurricanes here and they seemed pretty worried about that when we mentioned we're from Miami. Funny how we get used to those living here.

The gigs were a blast! Fridays was more of a laid back bar feel where I just played cool tracks while people pounded their drinks and the Sunday gig had more of a club vibe. Managed to get the kids dancing from 1 till 2 when He Say, She Say hit the stage. They were pretty good, he spun while she rapped on top of a speaker surrounded by the crowd.

Saturday was Lollapalooza! What I liked best is that it's in the middle of the City/Downtown. When you go to Coachella you're in the desert and there's nothing to do before or after the shows. Here the city's right there. You get to see the beautiful Chicago skyline as you watch the shows or if you wanna stroll out to wander outside of the park there's plenty to do.

Tickets were sold out by the time we came in around 1 PM, but some dude outside sold us wristbands right after a cop told us tickets were sold out. That guy must've made a killing as every two people he brings he was charging $150 (still $10 less than face value for 2 tixs $160), then he gets them back, goes out and does it again. The one act I was most looking forward to was MGMT, so we headed there early to grab a good spot. It got really packed and the hot sun was beaming on our backs at 3PM. The sound was a little lower than I would've liked, but they were still great! People were singing along particularly to their hits like Time to Pretend, Electric Feel (my fav!), Weekend Wars then Kids which they played as we were walking over to check out the end of Booka Shade's set who were playing at the same time.

We caught the last 3 tracks from Booka Shade and they were phenomenal! They had so much energy. Just two of them on stage, one on electronic pads and one one on laptops and synths. The guy on electronic drums was jumping up and down like crazy, got everyone excited and dancing. Made me realize how much funner good electronic shows can be. By far my favorite show that day!

Then we stuck around to see Spank Rock which played right after Booka. He was good for a bit, but then he let two girls do a bunch of songs which weren't bad, but I was like isn't he the act? Shouldn't he be performing? He was just standing behind the DJ booth clapping for like 3 or 4 songs.

After Spank Rock we went over to see Jamie Liddell, but we got bored after a couple tracks and decided to grab some food instead. Don't really like his stuff. Don't know what people see in him. While we grabbed a bite to eat we caught Broken Social Scene, but they seemed kinda uninspired. Not nearly as good as I remember them in Coachella in 2004.

Then it was headliner time. Rage Against the Machine and Wilco were co-headlining. Although I wanted to see Rage judging from how crazy MGMT got earlier in the day we opted for a more mellow ending with Wilco and acoustic guitars on the opposite side of the park. Heard Rage had to stop their set like 4 times as people were pushing so much, so think we made a wise choice.

Then we hung out and smoked a joint with Sean Weeks and his GF who were up for Coachella before Wilco hit the stage. I'm not the biggest Wilco fan (only owned Summer Teeth from them), but I was pretty impressed. They were excellent! They are from Chicago and they mentioned how they had been looking forward to this gig and preparing for it for awhile. They dressed in colorful mariachi style suits which were pretty funny. The lead singers had a Picachiu on his. They put on a great show. Highlight for me was when everyone was singing along to Shot in the Arm, '...something in my veins, bloodier than blood'. Great way to end the festival/night...


Anyways while I was away my inbox got pretty full with tons of great submissions! Many from artists I had never heard before and quite good! Here are the ones that made the cut...

First is a new one from one of my favs from Mexico/Le Touch Bufi. Always great to get a track from him, especially when he's putting out electro-pop jems like this!


Never heard of Meanest Man Contest before I received a track from them in my inbox, but I'm glad they found me! They put out a catchy ass hip hop/electro/pop fusion that's pretty irrisistable. Fun party music for the summer. Take it in... Get more on their myspace.

MP3: We Wouldn't Want It Any Other Way (Débruit Remix) - Meanest Man Contest (YSI)

Another Mexican band that I've known about for a bit Plastilina Mosh sent me this great new track called Arriba Diciembre. These guys have an ear for catchy electronic pop music, no denying that. This one's sung in Italian and is bella! You'd hardly guess they were from Mexico.

MP3: Arriba Diciembre - Plastilina Mosh (YSI)

Another newbie for me is Magic Wands from Zaire? Where is that? Anyways they sent me this irrisistable guitar driven pop gem called Black Magic. Careful or you will fall under their spell!

MP3: Black Magic - Magic Wands (YSI)

Again another band I didn't know of My Tiger My Timing from London sent me this infectious pop track called This is Not the Fire. Could've fooled me... Not too shabby!


My friend Carmine P. Filthy from NYC sent me these tracks from young German trio MIT. Here you got the original plus a couple of remixes for their track Rauch. They're all pretty good, each remix for a different mood/occasion. See which one suits you at the moment.


Finally I leave you with a new track from Tricky! You know him... Used to be one of the original Massive Attack members and practically started the whole trip-hop genre. Maxinquaye is a classic album from him that I Highly Recommend! This is his first new material in 5 years off of new album Knowle West Boy. It was worth the wait. Classic Tricky!

1 comment:

Victor Castro said...

I think any major city has friendlier people than here, but that's not to say that I've not met some nice/cool one..... 5 MAYBE!

Yeah... I also don't see what people see in Jamie Liddell. I saw him live recently and had to go to another room in the venue.

As for Wilco, always been a huge fan! The picture you took of Marina City (Facebook) reminded me immediately of their album 'Hotel Foxtrot'.

Wanted to thank you for the tracks before you left (loved them all!) and now for these, which I will listen to them on my way to work tomorrow.

+ Congrats on the new Thursday gig at The White Room!