Went to the Canopy last nite to check out round 2 of “Fall Semester Showdown.” Rd. 1 (wednesday) featured Tall Tale and Hotel Ahead, rd. 3 (friday)is Elsinore and Living Blue, rd. 4 (saturday) is Shipwreck and Headlights, but round 2 was the Chemicals and the Beauty Shop. Those who have read this blog before might recall that I myself like the Beauty Shop quite a bit…
The most disappointing part of the show was the fact that no one actually battled with guitars or drumsticks or anything. Bummer! Despite the lack of band-on-band violence, the music was kick-ass.
The Chemicals have a weird but good sound–it’s like the notes are fuzzy but the sound is sharp. You can hear what everyone is doing, but the music itself is kinda blurred. Probably it is some technical thing I have no idea about, but they sounded great. Also, any band with an inscrutable girl bass player is cool (perhaps this personal preference peaked my original interest in the Beauty Shop, hmmm). If sound and looks aren’t enough, how about material? A tease of “Rock and Roll ain’t Noise Pollution?” You’re kidding! A five minute cover of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer?” Wha? An hour of great Chemicals tunes? I’m sold!
You know you’re at a Beauty Shop show when sound check is especially elaborate. Not that this is a bad thing at all–they want to sound and hear in a certain way, and that’s that. Hey, if we can’t trust the band to know their best sound, why are we at the show? Anyway, last time I posted about a Beauty show, it was in disappointment. Not with the music, but with some of the observers. So, I was happy to note lots of enthusiastic dancers and music appreciators at the Canopy last night. Oh happy day, surrounded by excited music lovers! The new stuff is sounding awesome, and they played some old favs and even a retooled “XXX.” And of course, for us lucky fans who show our love, a rockin “Babyshaker.”
For some reason, the Beauty Shop shows I have seen at the Canopy are unusually sweet. I don’t know if it’s the acoustics of the weird little foyer room they play in, or the size, or what, but Canopy shows are always lovely.
I am working pgu on friday nite and my real job on saturday, but if all the “showdowns” feature music as great as thursday nite, music fans are in for a great little mini- festival of local sweetness. Maybe Elsinore will wield their instruments in battle…

So, our football team is all, like, good at football and stuff. The announcement of our attendance at the Rose Bowl reminded me of a post I wrote but never published many moons ago, which I will now reproduce in its entirety:

“9/29
Football Football. I had a dj shift until 3am last night, so I didn’t get up and drink beer at 9am (much to my boyfriend’s disappointment), but our crazy football team won again. I have never lived here when our teams are doing totally awesomely. The season we went to the NCAA was the year right before I started. At the time, I lived in Peoria (sorry if you have ever lived there, but it kinda sucks) The success of the Illini it was cool even for me, cuz I already knew I was coming to U of I, so all the people wearing Illini gear just made me more excited to live in C-U. I wonder if people get even crazier about football than basketball, or if it’s pretty much the same?”

Well, in response to myself, it does not seem to be as crazed around here as it was when our basketball team was kicking ass, but I’m not sure since I didn’t actually live in town. Maybe people in Peoria are just as excited about football now as they were about basketball then? Since I avoid Peoria, I have no idea…
Anyway, good job to all our bonecrushers, hope they have a good time and do whatever it is that wins football games. (i think they have to run with some ball and hurt each other and stuff). Since this post makes it clear that I am pretty much a football idiot, I’ll just type “good luck” and have done with the whole confusing thing.

I happen to work with a lovely young lady by the name of Heather Dillon, who is one-half of the talented couple known around town as the Casados. With her husband NIc , a sometimes drummer and an always adorable dog named Sadie, they are taking the world by storm. Ok, maybe not quite yet, but they are at the forefront of the melodic, folk inspired harmonium music scene.

courtesy of kalakendar.com

The Casados have a single that we play on WPGU called “Panama” that is beautiful, although you can’t tell that Heather has such an amazing singing voice when she speaks. They have just returned from tour, a mainly East Coast run that took them all the way to Burlington VT, a stone’s throw from Canada. Deep in the Green Mountains, it seems that Vermonters hope to secede from the United States.

courtesy of thekinghead.blogspot

Don’t worry, the Dillons and their English-teaching drummer (who will be on hiatus teaching in Korea), and the dog, made it back from that wild mountainous country unscathed, returning recently to town to start recording in their Urbana home. Keep an ear out for them, and have a treat ready in your pocket for Sadie, who you can learn all about here.

Break is hard for students (at least this one) because we forget that the world moves on even if there’s no class. I tend to stop doing pretty much every normal daily activity during Fall break, more so than Winter break cuz Fall break is only a week long and school is hard. I pretty much enter into a sloth coma, sleeping late, watching cooking on tv and reading unassigned books (oh the luxury!), so coming back to class and applications for graduate school has been a rude slap in my relaxed face.
Not to fear, we are all back to CU with a vengeance, everyone ready to really buckle down and do well on finals and have as much outside fun as possible before most people leave again for holiday time. There are still many fun things to do around town, for example, get some free tickets at the Union with a UIUC Id and go check out Ben Stein on thursday at Foellinger. Hopefully his speaking voice won’t be as soporific as his famous role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

bueller…..bueller…..bueller

Oddly, a researcher here at the University was on the fantastic but short-lived “Win Ben Stein’s Money.” Click here to learn more.
Or check out a show at Cowboy Monkey before it stops presenting live music (open mic nite is good, too bad you missed the Tractor Kings). There’s always the Canopy of course, and various bars all around for pre or post finals week celebrations. Even if you have to go to class for the next few eeks, there is still fun to be had. Or maybe studying for finals is a good idea…