Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

So it appears that I may be returning to co-host at Vocolo on Monday, details are still sketchy but 4-7pm if all goes as planned. I’ll update this as the official word comes in. With Johnny B. gone now it should become quite apparent that Chicago radio needs an infusion of Dooooooooom!

Seriously, does radio suck or what? I’m not even talking music, which has been garbage for a long time, but good talk radio people? Gone. All of them. Stern on satellite. Dahl doing podcasts from his basement. I didn’t listen to Johnny B. (not since high school really) but still, he’s out too. Who else? I’m ready to pick up the mantle. Dammit, they need me!

What was I saying about the Bears being too conservative? This article says it all: The Bears need to run left! I should be the coach, man. Alright, everyone! Let your freak flag fly! Have a beer! And goddammit, run LEFT!

What a sorry-ass year it was for baseball. This was the first time I can remember that I did not attend one game, and it wasn’t just because no one offered me free tickets. I gave up pretty early on the Cubs this season–they looked bad and it seemed obvious that they were inevitably headed for disaster, even when they somehow landed in first place for a day or so. But there was something else.

The Cubs had a team that was pretty hard to like, plain and simple. You could start and end it with Milton Bradley, but it actually was a lot more than just him. That outfield of Soriano, Fukudome and Bradley could not be less likable. Soriano strikes me as the kind of guy who really doesn’t give a shit, and although he was outshone by Bradley’s unlikability I think he comes close, especially when his numbers aren’t blasting through the roof and obscuring his personality. And the hot-dogging stuff is, to me, very un-Chicago-like, very un-Cub-like. It’s cheesy, take it somewhere else!

Fukudome seems like a nice enough guy, I guess, but we’ll never know. His inability to communicate leaves him at a disadvantage and so instead we only see the grimaces and scowls that he gives after another corkscrew strikeout. I don’t know that he’s ever shown much emotion one way or another, but unfortunately he has also not shown a whole lot of consistency either. He’s just alright, not great, and prone to long droughts. Should he even be the starter?

Bradley? That guy is just a dick, but we all knew that.

Which brings me to Zambrano. What’s wrong with this guy? So much talent and such a small mental capacity. I don’t know that his blow-ups and blow-outs are worth the instability anymore. He’s good, but he should be great, and not just when his temper is in check. If the guy can’t handle when a bad call is made or someone hits a homer off of him, then it’s no wonder the team cracks in the playoffs. Their ace is a wackjob.

The infield is a little better. Aramis Ramirez at third doesn’t deserve to be called out, he’s mostly a pretty good player who could be great if didn’t get injured so much. But he’s also not a shining personality. Not a dick, but not Mr. Cub either. I wouldn’t say it to his face though. I like Theriot and I hope he becomes a consistently good player, same with Fontenot, but neither of them were blowing the doors off this year. Fontenot had an especially down year.

Derrek Lee is the only guy on the team who is classy and likable and also a great player. They could trade anyone but this guy. I don’t want the team to be filled with nice guys who suck, but the only thing worse than the lovable losers tag we’ve endured for so many years is to be unlovable losers. Until they shake up this team, that’s what they are.

Bummer on the Olympics. I was only barely interested until this week but once I thought about it I was into the idea. Oh well. Apparently Rio is on its third try, so I guess they might deserve it more. Now I suppose we’ll have to hear from the patriots who love their country so much that they are gleeful Chicago (Obama!) lost this bid. That should be fun.

Another shot, coming home from Michigan under apocalyptic skies.

The view driving in from Michigan a few weeks back.

No long stories to tell here, just a quick rundown. Ah, who am I kidding? Bring on the long version. Let’s just throw it out there: Lollapalooza has Pitchfork beat in so many ways. The sound is superior, the lines are shorter, the choices are greater and the lakefront setting is the best there is. And no 312 beer! Anyone who tells you the heat was unbearable is a wimp. The only bummer was the rain on Friday, but we didn’t show up til around 5 or so.

The Decemberists performed their rock opera, “The Hazards of Love,” in its entirety and it was the first and best part of that day. Well, I really only saw 2 other bands that day: Of Montreal and Depeche Mode. DM played “Never Let Me Down Again” and that made it for me. Love that song.

That’s a screen shot, of course, of Colin of The Decemberists. I wish I had a picture of Shara Worden, the guest vocalist who kicked ass. Wow, what a voice.

There’s Perry with some female party guests. That was…interesting. Saturday I saw the Arctic Monkeys and I was kind of like, eh, ok. Missed Santigold while stuck in a huge bottleneck that threatened to swallow us whole (also mentioned here), it was the one low point of the whole thing. TV On the Radio was great and Animal Collective was…also interesting.

We hung in the south end for Tool and that was pretty awesome. Prog-metal, man. I don’t do hair metal, or rap metal or really any kind of metal, but prog-metal I can handle. At least for a little bit. Then we went back to the Congress Hotel for our usual post-show hijinx, as we did on Friday.

Sunday was easily the best day and we got there kind of early for Cage the Elephant. I posted a video of theirs from Letterman recently and it’s a cool song. The show was good, rockin’ and full of energy. Singer dude was floating on the crowd for a while.

Heard the very end of Kaiser Chiefs then went all the way back for Dan Deacon, which was cool, and relaxed for a while as Vampire Weekend played across the field. Man, they suck. Seriously. Cold War Kids were ok, but I just couldn’t get into it. Left early to catch Lou Reed, who was fashionably late–15 minutes late.

Still, the show was great, Lou didn’t disappoint. So glad I chose to see that show over Snoop and Deerhunter, the toughest choice of the weekend. Next was Band of Horses and they had to wait for Lou, who went over his time and then some. It was kind of funny, the old guy showing up late and then refusing to follow the rules.

Band of Horses were good but we left early to hit the right side for Jane’s Addiction. Apparently The Killers grabbed the bigger crowd, which makes sense since masses of people tend to gravitate toward the shittiest music. Have I mentioned how much I think The Killers suck? How I knew I had a great weekend: I didn’t see or hear The Killers at all.

Jane’s started and Band of Horses was still playing but we were on the right side and so it didn’t really affect our sound. Jane’s was awesome. It was a great set, great to hear “Three Days” and “Then She Did” from the long side 2 of Ritual De Lo Habitual. I always liked that side better. Almost prog-metalish! And of course, anything from Nothing’s Shocking was great to hear. Loved it, loved the show. ADDED UPDATE: I forgot to mention, Perry Farrell’s between-song banter was weird, funny and never too long. Wayne Coyne could learn a lot from this, and actually play a full set of songs. I’m just sayin’.

Yeah, I missed having any huge headliner that I really loved like Radiohead or Pearl Jam, but it was nice to have a little more room to move. The shows I saw were a lot less packed than the last few years. The sound was great and I think I only had one bathroom line that was kind of long. Those giant beers were something else, but they disappeared after the first night. Probably a good thing. Drink three of them and suddenly you have a six-pack in you.

Anyway, another great year. Hard to believe it’s over already.

From Chicagoist.com:

The following ten groups released albums or EPs that we believe launched them far above the roiling masses making up the Chicago music scene.

Coming in at number 3…your favorite and mine…the one, the only…Milk at Midnight! Thanks Chicagoist and Tankboy!

Taken while driving to Oak Park on North Avenue.

I had heard this before but forgot about it til now: did you know that Rahm Emanuel’s brother Ari is the basis for Ari Gold in “Entourage”? That is hilarious. I love it. Rahm is a real ballbuster, eh? Republicans are really going to hate him. Chicago’s coming to Washington, MFer’s! Ha ha ha! Hide yer nuts!

Another tidbit: do you realize that the Democrats have won the popular vote in four of the last five elections? Add in Bush’s narrow 2004 victory and you have no visible sign that America is or ever was the conservative country that Fox News thinks it is. We are, after all this, a moderate, socially liberal country that gets real defensive when people fuck with us. A little too insecure in the middle, if you ask me.

So what, exactly, is the problem with gay marriage?

The Huffington Post has a Chicago version now. Not sure if it’s needed, but I’ll give it a go.

In other news, I have watched some of the Olympics. Every time I happened to look, it seems Phelps was kicking somebody’s ass.

Oh, and that Choke stuff keeps changing. Radiohead did not score it! IMDb was right, as usual.

Another year of Lollapalooza is over, and what fun we had. Here’s my somewhat brief and mostly non-chronological recap, starting with the band of the year, the decade, the best band there’s been in a long while, Radiohead. I managed to snake up pretty close on the left side, but could not manage any good pix, except for these screen shots. Here’s a ghostly Thom, in double:

And a band shot, kind of:

Umm, this giant spacepod building? Where did that come from? That was not there last year.

The Flaming Lips screened their movie Christmas on Mars, but who wants to watch a movie when you’re at a music festival? Well, we couldn’t get in anyway. We tried to get some special Eat Your Own Spaceship popcorn, but that was a no go as well. It looked, and smelled, quite delicious.

I had no idea what was going on over at the RATM show, as I had decided to see Wilco instead. Sounds like there were some meatheads on parade, although I would have liked to hear the Rage. But I missed Wilco last time they played Lolla and I had hopes of an Obama appearance, which, alas, never happened. A pretty good show anyway by Jeff Tweedy and his smartly dressed band.

The cops kept a watch over Grant Park in this nifty surveillance contraption. Frightening. Put wings on this thing and we’re all in big trouble. I’m surprised the Rageheads didn’t take this thing down, or at least pelt it with trash and beer. Maybe they did?

The Congress Hotel was a madhouse as usual, it was fantastic. On both Friday and Saturday nights the bar and lobby were completely overrun by the inmates. The place is right out of a Hunter Thompson book.

I had no idea Janet from Sleater-Kinney was playing drums with Stephen Malkmus, so that was a nice surprise. The next day I was walking to Grant Park and passed her on Jackson. Brush with greatness. I was up close at the show, but couldn’t get a good shot of her from my angle, so, the screenshot:

Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan…The Gutter Twins! They were great, even in the sunlight. One of the best of the weekend. The deaf/signer person (what would she be called?) was really into it, and I was captivated for a while by her general bizarreness.

I have no idea where I ran into this kind sir, but it was somewhere in or around Grant Park:

I thought this girl was a bit cheeky:

Nine Inch Nails closed it out on Sunday night. I started over at Kanye and caught a few before trekking all the way to the other end for NIN. Good show, if a little gloomy. “Hurt” is a great song.

I don’t have any (good) pictures of them, but Explosions in the Sky were majestically awesome, it was one of my favorite sets of the weekend. Also, Devotchka, who I last saw at The Hideout a few years ago, was pretty good, and MGMT had the biggest crowd for a non-headliner, it was nutty. Gogol Bordello was weird and good, Gnarls Barkley didn’t hold my attention for long, except for the great Radiohead cover of “Reckoner” and Girl Talk threw a great party. Iron and Wine is still kind of a snoozer to me live, although I still like their records. Cat Power too.

Who’d I miss? Love and Rockets. The National. I would have liked to have caught them both. Overall, the lineup was more about curiosities than must-sees for me, so I did a lot of wandering. It was easily the weakest lineup of Lolla in Chicago yet, and we had a much smaller gang this year, but I’ll take it. Proud of my city, once again.