Every Place Is A House mp3 Maps & Atlases Trees, Swallows, Houses

The Sheet mp3 Apteka Tour/Demos

Maps & Atlases blew my mind at Lincoln Hall last Wednesday! And Apteka did the same Thursday night! Oh lordy! I’ve been trying to catch these two local bands for months now and I’ve finally been rewarded with two evenings of mind-blowing indie-rock goodness. Chicago is fertile ground for a certain garage rock sound, I can’t really describe it but if you’re a music freak you know a Chicago band when you hear one. If you go way back to the 80s and remember the Replacements, you’ll know what I mean. There’s a Midwestern, middle-class, kind of grit to the music that gets hewed out of this town. Now, neither of these two bands exactly sounds garage-y like that but I’ll argue that the roots of their sound grow from that same dirt. Sure, they take rock and roll in completely different directions, but it’s raw and edgy in both cases, and wonderfully so.

Maps & Atlases have most recently been on tour with the Ra Ra Riot. They’ve received fantabulous reviews from Pitchfork, NME, everyone who’s anyone in Chicago and everyone who’s ever seen them play. You can see some gorgeous pictures taken the night of their show at Lincoln Hall here, by Julius Ryan. They’re working on their first full length record and it is one of the most anticipated albums of 2010.

Somehow I missed the fact that they had completed an EP since Trees, Swallows, Houses, which I’ve been devouring lately. You and Me and the Mountain came out  So I had a lot of catching up to do. Their hour long set was made up of equal parts material from both those EPs as well as new stuff of the soon to be released LP. Even though I had a good idea of what to expect, the energy from the crowd coupled with the pure joy and appreciation of the band as they bounced off everyone around them made the evening particularly awesome. I tried to think of another word for that, I know my UK friends tease us for saying everything is awesome, but damnit, it was! Dave said thank you after almost every song as if he were truly surprised at the overwhelmingly positive response. I can’t stop smiling even now as I type this up because not only is the music positive and busy with everything that is alive about life itself, but the band is also just so incredibly buzzing with frenetic goodness. Is that over the top? Perhaps, but that’s what I felt from that night, from that crowd, from that roomful of hyped-up, blaring music. Deal with it.

Apteka has been on my radar for about six months, even though I only recently posted about them. As I tweeted, I fell for them on the opening chord I heard at the Bottom Lounge. I know it’s uncool to describe a band as “power rock” and it’s not exactly what they are, so think of that but add a heavy dose of just beautiful, sawing, guitar and lots of reverb. I think it’s the best combination of the parts of shoegaze that I love (solid sound that you lose yourself in) and some really heavy rock guitar and drum with tripped out vocals. Yeah, this is what old folks call “head banging” music but it’s more complicated and versatile than that as well. I’m just going to have to keep plugging this band until they get more gigs and get this collection of demos together into an LP because I simply can’t stop listening to it. There’s tons of potential here. The drummer is amazing, energetic and in sync with the rest of his bandmates in the way that most guitarists wish their drummers were. The lead guitarist, (why do I never get names at these gigs?) played some amazing and yet also scaled back to just the right point, solos and deftly gave out some heavy rock grinding chords as well as that beautiful smooth, My Bloody Valentine-like saw/slide. Vocally, Apteka has a great sound, and I was happy to hear that the live show superseded the recording. If anything, the lead singer could hold back a bit, his voice is very strong and well-trained for this kind of music. And well, I saved my favorite for last. Because seriously, watching Apteka renewed my love affair with bass players. The bass lines in this record are all over the place and watching him play live I saw why. To keep up with the energy of an ambitious lead guitarist and a powerful singer, not to mention their simply stunning drummer, this bass player really did seek to stand out. I couldn’t say that these guys were competing in this band, for attention or space, but damn… they each carve out a place. And watching that bassist move across the fret, that was gorgeous. Go see Apteka, keep your wits about you and don’t do too much head banging because you’re gonna wanna see just how they create this magic, I promise xoxo