[RH Interview] Mike Golden
Photography by Mike Hari
Chicago is easily identifiable as a musical city. Without argument, the Second City has produced greats in every genre and discipline, and continues to do so without much sign of stopping. As of late, it seems as though every couple of months we are seeing a new act take off from the city and one act that has been making noise for awhile around the scene is finally looking primed to do just that. Mike Golden & Friends is a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape that is increasingly dominated by a sort of digital hoarding that has made the computer an instrument. While he brings in elements of electronic production to pair with the live instrumentality of the band, the core of Mike Golden & Friends is the pure, unadulterated organic sound that starts and ends with the jarringly poignant voice of Golden.
The 26-year-old Hammond, Ind., native was the first act to bring Kids These Days and Rockie Fresh down to the Eastern Illinois University for shows is the central figure to his namesake band and last week at the House of Blues for the band's album release show for Utopia, Golden commanded the stage, rattling off a plethora of songs, returning for an extended encore. Over the past couple of years Chicago has re-established a reputation as increasingly younger artists have taken off. Mike Golden shows that there is still room to set a foundation, evolve and make great music while consistently taking things to a higher plane. I had a chance to talk to Mike Golden last week about the new album, hearing his music in video games and what the whole ride has been like thus far, check it all out below.
[Album] Mike Golden & Friends: "Utopia"
Mike Golden & Friends have been slowly building themselves into one of the premier acts to catch in the increasingly crowded Chicago music scene and yesterday they dropped their latest release, Utopia to continue that climb. Teased over the last few weeks with the behind the scenes video for the single "Mary Jane" featuring Vic Mensa and Donnie Trumpet, Utopia is a truly transcendental project for the group, who bring together a myriad of influences and sounds to create the soulful, highly instrumental sound that sees the band float between rock, blues and post-punk sensibilities behind the strong-voiced Mike Golden at the helm.
Utopia demonstrates a certain growth that comes naturally for a band in their 20s, a slightly more mature, developed songwriting and computed worldview that bleeds through in the music. On "Best Part", Golden glosses over aiming for the sweetest time in a relationship, aka the best part, singing, "I just wanna make it to the best part,". On the album's title track, he explains, "When you wake depends on when you take a hold of it," As the rap scene in Chicago seems to take over how people view the city, acts like MG&F demonstrate the true range of music coming out of The Second City. A sold out show last Friday at the House of Blues in Chicago was a fitting celebration of the group's latest release since 2011's well-received Groceries and served as a proper introduction for a project that we should see pop up quite a bit throughout this year.
Grading the Grammy Nominations
As the music industry has evolved over the past decade into the digital world, things have changed quite a bit. Hard copies are hardly ever bought anymore, nor does anyone seem to buy whole albums at all, as the iTunes Store model has taken over and the industry has increasingly become about what the consumer wants as opposed to what the labels want the listeners to hear. While this has resulted in a sort of musical reawakening, creating a culture where listeners can stream, download or play any track they can think of with the touch of a button, music has expanded at a rapid pace, creating new genres and sub-genres and infinite new off-shoots that don't fit cleanly into any one established genre or sound.
Standing behind this industry, bearing the largest prize of all, is the Grammy Awards. This year, the award show enters its 56th installment and, while a dance music category was finally introduced last year, the judging seems more out of touch than ever, but of course this has been an issue for some time. The Grammys are like Social Security. You don't really care about it much until you're too old to get up from the sofa. Generations have rallied against the award for years. In 1991 Sinead O'Connor simply refused to show up and boycotted the show, despite being nominated in four categories. After winning "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 1998, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder stood onstage perplexed and, staring at the golden trophy, said into the microphone, "I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything." It's not news that the team behind the Grammy Awards has been out of touch for some time, but at no time in history has it been so blatantly about the money in an industry that today makes significantly less money than it used to. It's macroeconomics of the current American condition played out with celebrities and gold gramophone statues. Plus, Kanye already spoke out. So, for this latest round of Grammy nominations, I figured I would sift through who was chosen and offer up my own choices for the top prizes in music this year.
[Video] Nine Inch Nails Announce Tour
Believe it or not, Nine Inch Nails is heading back out on tour, and they have a video to prove it. Frontman of the iconic rock band, Trent Reznor, announced plans for a 2014 tour and a new band lineup consisting of Ilan Rubin, Alessandro Cortini, and Robin Finck. The video is a 77-minute concert film documenting the band's "Tension 2013" tour and yesterday, Reznor also participated in a Reddit AMA with users. No word yet on dates or stops on the tour, but there should plenty of footage in the documentary piece to keep even the most ardent of fans appeased for at least a little while.
For its part, the documentary video follows Nine Inch Nails' concert November 8 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles as part of their arena tour earlier this year. The fourteen song setlist can be found below, along with the video.
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Setlist:
Copy of A
March of the Pigs
Piggy
All Time Low
Disappointed
Came Back Haunted
Sanctified
In Two
The Big Come Down
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Even Deeper
While I’m Still Here
Hurt
[via MixMag]
[Video] Father John Misty: "I'm Writing A Novel"
Photo By Virgil Solis
Former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, better known to some by his stage name, Father John Misty, has been doing his thing and follows a successful summer that included a Lollapalooza set with a Fall tour which was announced along with the video for "I'm Writing A Novel." Check out the video and tour dates below.
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Father John Misty:
10-03 San Francisco, CA - Slims *
10-06 Seattle, WA - The Moore Theatre *
10-07 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre *
10-08 Vancouver, British Columbia - Commodore *
10-11 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue *
10-12 Chicago, IL - The Vic *
10-13 Madison, WI - Capitol Theatre *
10-14 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot *
10-15 Toronto, Ontario - Queen Elizabeth Theatre *
10-16 Montreal, Quebec - Corona Theatre *
10-20 Somerville, MA - Somerville Theatre *
10-22 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer *
10-23 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
10-24 Richmond, VA - The National *
10-25 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle *
10-26 Athens, GA - Georgia Theatre *
10-28 Dallas, TX - House of Blues *
10-29 Austin, TX - Emo's *
10-31 Phoenix, AZ - Crescent *
11-01 San Diego, CA - House of Blues *
11-02 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
* with Kate Berlant