The Twilight Singers- "Powder Burns"

So I'd never heard of this band until last week....... I'm really not sure how that is.... Usually my ears perk up at the mention of a familiar name branching into a side project. When I hear about these types of things I can sort of instantly tell if this new union is something worth my time or if it's shite..... Case in point the recent assemblage of James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins), Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick), Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne), And Taylor Hanson (Hanson!) forming up to create Tinted Windows. At first it seems kind of unique and kinda cool sounding, I mean James Iha! Gotta be good, right? But then you hear it (I caught a clip of it on the radio the other night), and you sometimes find out otherwise.....

So when I heard the slow burner start of "There's Been An Accident" featured during one of the segments of the movie Choke last week, I googled it afterwards and came up with the name Greg Dulli. Greg Dulli was always "That guy from the Afghan Whigs" to me ever since I saw his name included in the notes of a Foo Fighters album years back. I always had a periphery of the Afghan Whigs... Saw a couple of videos back in the day of there's, but kinda forgot about them.....So I figured I would give it a shot.

So I buy this album and it turns out to be pretty good. There's definitely some cheesy aspects to some of it, such as the almost stripclubesque (?) "My Time (Has Come)", but the urgency of Dulli's voice pushes the songs along and makes the twist up nicely. The band's lineup apparently rotates with every album and subsequent tour. The members are made up of Dulli's friends from other bands ( I didn't know existed either..) such as Howlin' Maggie and Satchel. The result is an album full of big, sludgy melodies and deep hooks. When Dulli sings ".... slow down, lean in, call up that feeling..." on "Candy Cane Crawl", it gives you one of those emotional bends not totally unlike one of Elbow's best.

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes less familiar stuff really is worth your while.

Now to find out who everyone else in the band is.

Kaiser Chiefs, "Off with their Heads"

I bought Kaiser Chiefs' latest album, "Off With Their Heads," a few months back, but didn't listen to it much at first. The songs were catchy and tight, but I didn't think they had much substance.

I recently gave this album another chance, and I've found myself listening to it quite a bit lately. The guitar riffs are catchy, and the keyboards provide nice filler. The lyrics kind of leave something to be desired, but overall, I think it's a pretty "fun" album.

The album is short -- 11 tracks, all under four minutes -- but I don't feel like it's incomplete. The songs don't waste any time or drag. Some of the tracks are pretty lousy ("Half the Truth" and the incredibly annoying "Addicted to Drugs," especially), and there are a couple out-of-place guest appearances (Lily Allen and some rapper named Sway DaSafo), but I think the first six tracks (especially "Like it too much" and "You Want History") are worth giving the album a listen.

I'm interested to hear Claptrapped's British band expert, Kolmin's opinion of this record. I don't know if I'll like this album a few months from now, or if I'll shake my head at the fact that I ever listened to it.

Ahh Crap

Well the news around town is that TicketMaster and Live Nation are merging to make Live Nation Entertainment. Yes that's right, the countries largest concert promoter and the worlds largest ticket-selling network are trying to make a deal.  Awesome, now when you get ripped off buying your ticket and the concert sucks because Live Nation couldn't plan a tea party, you can blame one company. YEAH for us!  Don't worry, I'm not still bitter about when Mick and I flew to Dallas just to see Radiohead and we waited in traffic outside the concert for 2 hours which resulted in missing the first few songs. No, it was just another Live Nation miracle.

So does this mean TicketMaster will take the increased power and money to lower the "convenience charges" on the tickets we buy? Well one can dream. Who knows, maybe this monopoly will empower bands to find another solution for putting on concerts. I believe ClapTrapped Ticketing and Concert Promotion Co. was just born.  Well real competitors like the very small ticketbiscuit.com to the larger tickets.com will certainly have their eye on this deal. The possible merger has received some attention in Washington, Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat stated "We look forward to examining the details of this proposed acquisition to ensure that consumers are protected." Protect us please!

So I guess we shall see ClapTrappers...

Claptrapped T-Shirt Winner

Kolmin is the winner of the 'Claptrapped: Year In Review' T-shirt designed by Adam Kosecki.

You can check out his posts* here:

Depart From This

Resolute This

Congratulations Kolmin! Keep up the good work.

Claptrapped will continue to run the T-shirt contest for the month of February as well.

So keep posting.

Lollapalooza predictions/wishlist

With the lineups for Coachella and Bonnaroo music festivals announced, it's not too early to start thinking about who will be coming through Chicago for Lollapalooza. Here are some predictions (these are only guesses):

Beastie Boys
Beck
Andrew Bird
M. Ward
Fleet Foxes
Jack Johnson
Robert Randolph
Black Crowes
Les Claypool
Tool

What are some of your predictions, and who would you like to see at the 2009 festival?