Band of Horses, Jane’s Addiction, MSTRKRFT, Silversun Pickups, The Killers

BAND OF HORSES
Band of Horses embodies the essence of its Seattle hometown: lush and inspired, with a touch of gloom and a healthy indie aesthetic. The band describes its genre as “healing” and “easy listening”, which is surprisingly accurate, but not in any new-age or light-FM sense. Surging riffs interrupt gentle guitar melodies set against poignant lyrics offered up by frontman Ben Bridwell, which he delivers in a most unusually haunting yet beautiful vocal style. Band of Horses is a band for those who feel strangely comforted and alive on a rainy day. It’s a soundtrack for driving cross-country to see someone you love, for embracing life’s melancholy or for spending a summer weekend listening to music with your closest friends. Band of Horses rarely treats the Midwest to its awesomeness, but are set to provide this year’s Lollapalooza with a nice Sunday night climax in advance of day three headliners Jane’s Addiction and The Killers. (Sunday, 7:30-8:30 PlayStation Stage) –text: Jen Fischer

JANE’S ADDICTION
Lollapalooza is Perry Farrell’s party and, as such, he can handpick many of the bands that are coming to the festival. But the only band he can really make sure plays at their best is his own Jane’s Addiction. Celebrities in their own right, Farrell (born Peretz Bernstein) and guitarist Dave Navarro seek a certain danger within their eccentric music, a danger it seems the audience isn’t going to follow as they leap further and further out of the box. Luckily for Jane’s, fans of the ’90s-era alt-rock icons are still game. Farrell’s trademark wail rings true on classics like “Jane Says” as well as new songs from their soon-to-be-released box set, Cabinet of Curiosities, inviting listeners into their circus of freak-show characters and sounds. Best suited while cloaked under the night sky, Perry will ensure that his party visitors celebrate their dark sides while he closes out the festival Sunday night. (Sunday, 8:30-10, Budweiser Stage) –text: Diana Novak

MSTRKRFT
Former Death From Above 1979 member Jesse Keeler and Girlsareshort’s AI-P, longtime musical collaborators, have created a raving onstage dance party complete with laptops, mixing boards, headphones, and cigarettes. Pronounced “master craft”, this Toronto-based hipster DJ duo are smearing their brand of gritty electronica over the faces of both bouncing festival-goers and gyrating club kids worldwide. Behind the decks, they’re best known for remixing artists such as Justice, Metric, The Kills, Wolfmother, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. (Sunday, 7-8:30, Perry’s) –text: Katie Knaub

SILVERSUN PICKUPS
Ousted Smashing Pumpkins bassist D’arcy Wretzky doesn’t think Silversun Pickups sound like her former band. The aloof rockstar told a Chicago radio station recently that the fuzzy guitars and gender-bending vocals of the California ensemble were nothing like Smashing Pumpkins. Then again, she also claimed to have been living in semi-seclusion on a Michigan horse farm. Isn’t there an old adage about not trusting people who live on horse farms? If not, there should be. (Sunday, 7:30-8:30, Vitaminwater Stage) –text: Derek Wright

THE KILLERS
In 2004, a then-unknown band from Las Vegas caused quite a brouhaha with its new wave debut, Hot Fuss. Mormon lead singer Brandon Flowers wore guyliner and sang pop songs about a girl named Jenny. After the record went multi-platinum and unleashed hits “Mr. Brightside” and “All These Things That I’ve Done” into the pop lexicon, the inevitable backlash ensued. While the infectious dance rock songs had a bit of fluff in them, their catchiness was hard to deny. Two years later, sophomore record Sam’s Town was released to mixed reactions. Suddenly Flowers looked more like a grizzly bear as he told the press that the record would be “one of the best albums of the past twenty years.” Well, not quite. In the past year, a newly clean-shaven Flowers & Company have released their third album, Day and Age, a record that even my mom likes. (Sunday, 8:30-10, Chicago 2016 Stage) –text: Garin Pirnia–photo: Anton Corbijn

Beck, MSTRKRFT, Robert Pollard’s Boston Spaceships, The Wedding Present

BECK
As a conveyer of endless genres, a performer of infinite instrumentation, and a model of unadulterated style, Beck has been shocking and pleasing music lovers of all shapes and sizes for over 15 years now — without a moment of staleness or bore. His most recent album, Modern Guilt, announces itself as his eleventh full-length release. As the modern-day icon of cool (yet still kinda nerdy), Beck is both the poster child of the ’90s as well as the millennium. His music is the Elmer’s glue that holds rap, poetry, rock, techno, and sweet serenades together while unifying diverse enthusiasts of the aforementioned genres. Along with artists like Tom Waits and David Bowie, whose musical repertoires are not only ever-evolving but whose every album emerges as an entirely different animal from that which came before, Beck proves that the quirky artists often are the most interesting ones to follow. (Appearing with MGMT at the Aragon on Oct. 2 & 3) —text: Katie Knaub–photo: Autumn de Wilde

MSTRKRFT
No offense to Death From Above 1979 because it was an awesome band, but if it had to die in order for bassist/synthman Jesse F. Keeler to move on and form MSTRKRFT (along with DFA1979’s You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine producer Al-P), then it was worth it. The Toronto duo have been tirelessly tearing up the world tour circuit since the release of their debut album The Looks in 2006 and have remixed everyone from Juliette and the Licks and Wolfmother to Kylie Monogue and, most recently, John Legend’s “Green Light (feat. Andre 3000).” MSTRKRFT have just released their brand new single, “Bounce (feat. N.O.R.E.),” and if it’s any indication of things to come then their follow-up LP, Fist Of God, may prove even more slammin’ than its predecessor. If you’ve never been drunk-dancing at Smartbar listening to MSTRKRFT bump their feel-good electro-house ‘til four a.m., I’d make it a point to do so. (Appearing with The Felix Cartel at Metro on Oct. 7) –text: Mike Scales

ROBERT POLLARD’S BOSTON SPACESHIPS
While best known for fronting the highly influential ‘80s lo-fi group Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard gives new meaning to the word ‘prolific’. Under Pollard’s helmsmanship, GBV released 16 LPs as well as 16 EPs over the course of its career from 1986 to 2004, but that wasn’t enough for Pollard — who has heaped on a whopping 19 solo records and an unknown number of self-financed releases for his Fading Captain Series side-project since 1996. It wasn’t until last year that Pollard finally founded his first of what are now three record labels, as the former Dayton, Ohio, schoolteacher is credited with writing over 1,000 songs over the course of his career. The indefatigable Pollard (who turns 51 this Halloween) now embarks on yet another project and tour, this time with the band Boston Spaceships featuring John Moen of The Decemberists. Their first record, Brown Submarine, was released last month on Pollard’s newest label Guided By Voices, Inc. (Appearing with The High Strung at Double Door on Oct. 6) –text: Garin Pirnia

THE WEDDING PRESENT
The Wedding Present, still around after more than 20 years and still led by affable frontman David Gedge, write songs about broken relationships. Few, if any, are happy. It goes something like this: Get the girl. Be happy. Lose the girl. Be sad. Write a power-pop song about it. A tried-and-true formula? Yes. But Gedge, over these many years, has honed his failures into the kind of art that today’s emo bands will never be able to reproduce. Think The Smiths (hmm, Gedge also moved to L.A., not unlike Morrissey…), but with less misery and louder guitars. The Wedding Present recently released its eighth album, the Steve Albini-produced El Rey, and nothing about it screams departure from anything they’ve done before. Now pushing 50, Gedge has been doing the same thing with a different cast of characters for a couple of decades now, but somehow he’s still able to create great fresh-sounding rock ’n’ roll. (Appearing with Dirty on Purpose at Empty Bottle on Oct. 1) –text: Brendan Dabkowski

The Figurines, MSTRKRFT, Skybox, We Are Scientists

THE FIGURINES
Skeleton, the new release by Denmark’s The Figurines, finally arrived Stateside this year to a flurry of critical praise from heavyweights like Pitchfork, The New York Times and Vice magazine. The album (originally released in 2003) is full of the Strokes-ish rhythm guitar riffs that have become ubiquitous, but they take a more overtly tuneful angle on the idea — not content to resort to the formulaic approach that has plagued indie rock as of late. Singer Christian Hjolm certainly has his Issac Brock moments and certain changes are going to bring the word “Pavement” to the lips of listeners, but taken as a whole Skeleton is fundamentally their own. From the charming piano balladry on the opening track to the driving, anthemic “The Wonder” to the gorgeously cathartic “Release Me On The Floor”, The Figurines have put together an album that will sound as good in three more years as it does today. (Appearing with Skybox as part of the Chicago Innerview June Post-Intonation Spotlight Show at Beat Kitchen on June 24) –text: Don Bartlett

MSTRKRFT
One of the big-time status symbols in the music world these days is getting MSTRKRFT to rearrange your song for the club setting. The duo from Toronto have an unholy ability to translate the crunch of rock into triumphant futuristic disco mayhem that can make even the most stoic of shoegazers shake their asses. They’ve lent their talents to the likes of Bloc Party, Wolfmother and The Kills, but Jesse F. Keeler (of Death From Above 1979) and former hip hop producer Al-P — the men behind MSTRKRFT — are already proving they need the help of no band to turn rockers loose in front of the speakers. Their soon-to-be-released debut album The Looks is a delicious blend of unrestrained dancefloor sleaze with tawdry come-ons, grinding keys, resonant beats and a cocky attitude that makes everything sound that much better. Simply put, MSTRKRFT know the secret to the art of moving butts. (Appearing with Chromeo and Bald Eagle at Smartbar on June 23) –text: Noah Levine

SKYBOX
One of the best albums I’ve heard this year is Arco Isis by this obscure quintet which relocated to Chicago a bit over a month ago. Aside from having some of the best cover art I’ve seen in a while, the album is interesting from post to wire, a wildly diverse journey through musical styles. “The Caravan Cabaret” may not be the best choice of opening tracks in this age of limited attention spans, but it works well in the arc of an album in which the context includes Radiohead-esque darkness (“Infinity and Blue Skies”), driving indie-pop (“Various Kitchen Utensils”), and psychedelic theatrics (“Cue Conversation”). Arco Isis is accessible and melodic, but it’s also an album that demands to be listened to as a complete work. If you want the CliffsNotes, catch them live, where singer Tim Ellis’ charisma helps it all make perfect sense. (Appearing with The Figurines as part of the Chicago Innerview June Post-Intonation Spotlight Show at Beat Kitchen on June 24) –text: Don Bartlett–photo: Melissa Burgess

WE ARE SCIENTISTS
Press kits are funny things, especially when a line such as “intelligent, danceable post-punk rock ‘n’ roll” is used to describe a band. Are you thinking, “Which of these doesn’t belong with the other?” I was too. But in the case of the New York-based trio We Are Scientists, those exact elements mixed together create the band’s formula. If you just heard the name, you’d probably expect to hear songs about relative motion or molecular physics. Well, no, not really. With Love and Squalor, the band’s debut album (the title taken from a J.D. Salinger short story) is a high-speed train racing up and down the French Alps. But aboard this manic train sit questions and frustrations. “What’s the point of making all this noise if nothing’s ever getting heard?” wails singer/guitarist Keith Murray on the album closer, “Lousy Reputation.” Boys, it’s safe to say that people are starting to listen. (Appearing with The Double at Metro on June 21) –text: Chris Castaneda