Saturday, 1-3:15

Rogue Wave, Stars, Wild Beasts, Warpaint, Harlem, Dragonette, Beats Antique, and Blues Traveler will be performing at Lollapalooza 2010 between the hours of 1:00 and 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, August 7.

ROGUE WAVE
Oakland’s Rogue Wave hearkens back to a long-lost era in which organic talent trumped studio-room trickery. Zach Rogue and company’s recent Brushfire Records release, Permalight, and its predecessor Asleep at Heaven’s Gate are replete with dreamy textures and tuneful harmonies. Songs like “Solitary Gun,” “Harmonium,” and “Lake Michigan” have enchanted casual listeners and television music directors alike. Rogue Wave should be a perfect fit in its early afternoon slot at this year’s Lollapalooza. (Saturday, 1-1:45, Adidas Mega Stage) –text: Jeff Sistrunk

STARS
After 2008’s appearance by Broken Social Scene, it’s fitting that one of its satellite groups, Stars, now has its turn on the Lollapalooza stage. Having just released its fifth album, The Five Ghosts, Stars are continuing to expand the audience they have steadily assembled since 2003 release Heart and 2004’s Set Yourself On Fire. Though members switch off between Broken Social Scene and Stars, neither band has a lock on soft, lush-filled indie pop. (Saturday, 2:15-3:15, Budweiser Stage) –text: Chris Castaneda

WILD BEASTS
Wild Beasts is a fitting name for any band fortunate enough to have Hayden Thorpe as their lead singer. Seconds into any of the group’s two records, any listener can immediately grasp what makes this English indie rock quartet stand out: Thorpe’s distinguishable ability to simultaneously croon, shriek and howl with his countertenor falsetto pipes. Throw in some magical shimmering guitars and, well boys and girls, it appears that glam rock may be back. (Saturday, 1:15-2:15, PlayStation Stage) –text: Jodi Root

WARPAINT
Warpaint’s sparse, haunting sound — driven by the understated guitar work of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman mixed with the group’s hypnotic vocal delivery — recalls the atmospheric allure of early ‘80s post-punk and ‘60s psych folk. Based in Los Angeles, the group’s debut EP Exquisite Corpse saw release in the fall of 2009, mixed by Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. Rough Trade Records will release their debut full-length later this year. (Saturday, 2:15-3, Sony Bloggie Stage) –text: Sean Rose–photo: Dan Monick

HARLEM
Harlem has spent the year making quite a name for themselves. The four guys are constantly switching instruments, which adds to the chaotic feel of their live shows yet it’s also a tribute to how laid-back their surfish ‘90s-style rock ‘n’ roll sound is. Their new album, Hippies, takes the garage band feel and gives it some affirmation. Harlem’s devil-may-care attitude keeps the songs fun and the tunes catchy as hell, without sounding at all poppy. (Saturday, 1-1:45, Sony Bloggie Stage) –text: Steven Jaynes–photo: Courtney Chavanell

DRAGONETTE
Out of their Toronto basement and into the limelight, Dragonette has made a splash in the electro-pop scene by snatching prized opening gigs for Duran Duran and New Order. The polymorphic trio blasts new wave-revisited songs that are playful and upbeat. Singer/songwriter Martina Sorbara conjures up the charm of Cyndi Lauper’s bubbly voice in synth-driven tracks like “Fixin to Thrill” and “Pick Up the Phone.” Dragonette’s energetic tunes will shake you from your teenage depression. (Saturday, 1:45-2:30, BMI Stage) –text: Jason Pete

BEATS ANTIQUE
Seamlessly blending jazz, hip-hop, Afrobeat, electronica, gypsy music and traditional Middle Eastern folk music, listening to Oakland trio Beats Antique is a lesson in fusion. Melding heavy rhythms with traditional instruments ranging from the kalimba to the clarinet to the viola, Beats Antique’s music bears all the smokiness of hypnotically danceable Middle Eastern jazz. This is world music married to trip-hop performed with a belly dancer, an unlikely but surprisingly potent amalgamation. (Saturday, 1:45-2:30, Perry’s) –text: Eric Bonkowski

BLUES TRAVELER
Since helping coin the jam band framework and becoming one of the more successful such acts of the ‘90s, the 2000s were not as kind to jammy blues-rock enthusiasts Blues Traveler. Lead singer John Popper had to undergo emergency bypass surgery in 1999 which left him with a stapled stomach, he controversially supported George Bush in 2004 and was busted for marijuana and weapons possession in 2007. Yet Popper remains, as one of the best harmonica players in the business. (Saturday, 1:45-2:45, Parkways Foundation Stage) –text: Chris Pugh

Stars

I think that ghosts are sinister until you lose someone and then they become something you really hope exists and you want to feel them all around you. The idea of someone being a ghost becomes a way of communicating with them or a way of believing in their existence still and a way of them still having presence.

story by Jodi Root

There’s not a whole lot to say about Canadian indie dream weavers Stars that hasn’t already been said. The Five Ghosts, Stars’ new and fifth studio release, may be the group’s very best collection to date — packed with majestic synth-pop energy and gripping stories of love and death. Singer Torquil Campbell talks to Chicago Innerview about the band’s new label, the recording process and his belief in the afterlife…

Chicago Innerview: Arts & Crafts was your home label since 2003’s Heart. Your upcoming release is being put out on your own label, Soft Revolution. What inspired the start of your own label and the departure from Arts & Crafts?
Torquil Campbell: The contract had come up and we’ve been doing what we do for 10 years and it was literally just a chance to try something new, to set up a new paradigm. In this era of music and the music industry, it’s implicit upon you to take as much control as you can of what you’re doing because you’re trying to get a piece of an ever-decreasing pie and the more you can increase the directness of the relationship of you and the listener, the better off you are.

Chicago Innerview: Would you mind describing the recording process of The Five Ghosts?
Torquil Campbell: We did it in three sessions, which had a writing and recording half in each. We would write for three weeks and record for three weeks and we did that three times. We didn’t demo, everything that we recorded we wrote and left sort of unfinished until we got into the studio and let the songs be finished and have its recording only be once. I think a lot of bands struggle against demo-itis, you write it and record the demo and it’s got an energy and a freshness to it and then you try and go back to the studio and recreate that. That has been a frustration for us in the past, so we wanted to make sure that the recording that’s on the record is the one where that particular kind of magic happened.

CI: How would you describe the new record in comparison to past albums?
TC: It’s a reflection of all of us. I’m certainly more proud of this record and more sure that this record is a great piece of work than anything else we’ve ever done. In the past it’s been harder for us to be honest with ourselves and to face the parts of our music that we weren’t happy with. This time we gave ourselves time and the circumstances to really tackle those weaknesses.

CI: There’s a hint of death with The Five Ghosts, both with the title namesake and such tracks as ‘I Died So I Could Haunt You’ and ‘Dead Hearts’. Was this an intentional theme for the album?
TC: It was a hard year for us. We lost people and we gained people and we experienced losing people we love on a level we never experienced before, and so ghosts were everywhere. Death and beginnings and endings were in our face, it was sort of inevitable that it would become a part of what the record was. I think that ghosts are sinister until you lose someone and then they become something you really hope exists and you want to feel them all around you. The idea of someone being a ghost becomes a way of communicating with them or a way of believing in their existence still and a way of them still having presence. So that was all stuff that was very much rattling around inside our heads while we were making this record.

Stars :: with Dead Child Star :: Lincoln Hall :: June 9.

Stars

We try and capture the crucial moments: the moments of decisions in people’s lives; the moments when they decide to change, when they decide to for good or for bad, when they decide to fall in love or when they decide to kill someone or decide to walk away from everything.

story by Garin Pirnia
photo by Autumn de Wilde

At the turn of the century, a little group named Stars burst from the sky — starting out in New York before supplanting to its current home bases in Montreal and Vancouver. Nightsongs debuted in 2001, introducing the band’s infectious pop melodies and the stunning dual vocals of Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. The excellent Heart followed, but it wasn’t until their breakthrough 2004 record Set Yourself on Fire that people began to take notice. Akin to other Canadian indie bands of their ilk, they commingle with Arts & Crafts labelmates Broken Social Scene and work on various individual side projects.

In a recent interview, Campbell tells Chicago Innerview what makes them glow. “Stars was just a way of delaying our childhood,” states Campbell. Millan, Chris Seligman, Evan Cranley, Patrick McGee, and Campbell all grew up together in Toronto and have remained intact ever since. Friendships mean a lot to Campbell as he has another band, Memphis, with longtime friend Chris Dumont. Stars’ narratives encompass life and love, integrating heart-wrenching melancholy on songs like “Going, Going, Gone” and uplifting sentiments on others such as “Look Up.”

“We have this urge to tell stories and to make music, and we’ve been lucky enough to have people listen to it. It’s been an unbelievable blessing,” offers Campbell. “It’s gone so much further than I ever could’ve expected it to go or hoped it would go. I feel if I can continue to have an audience and continue to make art, that’ll be enough for me.”

2007 may be the year in which these artists take charge of their career as the collective’s fourth album, In the Bedroom After the War, was released exclusively on iTunes two months before its September street date. “Music should be free, music should be available to everyone,” remarks Campbell. “No one should not be able to afford to listen to music, especially popular music, because that’s sort of the definition of popular music — that’s it’s accessible to everyone.”

When Millan and Campbell write songs, they take different approaches. Campbell draws from a voyeuristic palate while Millan is more influenced from real life. Beyond anything else, their music is directed at the listener. “I think Stars has always been very preoccupied with the idea of similarity between creation and destruction and the relationship between sex and death, between the idea of when you fall in love or when you love someone, it is the ultimate of being alive, but it’s also a kind of death because you’re never the same again. You’re reborn as that person who’s in love or that person who has given a part of themselves away to another person.”

The band will be touring through next summer and then will go back into the studio to possibly record acoustic and electronic albums. Millan released her solo debut last year, Honey for the Tombs, and earlier this year a remix album of Set Yourself on Fire called Do You Trust Your Friends? came out featuring reworked songs by fellow Canucks Junior Boys and Young Galaxy. “We try and capture the crucial moments,” explains Campbell, “the moments of decisions in people’s lives; the moments when they decide to change, when they decide to for good or for bad, when they decide to fall in love or when they decide to kill someone or decide to walk away from everything.”

Stars may generate life-alternating music, but sometimes it’s as simple as this closing statement from Campbell: “[We’re] a bunch of fucking idiots just trying to entertain you.”

Stars :: The Vic :: November 2.

Editors, Jeremy Enigk, Mute Math, Stars, Kelly Stoltz

EDITORS
Call them England’s Interpol or Joy Division on Prozac, but Editors’ The Back Room is an impeccably crafted post-punk debut featuring stabbing staccato guitars, swirling synths and disco drums that pump out multiple anthem orgasms. The propulsive singles “Munich” and “Bullets” helped drive a label marketing blitz that made sure we knew that these comely, stardom-destined Brits looked good while suffering for their art. Frontman Tom Smith’s melodramatic baritone may shamelessly infringe on the Ian Curtis copyright, but he’s got the emotional range to simmer down the atmosphere when ending the album with the sleepy closer “Distance.” Although Editors chose a sound that holds about as much currency as an overdue library book, Smith is living proof that the whole brooding, city-dweller-with-a-Camus-paperback-in-his-trench-coat vibe never goes out of style. And if the second record bombs, he can always kill himself and become really famous. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, Q101 Stage) –text: Sean Foran

JEREMY ENIGK
Jeremy Enigk was a member of the emo-core band Sunny Day Real Estate who released the groundbreaking album Diary in 1994. A couple of years into the band, Enigk found God and departed the group. In 1996, he resurfaced and released his solo debut, Return of the Frog Queen, sounding like an angst-ridden Colin Meloy. Enigk went on to form Fire Theft while juggling other projects. His sophomore solo album is due in October. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, PlayStation Stage) –text: Garin Pirnia

MUTE MATH
New Orleans foursome Mute Math knows how to work MySpace. As of this writing, the electro-indie rockers have tens of thousands more MySpace friends than Justin Timberlake. Pretty impressive, considering they self-released their debut album and cultivated a loyal fan base through old-fashioned DIY tactics. They upload every show on their video blog. They rely on word-of-mouth to get people to go to their energetic live shows. They’ve sold 30,000 albums from their van, labels be damned. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed their hometown, Paul Meany (vocals, keyboards), Greg Hill (guitar), Darren King (drums, samples) and Roy Mitchell-Cardenas (bass) had no choice but to jump into music full time, embarking on a tour this year which has included performances on the Warped Tour and Bonnaroo. For fans of intelligent rock with an atmospheric experimental bent, Mute Math is worth a listen. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, AMD Stage) –text: Dorothy Hernandez

STARS
For emulators of self-immolation everywhere, this Montreal collective say, go ahead. Have at it. Set Yourself on Fire. At least that’s the title they gave to their latest release. So if you want to look like the monk on the cover of the first Rage Against the Machine album, Stars are not about to hold you back. And just like Rage, Stars are not afraid to show their political stripes. “I hope your drunken daughters are gay!” croons Torquil Campbell on “He Lied About Death.” Stars are best when they keep the rabble rousing to a minimum, like on the decades-spanning “Reunion.” The chamber-pop arrangement and male/female vocal interplay recalls an Idlewild-era Everything But the Girl, before Ben Watt lost his intestines to illness and his soul to a sequencer. (Friday, 3:30-4:30, Adidas-Champs Stage) –text: Josh Cox

KELLEY STOLTZ
It’s not hard to see what led indie powerhouse Sub Pop Records to sign San Francisco’s Kelley Stoltz. His new record Below the Branches is a diverse collection of oddball pop with heavy folk overtones, which at its best is reminiscent of psychedelic-era Beatles. However, that formula is also what betrays Stoltz in the end, allowing the Lennon/McCartney ghost to sit a bit too close to the action — and leaving the listener eager to hear the artist’s talents applied to something a touch more original. (Friday, 3:00-3:45, BMI Stage) –text: Don Bartlett–photo: Nikki Pratchios