Thievery Corporation

If Thievery Corporation are swindlers, they’re the benevolent Robin Hood types who steal from the wealthy reservoirs of dub, jazz, bossa nova, electronic, lounge, and reggae — mixed to perfection and given back to the laypeople to enrich their musical culture. In actuality, since Rob Garza and Erick Hilton formed the band in D.C. in 1995, they’ve been vocal in their disdain of the political thieves and corporate blunderers who have duped the American public. Tracks like “Amerimacka” take opposition to former president George W. Bush’s administration and involvement in the Iraq War. But when they’re not vowing to end world hunger as advocates of the World Food Programme, Thievery Corporation are immersed in world music with seven multicultural releases since the band’s onset. Guest singers have included David Byrne, Perry Farrell, and Wayne Coyne, but it’s the two original members who really steal the show. (Sunday, 8:30-10, Red Bull Stage) –text: Selena Fragassi

A-Trak, Peter Bjorn & John, The Decemberists, Thievery Corporation

A-TRAK
Like the Michael Phelps of scratching, it feels more appropriate to talk about DJ A-Trak as an athlete rather than a musician. After winning his first world championship at the age of 15, Canadian Alain Macklovitch was recruited to join the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, a popular DJ crew based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. From there, he went on to win a number of additional championships and the ultimate prize: an ongoing gig as Kanye West’s touring DJ. As one of the most respected indie hip-hop DJs of our time, A-Trak is recently behind Kid CuDi’s breakout hit “Day N’ Nite” and the CuDi/Kanye/Common collaboration “I Poke Her Face”. A-Trak has also saved many beats for his own album, Infinity +1, an electroacoustic mix that reveals his multifaceted inspiration. A-Trak makes dance music that flows smoothly despite its fragmented origins — and that’s how you know he’s a champ. (Friday, 5:45-7, Perry’s) –text: Diana Novak–photo: Matt Barnes / thatsthespot.com

PETER BJORN & JOHN
Made famous (first in Europe, and then in the States) by their ubiquitous feel-good whistle of 2006, those magnificent Swedes who sang of young folks and hiding out known as Peter Bjorn and John are still strumming their little hjartas out. Comprised of Peter Moren, John Eriksson, and Bjorn Yttling, this once obscure trio from across the pond have made incredible strides since first collaborating in Stockholm way back in 1999. Moren and Yttling first delved into their musical world back in their pimple-popping days during the ridiculous world that is high school and after they met the final name in their trio, their delectable indie pop sandwich was finally made complete. Then after a few years where the fellows were “just trying to make good music for their own amusement”, things exploded for the baroque rockers — and, as a result, you can still hear their breezy whistle just about everywhere you go. (Friday, 6:30-7:30, Citi Stage) –text: Benjamin Smithson–photo: Johan Bergmark

THE DECEMBERISTS
In what was not exactly a ringing endorsement for the way that fantasy rock operas usually translate on stage during a typical mid-August outdoor festival, Jethro Tull declined to play the inaugural Woodstock Festival in 1969. Then again, Led Zeppelin and The Doors also turned down the chance to perform at the historic “three days of peace and music” — yet hard rock is still well represented at today’s summer festivals which follow in Woodstock’s footsteps 40 years later. So perhaps Colin Meloy and his band of merry folklorists can find their niche at Lollapalooza after all. On the heels of their brilliant The Hazards of Love, a 17-song fable of epic proportions, the Portland-based chamber-pop ensemble finds itself expertly toeing the line between tongue-in-cheek antics and a full-on belief in their hyper-literate tales. It’s an awesome hybrid of silly storytelling and serious rock ‘n’ roll that even Mr. Tull in his heyday could never quite reach. (Friday, 6-7, Budweiser Stage) –text: Derek Wright

THIEVERY CORPORATION
The socially and globally-conscious production/DJ duo known as Thievery Corporation began in 1995 in Washington D.C., when Rob Garza and Eric Hilton met through their mutual love of club life. Their sound, dubbed “outernational”, offers a global scope with influences reaching from Jamaica, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. They are often joined by vocalists Sleepy Wonder, Lou Lou, Notch, Zee, and Verny Varela — who sing their socio-political-themed songs in many different languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hindi, and Farsi. Their latest and fifth full-length, Radio Retaliation, which comments on the gradual loss of musical and informational freedom in the U.S., includes internationally renowned guest artists Femi Kuti, Seu Jorge, Anushka Shankar, Jana Andevska, and Chuck Brown. With the addition of supporting musicians and vocalists, the 15-piece live band provides a fun, energetic atmosphere for their otherwise serious music. (Friday, 6-7, Chicago 2016 Stage) –text: Ariel Sundel–photo: Andrzej Liguz / moreimages.net

Thievery Corporation

With the state of things at the moment, picking a president is kind of like picking Coke or Pepsi when you’re on the deck of the Titanic.

story by Andrew Clayman
photo by Andrzej Liguz / moreimages.net

Amidst the mid-January build-up to Barack Obama’s historic inauguration, it feels like a mighty opportune time to be chatting with DJ/producer Rob Garza: one half of Washington, DC’s most fervently political music duo, Thievery Corporation. Who better, after all, than a socially conscious DC native to serve as Chicago Innerview’s very own on-loan Washington correspondent?

“The energy’s definitely pretty crazy in DC right now,” Garza confirms. He then pauses for a moment, and I swear I hear the shriek of some sort of tropical bird in the background. “Yeah, but I’m actually in Mexico at the moment.” So much for the insider perspective. “I kind of planned it this way, really,” Garza explains. “You know, the population of DC is usually about 600,000 people and on a normal work day it goes to about a million. Well, they’re expecting about three times that many people for the inauguration. So Eric and I both are going to be out of DC that day.”

In a perfect world, perhaps, Garza and his longtime collaborator Eric Hilton would be DJing the big Obamabration in their hometown. But then again, groups like Thievery Corporation aren’t exactly created for perfect worlds. More accurately, the “outernational sound” — as their music has been dubbed — is the ideal soundtrack for a society that’s lost track of its ideals. It’s a reminder of mankind’s diplomatic potential: music that knows no culture or influence it doesn’t embrace, and that preaches revolution with atmosphere rather than power chords. You might call it trip-hop or acid jazz, electronica or dub reggae. You might even be right to call it “world music.” But if you’ve ever really listened to Thievery Corporation over the past 12 years, the last thing you’ll call it is “chill-out music.”

“Yeah, ‘chill-out’ and ‘downtempo’ — those are words that we actually despise,” Garza says with a chuckle. “I think a lot of people have the idea that when they come to a Thievery concert, they might get that kind of thing: a chill-out experience. But our show is actually very energetic. We have a lot of dynamic musicians and singers from Brazil, Jamaica, Iran, Columbia, Guyana. It’s a lot more explosive than people imagine.”

Yet it’s easy to understand Garza and Hilton’s occasional frustration with certain adjectives considering their connotations. While “chill-out” often equates to background mood music, Thievery Corporation uses some of the electronic ambiance and international flavors of that template to create a backdrop for something far more cerebral. “Sometimes I think people have gotten confused, maybe, by the image,” Garza says. “You know, they might assume, ‘Oh, that’s music made for sushi bars or hotels.’ And I think that’s kind of a consequence of the genre, such as it were. But if you really sit down and listen to it, it hits you on a totally different level. You’ll realize that a song like ‘Richest Man in Babylon’ is a lot more socially conscious and political than the soundtrack in a hotel lobby.”

If this generation is more accustomed to getting its political messages in the form of fiery punk rock anthems than in club music, the connection is not lost on Garza. He and Hilton both grew up in DC, idolizing pioneering punk groups like Minor Threat and Bad Brains while absorbing their anti-establishment credos into a somewhat groovier carrying case. “Both of us were really into the whole Dischord scene,” Garza says, “and it really impacted us. We were very influenced by the music [and] how it was about having an open mind and exploring the counterculture. Another thing is just the whole do-it-yourself ethic, which I think for us, was a real inspiration. We have our own record label, ESL Music, and in a lot of ways it’s modeled after the Dischord label. There’s a lot of other great DC music too — Chuck Brown and Go-Go, for example. We got to work with Chuck on the new record and that was definitely a huge highlight for us.”

Thievery Corporation’s fifth LP, Radio Retaliation, was released to much acclaim last September. Along with the aforementioned DC hero Chuck Brown, the album includes a truly international line-up of guest performers, as has become the norm for most of Garza and Hilton’s work. Notable cameos this time around include Brazilian singer/guitarist Seu Jorge, Nigerian Afrobeat star Femi Kuti, and Indian sitarist Anushka Shankar. “It’s nice because we’re not a traditional rock band where we’re glued to the same four people,” Garza says. “There’s two of us and we can work with whomever we want. So it’s great to have Chuck Brown in your band for a moment, or Seu Jorge, or David Byrne, or The Flaming Lips. For us, it makes it really exciting producing music.”

Despite working with artists from all over the map, both sonically and geographically speaking, Garza sees certain consistencies in almost every Thievery Corporation collaborator. “Well, we’re really fond of their music, for one thing,” he says of their collaborators. “But I also think they’re people who are not part of mainstream, commercial radio. And they’re people who are doing very unique, interesting, and creative art. It’s just wild to be able to pull all these different artists onto one album.”

More times than not, Garza and Hilton are also on the same political page as the artists who lend their talents to a Thievery Corporation album. Whether the lyrics are sung in English, Spanish, French or any other tongue, the themes of a record like Radio Retaliation tend to reach across cultural divides. In this case, it’s about good old-fashioned peaceful resistance to the restrictive influences of the media, commercial enterprises, and government bodies. And yes, that even includes a government with Mr. Obama at the helm.

“There’s a lot of problems in the U.S. right now,” says Garza, “and we’re kind of skeptical, to be honest — maybe because we’ve grown up in Washington, DC and we’ve seen what the political system is about. It doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s Democrat or Republican. With the state of things at the moment, picking a president is kind of like picking Coke or Pepsi when you’re on the deck of the Titanic. I mean, all of these guys are connected — the Clintons and the Bushes. There’s no way you can be involved in that world and not rub shoulders with all of these people and be part of it. But it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Just in terms of a cultural event, Obama’s victory was definitely an amazing thing for the United States.”

Musically speaking, Thievery Corporation’s outlook for 2009 looks rosy. They’re playing an unprecedented five consecutive nights at the famed 9:30 Club in DC before heading to Chicago this month. In the grander scheme of things though, Garza is looking at the year with harsh realism and just a wee bit of cautious optimism. “Things will probably get a lot worse first,” he says. “I think people are excited about a new president, but there are fundamental issues that will affect everybody. But hopefully these things will bring new opportunities in terms of thinking, seeing the world, and solving problems. So it’s pessimistic in one sense but, you know, I hope that it will open all our eyes a little bit toward the future.”

Thievery Corporation :: Aragon :: February 20.

Manu Chao, The New Pornographers, Thievery Corporation, Kanye West

MANU CHAO
It’s easy to get lost in a Manu Chao album. The music for 1998′s Clandestino and 2001′s Próxima Estación: Esperanza was performed by Manu and his band Radio Bemba Sound System. Their albums are full of repeating themes, with lyrics and melodies returning from earlier songs and albums — while samples and sound effects step in and out of the background. The members of Radio Bemba come from bands in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. Manu Chao hails from France, by way of Spanish parents, and his goal with Radio Bemba was to replicate the sounds of street and bar music from countries all over the world. On Clandestino, you might hear the Bedoin influence in a ska song or a French folk song sung in Arabic and Portuguese. And the weird thing is that it fits so well, it’s hard to believe that it isn’t the way it always was. (Saturday, 8:30-10:00, Bud Light Stage) –text: Eric Lab Rat

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
The New Pornographers may be indie rock’s answer to the Super Friends. Hell, they’d even settle for Canadian Temple Of The Dog if bandleader Carl Newman’s cropped red fro were any match for Chris Cornell’s Jesus-mane. Three albums in and Newman’s Vancouver troupe of 7-plus audio savants have wind-milled a pitched-in-perfect sound of polished ’70s a.m. — anchored in tight chord progressions and rollicking choruses. And did I mention they have Neko Case? No longer leading the poppier songs like she did on Mass Romantic and Electric Version, Case lends her signature sultriness on 2005’s breakout album Twin Cinema, fronting the ballads “These Are The Fables” and “The Bones Of An Idol”. When the Virginia chanteuse takes a breather, Newman brings in his niece, Kathryn Calder, to add backing vocals and keyboards throughout the record. With a bench this deep, it’s like taking out Kobe for LeBron. You’re gonna get scored on either way. (Saturday, 7:30-8:30, Q101 Stage) –text: Sean Foran–photo: Steven Dewal

THIEVERY CORPORATION
Thievery Corporation takes techno to a whole new level. Infusing downtempo electronica with heavy influences of dub, bossa nova, acid jazz and other experimental sounds, Thievery has crafted an extremely well respected stable of music and remixes over the course of five albums in the past nine years — culminating with their newest release, 2006′s Versions. While noted for their primarily instrumental approach to music, they do feature the occasional female singer to add substance and meaning to their groovy dance beats. The band’s music has been featured in films from Garden State to Vanilla Sky — and even in a Tiger Woods 2006 EA Sports Game. Thievery was birthed in 1997 in Washington, D.C. by founding members Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, who also run famed D.C. label ESL Music (named after the ultra hip club Eighteenth Street Lounge that they once owned) — which serves as a training ground for up and coming performers of all genres. (Saturday, 7:30-8:30, Adidas-Champs Stage) –text: Virgil Dickson

KANYE WEST
Long before he stepped out from behind the mixing board and topped the charts, the accelerated soul samples and deep instrumentation of Kanye West’s beats propelled top cuts from superstar MCs Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Lil’ Kim, and many more. Then two years back, he took to the mic, let his sing-song rhymes have the spotlight and became the biggest hip hop artist to call Chicago home. He’s still way more accomplished working behind the studio glass than spitting out rhymes, but Kanye drops his share of clever lines and knows how to make a hook that works. Specifically, his skill at melding an old R&B vocal snippet into a stellar beat is matched by few. Kanye’s never forgotten his roots and has used his success to boost the careers of other talented Chicago MCs. Now he’s earned his headlining set in front of his hometown skyline. (Saturday, 8:30-10:00, AT&T Stage) –text: Noah Levine–photo: Sarah Friedman