Hello loyal readers! The entire WPGU and buzz staff are here, ready and raring for the LM5’s. The scene is set: the disco ball is rotating, the red lights are glaring, and music geeks and freaks alike are chatting up a storm. The scene is more relaxed this year, since none are expecting a repeat of last year’s “Memphis on Main” debacle. A robot-clad WPGU advertisement roams around, while Ward Gollings (event coordinator/booker) monitors the crowd. It’s the first time I’ve been here, and I like it.
First act, The Jips (whose name eerily resembles that of Stephen Malkmus & “the Jicks”) look like a middle-school band recently turned high-school. Yet, their beats are rocking the joint, from surprisingly mature originals to Elvis Presley remixes. According to Matt Klomparens, former WPGU music staff, the Jips evokes that of an imagined “bastard child of the Misfits and Lynyrd Skynyrd.” With strong and strident – yet remarkably in-tune and clear – female vocals, the Jips rendition of the now-vintage Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” proved quite the crowd pleaser. Though the audience’s liquid courage help fuel their enthusiasm, the MC skills of Dawna Nelson and Mat Brown certainly add to the crowd cheerleading.
In a chortle-evoking Annie turned West Side Story film spoof, starring WPGU “CEO” Jon Hansen and the “Dr. Evil” inspired Seth Fein, the former Local Music Awards controversy transformed into a satirical masterpiece both cringe-worthy and laughter-inducing. As one of the first “awards” of the night, Scurvine was honored as “most likely to get arrested for a gig because they are running late.” Next, the first official presenter of the evening, Brandon T. Washington, pulpit-pounded about the blues, insisting that, “If you guys like bands like Led Zeppelin or the White Stripes, what you really like are the blues.” Obviously, all us music-lovers subconsciously lust for the CU blues squad to take center stage in the local scene again. Nature’s Table, anyone?
Announcing “everyone’s a winner,” the LM5 combo of alt-country/acoustic-rock combo of Jonathon Childers and Sunset Stallion took the stage. Childers and Sunset Stallion’s Hannah Newman commenced a heart-wrenching duo, strikingly reminiscent of the award-winning soundtrack music to the indie-flick Once. Sounding like Ryan Adams on “uppers” combined with a haunting Grace Slick figure and along with technically-brilliant violin accompanists, the combo performed a knock-you-out-of-your-seats rendition of Wilco’s poignantly honest “Handshake Drugs.” Harmonica aside, I think, “damn, this amalgam of talented music-makers is stealing my heart.”
Voted both “horniest band” and “best chops,” a member of Zmick hopped on stage to accept the band’s contemporarily-relevant and musically-technically “showcase” (ha!). Switching gears to discuss selected established bands from the CU hip-hop community, Agent Mos alighted the Highdive stage. Advertising for the “f-ing awesome” future of hip-hop, featuring Organic Flow, Cornbread, and the “old heads of others, among Mordechai in the Mirror,” Agent Mos commanded concert-goers to “respect hip-hop.” Announcing “next band to have a downtown Champaign street named after them,” the “best f-ing band” to come out the once-burgeoning 90’s scene – Hum – won such an award. Integrating their “hipster edge” with their hirsuteness (with the exception of Paul Chastain), New Ruins won the “spotlight” of “hairiest band” of the year.
Beginning with a bass-line uncannily reminiscent of C-U darling Hum’s hit “Stars,” Santa/Curb Service jammed out in a set that quickly changed the antsy concert-goers into mellow music fiends. Balancing psychedelic-jams with indie-pop lyrics, the Santa/Curb Service duo undoubtably impressed the crowd. As stated by myriad band members, along with the MC’s, we’ve most definitely got a “special thing” going on in Champaign-Urbana. To qualify the words of Mike Ingram: OMG …. the local scene is so not lame. Santa and Curb Service just put on an immaculate rendition of Hum’s billboard chart-topping “Stars.”
Again reiterating the “f-ing great scene” we’ve been blessed with in the 217, the audience seemed to almost expect that the infamous Todd Hunter would be spotlighted as “biggest fan of local music” for the year. Following, local favorites Zmick put on an Abbey Road-worthy performance of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” in the form of a sultry, prog-heavy cover. Ending on a jam-proficient note even Umphrey’s McGee would be proud of, Zmick finished off a set that left the crowd gyrating to the funk for the night’s entirety.
No pepper spray?!? Woot!
