Band: Ezra Furman and the Harpoons (Record release show)
Venue: Subterranean (2011 North Ave)
Date: Saturday, 4/23, 9:30 PM
Proof: “Take Off Your Sunglasses” performance from SXSW
Tickets: $10 HERE

If you’re not already familiar with Ezra Furman, I’m not sure I’m qualified to be your tour guide. It’s hard to find the perfect words to describe this front man or his band Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, which also includes Job Mukkada, Adam Abrutyn and Andrew Langer. They ride the unknown line of blatantly obvious and wildly mysterious: I can’t put my finger on it, yet I think I’ve got it all figured out.
Furman likes to talk about “rock ‘n roll”, which would be obnoxious except it is validated by him being the rare musician who actually makes rock n’ roll music. There are plenty of comparisons to be made to 60s legends, but none are really necessary. In a way, comparing him- even to the greatest of the great- feels like you are cheapening his talent. Because if there’s anything you can undoubtedly say about him, it’s that Furman cannot be thrown into the category of “bought a guitar, studied Dylan, performed”. As a songwriter, Furman is an undeniable force and as a band, they lead the list of Chicago talent.
At SXSW this year, Furman prefaced one performance by saying, “this is another sad lyric song with happy music,” which is a fairly accurate portrayal of the music this band makes. Their newest album, “Mysterious Power”, released earlier this month, is some of their best work yet and some of Furman’s best writing to date. From the perfect opener in the acoustic “Wild Rosemarie” to “Bloodsucking Whore” which, well, feels very much like an Ezra Furman song- they’ve managed to create an album that doesn’t stray from what they’ve been doing right but excels within it.
Look, it’s not that I think I can tell you what to do. I know I can and that’s why you read my site. So I’m going to tell you to come to Subterranean Saturday night and check out Furman and his gang for yourself. Plus, Freshman Honors alum, Tristen is opening, along with a very talented Nashville group, Apache Relay. It’s pretty rare to have a lineup this great, hell, I think I may even show up on time.
Check out our quickie interview with Furman below and other links and such for proof that I’m right, as always.

You’re welcome,

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Why should we come to your show?
Don’t you write for a music website? I thought people like you cared about this kind of thing. It’s rock’n’roll culture; you can watch it on Youtube or you can actually participate.

Are we more likely to cry or sweat?
Assuming dancing makes you cry and emotional catharsis makes you sweat, I’d say you’re most likely to inexplicably bleed.

What is your favorite thing about Chicago?
I like Saul Bellow, Studs Terkel, Sandra Cisneros, Mike Royko. When your city has its own brand of literature, you know you’re in an interesting place.

What three emotions are audience members guaranteed to feel at an Ezra Furman and the Harpoons show?
I guarantee nothing. Our songs are emotionally all over the place and I just hope you can keep up with our rapid-fire mood swings.

What will you be drinking onstage?
If you’re trying to buy me a drink and seduce me, I’m not that kind of girl, Casanova.

Will you write and perform a song about The FiveThreeSix if we come?
Oh, I don’t write these songs or get to choose what they’re about. I send away for them in the mail. For just $29.99/year, Rolling Stone Magazine will send you a finished song every month which you are legally entitled to perform and claim as your own. I recommend you try it out if you’re interested in becoming a mildly unpopular singer/“songwriter.” I’d like to write and perform a song about you, but I would have no idea how something like that is done.

We are pretty excited about our new feature for on the verge artists, “Freshman Honors”, and I couldn’t be more excited than to have Chicago natives California Wives be the first “honored”. We wandered upon these guys about a year ago when they played a show to less than a couple dozen people at Schubas. These days they are promoting their EP “Affairs”, touring the Midwest, preparing for SXSW this March and collecting some serious national press (not to mention that they topped every Chicago media outlet’s list of local bands to watch in 2011).
Their electronic, synthesized, pop-rock sound is simple but catchy. Their appearance is that of a disjointed high school band, which- if nothing else- is a testament to them being organically and genuinely talented; nothing feels forced about the image and sound they are projecting.
My favorite off the EP, “Twenty Three”, is the perfect party playlist song and is the type of song that sticks so deep onto the inner parts of your head that days later you start singing it and can’t remember how it got there.
Strong participants in the rising era of the Chicago music scene that’s not led single handedly by Kanye West and pop-punk bands, California Wives are sliding in at the forefront behind bands like Smith Westerns and proving they have the chops to make the same splash.
Chicago folks can catch them this Friday at Subterranean, they also have upcoming shows in Champaign and St. Louis and their music can be streamed from www.CaliforniaWives.net.

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Artist: California Wives
Hometown: Chicago
Show: Friday, January 28th at Subterannean
Album: “Affairs”

What song off the latest EP are you most excited about?
Joe: Guilt hasn’t been talked about much, but it’s my favorite song on the album. After a few listens through the EP it starts to stick in your head.

What is the best thing about Chicago? Worst thing?
Joe: Best thing? Summer. Worst? Winter. You can’t figure out why you live here during the winter, but you can’t think of leaving during the summer.

Will you guys be hitting the road anytime soon? What band or artist would you love to tour with?
Joe: We’ll be hitting Champaign, IL and St. Louis later this month. After that, we’ll be getting ready tour a little bit before SXSW. Bands to tour with? As far as bands we’d like to tour with, there are too many to name, but I imagine touring with the Flaming Lips could never get old.
 
What is the best thing you saw on the internet this week?
Dan: This was a couple weeks ago, but finding out that the coach of the NFL’s New York Jets has a foot fetish and that his wife was a youtube celebrity for foot fetish people. It was also awesome that youtube left these obviously sexual videos up for so long. I wonder if there was a debate there, and one of the guys was arguing vehemently to leave them up because he was a fan of hers.

What was your most played album of 2010?
Dan: Either “Teen Dream” by Beach House or “Gemini” by Wild Nothing. Beach House owned the early months of the year for me, and Wild Nothing the middle summer months. There was definitely music that was just as great or better, but nothing was better suited to me.

Who’s your favorite Top 40 artist?
Dan: Beyonce, pretty easily. Observe: “Halo,” “Single Ladies,” “Irreplaceable,” “Crazy in Love,” and with Destiny’s Child “Say My Name,” “Independent Women Part 1,” “Bootylicious.” There are more. 

Would you rather eat, pray, or love?
Dan: Well, I’ve only done two of those things before, and I’d have to say that eating is my first love.
Hans: It would definitely be eat. It’s a miracle I’m not enormous given how much I like food. my parents always exposed me to different cuisines growing up - Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, German, Japanese… pretty much anything but American food. I love American food too, I’m not a picky eater.
 
California Wives started as a side project, what was the moment that made you realize it was something bigger?
Hans: When the last band exploded haha. People in bands tend to be volatile and emotional - and while that can make people creative it’s not always conducive to interpersonal relationships. I think we realized that we had something promising that was fresher and it was time to move on. I don’t ever think the thought of having something bigger entered into it.
 
What is the most complimentary word someone could use to describe your music?
Hans: Relatable. No matter what genre something is - how far out there something is - when you hear a good song something about it seems like you’ve heard it before. When I heard Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight it felt like it was something I’d known before I ever heard it. If our music ever speaks to someone else like that, that would be the best thing we could accomplish. 
 
If you could hand your CD to one person in the entire world, who would it be?
Jayson: I think music producers have amazing ears when it comes to writing and engineering music. There’s something really special about approaching music from outside of the band dynamic. It would be really awesome if someone like Dave Fridmann could listen to the record. His work with The Flaming Lips and MGMT has been amazing and I’m sure he’d have some great words of wisdom for us.
 
You guys perform with a computer onstage, how does this affect your performance?
Jayson: Right now, we bring our computer on stage to help with sequencing certain parts. When we’re all playing guitars, we just don’t have enough hands to play a background synth part. It really helps us make sure that the live set sounds just as full as the recordings. So other than that, it really doesn’t change how we play our music. It’s really important that the live songs sound like they do on the record. The computer is just a good way to make sure that we don’t lose a synth part that might really bring a song together.
 
Let’s pretend like you’re psychic for a minute. What will be the coolest thing to happen to you in 2011?
Jayson: I think we’re pretty level headed with this business and our expectations. It’s a very tough industry and you should only get involved if you love what you do. It would certainly help us quite a bit to have the support of a label in moving forward as a band. But that doesn’t mean we have any intentions of not releasing new music. For now, we will probably continue to work with EP format until we take that next step. So probably the coolest thing to happen would be to keep increasing our fan base. It’s an amazing feeling to meet people that know our music and care about our progress. We love to play for crowds that are really into the music, so it would be nice if we could keep doing that in 2011.