Results tagged “girltalk”

In recent years many New Year's Eve bills have sold extremely slowly -- partially due to the economy and partially because there hasn't been much really inspiring --- but this year is shaping up to be different. The Empty Bottle has announced that their shows with Jens Lekman at The Bottle and Girl Talk at The Congress have both sold out. And we're told ticket sales at a number of other venues are also selling briskly. Don't worry though, we hear there are still plenty of tickets available for The Gin Blossoms at The InterContinental out by O'Hare.

We got word that Girl Talk is playing Congress Theater on New Year's Eve, and though it's not on the venue's website yet, the appearance has been confirmed by the Empty Bottle and tickets appear to be available already. We've seen Girl Talk in that room once before and that leads us to believe that this is gonna definitely be one of the spots people are going to want to be on December 31, 2009. If you're looking to have your mind blown with a few thousand "friends" squirming and smiling beside you, grab you tickets now.

When we heard about a new documentary featuring the music of Girl Talk, one of our all-time favorite interview subjects, we couldn't wait to see it. And that isn't hard: RiP! A Remix Manifesto is available online as a pay-what-you-want download. We're sure glad we did. It's the most clearly articulated work on copyright and remix culture that we've ever seen.

Yup, here it is, the inevitable "Best of 2008" music list (a later post centering on the top local offerings is forthcoming). In order to spare our readers the pain of reading through yet another list that tries too hard to impress with obscure releases or toe the party line on Stereogum / Pitchfork approved artists, we continue our personal decade-plus tradition of merely listing what we actually liked in 2008. That means that the albums below are the one we kept finding ourselves turning to when we wanted to kick back and enjoy some tunes. Sure, there was more artistically challenging stuff released this year than some of the selections below -- and we certainly do appreciate that sort of thing -- but our year end list reflects which music ultimately did for us what we think rock and/or roll is ultimately meant to do to any listener: it grabbed us by the heart and/or crotch and wouldn't let go.

Several members of the Chicagoist staff were at Girl Talk's Congress Theater show last weekend, amongst the sweaty masses getting their groove on. For anyone who missed the show, be sure to check out our pics from the show, and then check out this excellent video. Word around the GT campfire is it was GT's biggest non-festival headlining show to date. Big enough, even, for a guest appearance by Green Man!

                                

Saturday's Girl Talk show was so much fun it was ridiculous. We've read a few negative reviews but we think those particular curmudgeons must not have fully thawed from the sudden cold snap left by Obama's departure to D.C. We kid, we kid. We're not fans of The Congress as a venue, and Gregg Gillis a.k.a. Girl Talk's set-list was similar to the one we heard a few months ago ... but who the fuck cares? It's all about having a recontextualized dance party using insanely guilty pleasures, underground oft-forgotten gems, and killer hip-pop beats straight from Sugar Mountain. Plus Nirvana. What's up with all the Nirvana we've been hearing again lately?

Sunday Sweaty Sunday. The weather was somewhere between Friday's scorcher and Saturday's gorgeousness. We had our sunscreen applied, water packed, our beach towels ready, and were prepared for whatever Day 3 had to bring us. Lots of questions floated around the grounds, including the still-rumored Obama appearance. What some folks failed to realize was that said rumor was actually listed in the program making it feel manufactured for dubious promotional purposes more than anything else. With that in mind, we took advantage of a wide-open schedule to catch as many bands as we could amongst the (once again) sell out crowd.

Radiohead Shmaediohead. If there’s one act we’re pumped to see at Lollapalooza this year, it’s the sweatfest dance party stylings of Pittsburgh mash-up artist Gregg “Girl Talk” Gillis. Riding high on the recent release of Feed the Animals, Girl Talk takes the stage in Grant Park on Sunday for a live sample-based set certain to spark a raucous party and rip the festival a new one. Unlike the Debbie Downers crying copyright lawsuit, we see a bright future for this mash-up maven, who has single-handedly elevated our standards of what it means to have a good time at a show. In anticipation of the Lolla madness, we rapped a little with Gillis over email to get some insight into what it’s like to be the ringmaster at the center of the Girl Talk circus.

How appropriate, the day that Chicago's supreme mash-up duo has a record release party is the same day Gregg Gillis decided to drop the new Girl Talk album, Feed The Animals. For free. (Or pay what you can.) It's largely the same set of tunes he used to whip the crowd into a frenzy at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival, so there are no real surprises, but it is a supremely solid piece of work. Our personal favorite "what the heck?!" sample moment occurs early on when Aphex Twin pops up in "Shut The Club Down."

DeRo has the lowdown on a bunch of other confirmed Lollapalooza acts. We already knew Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against The machine would be headlining, but now you can add Racontuers, Kanye West, and Wilco to that list. We'd bitch about the fact that three of the six headliners have already played Lolla, which in its current incarnation is still a neophyte, but fuck it, we love all the headliners so we'll keep our trap shut.

Crazy wild lineup for the Saturday installment of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival at Schubas. Let's take a look, shall we?

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did...

Girl Talk, aka one Greg Gillis, has been wowing audiences from the Empty Bottle to the Pitchfork Music Festival with his wildly popular brand of mash-up wizardry. Just try to hold a stoic cool-kid pose when Gillis brings his one-man jammin' train through town in January, with newly minted prince of the hipster dance party Dan Deacon in tow. Metro, January 26, 7:30 p.m. (all ages) and 11:30 p.m. (18+), $16. On sale Saturday....

While most Pitchfork Music Festival coverage will undoubtedly focus on the headliners, we think it would be a shame to not mention our favorite part of the festival: the side stage. The Balance Stage, aka “the tent,” has been our escape at the past two Pitchfork-involved festivals. During the afternoon, much of the Union Park field is full of immobile patrons only half-interested in who’s on the stage, making walking around the festival a mile-long...

Pitchfork has announced that the super-affordable three-day passes for their festival, along with tickets to Friday night's bill (featuring one band we're really excited to see), are already sold-out. Tickets for Saturday and Sunday are still available. But believe us when we say that with a line-up including (and this is just a teensy sampling) Cat Power, Girl Talk, Oxford Collapse, The New Pornographers, Stephen Malkmus, De La Soul, Klaxons, and The Ponys, we're sure...

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not...

Greg Kot drops two scoops in today's Tribune. The Pitchfork Music Festival will return to Chicago's Union Park July 14th and 15th. In addition, Girl Talk will be on the bill. As someone on the Sound Opinions message board said: "Finally, a Girl Talk show I can get into." Girl Talk last appeared in Chicago for a much-anticipated, much-talked about New Year's Eve show at Empty Bottle. Last year's Pitchfork Music Festival was a first...