Everybody, Everybody

By Sarah Dahnke in Arts & Entertainment on May 31, 2007 4:15PM

For the past 14 years, The Sea and Cake has been increasing Chicago's indie rock cred with every album release. For the past four years, however, the band as a whole has been silent, while lead vocalist/guitarist Sam Prekop performed and recorded as a solo artist. This is why tonight's show at the Empty Bottle, which serves as an album release party for The Sea and Cake's latest release Everybody, has been highly anticipated.

The Sea and Cake's signature sound is typically guitar heavy, juxtaposed by Prekop's gentle, lullaby-like vocals and contains an underlying uplifting feel. With the new album, the band continues down this path but kicks up the rock a notch. Looking to The Kinks for inspiration, they've created what Prekop calls "the most straight ahead, even 'rootsy' record" the band has ever made. The sound is still upbeat, catchy and poppy but musically, never candy-coated. It's actually very curious that a band from a city that is cold, grey and windy eight months out of the year can continually record such optimistic sounding music. Everybody is so full of summer jams, it almost feels indulgent to get attached to it, as we all know summer is merely a blink of an eye in these parts.

Tonight at the Bottle, The Sea and Cake play a double header, first proceeded by Ryan Rapsys' alter-ego Euphone, then by labelmates/tourmates The Zincs.