Food Gold: Hot Doug’s
It’s been a bit since my last Food Gold post, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I’m out in Madsion, WI right now on the third day of my Midwest swing, but yesterday I went to eat sausages with Curt from Flosstradamus and Willy Joy. The venue was Hot Doug’s, and this was my first trip to Chicago’s legendary dog establishment. Follow the jump for the whole story.
From the outside, Doug’s is an unassuming corner restaurant in a residential neighborhood. You wouldn’t really think there was anything special going on, except that when we pulled up at around 2 PM there was a healthy line extending from the counter all the way through the airlock double doors out to the freezing Chi-Town air. We got in line, and after about 15 minutes were staring at the wall mounted menu, pictured above.
This photo only captures the daily specials menu and Doug’s has a standard menu of more economically priced dogs with fun and annoying dog-shack names like “The Elvis (smoked and savory, just like the king)” and “The Selma Hayek (mighty,mighty,mighty, hot!)” but those reminded me too much of Providence, RI’s Spikes to make the cut.
When it comes down to it, I can definitely mess with some bougie hot dogs, so I opted for two selections off the specials menu. I mean really, how could you not want to get all of these? After much deliberation I chose the Chardonnay and Jalapeno Rattlesnake Sausage (!!) with Pomegranate Mustard and Cheese Stuffed Hot Peppers as well as the Spicy Jerk Pork Sausage with Citrus Mojo Mayonaisse and Goat Cheese. After adding an order of french fries fried in rendered duck fat and a root beer, my total came to an even $20, easily the most I’ve ever spent on lunch ever.
Despite the fanciness of the multiple-adjectives-for-each-ingredient menu items, Doug’s keeps it simple when it comes to everything else. I did not receive my sausages in half baguettes on a porcelain saucer gilded with gold leaf, but nestled in cardboard holsters on the standard plastic tray. The taste, however, was anything but ordinary. The chardonnay note was completely present in the tasty rattlesnake sausage, and the goat cheese soothed the burn of the jerk pork. I was a little disappointed by the duck fat fries, if only because there’s not way they could have lived up to my expectation. They were kind of just soggy and fatty fries.
If you’ve ever met me, I’m not that big of a dude, but with a little help from Curt and Willy on fry patrol I cleanly finished off the whole tray, with a refill on the root beer to boot. The food was so good that there never was really a question of not eating it all. And the 20 bucks proved to be completely worth it; It’s nearly 24 hours later and I still haven’t felt the need to eat anything else. Although my stomach did just start growling.
DOWNLOAD: The Yolks - I Do What I Do + Don't Blame Me
Saying that Chicago's the Yolks channel the Pharaohs, the Mummies, Jimmie Rodgers and Ray Davies might make your ears think they've heard that sound before. And while there's nothing remotely "progressive" about the tunes of the Yolks, it's pretty undeniable that these three fellas know how to write a pop song. Instantly catchy without being washed in fuzz, featuring your classic guitar, bass and organ sounds, the Yolks don't disappoint. Minus the fact that they say "steez," in "I Do What I Do," from their 7" Introducing the Yolks, the song could easily be playing on your local Oldies station. "Don't Blame Me" from the Wandering 7" is decidedly more lo-fi, but it could easily pop up on the "lost 45s" late nite show and nary a baby boomer could contest it. The fellas are playing with the Black Lips post Lollapalooza at the Empty Bottle on August 1, if you're in Chicago you should be fittin to be there.
Sounds Like: CoCoComa, the Smith Westerns, Lover!, the Okmoniks
Download: The Yolks - I Do What I Do
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: The Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Bad Kids + Words and Guitar
What do you get when you take 30 musicians from around Chicago, dress them in varying shades of blue, take away their instruments and tell them to go? The Blue Ribbon Glee Club takes punk rock songs and turns them into a capella (with occasional percussion banging) romps through their collective consciousness. According to Josh Dumas, one of the groups founders, "there's no director, no one doing vocal arrangements or anything. Everyone sings what they think sounds nice and then it just coalesces somehow."
Covering anyone and everyone from Fugazi to the Pixies to Bowie to the Clash to Art Brut these guys just make fun songs. They recorded the Sleater-Kinney song featured here inside an old church in Chicago and "Bad Kids" was recorded, very drunkenly (as the Black Lips would have it) at a live show at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. They are releasing both songs on a limited edition, marbled color vinyl EP later this summer.
Sounds Like: Bishop Allen, Attack Formation, Dark Meat
Download: The Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Bad Kids (live)
Download: The Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Words and Guitar
DOWNLOAD: Daily Void - The Man Without A Face + Tapewurm
Posted 6/24/2008 2:30 PM by Christen Thomas
Tags: rock, indie, alternative, Chicago, experimental, garage
They're called the Daily Void. They have songs called "The Man Without A Face," and "Tapewurm." Their 'Top Friends' on MySpace are Santa Claus, The Moon, Anti-Christ and Hugo Ball. Their album art looks like MC Escher caught in a nightmare. Their band photos look like final pictures taken on a cadaver. The "ha ha ha ha" chorus on "The Man Without A Face,” sounds like the maniacal cackle of a serial killer stabbing you to death. There are bands that write songs and play shows and then there are bands that so carefully craft every aspect of what they put out they become the rulers of their own little world.
Welcome to the Daily Void kingdom. This is rock/punk/noise/whatever you want to call it, at its dirtiest. It's murky and full of banging, snarling and a sneer so permanent that when they sing lines like "I am him laughing," it sounds more like a threat than a description of anything resembling joy. Think Something Wicked This Way Comes meets Silence of the Lambs and you'll begin to understand the world of Daily Void.
Sounds Like: Jay Reatard, Lover!, Panthers, Tyrades, Witch
Download: Daily Void - The Man Without A Face
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: The Smith Westerns - Irukandji + Spiritus Sanctus
Photo by: Chris Anderson
You know how in TV shows like Freaks & Geeks and The Wonder Years, even though the nerds were getting stuffed into lockers and being ignored by the blonde girls, their existence always seemed preferable because even though they may have been into D&D, they could have more fun on non-alcoholic beer than everyone at the kegger? Switch out the D&D for obsession with weird old punk and garage records, non-alcoholic keggers for shows at venues that serve real actual booze (though legally not to you) and caring about the other kids for hanging with your buddies and making goofily awesome songs with beat up guitars. You always sort of knew the nerds ended up alright, but the Smith Westerns are one up on those kids since they're already unquestionably more rad than most of the people in the room.
The shows thus far have consisted of underage boy shirtlessness, a gallon of milk passed around onstage, helmets worn to beat cymbals into submission and better choreography than your average high school dance. All that with fucking catchy songs to boot and you're beginning to get to the delightful disaster of the Smith Westerns. RCRD LBL is pleased to present two songs from their first 7" on HoZac Records, released just yesterday. Try figuring out what's so holy about the jangley "Spiritus Sanctus" other than the kind of racket that would make your grandma cover her ears and then try figuring out why you never put those four chords together to make a song as stingingly catchy as "Irukandji." Check out the songs and get a copy of the limited edition vinyl while you still can. If this seems like overly gushing excitement for a brand new band of whippersnappers, you try feeling 17 and in love with four Midwestern boys at once.
Sounds Like: Black Lips, Lover!, CoCocoma, Tyrades, Brian Jonestown Massacre
Download: The Smith Westerns - Irukandji
EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOAD: Blackmath - Reading Mysteries + Walking At Night
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If witchy women doing evil practice Black Magic, unsavory scientist robots in a dark vacuum practice Blackmath, their main instrument a heavy metal abacus and their voices distorted by the whir of jagged blades. One Blackmath logo is pitch black with the silhouettes of a man and woman in white - perhaps the only survivors after the business end of said abacus slid down and wiped out civilization. This is music that reverberates with isolation, dust, fire so hot the flames are blue and an apocalyptic speed. "Reading Mysteries," sounds like trying to decode 0 and 1 hieroglyphics in a damn cave. Look-over-your-shoulder desperation propels "Walking at Night" down endless alleyways with guitar and synthesizer sirens ringing out in enveloping doom. The feel good record of the year for sinister androids everywhere.
Sounds like: A Place to Bury Strangers, Atlas Sound, Big Sleep, Battles
Download: Blackmath - Reading Mysteries
DOWNLOAD: Tyrades - Let Down + Couples + I Am Homicide
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Sometimes it just feels good to be kicked in the balls by a rock band. There are nine songs on the Tyrades S/T album and it's done in 22 minutes. Live, you're lucky to get that much. But it just doesn't seem to matter because any amount of assault from the Tyrades is enough to leave your ears ringing, your neck aching and an inexplicable thirst at the bottom of your throat. "Let Down" is a frenzy of back and forth male female vocals that refuses to let up until the final venom-filled exchange. Tyrades get more 'experimental' and show they aren't afraid of a 'tempo change' or two in "Couples," all the while sounding like they're coming through your speakers filtered by decades of smoke and whiskey consumption. "I Am Homicide" comes form a Killed By Death 7" and starts like every song in their live set, "I AM HOMICIDE! GO!" It's that kind of practiced professionalism and premeditated perfection that makes the Tyrades the Symphony Orchestra of punk music. (Insert sarcasm here).
Sounds Like: Lover!, CoCoComa, Be Your Own Pet
DOWNLOAD: CoCoComa - (Tryin' To) Read My Mind + Premonition
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If the carnival had a carousel that had vibrating rockets instead of bobbing ponies, Rumplemintz and PBR instead of Icees and roller coasters that rattled more than the Cyclone in a hurricane the music wouldn't just be a pipe organ wheezing calliope music, it'd be the fucked up, off the rails, fast as you can pumping of CoCoComa. Start with the guitar/drum spazzing of Bill and Lisa Roe, whirl in a mad dash of Mike Fitzpatrick's organ anchor, coat with Bill's shredding lead vocals and sprinkle with the "whoah-oh-oh"s and group shouting that only comes with the unabashed embracing of being sweaty and dirty for the sake of a good time and you've got CoCoComa. Today we've got "(Tryin' to) Read My Mind" from their S/T debut release on Goner Records and "Premonition" from the Shit Sandwich limited run 7" EP. Chicago's World's Fair in 1893 may have the distinction of birthing one of America's first serial killers, but the Chicago-based CoCoComa carnival will cause a bigger ruckus than Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
Photo: Chris Anderson
Sounds Like: ? and the Mysterians, Dave Clark 5, Duke Spirit, Soledad Brothers
Download: CoCoComa - (Tryin' To) Read My Mind
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