popwreckoning

For many, braving the frigid temperatures that were only abetted by a breeze off of lake Michigan was worth reliving a band essential to so many musical palettes. Something Corporate was headlining the third Bamboozle festival, which not only marked the band’s third reunion show since their 2005 hiatus, but also the debut of the Bamboozle festival in Chicago. It was only fitting that Something Corporate ring in the festival for Chicago.

As Andrew McMahon pointed out early in the Something Corporate set, Chicago has a special place in the band’s heart and history. McMahon moved out from under his parent’s wings and spent some time living in the basement of New Found Glory’s Jordan Pundik. There, McMahon wrote several early SoCo songs, several of which they played that night.

It was a night for nostalgia for both the band and fans. It was a night for rediscovery and reliving the love of SoCo music, but it was also a day of discovery. Many of the scene’s rising acts from the last few years as well as a few veterans joined the festival. To the side of the main stage, the festival had a line up from the heart of Chicago. Allister and the harder Treaty of Paris rocked the later evening slots. Hip hop acts like Spose and the Jump Smokers (complete with their own ass-shaking, scantily clad dancers) got the crowd dancing. Earlier acts like I Fight Dragons and The Lifelines really impressed. I Fight Dragons fits in well with the Bamboozle scene, and the Lifelines, while edgier had a nice  mix of harder vocals with violin.

The side stage set times fit in between with the bigger name acts over on the main stage. All the Day Holiday played a catchy set to the early arrivers. Though some of their songs started to blend, the guys were energetic and fun. A good way to start off the mainstage. Chicago’s Kill Hannah played a rock set that was easy to dance to if you could take your eyes off the band in their neon make-up and feathers long enough to watch your footing. The band plays an edgy rock, but unlike some of the screamier bands you might have found amongst the other Chicago acts, this band’s music is very accesible as proven by radio singles “Lips Like Morphine” and “Boys N Girls.”

Kill Hannah Set List:
Boys N Girls
New York City Speed
Love You to Death
The Chase
Strobelights
Kennedy
Lips Like Morphine

The next three acts on the main stage are out on tour together, so if you missed Bamboozle, there is still a chance to catch Travie McCoy and the Lazarus Project with 3oh!3 and Cobra Starship. As enjoyable as McCoy’s other project, Gym Class Heroes, is, I kind of enjoyed this current act more. It fit in better with the other music at the fest and they guy is such a strong performer personality wise that I he could have been performing with only a cricket to back him and made that show enjoyable. He would coyly wrap his arms around his lit up mic stand, trot out on to amps and make these really animated facial expressions that almost said more than half his lyrics. Suffice it to say, he is a must-see-live act. Denver’s 3oh!3 followed up Travie and based on the amount of gold-donned girls in the crowd, there was a quite a large turn out to see these guys. Hands spelling out the 3oh!3 sign flew into the air as the guys started out with the whistling-filled single “Starstrukk.” The tunes are easy to sing along to – even a couple of new songs off their upcoming summer release got a good singalong in the crowd. For as much as you want to hate these guys for their womanizing lyrics, they’re pretty darn enjoyable live. We’ll chalk this one up to a guilty pleasure.

Speaking of guilty pleasures, the crowd was ready to get their fangs up with Chicago-darling Gabe Saporta and his current band: Cobra Starship. Flashing lights, confetti and balloons accessorized their set…if you didn’t know any better, it would have been easy to mistake them as the headliners. When it came time for them to play the infamous movie theme song “Snakes on a Plane,” they were all set to invite Travie McCoy back out to perform his part. However, Travie took a backseat to a girl who brought a sign saying she knew all the words to the rap. She was invited up on stage and McCoy filmed her doing the part. There are some who aren’t a fan of Saporta’s current act, aka those who won’t let go of Midtown, but if you let loose and accept the act for a silly, fun-loving dance, pop rock group than it really is a blast to hop around to “Guilty Pleasure” and “Good Girls Go Bad.”

After them, it was time for Something Corporate. Finally seeing Something Corporate was like a dream come true. The band broke up (or went on hiatus or whatever you’d prefer to call it) just when my parents finally gave me permission to go to shows. I’ve been fortunate to see Jack’s Mannequin several times and while the two piano-based rock groups share several similarities, there is a different energy in SoCo shows. A lot of that has to do with how different the lyrics are: the songs of Jack’s are more relationship-based lovelorn songs, while SoCo covers everything from relationships to growing up to simply not liking people. While I’m sure many would say the encore performance of “Konstantine,” beginning with just Andrew at the piano at first would be the evenings highlight, I have to say I thought the show hit its high with “If U C Jordan.” Andrew was stomping (yes, literally stomping on the keys) and sure, we were all throwing up the bird screaming, “FU Jordan,” which probably made anyone in Chicago by that name that could hear us super uncomfortable, but the song was surreal. To be that connected with that many people knowing the song and knowing how great this band was…it was magical. We were like some strange family and it didn’t matter how old we all were or where we were from. What mattered was that we loved this band and we were all having a great time.

I’m still kind of overwhelmed by how great it was…I can’t wait until the fall!

Something Corporate Set List:
Punk Rock Princess
The Astronaut
21 & Invincible
Down
I Want to Save You
She Paints Me Blue
Space
Cavanaugh Park
Watch the Sky
Me and the Moon
Fall
Ruthless
I Woke Up in a Car
If You C Jordan
//
Konstantine
Hurricane

The Line Up:

Main Stage:
4 – 4:35 – All the Day Holiday (pop rock)
5:05 – 5:35 – Kill Hannah (alt rock)
6:06 – 6:35 – Travie McCoy and the Lazarus Project (hip hop/jazz/rock fusion)
7:05 – 7: 45 – 3oh!3 (hip hop/rock)
8:15 – 8:45 – Cobra Starship (pop rock)
9:25 – 10:45 – Something Corporate (alt rock)
Side Stage:
3:35 – 4:05 – I Fight Dragons (pop rock)
4:35 – 5:05 – The Lifelines (hard rock)
5:35 – 6:05 – Jump Smokers (hip hop)
6:35 – 7:05 – Spose (hip hop)
7:45 – 8:15 – Treaty of Paris (rock)
8:55 – 9:25 – Allister (pop punk)

If you missed the reunited Something Corporate at the Bamboozle fests, don’t worry. You’ll get another chance to catch the reunion this August.

Tour dates are listed in the flier below and tickets go on-sale Monday, May 17 at 10 a.m. local time here.

This is an event you don’t want to miss.

Speculation can end now. Something Corporate is reuniting. Well sort of. There’s still room to wonder if this means new music, new tour and/or more, but for now, we’re thrilled just knowing the piano rock band has announced they’ll be playing in California in March for Bamboozle Left.

Tickets go on-sale Dec. 15. Currently, SoCo is the only announced band.

Something Corporate: website | myspace

“Dear Jack,” a documentary exploring Andrew McMahon’s struggles against cancer, while trying to put out a record is a vulnerable piece, yet when filled with hope. Narrated by Tommy Lee and made mostly of video filmed by McMahon himself, this piece offers a remarkably refreshing look on life that is something all should see. PopWreckoning’s Sara, recently saw the film and offers a more detailed review and description here.

While “Dear Jack” is currently available to purchase at Jack’s Mannequin’s site (which I do recommend doing), we do have one DVD package to give away.

To win a “Dear Jack” package including a “Dear Jack” poster, DVD and a “Swim” art book, simply comment and tell us what “Swim” means to you before Friday, Nov. 6 at 12 p.m. CDT. We’ll then pick a winner.

Please use a valid email address when entering. Must be a U.S. resident to enter (sorry to our far away readers).

****

Thanks to all who entered! Your responses were wonderful. This contest is now closed.

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | interview 2009 | @ kegs and eggs | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2 | dear jack review

Many of us are familiar with the brilliance of Andrew McMahon. I, for one, am unsure I would have made it through my freshman year of college without Something Corporate’s Leaving Through the Window album. I can’t tell you the countless times I curled up on my bed during my first semester, missing my friends and family in Michigan as I tried to grow acclimated to my new life in Pittsburgh with “Cavanaugh Park” on repeat. I remember being in awe the first time I saw the band live at Duquesne University, McMahon’s piano drenched in a swirl of blue murals derived from the cover art from North. I have put songs from his first release with Jack’s Mannequin, Everything in Transit, on endless amounts of mix tapes and CDs. When I fell on hard times in Pittsburgh and decided to leave Steel Town for the West Coast, “Swim,” off of the band’s most recent album, The Glass Passenger, was one of the only things that kept me convinced that I’d be ok. Andrew McMahon’s work has always been touching and brilliant and sometimes entirely too adept at hitting you where it counts.

Those of us familiar with his work had also already heard the heartbreaking and heartwarming story of his battle with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. However, the documentary “Dear Jack” shows it to us in a much more intimate way. Having the fortune of seeing the screening of “Dear Jack” with Andrew’s family and friends, I could not feel more blessed that I got to share the event with the people closest to him. Walking into it, I was sure the film would be a tearjerker, and I wasn’t wrong. But at the end of it all, I realized something. This movie is not a sappy weep-fest. It’s a love story–in more ways than one.

From the very beginning, it’s easy to see that it’s a love story between a boy and his music. Throughout the entire length of McMahon’s battle with ALL, you almost wonder if the disease or the lack of being able to perform is causing him more pain.

It’s a love story between a boy and a girl. Early on, we’re introduced to Kelly, the young woman who would eventually become Mrs. Andrew McMahon. With her sugar-sweet smile and freckles, it’s easy to see why he fell for her. It’s also absolutely heart-wrenching to see journal excerpts declaring how much he misses her as the film details the havoc that touring, the illness, and various other factors wreaks on their relationship.

It’s a love story between a boy and his family. One of the most touching moments in the flick is seeing an incredibly frail and gaunt Andrew pour his heart out in a song written for his sister, “There, There Katie,” just before receiving a bone marrow transplant from her. He states that he was never incredibly close to his family at one point, but they are an ever-present feature in the movie, surrounding him with the love and hope he needs to get well.

Finally, it’s a love story for life. Much of the documentary consists of self-shot camcorder clips of Andrew in the hospital, waxing philosophical, shaving his head, losing his hair to chemotherapy, joking with his family, being with Kelly, and brushing his teeth. All of it a video scrapbook of wanting to remember life, just in case it was taken away from him.

I spoke with Andrew for a moment after the film. He told me it was his first time seeing “Dear Jack” with anyone else. “I felt incredibly exposed,” he says with a nervous smile, his arms folded in, hugging himself. But I guarantee he was also feeling incredibly loved afterward, surrounded by his family and friends (which apparently includes Pauly Shore, I might add), receiving a wealth of hugs, being told how beautiful his story was. I couldn’t agree more. “Dear Jack” is even more touching than anything McMahon has given us with Something Corporate or Jack’s Mannequin. It will easily evoke the desire to begin your own love affair with music, family, life and then some.

“Dear Jack” is now available. Purchase it at jacksmannequin.com.

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | interview 2009 | @ kegs and eggs | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2

October has been a busy month for singer/pianist Andrew McMahon. The Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin artist has been touring and releasing lots of new material. He just announced a partnership with Stand Up To Cancer by participating in its programming beginning in December 2009. 

The Stand Up To Cancer initiative aims to raise awareness and bring about an understanding that everyone is connected by cancer. The group has raised more than $100 million for cancer research through television events, private and corporate donors, Major League Baseball stadiums, and public donations.

McMahon is also set to release the Dear Jack documentary on Nov. 3, chronicling his personal fight against leukemia. The film is a DVD release, but has screenings in NYC, Chicago and LA. NYC and LA sold out.

In addition to the film, McMahon is releasing an EP titled The Dear Jack EP Nov. 3. It will be available on iTunes and features: “Dear Jack,” “Diane, the Skyscraper,” “There, There Katie,” and “Swim (Music Box).”

A limited-edition “Swim” art book, which includes artwork created by friends and fans of Jack’s Mannequin that became a prominent part of the “Swim” music video will be released on November 3 as well. ”

A portion of the proceeds from these products will go to The Dear Jack Foundation — the non-profit charitable organization dedicated to funding cancer research that McMahon founded in 2006.

Currently, McMahon is on a solo tour in support of Dear Jack.

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | interview 2009 | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2

March 20, 2006, started like any other Monday: got up, got ready, go to class, meet up with friends. But this Monday did have an extra buzz of excitement. After class, a few of my friends and I were planning on heading to Lawrence, Kan. from our school in Omaha, Neb. to see Andrew McMahon’s new band, Jack’s Mannequin perform. Even the blizzard that started forming in the early afternoon wasn’t going to hold us back.

Snow was constantly beating against the window, but we just held our coffees close and spent the car singing along with songs from “Konstantine” to “Bruised.” We talked about our crushes on McMahon. His hair, his eyes…that voice! We knew he had suffered some struggles the past year, but in the car, It hadn’t really hit us…

Our excitement only grew as we stood at the front of the packed venue and the backdrop with the JM scribble and white stars was revealed. This was it. We were going to see our beloved pianist at last.

The a Capella recording of “Holiday from Real” blasted over the speakers. First the guitarist, then the drummer and finally Andrew appeared and in unison, they switched the recording out for the real thing and began strumming chords and hitting keys.

This is when it hit me that this concert could have been stopped by a force more powerful than the blizzard we drove through. The lush hair of McMahon we had seen in pictures was gone. A shorter, thinner brown was scattered on his head. He was always thin, but now even more so, his cheeks more hollowed. And, since I was front row, what hit me the hardest was seeing his beautiful, long fingers on the keyboards. Cracked and creased nails were making contact with the ivory keys, bent from sessions upon sessions of chemo. This show could have not happened, and that sent a shiver down my spine. This was his first show outside of California since he had been diagnosed with leukemia. Looking at him then, it was evident that since his days in Something Corporate, a lot had changed.

What hadn’t changed was his energy. When he reached the line, “Fuck yeah,” it practically shook the venue with how long and loud McMahon and the crowd shouted it. It wasn’t just a line in the song. It was a “Fuck yeah, I beat this cancer. Fuck yeah, this show is happening. And fuck yeah, you can bet there will be more. So yeah, fuck yeah, we can live like this. We can find hope.”

That hope is something McMahon is hoping to pass on. Three years later, McMahon is doing a solo tour and releasing a documentary of that dark period in his life called “Dear Jack.”

“As far as the documentary, I hope there is a strong element of truth and relatability, as far as the people who have struggled through a similar circumstance, feel like it is an honest portrayal of what happens in those rooms and in the life of somebody dealing with [cancer],” says McMahon. “From there, obviously, it is to instill hope in people and let them know that even though it is a sickness they are dealing with, and altogether different, that a very hard situation can yield a positive result. I guess part of me hopes just that people find hope in the film.”

The film is officially released on DVD on Nov. 3. Three special screenings will take place at the Landmark Theater in Chicago on Oct. 8, the IFC Theater in NYC on Oct. 22, and a TBA theater in Los Angeles Oct. 28.

McMahon says he is a little nervous for people to see the film for the first time, “I have mixed feelings about it. For me, putting out records, a lot of times the feelings that are attached to an album, you put them to bed. With this documentary, the intention was to release it well over a year ago and even before Passenger. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the position to be incredibly objective about the film at that point. We kept going through edits and not really getting all the way there. I think the fact that it is sort of behind me at this point, I can finally feel like this is my past and it was a part of my life, but not the life I’m living anymore. It was almost essential that I got past that before we could put it out and I could look at it objectively and say what I liked and didn’t like about the movie. With that said, it never really drummed up old feelings for me as much as it has let me say goodbye to them. I’m trying to look at this as a way to close a chapter in my life. Nothing else.”

Even his family is joining the public in seeing it for the first time. McMahon wanted to protect them from having to watch it over and over because it is a hard thing for them to watch.

“Dear Jack” is directed by Corey Moss and John Morrisoe. McMahon and his family shot most of the footage from the start of his getting sick and diagnosed to the concerts post recovery. He even had the camera in the hospital when the doctor told him he had cancer.

“It coincided with sort of the same period of time that a transit kind of happened. It was the first time that I had been away from Something Corporate. I was separated from my girl. I was kind of out on my own for the first time. I was documenting that extensively. I had been filming my every day for nearly six months before the circumstances that led me to the hospital. I had a real rapport with the camera. During the day or at the end of the day, a lot of the time, two or three times a day, I would sit down with the video camera and say here is what’s going on today. Here’s where I am on the record. Here’s where I am in my head space. It became this close friend of mine.”

“In turn, when I was put in the hospital, I hadn’t found out I was sick right away. I just found out I had bad blood work. I remember my instinct at that moment. I called my tour manager because I was in the city and had to go to the hospital in Jersey kind of holed up on a day off. I asked him to bring me my keyboard and my video camera. That was it. It became this sort of thing. I look back and I see some of the comments that I was making and I felt somehow obligated to continue that documenting and continuing that documenting, what I had started to document, even though it had taken this dark turn. That’s why I did it. I didn’t expect anybody to see it, to be perfectly honest. It became this art therapy thing for me, I guess.”

McMahon says he would love to see the film more publicly broadcast, but might have a hard time finding a home for it. “The music channels seem like the most sensible place for something like this, but at the same time, sort of the heaviness of the movie itself, I’m not necessarily sure it would make the most sense on those channels for that public.”

This challenge only adds to McMahon’s nervous excitement to get the film out.

“It is a strange thing. I’m more curious how people will see it from a film standpoint because that’s how I relate to it. It is a pretty heavy film, and the alternative would be anything but. It is a pretty truthful piece at that because we weren’t expecting it to be released and this movie is kind of shot from my perspective. It is definitely a firsthand account of the event.”

This firsthand account and loose string of interviews with family and friends called for the film to have an extra element. It called for a narrator and McMahon could think of no one better than Tommy Lee.

“We brought Tommy in for a couple of reasons. 1. He has a great voice. 2. He was a regular installation in my home movies at that point. He came and visited me in the hospital. He was on the phone with me. I was working on my record with him before I got sick and was working on his record as well. He was able to bring an extra face to this and add some variety than just have some celebrity involved in the narration. In the same sense, he was very much a part of my life at that time, so it kind of worked out all for the best I think.”

So while there are no concrete plans to air the documentary beyond the three theatrical showings, fans do have the DVD release to look forward to on Nov. 3 and pre-orders are already getting exclusive content. There’s even a mini-solo acoustic tour happening right now with just Andrew McMahon and his guitarist Bobby Raw performing a few songs mostly from the Jack’s catalogue, but also dipping further into the Something Corporate well.

“We wanted it to be for the core fans, for the people who saw me tour during that period of time. It is special.”

The special stripped down tour began Sunday, Oct. 4 in Denver and continues through Oct. 29 in California. McMahon will also appear at the screenings of “Dear Jack” and provide a Q and A session following the shows.

Tour Dates:
Oct. 4 – Daniels Hall / Denver, CO
Oct. 6 – Varsity Theater / Minneapolis, MN
Oct. 7 – Lakeshore Theater / Chicago, IL
Oct. 10 – The Southgate House / Newport, KY
Oct. 12 – Highline Ballroom / New York, NY
Oct. 14 – Arts at the Armory / Somerville, MA
Oct. 15 – World Cafe Live / Philadelphia, PA
Oct. 18 – Sixth & I Synagogue / Washington, DC
Oct. 19 – Bowery Ballroom / New York, NY
Oct. 25 – Swedish American Hall / San Francisco, CA
Oct. 27 – House of Blues / Anaheim, CA
Oct. 29 – Troubadour / West Hollywood, CA

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2

“Dear Jack” is a powerful documentary that follows singer/pianist Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin fame through his battle with cancer.

The documentary is available on DVD on Nov. 3

Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | @ midland theatre | @ sokol underground | interview with pt. 1 | interview with pt. 2 | @ kegs & eggs KC