Friday 22
Saturday 23
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JOHN BISCHOFF Today, software programs like Max/MSP make it relatively easy for musicians to tweak, cut up, and recombine synthetic sounds in real time, but Bay Area composer John Bischoff was working in computer music well before the age of the laptop. In 1978 he cofounded the League of Automatic Music Composers, the first “computer network band,” and in the 90s worked with the Hub, a similar collective. In his Chicago debut, however, he’ll perform solo. The music on last year’s Aperture (23five) ranges from the elegant, slow-moving “Piano 7hz,” which transforms a single piano chord into long humming tones, ascending whirs, and spare clicks, to “Sealed Cantus,” a blast of lacerating white noise. For this show, Bischoff will present work combining electronically triggered bells and synthetic sounds; the bells will be situated around the space to offer a sense of dislocation from the computer sounds emanating from the loudspeakers. 9 PM, 6Odum, 2116 W. Chicago, 312-666-0795, $12. All ages. –Peter Margasak
CHANGES These locals have just returned from New York, where they snagged a slot on the same crowded CMJ showcase as the M’s on the strength of a self-released EP, First of May–and its lilting, invitingly simple pop rock also has a label or two sniffing at their pant legs. (A new song, “When I Wake,” made the rounds on a monthly trade compilation in September–it’s available as an MP3 at www.the-changes.com.) They don’t reinvent or even retrofit jangly guitar pop–think the Byrds in the 60s or R.E.M. in the 80s–but simply play the stuff with endearing dedication, cutting not a single corner, so that even the inside seams look clean. The Joggers, Walter Meego, and the Life During Wartime DJs open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $8, 18+. –Monica Kendrick
Tuesday 26
LAURIE ANDERSON Though multimedia artist Laurie Anderson has had surprising success within mass culture for more than 20 years, she herself has been breathing ever more rarefied air: in July, she was named NASA’s first artist in residence. It sounds like a ready-made joke (hope they shoot Lou Reed into space with her, etc) but if you’re a fan you can see it’s perfect: Anderson’s all but impossible to beat when it comes to navigating the place where introspection meets the cosmos–she produces psychedelia for those so cerebrally busy they’ve never needed drugs. Her latest performance work, The End of the Moon (which she calls a dreamier and more musical follow-up to her 2002 piece Happiness), addresses the question “Who taught you what beauty is?” 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield, 773-472-0449 or 312-559-1212, $36. All ages. –Monica Kendrick
