the locals blog

So we’re doing this gig on 12/5/08 at The Elbo Room and it just so happens a snappy, sassy band called “The Moves” is having their cd release party that night. We decided it’s best to get to know these “Moves” and find out just how good of “Moves” we are talking about. (You know, so Kirk can be practicing the right routine for this show. I mean we don’t wanna look like no hay-seeds!).

Here is what we found out about “The Moves”

Q1: So Moves, (can I call you just Moves?) Dec 5th is your cd release? What’s the name of the disc and is it your first, second, 9th release?

You can call us whatever you like there Suzie *wink*. The name of our disk is “One Two Three Four” and it is our first professionally recorded EP. 4 songs, all rock.

Q2: How would you describe your music to a yetti who’s been living alone on a mountain with only spam and cashews to eat for the last 5 years?

We weren’t aware of such a yetti-heavy fanbase in Chicago, but here goes: We are a 3-piece pop band who call to mind early INXS and U2 as well as newer 3-piece punk bands like Jawbreaker and Green Day. We use electronic instrumentation (strings, synths) to beef up our sound.

Q3: “The Moves” that is a bold band name. How good are these moves you have and can The Locals fans expect some “wicked fly moves” at your show. Follow up question, and of all the people with “great moves” who would you say has most inspired your moves?

Our moves are the best you’ve ever seen. They are so good they could send a million yettis into a frenzy of cashew and spam binging. Most of all, we are inspired by all the nameless, hardworking yettis whose spam is rotten and cashews are stale. Keep on keepin’ on yetti bretheren!

Visit The Moves Myspace »

Big Picture, the music video.

Watch the video here »

Watch the video on our myspace »

We got to work with two talented director / producers, Gen and Jerry from Metrospace Media, and had a lot of fun in the process. The whole video was shot in 2 ½ really long days, fueled by a ton of coffee, ridiculous jokes and general silliness. Stay tuned for the behind the scenes footage that will make itself to the web in the next week or two.

Day 1 was shot at the Metrospace Media studio. This is where we filmed all of the black and white footage you see in the chorus sections. We wanted to do something interesting and moody for these sections, so Metrospace came up with the idea of lighting these shots manually with flashlights. Gen brought in about 6 of her close friends, we armed them with 2 flashlights each and had them surround us in the pitch dark studio. Jerry then strategically placed each “flashlight technician” and was yelling out direction on where to aim the lights, when to move the lights, etc. It was obviously a pretty organic process, but the end result was the look we were after.

Day 2 started at 7am and went until about 6pm. We had two locations to get….the bar footage, which was shot at Reggie’s Rock Club on S. State street and the outdoor footage which took place at a local forest preserve. Shooting at the forest preserve was crazy, as it took place right after a lot of the flooding that took place in Illinois this fall. The forest preserve was dry for the most part, but due to the earlier flooding there were swarms of mosquitoes. Not just mosquitoes, but MOSQUITOS! These things were huge!! Gen ended up covered in bites, including an attractively large one on her neck. Yvonne ended up with a third elbow! Most of the footage we ended up being us swatting at insects. In fact if you look closely at the shots we did use in the video, there is one where Kirk is actually using the drumstick to knock a mosquito off of his neck. A lot of day 3 was spent scratching…

Day 3 was the longest, we shot from 8am until about 10pm. Again, we had two locations to nail…the first were the warehouse shots done at Freedman Seating on the west side of the city and the 2nd were the office scenes at the Tribune building downtown. The Tribune was interesting because we were so slap happy after 3 days of shooting we all just got a little bizarre (again, check back for the behind the scenes footage coming soon). As it got later into the evening, a few office workers dropped by to do some work, only to find the space taken over by a band filming a video. Not a usual Sunday night at the Tribune.

Check out the video and drop us your thoughts.

The Locals

Catch the last show of 08 at The Elbo Room on Fri Dec 6th! We’ll be pulling out our fav holiday tune and maybe a new song…… hope to see you there.

12/5/08

The Elbo Room, 2871 n Lincoln, Chicago Il 10pm

with: The Moves (cd release), Cut and Run, The Curbsides, Rachel Zystra