In March 2020, when I wrote about underground industrial label Chicago Research and the tight-knit community that surrounded it, I heard that local duo Conjunto Primitivo planned to release their debut full-length through the label. Considering how that month ended, I’m not surprised to see that album coming out only now—and I can’t argue with […]
Author Archives: Leor Galil
Posted inMusic
Chicago drill upstart PGF Nuk hits where it hurts on Switch Music
Most rappers can only dream of making a song as powerful as PGF Nuk’s breakout single, “Waddup.” Superficially it sounds like a pretty standard drill track—terse verses in a wrought-iron flow, lean percussion, a sparse synth melody as chilly as a dusty pipe organ—but Nuk puts it over the top with his style. The Englewood […]
Posted inMusic
Black Chicago dance culture shines at Art on the Mart
On the evening of Thursday, June 30, dozens of young Black dancers gathered on the Chicago Riverwalk across from the Merchandise Mart. At 9 PM that night, Art on the Mart, which bills itself as the world’s largest permanent art projection, would debut two new pieces, including Billiken, an homage to the biggest Black parade […]
Posted inMusic
Mexico City transplant Fernando de Buen López leads Chicago band Así Así in their album debut
Singer and guitarist Fernando de Buen López moved to Chicago from Mexico City in 2012 with his band El Mañana, who released one more album of jangly, psychedelic indie rock in 2014 before dissolving. In 2018 de Buen López resurrected the group as Así Así, and in summer 2020 they dropped two singles whose subtler […]
Posted inMusic
Lifeguard grow into their next underground rock vision on Crowd Can Talk
A couple weeks before Lifeguard played Horsegirl’s record-release show at Thalia Hall in June, I ran into drummer Isaac Lowenstein and bassist Asher Case while walking through the Logan Square Farmers Market with my family. My parents asked what kind of music they make, and we all had a little trouble coming up with a […]
Posted inMusic
Sharp Chicago rapper F.A.B.L.E. tries on different stylistic hats with Green Room
Emerging Chicago rapper Christopher Horace charmed me a couple years ago with the first EP he released as F.A.B.L.E., (IX) The Hermit. His downy voice makes his playful raps sound more intimate than he can spell out with words, lending them the air of a confession shared between friends–and his gentle performances fit into his […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago lures jazz trombonist Jeb Bishop back home
On Monday, August 1, jazz trombonist Jeb Bishop will move back to Chicago after a ten-year absence. Bishop and his wife headed to North Carolina in spring 2012 (Carrboro and later Durham) and then in early 2016 to Boston. While living in Boston, Bishop built a new creative community that included at least one old […]
Posted inMusic
Teklife’s expanding family shows all the places footwork can go with On Life: Vol. 3
In 2017, foundational Chicago footwork collective and record label Teklife dropped On Life, a compilation highlighting all the producers in its wider family. That record became a series, and the new On Life: Vol. 3 arrives four years after the second chapter. Given the engrossing sounds it contains and the growth in Teklife’s ranks of […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Sugar and snacks and everything nice
What would you do with 22.4 pounds of treats?
Posted inMusic
Northwest Indiana punk firestarters Liquids are the best opening band you’ll see all summer
Northwest Indiana’s punk scene would be a lot less thrilling without Mat Williams—he’s been the engine behind many of the local bands whose names have filled homemade gig flyers around the Region. If you consider yourself a connoisseur of midwestern punk, you’ve likely collected a cache of his music, whether by Pukeoid, Dagger, Guinea Kid, […]
Posted inMusic
Meteor Gem opens its doors to Chicagoland’s trve metalheads
Chicago’s newest record store specializes in all things metal. Meteor Gem occupies a garden-level boutique at 3082 N. Elston, and its stock is so laser-focused on extreme music—including death, doom, black, post-, and progressive metal—that the records in just one subgenre outnumber the entire metal inventory of many local shops. Owner Mikhail Fedyukov has been […]
Posted inMusic
Artist and poet Marvin Tate tees up a busily multidisciplinary July
Even in a city full of talented artists with their fingers in a half dozen projects at once, Marvin Tate stands out as a Renaissance man. The west-side native is extraordinarily industrious as a singer-songwriter, poet, visual artist, playwright, and activist, with a richly diverse body of work, and he’s been a local legend for […]
Posted inMusic
Monobody guitarist Conor Mackey gets even wilder with the IDM project Lynyn
Conor Mackey plays guitar in postrock group Monobody, which is how you know he has unpredictable energy—any musician tasked with creating rogue jazz flourishes and postmetal freakouts while Nnamdi Ogbonnaya plays his high-wire drums is definitely operating on another level. Mackey studied music theory and composition at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, and since graduating […]
Posted inMusic
The ‘new normal’ hangs over another summer of live music
It’s music festival season again, and of course we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 222.3 million U.S. residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19—roughly 67 percent of the population. Vaccination is a great safeguard against serious illness or death, but it’s less effective against infection […]
Posted inNews & Politics
‘All I feel is loss’
After nearly two years on electronic monitoring, Jeremey “Mohawk” Johnson’s ankle bracelet is finally off.