Chicago rapper Demauris “D2x” Dixon performs like he insists on giving his absolute best to every facet of his life. Sometimes that pressure gets to him—when he races to squeeze a knotty, weighty lyric into an otherwise easygoing verse, for instance, he can disrupt his crisp flow and casual charisma. But there’s beauty even in […]
Author Archives: Leor Galil
Lovely Little Girls drop a dazzling new album of grotesque, theatrical prog rock
In 2016, Reader music editor Philip Montoro profiled local progressive-rock weirdos Lovely Little Girls upon the release of the album Glistening Vivid Splash, describing their “absurd and jarring contrasts” and “knotty, intricate songs” that “heave and dance and skitter, sometimes gracefully dexterous and sometimes grotesquely lumpy.” The band have been steadily evolving since their confrontationally […]
Smushie’s psych-pop will make you believe in endless summers
Smushie main man Austin Koenigstein (also half of Chicago duo Berta Bigtoe) plays psych-leaning indie rock whose relaxed, sun-dappled melodies will convince you he’s figured out the secret to an unbothered life. Radiant keys, limber bass, loose and understated guitars, and cool, in-the-pocket drums float through Smushie’s latest album, June’s self-released Doofus Casanova, and Koenigstein […]
Lifeguard make a break for indie’s big time with Dressed in Trenches
In Nina Corcoran’s recent Pitchfork Rising profile of Chicago postpunk trio Lifeguard, guitarist-vocalist Kai Slater described what draws together the teenagers in their Hallogallo scene. “It feels like everyone involved is really desperate to make music,” Slater said, “like it’s not a choice, but their natural role.” This sense of necessity invigorates the high-wire tension […]
Cemetery founder and front man Danny Gallegos dies
Danny Gallegos, who cofounded Cemetery in 2010 and fronted the Chicago death-rock band for its entire history, died on Thursday, July 27. “Danny had so many ideas. Too many,” says guitarist Dez Knuska, who became friends with Gallegos in 2007 because they went to a lot of the same punk shows. “He wanted to be […]
Indie-emo group Hey, ILY come from Montana but sound like they climbed out of an N64
In the Bandcamp credits of their 2022 full-length debut, Psychokinetic Love Songs (Lonely Ghost), Montana indie-emo band Hey, ILY snuck in what looks like a mission statement. Lead guitarist Trevin Baker and front man Caleb Haynes mention their instruments, of course, but also their “average” or “above average” skill at Nintendo’s Smash Bros.—add in the […]
Globe-trotting groove wizards Magic Carpet drop their FPE Records debut
Update 8/6/2023: The Back Alley Jazz event in Hasan Park on Sunday, August 6 (see third item below), has been canceled due to forecast weather. The Hyde Park Jazz Festival will announce a new date for the event. For more than 20 years, Chicago ensemble Magic Carpet have blended jazz, funk, reggae, and various flavors […]
Postpunk trio Uniflora take Chicago’s teen scene by storm
Until this summer, I’d have struggled to think of a trio of rising high school sophomores who’d landed a slot at West Fest just a few months after forming their band—but then Chicago postpunks Uniflora went ahead and did it. Drummer Ruby O’Brien and bassist Theo Williams have been friends since kindergarten, and guitarist-vocalist Quinn […]
Nine great Chicago records to hear now
Most music outlets have already published their listicles spotlighting the best albums of the first half of the year. As usual, I’m not even thinking about picking my favorites from among every album released anywhere—I’m overwhelmed just by the volume of quality Chicago music that I haven’t gotten to write about yet. This felt like […]
Cusp have made one of the best Chicago indie-rock albums of the year
So far this summer, few new indie-rock songs have affected me as much as “You Can’t Do It All,” the not-quite-title track from Cusp’s self-released debut album, You Can Do It All. Jen Bender’s sweet, straightforward vocals snuggle up against a fogbank of guitar fuzz, a quietly humming bass line, a waltz-time beat, and an […]
Two former Electric Eels show up to celebrate an obsessively curated new compilation
Cleveland protopunk band the Electric Eels existed for just three years in the early 70s, playing all of five gigs, and didn’t release a record till long after they’d broken up. But the legend of this notoriously self-destructive band keeps growing—maybe because founding guitarist Brian McMahon published a masterfully cantankerous memoir, Jaguar Ride, via HoZac […]
The Silver Room Block Party says farewell
I understand why people are sad that this year’s Silver Room Sound System Block Party will be the last. When Silver Room owner Eric Williams started the block party in 2002, he did so in part to address the fact that neighborhood street festivals routinely overlooked the Black musicians and artists in his community—if no […]
WHPK faces a funding crisis that could take it off the air
On July 14, student organizers at University of Chicago radio station WHPK released a public letter to university leadership requesting more financial support for the upcoming school year—in part to mitigate an oncoming crisis of equipment maintenance. In April, the student-run Program Coordinating Council, which allocates student government money every year, gave WHPK $20,600 for […]
Footwork pioneer RP Boo mines mundane details for dance-floor thrills
Like basically anyone who works or plays in a developed country, I’m familiar with the frustrations of technology that stops working properly—it bothers me irrationally that I have to really lean on my laptop’s “R” key to get the letter to appear. Sometimes I repeatedly hammer on the errant key, which produces spelling errors rather […]
War Effort drop a scorching EP of ‘first thought, best thought’ D-beat hardcore
The punishing five-song cassette that local D-beat crew War Effort dropped last summer was rumored to have been written and recorded in one day—and the band have maintained that pace on Path to Glory, a scorching seven-inch EP (released last month via Bay Area label Warthog Speak) that ups the ante on the tape’s aggression […]