After nearly two years on electronic monitoring, Jeremey “Mohawk” Johnson’s ankle bracelet is finally off.
Author Archives: Leor Galil
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Subversive Chicago rock outfit Famous Laughs immerse you in jams on Total Icon
For more than a decade, Chicago multi-instrumentalist and engineer Jake Acosta has been a key player in a loose federation of subversive musicians. He’s done a lot of crucial work running record labels too: beginning in 2011, he’s released a heap of cassettes via Teen River, and then in 2012 he launched Lake Paradise, which […]
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Sam Thousand, Chicago soul Renaissance man
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Sam Thousand moved to Chicago from Texas in 2009, and within a year he’d joined hip-hop fusion outfit Sidewalk Chalk. He’s since become deeply embedded in several overlapping arts communities, gaining increased visibility under his previous stage name, Sam Trump—I first saw him perform solo in 2018, during a cross-genre Steppenwolf […]
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Weirdo rippers Lollygagger make their vinyl debut with Total Party Kill
Gossip Wolf has been on the record as a fan of Lollygagger since the local glam-punk goofballs dropped their debut EP, Life on Terminus, in 2018. The band followed it in 2020 with the hilarious sketch-comedy-style video album The Lollygagger Family Fun Variety Hour, but lately this wolf has hungered for something to slap on […]
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Mister Goblin beefs up his heart-on-sleeve indie rock with Chicago collaborators
After D.C.-area rock group Two Inch Astronaut went on hiatus in 2018, Sam Goblin decamped for the midwest and began making music as Mister Goblin. He’s settled in Indiana, but to assemble his backing band he’s drawn from the deep well of talent in Chicago: the three-piece lineup on the April album Bunny (Exploding in […]
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Metro hosts a joyful send-off for the late Cynthia Plaster Caster
Legendary artist and writer (and onetime Chicago mayoral candidate) Cynthia Plaster Caster passed away in April after a lengthy illness, but Gossip Wolf isn’t done mourning. Future generations of local musicians and fans won’t get to bask in the splendor of her warm, glowing personality—thankfully her famous plaster casts of the private parts of musicians […]
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After two years online, historic Chicago house collective the Chosen Few return to Jackson Park for a 30th-anniversary picnic and festival
I can’t imagine summer in Chicago without the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival, and that’s not just because this grassroots house-music gathering is celebrating its 30th annual installment (plus two years online during the pandemic). It’s also because house music—and Chicago—would be very different if it weren’t for the Chosen Few DJ collective. Chicago’s gay […]
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Cult emo experimentalist Weatherday arrives in Chicago
In February, teenage Chicago indie rockers Dwaal Troupe contributed a tender, dusty tune called “Everyone Forgot but You” to Porcelain Songs, a 30-track compilation made by fans of enigmatic Swedish indie-rock project Weatherday. The musicians involved in the comp put it together via Discord, a messaging app and social-media platform that allows young fans to […]
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For his first album in 11 years, dance-music veteran Ron Trent enriches deep house with help from around the world
Chicago dance-music veteran Ron Trent creates deep house that can keep a dance floor jumping for hours while simultaneously maintaining an intoxicating tranquility. Since the early 90s, Trent has built a reputation for appealing both to house heads who treat Marshall Jefferson’s “Move Your Body” as a commandment and drone devotees who thrive on meditative, […]
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Archive dive: On house music
Between Drake’s sleepy Honestly, Nevermind and Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” a lot of people have something to say about house music lately. (And while I can’t say I have thoroughly read every discourse posting, I’ve seen almost no instances of anyone mentioning the fact that several music sites reported rumors of Beyoncé working with house […]
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Ne-Hi alum Mikey Wells drops a mellow, summery new album with Flamingo Rodeo
Chicago postpunks Ne-Hi split in May 2019, and since then guitarist-singer Mikey Wells has expanded his palette of delightful pop hooks in two standout projects: Spun Out, which is indie dance oriented, and Flamingo Rodeo, which plays choogle rock a la 1970s AM radio. On Flamingo Rodeo’s new album, Pontoon (due this month on Shuga […]
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Photos from Summer Smash 2022
Photos by Dylan Barnedo Since its launch as a one-day festival in 2018, Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash has grown into a three-day extravaganza that can go toe-to-toe with nationally recognized institutions. Pop-rap poster boy Post Malone, whose 2021 headlining set at Lollapalooza put him just below the Foo Fighters on the lineup poster, closed out […]
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Chicago R&B singer Ravyn Lenae makes a play for stardom on Hypnos
In 2015, when Chicago R&B wunderkind Ravyn Lenae was just 16, she self-released a sophisticated, vigorous EP called Moon Shoes, singing about romance and longing with the grace and lucidity of an artist who understood herself. Now 23, Lenae has grown considerably from that already auspicious start. On her new debut full-length, Hypnos (Atlantic), her […]
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Chicago country craftsman Dan Whitaker decamps to Texas
Gossip Wolf has long admired local country-music craftsman Dan Whitaker, whose considerable discography includes folk-tinged solo work and recordings with his combo the Shinebenders that combine hillbilly jazz, country blues, honky-tonk stompers, and working-class ballads about booze, trucks, and lost love. By the end of this month, Whitaker will have relocated to Martindale, Texas (between […]
