By halfway through the summer, I’m reliably burned out on music festivals, and lots of them I wouldn’t attend even if I were still in tip-top shape. So you know that a festival is special if I’m willing to tell you to spend one of your dwindling number of precious summer weekends paying to hang […]
Author Archives: Leor Galil
Posted inCity Life
First pitch: a journey through ceremony and baseball
I threw the worst pitch of my life on a Saturday afternoon in Gary, Indiana. My brain lagged behind my body as it went through the motions that should result in a clean throw; everything went sour once my torso began to twist in the direction of home plate and I became fully conscious of […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago teen rockers Neptune’s Core celebrate their big new EP at Metro
When Chicago teen four-piece Neptune’s Core formed in 2018, they wrestled with punk, indie rock, and power pop—sometimes it felt like they weren’t quite in control of their music, but the results were always at least interesting. They self-released their debut album, Can’t Have It All, in 2020, playing snaggletoothed melodies with enough feverish energy […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Tim Kinsella & Jenny Pulse have finally decided their new album is done
It’s been years since the duo of Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse (aka Jennifer Polus) dropped the name “Good Fuck” and began recording and performing under their own names. Their industriousness remains undiminished: they began developing the new Giddy Skelter, their debut full-length for Kill Rock Stars, nearly three years ago, and they made a […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago rapper D2x fuels his promising career with kindness
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 […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
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 […]
Posted inConcert Preview, Music, Music Review
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 […]
Posted inMusic
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 […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
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 […]
Posted inMusic
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 […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
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 […]
Posted inMusic
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 […]
Posted inRecord Roundup
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 […]
Posted inMusic
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 […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
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 […]