Chicago trio Gosh Diggity have drawn a bead on the chemistry that gave a hard-to-pin-down magnetism to the solo lo-fi electronics projects—among them Say Hi and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone—that occupied a special place in 2000s indie pop. Gosh Diggity’s early EPs, 2019’s banana brains and 2020’s Bedtime for Bonzos, radiate skinned-knee shambolic glee […]
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Finding solace in Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business
I’ve been hyperaware of my body lately, which I realize sounds insane. How could I possibly not be aware of it? I’m living in it! And I would answer: Have you ever found a tick on the back of your neck? How long has he been there? How much of your blood has he removed? […]
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R&B newcomer Jaas finds strength in solitude on her debut EP
In the first scene from Jaas’s new video, “Why,” the Chicago-based R&B singer kneels in the dark, one arm held over her head by a rope tied around her wrist. As the camera zooms in on her, the shot cuts to Jaas paddling a canoe on bright, quiet waters. The video switches between these two […]
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Oakland’s Kowloon Walled City return after six years with a noise-rock masterpiece
Oakland’s Kowloon Walled City formed in 2007 as an intense postmetal outfit who tipped their hat to fellow Oaklanders Neurosis, who’d helped pioneer the fusion of hardcore and sludge. During the 14 years since, the band have slowly pulled back on the aggression and fury, settling into creeping, deliberately paced noise rock. Kowloon Walled City’s […]
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Austin doom outfit Monte Luna takes their dazed and heavy doom on the road
In 2016, Austin doom unit Monte Luna dropped their debut demo—a self-titled release with just one self-titled track more than 20 minutes long—and just a few months later followed it with their powerful first EP, The Hound. These served as appetizers for their self-titled 2017 full-length debut, which exuded confidence and showcased a trippy heaviness […]
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Jessie Montgomery, CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence
In April, violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery was named the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new Mead Composer-in-Residence. Montgomery will split her time between New York and Chicago throughout her residency, which started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2024. She gave this interview while in town to prepare for the first concert of the CSO’s […]
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Andrew Goes to Hell channels emotional extremes into mighty underground pop
When the pandemic hit, the 23-year-old Chicago songwriter, producer, and vocalist who calls himself Andrew Goes to Hell returned to an old love to cope with the mounting stress: he played video games. He’d grown up with all the Tony Hawk games, whose soundtracks consist mainly of popular and bygone punk, hip-hop, and metal, and […]
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Wind player and polymath Douglas R. Ewart convenes a trio to honor AACM elders
In September, Experimental Sound Studio opened a retrospective exhibit by Chicago woodwind player and multidisciplinary artist Douglas R. Ewart in its Audible Gallery at 5925 N. Ravenswood. His paintings, collages, sculptures, masks, musical instruments, and more will be on view via small-group appointment until Sunday, December 12. On Saturday, October 16, at 7 PM, Ewart’s trio […]
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LOWERLIPDRIP’s brief catalog packs a lot of experimental hip-hop power
Experimental Chicago hip-hop duo LOWERLIPDRIP released four digital singles between 2019 and May 2020, each consisting of two tracks that overflow with freewheeling glee and unpredictable stylistic shifts. Those singles not only helped establish LLD as a local force to watch but also caught the attention of b4, a recently established imprint of venerable UK […]
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Mia Joy dives diary-deep on her debut album, Spirit Tamer
Update: This concert has been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date. If ever an artist were predestined to create deep-seated dream-folk songs, it might be Mia Rocha, who performs as Mia Joy. Her parents, a poet and a musician, encouraged her to use music as a channel of expression and self-discovery, and each of her songs […]
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Chicago underground rap roundup
Amid the wall-to-wall media coverage of Kanye West’s promotional events for Donda in August, you could be forgiven for imagining that the only notable new Chicago hip-hop release had come from a billionaire who hired crews to rebuild his childhood home in the middle of Soldier Field. That’s far from the case, of course, though […]
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Chicago joins seven other cities on two continents to host the Catalytic Sound Festival
Avant-garde jazz musicians have been uniting to better control their opportunities to perform, record, and engage with their communities at least since the 1960s, when the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) first convened in Chicago and the shorter-lived Jazz Composers Guild (which included Carla Bley, Sun Ra, Bill Dixon, and Archie Shepp) […]
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Wendy Eisenberg is as inventive on banjo as guitar
Multi-instrumentalist Wendy Eisenberg plays in lots of different settings, but no matter what they’re doing, their music always carries a tinge of no-wave. It’s perhaps easier to hear in their rock-centered projects, Birthing Hips and Editrix, but a dash of off-kilter flair seeps into even the low-key ensemble affair of Eisenberg’s 2019 record Auto. With […]
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Country-rock veterans Ouray keep gigging 40 years after their last album
As I’ve aged, my musical obsessions have shifted a bit. I still enjoy noisier, headier sounds—psychedelia, prog, garage trash, punk, experimental music—but I often want a “peaceful easy feeling” instead, which calls for some heartfelt country rock. I’ve always responded to the groups that put down the genre’s roots, especially the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gene […]