The past few years have been bittersweet for local postpunk four-piece Deeper, who released their excellent second album, Auto-Pain, last March. When it came out, they were still recovering from the loss of guitarist Michael Clawson, who took his own life in fall 2019, just after the album was completed. Then COVID-19 forced the band to cancel what surely would’ve been successful tours of Europe and North America. Fans eager to see Auto-Pain‘s taut, danceable songs performed will finally get a chance on Saturday, March 27, at 7 PM, when Deeper stream a set from the Chicago Cultural Center via online venue Noonchorus.
In late February, Chicagoan Ben Geier began uploading live video of entire late-90s sets from the Fireside Bowl to YouTube, using a channel called the Fireside Tapes. Geier captured a smattering of shows at the old bowling alley starting in 1997 and recently began digitizing the tapes, inspired by Facebook and Instagram accounts dedicated to Chicago’s 80s and 90s punk past. “I’ve been wanting to do it for years,” he says. “With the pandemic, it was a perfect time to do it, because nobody’s getting to see live music.” Geier says he shot about 30 shows, and he’s also begun to edit and post footage that strangers send him—anyone interested in contributing can message the Fireside Tapes on Instagram.
Experimental musician and Bodymilk Tapes cofounder Hedra Rowan dropped her new album, Nothing’s Wrong, Now You’re Beside Me Again, early this month, and she says it required “several years of training and technological advancement.” With just one exception, every track consists only of Rowan’s voice and an array of software voice synthesizers, which create constellations of beautiful, uncanny sounds. “Noise Becomes Female” could be an AI stuttering itself into madness, and “Ur Deadly, Ur Heavenly” employs delicate harmonies like a Renaissance choir. v
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