This wolf has been a fan of Chicago cassette label Teen River since it launched in late 2011. Its catalog so far contains tapes by postpunk group Toupee, garage-psych band Bigcolour, and bedroom-pop dude J Fernandez, among others, and the six new releases the label has on deck include music by Quicksails (the synth project of Ben Billington, drummer for Tiger Hatchery and Moonrises) and psychedelic prog outfit Cool Memories. Those two acts play a joint release party at the Empty Bottle on Tue 2/5, which has been designated “Teen River Nite”; Columbia Fasciata and Famous Laughs open. Tickets are $8, free with RSVP via Ticketweb.
Disappears front man Brian Case and White/Light guy Jeremy Lemos (who’s also a Reader contributor, global coffee diarist, and touring sound engineer for the likes of the Shins and Dirty Projectors) have been working together as the duo Acteurs, and on Mon 2/11 UK label Public Information will release their debut, a self-titled six-track “mini album.” After a visit to the Bandcamp page that Public Information has set up for the band, we’re pretty sure Acteurs are fans of postpunk electronic thump-groove in the vein of Suicide and Chris & Cosey . . . and even synth-pop a la Depeche Mode. The album has nary a peep of Disappears-ish garage rock or White/Light drone. We aren’t mad!
Chicago indie-pop power trio Moritat tell Gossip Wolf that they’ve been working on a few new projects, including a video for “I Forgot to Kiss Her” (from their debut LP, Clill Blanzin), which they say is full of “kick ass, high quality animation with green screens and all that.” Also on their docket is an EP of remixed album tracks featuring notable local peeps such as Brian Deck and psych-groovers Cave, plus a version of “Automatic Lover” reworked by The-Drum that’s allegedly “FUKKIN cool.” Moritat play Township on Thu 1/31 with KO and Sleepy Monster.