Now that the Lollapasnooza lineup has dropped, more summer festivals are due to make their big announcements—including Riot Fest, which returns to a still-battered Douglas Park from September 16 through 18. Gossip Wolf has a few ideas about who might be on that bill, and at the top of the list are nu-metal survivors Deftones, whose upcoming tour is conspicuously missing an Illinois date. Other possibilities include reunited screamo poster boys Thursday, 311 acolytes Turnstile, friendly MC Biz Markie, and the Velvet Underground of second-wave emo, American Football. Plus of course pizza enthusiast Andrew W.K. and interplanetary scumdogs Gwar, because how could it be Riot Fest without them?
When Gossip Wolf was a pup in the mid-90s, local label Skin Graft Records regularly put together amazing packages of international avant-rock and comic-book weirdness, helping introduce the world to mangled mayhem such as U.S. Maple, Dazzling Killmen, Melt-Banana, and Colossamite. The label’s output has slowed—this wolf last heard about 2008 releases from London no-wave spazzes Pre and Canadian wastoids AIDS Wolf (no relation). But founder Mark Fischer says the label has signed a distro deal with Redeye Worldwide and is preparing new slabs to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2016—including a full-length from scuzzy rockers Cellular Chaos (featuring former Flying Luttenbacher Weasel Walter), an aluminum-sleeved seven-inch of unreleased 2001 jams from Arab on Radar, and a reissue of the 1994 Dazzling Killmen LP Face of Collapse.
Last summer local punks Flesh Panthers dropped NGC 2632, and bandleader Ryan Zombotron says they’re already hard at work on Willows Weep, a follow-up due early this summer on Maximum Pelt. Mr. Ma’am drummer Frankie Mars Gunner recently joined Flesh Panthers, and they play a free show Monday, April 11, at the Empty Bottle. v
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