With paws like these, this wolf is at a disadvantage when it comes to guitar, but if anyone could teach us how to play a G chord with no opposable thumbs, it’d be Nathaniel Braddock! He plays guitar in the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International and teaches at the Old Town School, where over the years his Kill Yr Idols ensemble classes have helped people learn 80s indie-rock classics by the Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr., and many more. Braddock moved to Sydney, Australia, earlier this year, but this month he’s back to play a slew of gigs, including a few World Music Festival sets and a duo show with Karate front man Geoff Farina at the Whistler on Fri 9/19; he’ll also teach some OTS classes, including a Sun 9/14 session on African palm-wine music and a Sat 9/20 Kill Yr Idols workshop on the Jesus & Mary Chain’s Psychocandy.
Pilsen indoor soccer venue ChiTown Futbol has been the site of some serious punk get-togethers, including Los Crudos reunion shows in 2013 and the Two Piece Fest this past February. On Sat 9/13, the Torch antifascist network and South Side Chicago Anti-Racist Action will host their first annual conference there, aiming to “help build antifascist culture and to have a good time with our friends and comrades in and out of our network.” The conference will feature an afternoon of speakers and seminars and a 7 PM benefit show for political prisoners with Appalachian Terror Unit, crusty Wisconsin band Wartorn (who record for Southern Lord), local hardcore punks La Armada, and more.
Speaking of punk, scene stalwart and Reader contributor Ryan Lowry is about to release his first photo book, Two Years. “The book is generally about taking experiences making photographs and then using them later in a loose narrative sense to understand things through a more macro lens,” Lowry says. Heavy stuff! He hopes the first edition will be printed by the end of the week.
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