Do you like watching bands compete for fame, glory, and possibly some sort of prize, but hate sitting through self-indulgent guitar heroics? Well, this Wolf has something for you: Chicago’s fifth annual Battle of the Jug Bands! Eight groups—including the fancifully named Hump Night Thumpers and Deep Fried Pickle Project—will face off to prove who blows the hardest . . . on a jug, that is. The winning band will receive the Great Jug and have its name engraved on a trophy named Stuffy—actually a gilded antique sausage maker—to be displayed at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It all goes down at the Logan Square Auditorium on Fri 10/12; tickets are $9 and the battle begins at 7 PM.
Over the past three years, the folks who run Chicago-based multimedia website Coach House Sounds have filmed and recorded nearly 100 performances in a coach-house basement, including sets by Bare Mutants, Bobby Conn, and Fake Limbs. CHS baron Matt Baron tells Gossip Wolf that “wear and tear on the old abode,” as well as the difficulty of coordinating schedules, means that they’re unable to record as many bands as they’d like. So now they’ll be working at Chinatown studio Carterco Recording with engineer Jamie Carter; expect ramped-up activity this fall, including sessions with Leaf Bird, E+, and Serengeti.
TJ Tambellini, founding guitarist and synth dude for local motorik/psych-rock quintet Verma, is moving to Los Angeles—but staying in the band. Verma won’t gig again till 2013, but they just self-released the LP Exu and have a load of music in the pipeline: a seven-inch and a cassette (the latter of improv material intended for their score to a Vice documentary) via new Chicago label Notes and Bolts, plus two more 45s (one on HoZac!).
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