Local hardcore ragers Raw Nerve are breaking up. Guitarist Ryan Lowry says singer Ralph Rivera no longer wants to front a band, and they’ve decided it’s time to end things. “We have done everything we felt needed to be done,” Lowry says. Their final dates include a gig with Ceremony at Subterranean on Fri 4/13 and a house show the following night; e-mail mail@ryanlowry.org for details. Fortunately at least a couple Raw Nerves are carrying the punk torch. Lowry plays in a host of bands—including Skrapyard, Violent End, and Vacuus—and guitarist Niko Zaglaras is in a new skramz foursome called Lord Snow (Game of Thrones, anyone?), which recently released its debut EP at lordsnow.net.
New Band Alert: Nick Myers and Dan Lang (Vee Dee), John Dugan (Chicago Stone Lightning Band, ex-Chisel), and Mark Lux (Plastic Crimewave Sound) have a new project in the works! They don’t have a name yet, but they expect to play their first show by the end of the month.
This month WBEZ and 312 are kicking off a string of concerts called the High Fidelity Music Series. Touring national acts will tape a session at the station in front of a small audience of High Fidelity members; videos of each set will be posted on wbez.org, and WBEZ may later broadcast clips of the shows. Empty Bottle Presents helped put together the first event—Veronica Falls on Thu 2/16—and plans to book more. Chicago Public Media’s Geary Yonker says they’re locking in future sets, and genres will vary—anticipate indie and world acts, but no jazz. Too bad, so sad, Ken Vandermark.
New Chicago/South Bend trio Super Minotaur recently posted a free demo of sloppily fuzzed-out punk on their Bandcamp page, and they’ve already found a fan in Odd Future and Wavves PR rep Heathcliff Berru! Logan Square/Humboldt Park label Cold Slice Cassettes will release their debut full-length, Dead Dino, on Tue 3/20.
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