Clementine Wink is probably best known to Gossip Wolf readers as the bassist for local industrial trio Civic Center, and for good reason—her melodic bass lines often provide the driving heartbeat of the band’s booming, brooding jams. Wink also releases compelling solo music as Hen of the Woods, expertly blending found sounds, sampled recordings, off-kilter […]
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Tireless collaborator Reno Cruz steps out with his debut solo album
Since moving to Chicago from his native California in 2017, singer-songwriter Reno Cruz has made an indelible mark on the city’s indie-rock and soul-music scenes, spending the past few years playing guitar in the Lala Lala live band and collaborating with Gossip Wolf faves such as Wyatt Waddell, Sen Morimoto, and Shawnee Dez (who also […]
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Maggie Kubley of Celine Neon drops a video about a private kind of self-care
By the time Emily Nejad and Maggie Kubley of Celine Neon amicably retired their electro-pop duo in 2018, Kubley had already released several appealing solo tracks and videos online. In 2019, she compiled several of them on an EP, Come Over, and that spring she staged a musical storytelling event based on the songs at […]
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Robert Marovich publishes a new book on King of Gospel James Cleveland
In a 2015 Reader story, critic Peter Margasak called scholar and radio DJ Robert Marovich “one of the foremost authorities on Chicago gospel” and wrote that his then-new book, A City Called Heaven: Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music, “convincingly establishes the city’s crucial role in the origin of the music.” Marovich has since […]
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Metallic hardcore masters Harm’s Way celebrate a decade of Isolation
When metallic hardcore masters Harm’s Way dropped their second full-length, Isolation, in 2011, Gossip Wolf hailed the “chug-o-riffic” album for its “circle-pit-ready brutality”—and the band have gone on to build a worldwide fan base and sign to Metal Blade. In November, Closed Casket Activities (who originally put out Isolation) released a tenth-anniversary edition with four […]
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Fire-damaged venue Golden Dagger raises funds to help it reopen
Independent Lincoln Park music venue, bar, and coffeehouse Golden Dagger (previously known as Tonic Room) suffered damage from a fire on Friday, November 26. Owner Donnie Biggins says an employee on-site called him just after noon that day to report she smelled smoke. “Luckily no one was really buying coffee. The tenants upstairs weren’t home,” […]
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Round Trip Records opens its brick-and-mortar shop after almost two years of pandemic delays
Chicago has a brand-new record store: Round Trip Records in North Park! Co-owner Paul Nixon says the shop has been in the works since November 2019, when he left his longtime gig at Laurie’s Planet of Sound. Shortly he and Round Trip co-owner David Baker started selling records online and at the Chicagoland Record & CD […]
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Elenna Sindler teams up with Hasco Duo for an EP of haunting art songs
Late last month, local contemporary classical composer and pop musician Elenna Sindler dropped a new collaborative digital EP, Lullaby Baby, with Hasco Duo (aka soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and guitarist Jesse Langen, both of Ensemble dal Niente). Sindler, who sings the lead vocal parts on the EP, describes it as reflecting “different fears and anxieties […]
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The Roadburners bid farewell to their charitable Bring It Up High Festival
Hi Fi & the Roadburners were among Chicago’s most ferocious live acts for more than 25 years, melding rockabilly, gutbucket R&B, and punk rock into blue–collar anthems that landed them on the Victory Records roster during the label’s 1990s heyday. Lead guitarist Jeff Schuch passed away in 2009, and singer Erik “Hi Fi” Kish died […]
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Chicago bruisers Nequient drop a new EP to soften you up for their next album
In 2018, Gossip Wolf weighed in on Chicago metallic hardcore neck breakers Nequient, calling their debut full-length, Wolves at the Door, a “major D-beat shit storm.” In the years since, the four-piece band—drummer Chris Avgerin, bassist Keenan Clifford, guitarist Patrick Conahan, and vocalist Jason Kolkey—have earned a sterling rep as an onstage juggernaut, but only […]
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Bitchin Bajas travel the spaceways on their new album
Update on Thu 11/4: Due to a positive COVID-19 test among Fulton Street Collective’s event-planning staff, the Unity Night fundraising event on Sat 11/6 has been tentatively rescheduled for Sat 3/26/2022. Ticket holders for the November date can get refunds or retain their tickets to use in March. They haven’t released a full-length of new […]
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Elastic Arts hosts the fourth annual Afrofuturist Weekend
The fourth annual Afrofuturist Weekend comes to Elastic Arts from Friday, October 22, through Sunday, October 24, with evening programs on Friday and Saturday and daytime programs on Saturday and Sunday. The festival’s organizers describe it as a “celebration of Black artists making forward-looking work that envisions radically positive futures for Black people,” and in […]
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Wind player and polymath Douglas R. Ewart convenes a trio to honor AACM elders
In September, Experimental Sound Studio opened a retrospective exhibit by Chicago woodwind player and multidisciplinary artist Douglas R. Ewart in its Audible Gallery at 5925 N. Ravenswood. His paintings, collages, sculptures, masks, musical instruments, and more will be on view via small-group appointment until Sunday, December 12. On Saturday, October 16, at 7 PM, Ewart’s trio […]
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Jessica Risker’s in-person version of Music Therapy welcomes Izzy True
Folk-pop artist and licensed therapist Jessica Risker launched the long-form interview podcast Music Therapy in spring 2020, and Gossip Wolf has been an avid follower since day one. Earlier this summer, Risker and former Hideout talent buyer Sullivan Davis began producing an in-person version at Cafe Mustache called Music Therapy: Group Session, which augments the […]
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Marcus Atom drops the first album of his catchy, soulful R&B
Gossip Wolf is hardly a conspiracy theorist, but if you draw bulletin-board maps of Chicago’s disparate music scenes with string and thumbtacks, you’ll see drummer and soul man Marcus Anthony Johnson popping up everywhere! As a session musician, Johnson has worked at Gravity Studios and Electrical Audio, collaborated with drummer Matt Walker (who’s played with […]