It doesn’t seem possible that only five years have passed since Elijah Montez arrived in Chicago and started creating psychedelic pop as Daydream Review. He’s had a devil of a time making the finances of post-COVID touring work, but here in Chicago we haven’t had to wait around for Daydream Review to bring their shoegaze-style sonics and sunshine-dappled songwriting to us. They’re one of Gossip Wolf’s favorite local acts, and their first full-length album, last month’s outstanding Leisure, seems sure to stay in heavy rotation all summer and beyond. Unfortunately for Chicagoans, though, Montez and his wife, Kaitlyn Murphy, are about to move to southern California. Murphy is Daydream Review’s only other constant member (she provides harmony vocals on the new album), because the band’s live lineup is basically just whichever of the couple’s musician friends can make it. On Friday, May 26, fans can say bon voyage to Montez and Murphy in style: Daydream Review play a farewell show at Schubas with openers Strange Foliage and Dogs at Large. Best of luck, y’all!
Daydream Review recorded their newest album, Leisure, with help from drummer Stephen Waller.
Chicago’s teen indie-rock scene has produced a bustling community that does its thing under the Hallogallo banner, and at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, May 25, the kids throw their second annual festival. Recent Matador signees Lifeguard headline; Post Office Winter and Flower Grease play as full bands, and Friko front man Niko Kapetan performs a solo set of the trio’s material. Music starts at 6 PM, but doors open at 5 PM—and you should arrive early to check out all the young zine makers selling their wares. Hallogallo Fest is all ages, of course, and tickets cost $15.
Last summer, Blake Karlson folded his underground industrial label, Chicago Research, and opened Signal Records in the former Bric-a-Brac storefront at Kedzie and Diversey. Karlson isn’t done releasing records, though, and this spring he soft launched an in-house Signal Records imprint with two vinyl reissues of albums from 2000 that were previously unavailable on wax: the electronic feedback experiments of Toshimaru Nakamura’s No-Input Mixing Board and the minimal techno of Komet’s Rausch. Both records have been available on Bandcamp since April, and Signal has physical copies on hand. On Saturday, May 27, Signal celebrates its house label with free in-store performances by Max Buzone and Heoliene from 4 PM to 7 PM.
The debut releases on Signal Records are first-time vinyl reissues of experimental albums from 2000.
Last spring, Gossip Wolf got hip to the dreamy electronic music of local jack-of-all-trades Pasha Petrosyan, aka Pasha Pear (who’s also played in local bands such as the Crustations, Flash Flash Comfort, and Not for You). Last week, Petrosyan dropped a new four-song EP, Option Anxiety, that features a slithering new-wave disco jam, “Hypersensitive,” alongside three songs the artist describes as “exploratory instrumental pieces.” You can find the EP on Bandcamp, and the video for “Hypersensitive” is on YouTube.
Gossip Wolf would like to wish a happy birthday to killer local techno label Chicago Jaxxx, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this month! The label just released the digital compilation Chicago Jaxxx 10 Year Anniversary and printed a run of snazzy anniversary T-shirts. As you’d expect, the compilation features some of the label’s heaviest hitters—Alex Peace, Frankie Vega, DJ Deeon, Wetworks—dropping their heaviest beats.
Chicago Jaxxx celebrates the kind of techno it calls “funky,” “banging,” “tracky,” and “jacking.”
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