In January, Gossip Wolf got obsessed with The Year of Alone, a handmade cassette by local singer-songwriter Hannah Sandoz that’s full of hushed and atmospheric folk that seems to encapsulate the COVID-19 era’s sadness and isolation as well as any music that’s come out in the past 18 months. This week, Sandoz followed it up with To Love and Loss!, which has all of the earlier tape’s rustic charm and sweeping feelings of melancholy. It opens with “Ollie, I Miss You (World’s Saddest Song)” and the breathtaking “Over Stair,” which rides a forest of glistening, ringing guitars and reminds this wolf of the sublime and introspective ballads on Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. According to Sandoz’s Bandcamp, To Love and Loss! is limited to 30 copies, though it’s also available for digital download.
To Love and Loss! is limited to 30 copies on cassette.
Gossip Wolf will mourn Danny’s Tavern for years to come. The Bucktown nightclub was legendary for its stellar monthlies, including long-running soul party Sheer Magic, Beau Wanzer’s experimental electronic showcase Hot on the Heels, and Smiths Night, where Joan of Arc’s Bobby Burg, his bandmate Ben Vida, and FACS guitarist Brian Case would somehow fill the floor by DJing the Smiths, the Fall, and other Britpop and postpunk acts. For a few hours on Saturday, August 21, Burg and Case will bring that Danny’s energy back by resurrecting Smiths Night at the Empty Bottle in tribute to their old stomping grounds. It’s free, and masks and proof of vaccination are required.
When the Reader profiled cult house artist Marcus Mixx in February 2019, he’d recently launched a GoFundMe to help him secure an apartment after a few years living in homeless shelters. He did eventually find a place, but he has to move out at the end of this month. He’s started a new GoFundMe, hoping to cover at least some of the cost of transitioning into a new apartment: gofundme.com/f/help-marcus-mixx-get-to-higher-level-of-success.
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