The Blackout Fest isn’t the only big thing HoZac Records has cookin’. The label’s 100th release, now being mixed, comes out this summer, and it’s a doozy! The 17-track compilation Trunk City Junk captures a slew of one-off garage bands that came together between 2003 and ’07 and starred a real parade of current and former midwestern scene fixtures: Alex White, Aaron “A-Ron” Orlowski (Baseball Furies, Outer Minds), Wes Kerstens (Clone Defects, Red Orchestra), Brian Miller (Functional Blackouts), Odie Wilson (Baseball Furies), Nathan Webber (Vee Dee), Zach Medearis (Outer Minds), and Chris Anderson (Sang des Loups, Black Beauties). Also included are two songs that Nobunny dude Justin Champlin released last year as a seven-inch on his label, Rubber Vomit, to great acclaim from fanzines: the Schiller Killers‘ “(I’m the) Wicker Park Strangler” and I.V. Eyes‘ “They Saved Terri’s Tube.”
A tipster spotted Smith Westerns front man Cullen Omori purchasing a pair of pink sunglasses at the Brown Elephant thrift store in Lakeview last week. Ooh la la! Smith Westerns just finished a U.S. tour and are reportedly writing a new record—despite rumors of their breakup, which have dogged them since the tragic stage collapse during their set at Belgian festival Pukkelpop last summer.
Did you know that Twitter is a miraculous computer-spatial musical-comedy Internet construct that brings local musicians and nationally known comedians together? Here’s the proof: two weeks ago Tim Heidecker of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was in town promoting his new film, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, and asked on Twitter to borrow a Chicago band’s studio. Postrock four-piece Earth Is a Man responded, invited the funnyman to their west-side studio, and backed him on a stellar version of Bob Dylan‘s “All the Tired Horses.” On Monday, Heidecker posted the track on his Tumblr. Earth Is a Man play their own jams at Ultra Lounge on Sat 3/24.
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