Gossip Wolf has loved local five-piece I Kong Kult for years—their funky fusion of new wave and prog sounds like a collaboration by the Waitresses, drummer Tony Allen, and Soft Machine! They’ve been quiet for a while, but drummer Areif Sless-Kitain (a onetime Reader staffer) says that I Kong Kult—whose lineup also includes his Eternals bandmate Wayne Montana—are ending a three-year hiatus by celebrating their debut album, Warnings, at the Burlington on Saturday, December 10. The album was recorded at Wilco’s loft in 2013, and Sless-Kitain says that though “life stuff” has delayed it, “The recent election seems like the perfect time to drop a call to action for anyone standing up for basic human rights, like the right to shake your ass.” Hear, hear!
The Reader‘s Kevin Warwick has described the music of local dark-rock trio Mako Sica as “sounding like it should be drifting up from the bowels of a dim, murky cavern,” but the band know city streets too. Frustrated and sad about the recent traffic deaths of local bicyclists, Mako Sica have organized a benefit for Chicago nonprofit the Active Transportation Alliance at the Empty Bottle on Tuesday, December 13. The bill also includes Taphophile, aka Moniker Records co-owner Jordan Reyes.
The monthly Dark Matter Series returns to Elastic this weekend for two events! On Saturday, December 10, interdisciplinary arts organization the Arts Palette and Jerome Derradji‘s label Still Music present Artform, a panel on contemporary nightlife history. Panelists include producer Ron Trent, visual artist Tiphanie Spencer, and Robert Williams, who owned house-music clubs the Warehouse and the Muzic Box; Trent and Derradji spin. On Sunday, December 11, local label ETC Records hosts beat-making cypher the Electronic Buffet, with instrumental hip-hop producers including Riki Starr, Cos, and ETC proprietor Radius. v
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