Chicago electronic act Mutant Beat Dance—the trio of Traxx, Beau Wanzer, and Steve Summers—dropped their self-titled debut album just days after Halloween, and it’s a real monster. Their 25-track post-industrial collection came out on premiere European electronic label and distributor Rush Hour, and the vinyl version is a box set with four LPs, a ten-inch, a seven-inch, and a photo book. On Thursday, November 29, Mutant Beat Dance celebrate the album with a free in-store at Gramaphone Records. The event runs from 6 to 8 PM, during which time all the shop’s used vinyl and CDs will be 50 percent off; there will also be free beer and pizza while they last.
When Gossip Wolf checked in on local experimental musician Anthony Janas in July 2016, he was preparing to perform on a sailboat rigged with contact mikes and hydrophones—he filtered those sounds through a synthesizer for the piece Water Has Nothing to Say and Neither Do I. On Wednesday, December 5, Janas plays in a more conventional venue, Elastic Arts, to celebrate the release of his new Nihilist Records cassette, Lucifer, Scooby Doo, and Me. His instrumentation for this one-off set will be unconventional, though: synthesizer, gong, and pachinko machine. Wish-Fulfillment and Billie Howard open.
In 2015, when Gossip Wolf first caught a set from Richard Vain—the solo project of former Ponys and Bare Mutants front man Jered Gummere—he was playing his deadly brand of catchy garage rock alone, switching between keyboards and a guitar as accompaniment. On Friday, December 7, Big Neck Records will drop Night Jammer, the debut full-length from Richard Vain, and it’s thoroughly fleshed out with keyboards from Christen Thomas and drumming by Justin Wettstein (who are also bandmates in Storm Clouds). Highlights include “Castles,” with its gloomy, Modern English-style new-wave vibe, and the compact, bristling postpunk jam “Tar Pits.” v
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