It’s been years since the duo of Tim Kinsella and Jenny Pulse (aka Jennifer Polus) dropped the name “Good Fuck” and began recording and performing under their own names. Their industriousness remains undiminished: they began developing the new Giddy Skelter, their debut full-length for Kill Rock Stars, nearly three years ago, and they made a […]
Category: Music
Posted inMusic
Chicago rapper D2x fuels his promising career with kindness
Chicago rapper Demauris “D2x” Dixon performs like he insists on giving his absolute best to every facet of his life. Sometimes that pressure gets to him—when he races to squeeze a knotty, weighty lyric into an otherwise easygoing verse, for instance, he can disrupt his crisp flow and casual charisma. But there’s beauty even in […]
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Pittsburgh indie rocker Merce Lemon observes life with thoughtful honesty
Merce Lemon makes gentle indie rock that’s generous in its honesty and forthright in its storytelling. Since she was a child, she’s been a staple of the Pittsburgh DIY music scene, playing in bands such as the punky Two Dragons Black and Red, which she left when she was 12. She stepped away from music […]
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Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) offers a final glimpse of Jaimie Branch’s meteoric talent
When a record comes out posthumously, it’s fair to wonder, “Is this really what the artist would have wanted?” But between the fanciful, sky-gazing birds on the sleeve of Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((World War)) and the rousing sounds in its grooves, the album feels like an authentic […]
Posted inThe Secret History of Chicago Music
Soul singer Garland Green couldn’t quite turn luck and talent into stardom
I know I’m indulging in nostalgia for the “good old days” before the global consolidation of the entertainment industry, but it sure seems like it used to be easier for a talented artist to luck into a shot at fame—something more lasting than 15 seconds of Internet virality. In the 1960s, the workings of the […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Lovely Little Girls drop a dazzling new album of grotesque, theatrical prog rock
In 2016, Reader music editor Philip Montoro profiled local progressive-rock weirdos Lovely Little Girls upon the release of the album Glistening Vivid Splash, describing their “absurd and jarring contrasts” and “knotty, intricate songs” that “heave and dance and skitter, sometimes gracefully dexterous and sometimes grotesquely lumpy.” The band have been steadily evolving since their confrontationally […]
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Hometown hip-hop hero Chance the Rapper headlines the United Center
Damn near every rapper has aspirations of “changing the game,” selling out arenas, and dominating hip-hop, but Chance the Rapper has already done that and then some. What could I possibly write about the three-time Grammy winner that hasn’t already been written? What has Chance done that hasn’t gone viral? Even his supposed failures—the canceled […]
Posted inConcert Preview, Music, Music Review
Smushie’s psych-pop will make you believe in endless summers
Smushie main man Austin Koenigstein (also half of Chicago duo Berta Bigtoe) plays psych-leaning indie rock whose relaxed, sun-dappled melodies will convince you he’s figured out the secret to an unbothered life. Radiant keys, limber bass, loose and understated guitars, and cool, in-the-pocket drums float through Smushie’s latest album, June’s self-released Doofus Casanova, and Koenigstein […]
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London chamber-pop group the Clientele return to the U.S. in support of a new double LP
London psychedelic chamber-pop outfit the Clientele have been making their hushed, literate songs for 32 years, evoking peers such as the Go-Betweens, the Left Banke, and Felt while maintaining their own baroque and brainy mystique. Earlier this year, they released an ambitious double LP, I Am Not There Anymore (Merge), which lead singer and guitarist […]
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Juggalo family values
The first time she hit me, all 118 pounds of me flew across the ring and onto the hard wet ground. It was just past 3 AM on the third night of my first Gathering of the Juggalos, and I was boxing blindfolded in a makeshift ring with a woman who outweighed me by maybe […]
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Local noise rockers Something Is Waiting take a left turn into 90s metal swagger on the brand-new Absolutely
When Something Is Waiting formed in 2016, the band consisted of five dudes whose stacked resumés included stints in several Chicago heavy favorites, and on their first few releases they focused on big, mean, chaos-bringing noise rock a la Unsane. Over the past few years, though, they’ve charted a new direction, trading in nihilistic bludgeoning […]
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Lifeguard make a break for indie’s big time with Dressed in Trenches
In Nina Corcoran’s recent Pitchfork Rising profile of Chicago postpunk trio Lifeguard, guitarist-vocalist Kai Slater described what draws together the teenagers in their Hallogallo scene. “It feels like everyone involved is really desperate to make music,” Slater said, “like it’s not a choice, but their natural role.” This sense of necessity invigorates the high-wire tension […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
Cemetery founder and front man Danny Gallegos dies
Danny Gallegos, who cofounded Cemetery in 2010 and fronted the Chicago death-rock band for its entire history, died on Thursday, July 27. “Danny had so many ideas. Too many,” says guitarist Dez Knuska, who became friends with Gallegos in 2007 because they went to a lot of the same punk shows. “He wanted to be […]
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Indie-emo group Hey, ILY come from Montana but sound like they climbed out of an N64
In the Bandcamp credits of their 2022 full-length debut, Psychokinetic Love Songs (Lonely Ghost), Montana indie-emo band Hey, ILY snuck in what looks like a mission statement. Lead guitarist Trevin Baker and front man Caleb Haynes mention their instruments, of course, but also their “average” or “above average” skill at Nintendo’s Smash Bros.—add in the […]
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Rising star David Virelles joins jazz eminences Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman in Trio Imagination
Drummer Andrew Cyrille (born 1939) and double bassist Reggie Workman (born 1937) have worked with many of the most profoundly influential figures in post-1950 jazz; a short list of artists with whom one or both musicians have recorded includes Art Blakey, Alice and John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Cecil Taylor, Marion Brown, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, […]