Last week, long-running independent label Matador announced its signing of Chicago teen-scene rock trio Lifeguard. The band’s drummer, Isaac Lowenstein, is the younger brother of Horsegirl guitarist-vocalist Penelope; last year, her band issued their debut full-length, Versions of Modern Performance, through Matador. Not only that, but Brian Case, father of Lifeguard bassist Asher Case, put […]
Tag: Lifeguard
Posted inMusic
Manasseh teases a new collection of psychedelic soul with a full-band MCA show
South-side native and Chicago soul artist Manasseh has all the skills to become a superstar. His sumptuous voice and incisive lyrics, as well as his stellar craftsmanship as a vocal and instrumental arranger, have made all his recordings knockouts. His most recent release is the March 2022 full-length Monochromatic Dream, whose delicious earworms of psychedelic […]
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Lifeguard grow into their next underground rock vision on Crowd Can Talk
A couple weeks before Lifeguard played Horsegirl’s record-release show at Thalia Hall in June, I ran into drummer Isaac Lowenstein and bassist Asher Case while walking through the Logan Square Farmers Market with my family. My parents asked what kind of music they make, and we all had a little trouble coming up with a […]
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Ne-Hi alum Mikey Wells drops a mellow, summery new album with Flamingo Rodeo
Chicago postpunks Ne-Hi split in May 2019, and since then guitarist-singer Mikey Wells has expanded his palette of delightful pop hooks in two standout projects: Spun Out, which is indie dance oriented, and Flamingo Rodeo, which plays choogle rock a la 1970s AM radio. On Flamingo Rodeo’s new album, Pontoon (due this month on Shuga […]
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Horsegirl and the dream of a teen rock scene
In July 2019, Chicago indie-rock trio Horsegirl played the eighth annual Square Roots Festival. At the time, live shows were the only way to hear the group’s taut but disarming dream pop, with its windswept-lakefront sound—and they’d only performed a few of them. They hadn’t released any music, not even to stream, and unsurprisingly they’d […]
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Eli Schmitt, jack-of-all-trades in Chicago’s young DIY arts and music scene
Eli Schmitt, 20, moved to Chicago a couple years ago to attend DePaul, where he studies journalism and art history. In that time he’s become a crucial connector in an emerging youth arts movement best known for its bands, which include Lifeguard, Post Office Winter, Friko, Dwaal Troupe, and Horsegirl. Schmitt wears a lot of […]
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Forty-two Reader-recommended releases for your Bandcamp Friday
Friday, May 6, is the 22nd Bandcamp Friday—a 24-hour period where the retailer passes its usual cut of sales revenue along to the independent labels and artists who sell their music and merchandise through the site. Bandcamp typically announces forthcoming Bandcamp Fridays in three-month chunks, and this Friday is the last one that’s been made […]
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Half-Ukrainian musical jack-of-all-trades Pasha Pear drops a hallucinatory new dance single
Born to a Ukrainian mother and a Russian-Armenian father, Chicago-based musician Pasha Petrosyan grew up living in Moscow during the school year and Kyiv every summer, till his family moved to the suburbs of Chicago when he was 11. Since moving into the city in 2013, Petrosyan has become a jack-of-all-trades in its independent rock […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best zine documenting a teen indie-rock scene
“Hallogallo” isn’t just the name of a song by 70s Krautrock band Neu!—it’s also a term that a group of Chicago teenagers have adopted to apply to almost anything associated with their DIY music and art community. That includes the zine Hallogallo, launched in early 2021, which has done terrific work documenting this scene. It’s […]
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Post Office Winter share the world of fun in Chicago’s teen DIY scene
Chicago DIY rock duo Post Office Winter take an audible joy in playing scruffy, comfortable indie rock whose charming shabbiness feels like an accident they wouldn’t have any other way. The band’s founders, Johnston and Huffman (Jones College Prep juniors who prefer to go by their last names), belong to a local teenage DIY rock […]
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Elenna Sindler teams up with Hasco Duo for an EP of haunting art songs
Late last month, local contemporary classical composer and pop musician Elenna Sindler dropped a new collaborative digital EP, Lullaby Baby, with Hasco Duo (aka soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and guitarist Jesse Langen, both of Ensemble dal Niente). Sindler, who sings the lead vocal parts on the EP, describes it as reflecting “different fears and anxieties […]
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Bandcamp Friday soldiers on
The nation may be diseased and broken, but you can still use your Bandcamp dollars to do a small kindness for musicians and labels.
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Emerging Chicago band Lifeguard play noisy, retro-leaning rock without getting stuck in the past
Chicago band Lifeguard make the kind of noisy, brooding rock that’s been foundational to generations of punk and indie bands, all the way back to the dawn of hardcore and no wave. On their self-released debut album, Dive, Lifeguard dispense driving bass lines that could enliven even the dreariest postpunk tune, impassioned drumming that ratchets […]
Posted inBlogs
Grab your suit
Justen Naughton’s North Avenue Beach lifeguard comedy “RiffRaff” opens a week long run Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center.