People pick their college for a lot of reasons beyond education. In Eli Winter’s case, one of the factors that persuaded him to choose the University of Chicago was the chance to engage with the city’s music scene. While growing up in Houston, Texas, the guitarist was particularly drawn to the way Chicago musicians from […]
Tag: Ryley Walker
Posted inMusic
Quin Kirchner puts a contemporary spin on mid-20th-century jazz
Quin Kirchner blew into Chicago in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated his old hometown of New Orleans. He wasted no time making himself essential as a drummer, and since then he’s played with a wide variety of acts: Afrobeat combo Nomo, tropical pop band Wild Belle, singer-guitarist Ryley Walker, and countless jazz ensembles. In all […]
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TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana
TALsounds and Matchess braid their music together on the debut of Damiana, Chi-ROCK Nation celebrate hip-hop heritage with a monthlong exhibit, and more.
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Ryley Walker points to his wide-open musical future on Course in Fable
When guitar wunderkind Ryley Walker releases his first album of proper songs in a couple of years, this new glimpse at where he’s headed in his music is cause to rejoice. The Rockford native shredded in a noisy fashion as a youth, playing in free-jazzin’ bands Heat Death and Tiger Hatchery, but about a decade […]
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A memorial to Alejandro Morales
Alejandro Morales’s death doesn’t just leave a hole in Chicago’s DIY music scene—it’s a loss to community activists, to affordable housing advocates, and to countless friendships.
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Chicago’s DIY rock scene mourns Alejandro Morales
With his generous spirit and boundless enthusiasm, Running drummer Alejandro Morales was the beating heart of a vibrant community.
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Beloved DIY space Situations signs off with a Halloween livestream
Beloved DIY space Situations signs off with a Halloween livestream, and Angel Marcloid drops an album of fizzy jazz fusion as Nonlocal Forecast.
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Ben Baker Billington’s Quicksails builds whole worlds from serene synths
Many prolific musicians call Chicago home, but multi-instrumentalist Ben Baker Billington is a veritable Energizer Bunny. He’s been contributing otherworldly experimental sounds to the scene since his mid-aughts stint in noise project Druids of Huge, and his musical resumé is too long to reproduce in full here. Any outre artist looking for an open-minded collaborator […]
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Matthew J. Rolin leads the latest surge of fingerstyle guitar with his new self-titled LP
In ye olde late 90s, American Primitive fingerstyle guitar by the likes of Robbie Basho, Sandy Bull, and Peter Walker seemed to come back into fashion, possibly because the founder and overlord of the genre, John Fahey, was making some very cool new experimental records. After Fahey died in 2001, adept pickers such as Jack […]
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Eli Winter’s The Time to Come hints at his bright future, and ours
The first time I saw 21-year-old Texas native Eli Winter perform was about a year ago, when he opened for Ryley Walker at the Chicago record-release show for Walker’s Deafman Glance. He told an adorable story about catching Walker at a show in Winter’s hometown of Houston and being overwhelmed with nerves when they talked […]
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Sharkula and Mukqs: two weird sounds that go down easy together
Outsider rapper Sharkula and oddball electronic artist Mukqs make a surprisingly approachable collaborative EP.
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Ryley Walker covers a lost Dave Matthews Band record with unexpected beauty and weirdness
A handful of years ago it became socially acceptable for punks and freaks—the types of people who’d spent their entire lives raging against hippies and wooks—to get into the Grateful Dead. I’m guilty of that myself, and with the Dead acting as my gateway drug, I’ve become aware that more and more local weirdos are […]
Posted inBlogs
A guitar transfigured into liquid cheese on the gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was designed by local artist Ryan Duggan.
Posted inBlogs
Singer-guitarist Haley Fohr hunts for a path forward with a colorful Hideout residency
Fohr’s three freewheeling Wednesday shows feature guests such as Hamid Drake, Tim Kinsella, and Olivia Block, plus an eight-piece version of her Circuit des Yeux band.
Posted inBlogs
Noise punks Running and jazzy folk guitarist Ryley Walker release an unexpected collaboration
Chicago weirdos Running and Ryley Walker are far-out in very different ways, but they find middle ground on a new instrumental tape.