The Greyboy Allstars are a bunch of rare-groove re-creationists from San Diego focused on mining soul, funk, and anything else with a deep pocket. Since forming in 1993, the group have consistently toured and put out six records and a couple soundtracks, but they spent the early months of the pandemic cloistered like the rest […]
Category: Concert Preview
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Uma Bloo’s languid indie rock will send a rush of blood to your head
Before Chicago singer-guitarist Molly Madden began performing indie-rock songs as Uma Bloo in 2016, she used that stage name as a burlesque performer. As she told Tribune critic Britt Julious in 2020, burlesque provided her an outlet to explore complex emotions while giving her a confidence she hadn’t felt growing up in a devout Catholic […]
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Summer Walker’s songs invite you to learn from their missteps in love
After the breakout success of Summer Walker’s 2019 debut album, Over It, the Atlanta singer-songwriter continued its saga of betrayals and learned lessons with their 2021 follow-up, Still Over It (LVRN/Interscope). The cleaning technician turned songbird fearlessly plumbs the truth in every heartbreak through somber, grappling melodies. On their second album, they continue this approach […]
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New west-coast punk supergroup Plosivs includes members of Rocket From the Crypt, Pinback, and more
The pandemic has shattered so many bands that any project that’s come together since March 2020 represents a small victory. And when the project in question is as much fun as Plosivs—a new four-piece consisting of vocalist and guitarist Rob Crow, vocalist and guitarist John Reis, bassist Jordan Clark, and drummer Atom Willard—the victory isn’t […]
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Otherpeace kicks off a Hideout residency to support a restorative, rootsy debut album
In the early months of the pandemic, Wandering Boys banjo player Rob Jensen reached out to Matt Clark (of slowcore trio Pinebender and drone duo White/Light) with an invitation to jam. The music they made together planted the seeds for Clark’s new solo endeavor, Otherpeace, a loose group where he’s backed by Jensen (drums), Pinebender […]
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Duma show that the future of metal is in eastern Africa
Africa’s metal scene has been quiet compared to its counterparts on other continents. Duma rectify that, and loudly. Vocalist Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and guitarist and producer Sam Karugu hail from Kenya, and they relocated to Uganda to release their self-titled 2020 debut album on Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes. That label is known […]
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On Comedian, Without Waves make mood-shifting prog metal that’s no laughing matter
I can hardly believe it’s been five years since I previewed Without Waves’ previous album, the 2017 release Lunar. When the Chicago progressive-metal quartet leapt back into the saddle for their third full-length (their second for Prosthetic), that time seemed to just melt away: the new Comedian is one of the best records I’ve heard […]
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Sir Richard Bishop continues to chart his own guitar language in the studio and onstage
Sir Richard Bishop has spent about as much time recording under his own name as he did with the Sun City Girls, a deftly bohemian, genre-bending avant-rock act that dissolved after the 2007 cancer death of founding drummer Charlie Gocher. For almost 30 years, the band (which also included Bishop’s brother Alan) teased at the […]
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Shane Parish brings electrified sea shanties and improvisational explorations to Elastic Arts
There’s no pinning down Shane Parish. On acoustic guitar, he spins webs of bright, densely packed notes; plugged in, he dips into a deep well of jagged rhythms, gnarled chords, and elongated ribbons of humming sound. Stylistically, he seems equally at home meditating upon American folk tunes, negotiating high-speed hairpin turns with mathy combo Ahleuchatistas, […]
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Prolific Chicago producer Casper McFadden finds nirvana in the chaos of breakcore
Casper McFadden’s breakcore tracks hum with hyperactive energy—the Chicago producer sounds like he can’t sit still, and he releases music often enough to prop up that impression. Two months after Vancouver label Kitty on Fire released his Stasis (Log) in January 2021, Casper dropped the full-length Original Soundtrack and an EP called PPP Parasites Eve, […]
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Kaina proves herself worthy of pop stardom with It Was a Home
Kaina’s concise debut album, 2019’s Next to the Sun, confirmed her as one of Chicago’s best and most accomplished emerging musicians. Her new It Was a Home (City Slang) makes an argument that she belongs among marquee pop stars. She maintains a confident cool while juggling the distinct elements of her hybrid style, which always […]
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Radkey explore the personal and political with their new single and video
When teenage brothers Isaiah, Dee, and Solomon Radke emerged as Radkey in the early 2010s, their hook-driven garage punk made an immediate impression. The Missouri band probably weren’t trying to split the difference between the over-the-top spookiness of the Misfits (guitarist Dee sang a little like Danzig did in his devilock days) and the unabashed […]
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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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Music Frozen Dancing will have you sweating through your coat
For many of us, the malaise and isolation that often accompany Chicago winters have been exacerbated by the pandemic—when the weather is at its most brutal, it can be hard to leave your warm, cozy home to go see a show, and it doesn’t get easier when you have to worry about picking up COVID […]
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La Armada keep fighting the good fight on Anti-Colonial Vol. 2
The pandemic hasn’t been easy on anyone, but it’s been especially unkind to those who rely on live music for income or a creative outlet. That said, if there were any local band I had faith was going to pull through, it was La Armada. Formed in the Dominican Republic in 2001, this socially and […]