Album Review: Magic Circle - Departed Souls

Time to crack the seal on some fresh doom metal. This week I’m jamming to the latest from Magic Circle, a Boston based “true” doom metal band lead by Brendan Radigan, who pulls double duty in Pagan Altar. Departed Souls is their second LP, and follow up to 2015’s excellent Journey Blind. The group continues to indulge and refine their fusion of influences, bringing together the trippy wizardry of Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, with the foggy medieval angst of the aforementioned Pagan Altar, along with grounded pragmatic songwriting that illuminates all manner of dreary fantasy escapes. The opening title track feels like a jail-broke lifer, freshly freed from the smoky confines of Vol IV, while “Valley of the Lepers” has a plodding preoccupation with the bruising biker blues of the Obsessed, and the “Nightland” helps to keep the heat on with its acrobatic guitar work and ale drown Thin Lizzy grooves. In need of a ballad to satiate your inner warrior bard? Look no further than the delicately textured “A Day Will Dawn Without Nightmares” and the muscular ecstasy of “Gone Again.”

Get your copy from 20 Buck Spins here

Interview: Mykele Deville

Image thanks to artist

My interview with Chicago DIY icon Mykele Deville is up at CHIRP Radio! Here is a quote from the bumper written by CHIRP staff because I don't think I can write a better description myself:  "Interviewer Mick Reed goes deep with Mykele Deville, local Chicago musician, poet, playwright and actor. Mick gets to the heart of Mykele's prolificity and what drives his unyielding creativity." Thanks to the staff at this awesome community radio station for making my conversation with Mykele possible. Direct link to the interview below. 

Interview with Mykele Deville for the CHIRP Radio Podcast

Pick up a copy of Mykele latest release Maintain from Chicago based No Trend Records here

Album Review: Anderson .Paak - Ventura

I am easing into the weekend with the help of Anderson .Paak’s new LP, Ventura. Ventura sees Anderson back in touch with his R’nB roots. Recorded in tandem with last year’s hip-hop forward release Oxnard, the two albums form a dynamic, hard-partying yin-yang. Like Outkast’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below, where together the two halves demonstrate the versatility of the group’s MCs, only in the case of Oxnard/Ventura it’s all just .Paak. The material on Ventura is reliable and consistent, exploring themes of devotion, be it to causes or each other. If you’re looking to really lean into mellowing out, then check into the silky and soulful “Come Home” featuring Andre 3000 and follow it up with the deep grooving intimacy, dancing synth keys, kicking bass, and sweet-tongued jazz-vocals of “Winners Circle.” If you are looking for something closer to Oxnard’s idiom, check out the G-funking shuffle of “Jet Black” featuring Brandy, and the P-funk truth billowing soul-train slide of “King James.” Need some more think grit in your groove? Up your prescription for smokey soul with a dose of the hip-swiveling, string bending two-step of “Make It Better” featuring Smokey Robinson. We're going to march through rest of this week together and .Paak is going to show us the way.

Snag a copy of this bad boy here

Album Review: Chokehold - With This Thread I Hold On

New stuff from Chokehold dropping this week. Old school metallic hardcore from Detroit. It doesn't get any realer than that. My write up of the new LP is up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Chokehold's With This Thread I Hold On @ CCS

This album sounds like a god damned cage match.

Album Review: After the Burial - Evergreen

After the Burial isn't dead yet. In fact, if their new album Evergreen is anything to go by, they may be mounting a serious comeback. My thoughts on the new LP are up at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of After the Burial's Evergreen at Chicago Crowd Surfer

Green is the color of renewal.

Album Review: Claude Fontaine - Claude Fontaine

Today I'm easing into my groove with the velvet croon of LA singer and songwriter, Claude Fontaine. Her debut LP it the direct result of a foggy London stroll a few years back where she stumbled upon Honest Jon’s Record store. The fated encounter led to the excavation of a deep, previously unacknowledged love of classic reggae, dub, and Brazilian music. After interrogating Honest Jon’s employees for a few days on the history and major players of her newly adopted musical obsession, Fontaine made it her mission to produce a record with the living legends who had wooed her heart. Through an extensive series of emails, voicemails, and care-packages sent between her, globe-trotting photographers and other vagabonds, she was able to pinpoint the whereabouts of Tony Chin and others, and mailed them her demos with a request to collaborate. Surprisingly, all of those she solicited said yes, and in just two sessions, she recorded the entirety of her debut LP with guitarists Chin, drummer Airto Moreira, bassist Ronnie McQueen of Steel Pulse and others lending her their various and inimitable talents. The results are something akin to Novella Vague produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry. Fontaine’s soft French-inflected jazz-croon drifts over swiftly moving caravans of South American fusion. Give a listen to the jaunty, twisting melody and syncopated skip of the magnetic “Cry for Another” and try to resist its charm. Fountain’s debut is one of those things that you never knew you needed in your life until it lands square in your lap.

Grab a copy of Claude Fontaine's debut from Innovative Leisure Records here.

Album Review: Inter Arma - Sulphur English

Inter Arma's new LP flat out kicked my ass. Sulpher English sees the band returning to their earlier sound while stepping up their songwriting in a big way. My full review is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Review of Inter Arma - Sulphur English

Horns up for Bill Bumgardner.

Album Review: American War Machine - Unholy War

NYC metallic hardcore supergroup American War Machine have dropped their debut LP, Unholy War. I have a few thoughts on it and you can check out my review over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Review of American War Machine's Unholy War over at Chicago Crowd Surfer

War sucks. Controversial opinion, I know.

Show Review: Ministry at House of Vans, April 13, 2019

Photo by me

I was a lucky boy this week and got to check out Ministry as part of a Record Store Day promotion at House of Vans. Relive the magic with me by clicking the link below and reading my thoughts about the night over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Recap of Ministry at House of Vans

House of Wax Trax.

Album Review: Little Simz - Grey Area

I am keeping it real this week with Little Simz new LP, Grey Area. Little Simz is a London MC who took her first turn in the recording studio at age nine. Now twenty-five, she has been lauded as a rising star in international hip-hop, catching roses in her teeth thrown by none other than Lauren Hill and Kendrick Lamar (while receiving favorable critical comparisons to the same). Grey Area is her third LP and follow up to 2016’s ambitions Stillness in Wonderland, but with a decidedly more focused methodology this time around. Reaching the rip ol’ mile-stone of two and a half decades on planet earth has admitted produced a quarter-life crisis for Simz regarding her place in the world as a mother, artist, and activist. She mines the angst of her existential dilemmas in order to scrape up enough raw materials to forge into the toothy projectiles, a ten-round clip of incisive social commentary and self-affirming defiance that she titles Grey Area. This is protest music, to the extent that the personal is political, and politics is constructed to keep the historically oppressed in line. It's all cream, from the ostentatious boom-bap of “Offence” which jukes-and-jives around stinging strings and flutes over an airtight beat, to the ground shattering grime-infused flow of the bassy “Boss.” The Kendrick comparisons are most appropriate on the juicy funk of “Sherbet Sunset,” while “Wounds” has a cloak-and-dagger reggae vibe to it, and the uncomfortable heat resonating off of the wandering spiritual “Pressure” is maintained with the help of guests, Little Dragon. Conscious, confident, and resilient in the face of both internal and external conflicts, I can’t get enough of Grey Area right now!

Grab a copy of Grey Area on vinyl here, out now on Age 101 Music. 

Album Review: Big Eyes - Streets of the Lost

Yes! New Big Eyes! If you want to see me gush over this little powerpop powerhouse's new LP head over to Chicago Crowd Surfer for the full write up of Streets of the Lost. Warning: this is not an objective review. Not by a long shot. Link below. 

Review of Big Eyes' Streets of the Lost

Not all who wander are lost.

Album Review: Vltimas - Something Wicked Marches In

I'm always a little suspicious of "super groups" but this one includes David Vincent (Morbid Angel), Rune "Blasphemer" Eriksen (Mayhem), and Flo Monier (Cryptopsy) and it sounds... pretty much what you'd expect, if you expected the results of this team up to sound f*cking brutal. I'm pretty excited about their debut album and you can read my write up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Vltimas' Something Wicked Marches In

Blood of devils in our veins!

Album Review: Cocaine Piss - Passionate and Tragic

Weird gender-skewing Belgium glitter-crust punks, Cocaine Piss have a new LP out called Passionate and Tragic. It's a wet and wild trip and you can check out my write up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Cocaine Piss' Passionate And Tragic

Pissin' the night away.

Album Review: Show Me the Body - Dog Whistle

Every neighborhood in Chicago is fighting a losing battle against developers and vulture investors. Due to what I'm seeing happen in my adopted home, Show Me the Body's new LP Dog Whistle really resonated this week. Check out my complete thoughts on this fantastic new album over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Show Me the Body's Dog Whistle

If you don't stand with your neighbors, who can you stand with?

Album Review: Hitter - Demo

I’m staying getting through today by turning up local seek-and-destroyers Hitter. As way of a bio, Hitter are a Chicago rock band who are here to kick your ass, drink all your liquor, light your car on fire, and chew bubble gum. And as luck would have it, they’re all out of gum. Hitter is Lil Tits’ Hanna Johnson and Madalyn Garcia, Adam Luksetich of Foul Tip, and Ryan Wizniak of Meat Wave. They essentially combine the best (worst?) qualities of Fear, The Misfits, Venom, and Van Halen and manage to make something beautiful in its guiltless depravity. A Reader contributor described them as dirt-rock, a label that is close to accurate but fails to capture the damp, blood-lusting hunger the performances on their 2018 Demo embody. The Demo was recorded in an afternoon on a Tascam cassette for maximum lo-fi grime. I highly recommend “Betty” a sweaty carnivores thrasher on the hunt for its next meal, “Disco” a bluesy prowling dose of downer rock, “Fool Around” a slippery pounding jam that will leave deep, oozing claw marks down your back, “Letherbound” a Viking rock slammer with the taint of Misfits mischief, and lastly “Born 2 Rock” which channels Kiss by way of Midnight.

Album Review: Herod - Sombre Dessein

Today I am jamming to Sombre Dessein the new album from Swiss progressive sludge and post-hardcore band Herod. While Herod’s sound can be described as sludge they share more in common with the volcanic, theatrical rush of The Ocean and the mind-bending scrape and slam of Gojira than the raw carnivorous tumble of Crowbar. The concept behind Sombre Dessein is rooted in the exploration of what guitarist and primary songwriter Pierre Carroz calls, “the consumption project,” the current global post-industrial late-capitalist project to mine and exploit the world and its resources as quickly and as ruthlessly as possible. The entire album boasts a super-heated mix courtesy of Julien Fehlman, which enhances the wicked palpating grooves of “Reckoning,” the staggering juxtaposition of gnashing riffs and sinking sonorous bridges of “Silent Truth.” and the psychedelic, slow-rolling rock-crusher “Mourning Grounds.” However, the high point of the album has to be the rage-fueled “Forked Tongue” a methodically down-pressing and hypnotic groove drill that will leave you breathless and begging for more. A dose of economic and environmental consciousness to get you pumped for the weekend.

Album Review: Whitechapel - The Valley

The new Whitechapel album is here and it is setting a very high bar for other deathcore releases this year. On a side note, The Valley draws much of its inspiration from singer Phil Bozeman processing the death of his mother. If that sounds bleak, you might want to brace yourself because what ends up being examined is very much in line thematically with Ari Aster's Hereditary. Don't say I didn't warn you. My full review is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Whitechapel's The Valley 

Moms are weird.

Show Review: Baroness @ The Riv - March 31, 2019

Baroness, taken on whatever version of the Samsung Galaxy I have 

My charmed little life continues to be charmed and worth struggling through as I got to see Baroness at The Riv this past Sunday. No other bands played. No one of note though. Baroness was excellent. It's just a shame they couldn't find anyone good and not sucky to play with. There is a complete recap over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Recap of Baroness at the Rive 3/21/2019

I have very strong opinions about music. Don't let it get to you.

Album Review: Cantrell - Devil Never Even Lived

Just checked out the new album by LA transplant and southern-rap upstart, Cantrell. Devil Never Even Lived is the follow up to last year’s breakout EP Stardust 2 Angels and is a significantly more mature than its predecessor, leaving behind much of the trap influence of his previous release in favor of conscious rap posturing and a deliberate flow that harkens back to Kanye West's bling era. While the S2A expressed Cantrell’s ambitions, DNEL is a chance for Cantrell to tell his truth. I’m feeling the warm jazz-rap of “Memories Never Die,” the sulky “Roses,” the bluesy bass and swaying toe-tapping gospel of “WaY BaCK,” the inspirational turn up of “Understand,” and of course, juicy, sputtering trap of “Fo Five.” I’m really feeling this one and I think it’s going to stay in rotation for more than a minute.

Album Review: Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff

Today I'm listening to Baltimore’s Angel Du$t and their latest album Pretty Buff. The band has now completed their transition from hooky hardcore hooligans to Americana swept pop-punk and the results are off the charts! The hardcore and pop-punk camps are notoriously antagonistic towards each other, and a band from one effortlessly adopting the aesthetic from the other and executing it nigh perfectly feels a little bit like a troll. Like Mark Wahlberg’s character in The Other Guys perfecting a ballet routine to bully a kid down the street. It feels that way, but I doubt that’s the intent. To someone who appreciates music from all over the spectrum of punk rock and doesn't really care if band making the music has the right pedigree, the positive, punchy, pop-punk on Pretty Buff is rather spectacular. The brief, buzzy, and acoustic “Big Ass Love” bulges with breezy charm, while “Biggest Girl” and “Five” are bubbly power-pop that float down from overhead as if descending from Providence, and “Bang My Drum” might as well be a cover of a lost Elvis Costello penned hit, complemented by a cheese-ball sax solo. Plushy, PMA pop-punk to help kick the week off right!