Show Review: Truckfighters @ Empty Bottle, February 18, 2020

Truckfighters tearing it up at the Empty Bottle (Photo by me)

Braved the cold for a stone-cold solid show at the Empty Bottle last week. Swedish over-the-top stoner rockers Truckfighters blasted clean through my expectations and you can read my full recap now up at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link here.

Show Review: Music Frozen Dancing, February 22, 2020

Wheatpaste flyer - held up pretty well despite the weather (photo by me)

Every year the Empty Bottle in Chicago hosts an outdoor music festival in February, and every year it continues to be an insane proposition. Still people keep showing up year after year, despite the frostbite, or maybe because of it... Chicago people complain about the cold, but secretly, I think they kind of like it.

I was out with the Chicago Crowd Surfer team for the festival and you can read our tag-team coverage here. I left with all my limbs intact so I guess that means I had a pretty good time.

Album Review: Acrylics - Sinking In

Post-Trash has published my review of the Acrylic's debut album Sinking In. Part crust punk, part journey-man hardcore, these guys make an incredibly relatable racket. I enjoyed Sinking In quite a bit and if you dig on KEN Mode mode but wish they sounded dirtier, then I bet you will as well. Review can be found here. Check out their Iron Lung Bandcamp page to grab a copy on vinyl here.

Interview: Uma Bloo

Uma Bloo, photo by Monika Oliver

Chicago songwriter and performer Uma Bloo stopped by the CHIRP studio a few weeks ago to talk with me about her new single "Marguerite's Novels," which was supposed to premiere on Valentine's Day, but she uploaded the track a few days early thinking no one would notice (How wrong she was! Haha!). We talked about her influences, her visual style, and how cabaret helped her find her voice. She has a unique presence and singing style, and I'm very much looking forward to what gems she sees fit to share with us next. Check out the interview below and her new single here.  

Album Review: Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog

One of my most anticipated albums of 2020 was Sightless Pit’s debut Grave of a Dog. Encase this is your first time encountering anyone writing about the band, Sightless Pit is Lee Buford of sound-shock ensemble The Body, Kristine Hayter of the avant-garde experiment in self-emulation Lingua Ignota, and Dylan Walker of death metal and power-violence act Full of Hell. Both Hayter and Walker released two of my favorite albums of 2019, and the last Lingua Ignota release even made it into my top ten. Needless to say, expectations for Grave of a Dog suffering on clouds by the time I got my hands on it. "How did things pan out?" you're probably asking. Well... fine. I like it fine. It’s just not a particularly memorable album. Unfortunately, nothing on here grabs me the way that the individual catalogs of the band's contributors have. It’s a highly collaborative album, approached without a blueprint. As I’m sure you’ve gathered from my jazz reviews, I’m not one to turn my nose up at improvisation, but I don’t think this method of songwriting helped give any of the individual songs the focus they need, and certainly didn't encourage the band to refine and shape the elements of the songs each song that works best. There are some cool moments here, though. “Kingscorpse” starts out with a David Byrne-esque wail before transitioning into a Street Sect like conflagration, “Immersion Dispersal” is a John Carpenter-esque trip through a black hole made of death vocals and pitch-shifts borrowed from Author and Punisher, “Drunk On Marrow” has some absolutely fried sounding electronics, that sputter hypnotically over several dramatic orchestral accompaniments, and “Whom The Devil Long Sought To” features unsettling interplay between an abusive baseline and an ineffectual, and harried sting instrument of unknown origin, before erupting into a grease-fire crescendo, and I love, absolutely love, the pensive atmosphere of closer “Love Is Dead, All Love Is Dead.” Probably the most impressive part of Grave of a Dog is its overall effect. It's an industrial rock album that manages to invoke an organic, earthen feel that allows you to experience the sensation blood pulsing and the muscles shifting just below the surface. However, I need a little more than great atmosphere and good textures to sell me on an album with this many famous monsters in its drawing-room.

If Grave of a Dog sounds interesting to you, consider picking up a copy from Chicago's own Thrill Jockey, here. 

Album Review: Alabaster DePlume - To Cy & Lee_ Instrumentals Vol. 1

International Anthem is quickly becoming one of my favorite record labels. Not just in Chicago, but anywhere in the country. Last year they released the excellent Downtown Castles Can Never Block the Sun from Ben LaMar Gay, and The Oracle from Angel Bat Dawid, and this year they've already dropped the stone-cold classic Suite for Max Brown by Jeff Parker. Now they bring us Manchester's Alabaster DePlume (alternatively known as, saxophonist Angus Fairbairn) and his fourth studio LP To Cy & Lee_ Instrumentals Vol. 1. Alabaster DePlume takes much of his inceptive style from '70s era Ethiopian jazz, but otherwise allows each song to be shaped by its collaborators, as to reflect the unique potential of each human soul that passes through band's metaphysical foyer. As a concept, Alabaster DePlume is deliberately constructed with the collectivist ambition to elevate each participating member to find their voice within the musical conversation, this political project of decentralization is accomplished through various methods of radical reassurance, including the reputation of "You're doing very well," Fairbairn's signature mantra.

To Cy & Lee was recorded over the course of a decade at various locations around the world, and represents the contributions of (as far as I can tell) close to thirty individual performers, in addition to the inspiration and creativity of several developmentally delayed or impaired folks who Fairbairn worked with through a Manchester organization that promotes independent living. Fairbaim would often encourage those he assisted in making up songs to calm their nerves and focus their attention. Many of these melodies later served as templates from which to improvise, informing his collaborations with other musicians. The perspectives that convene, and the evident compassion bestowed to the human condition on this album is almost too much to bear at times, and my heart ungulates as much with joy as life-giving fluid, while witnessing the radical social praxis and sonic ego banishment at play through the proceedings of this record. From the soft and somber "Visit Croatia," to the ageless call of "Song of the Foundling" with its Japanese Min'yo folk touchstones, to the moody waltzing lounger "I Hope" with its courteous and conversational groove, this is an album that reflects ever moment of the care and consideration responsible for its inspection. On To Cy & Lee, Alabaster DePlume, is doing very well, indeed.

Pick up a copy of To Cy & Lee_ Instrumentals Vol. 1 from International Anthems here. 

Album Review: Envy - The Fallen Crimson

My first review for Scene Point Blank is now live! For my first entry, I tackled the latest from post-hardcore and screamo pioneers, Envy. They've had a storied career, that includes the exit and return of their lead singer in the interval between their previous release and this one. I don't know everything Fukagawa had gotten up to after he left, but it clearly did him some good because he is sounding fresh and fierce here, and the band is better for his having gone on sabbatical. I'm really enjoying this one, and if you're into the artier side of hardcore and metal, you probably will as well. Check out my review of Envy's The Fallen Crimson here.

Album Review: Sepultura - Quadra

Does Sepultura need an introduction? The beast from Brazil exerted tremendous stylistic pressure on late '80s thrash metal acts, pushing them to become more extreme, while inextricably altering the course of death metal, hardcore punk, and American black metal. So does anyone really need a recap on their legacy? Survey says, no. 

Quadra is Sepultura's newest LP, fifteenth studio album overall, and if frontman Derrick Green is to be believed, the crown jewel of the group's post- Cavalera era. He’s not wrong, at least according to these ears, and these ears like what they hear a whole hell of a lot. First off, the album sounds gorgeous! A lot of metal albums (even great ones!) have atrocious mixing and mastering. Recording quality varies from track to track and the compression from one song can be flat out jarring. Not the case here! Every track feels full, fierce, and fertile with dynamic range. They really knew where to throw their money on this one, and it god damn shows! 

Quadra is organized as a kind of quadriptych, examining in three song segments the concepts of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, and how they connect, divide, and structure people's lives. "Means to an End" declares war on your senses from the outset with vicious thrash grooves and gravity-defying solos. "Guardians of Earth" begins with an acoustic Spanish inflected guitar and transitions into chorus singing, before evolving into an epic of tech-death euphoria. "Autem" is ruthless hardcore punk of the lowest meanest order, "Agony of Defeat" is surprisingly, and contrastingly, spacey and progressive, while the closer is top-shelf, primo groove metal, featuring guest vocals from fellow Brazilian Emmily Barreto of playful dance-punkers, Far From Alaska. It’s a whirlwind of ambition that lives up to the hype and full-on blenderizes the expectations most listeners will bring with them from previous releases of the ‘00s and ‘10s. While Quadra doesn’t achieve the heights of Chaos AD and other classics, it shows that the band is still capable of putting out a momentous album and that they are still far from ready to slip into the earthen recesses of their namesake, thirty-some-odd years into their careers. 

Grab a copy of this mfer from Nuclear Blast before the radiation turns them all into vinyl soup! Or they sell out. Both are bad news for you.

Album Review: Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions

Fluid Existential Inversions is the sixth album from LA progressive metal band, Intronaut. Like most progressive metal bands, their influences are varied and hard to pin-down. While Intronaut often receive favorable comparisons to Baroness, they have flat out denied any indenture to the south-east sludge sound. Instead, the group draws from a mix of hardcore-sludge, post-metal, and psychedelic rock from bands as varied as Yes and Neurosis. For this release, they sought out the help of producers Josh Newell and Kurt Ballou in order to give it a lush, live feeling. Whatever they paid those guys, it was worth it because this sounds impeccably clear, resonant, and orchestral. “Cubensis” begins with a flowing math-rock riff, which gives way to deep watery bass lines and peeling punky grooves, only to transition into ethereal space rock at the three-minute mark. “Contrapasso” raises the specter of Mastodon’s apocalyptic psyche-sludge with a heavy jazz-fusion influence, especially on the back end. Lastly, “Pangloss” (named for a character from Voltaire’s satire Candide) has a thick, meaty serpentine groove with bright arching vocal melodies; think Neurosis meets Torche. It's not Devin Townsend's Empath (but then again, what is?) and yet it's still a thoroughly enjoyable and captivating modern progressive metal album.

If you're ready to embrace your inner (or outer) nerd, you can grab a copy of Fluid Existential Inversions from Metal Blade, here, and check out the mind-melting sensory assault of the video for  “Cubensis” below. 

Show Review: CHIRP RADIO AND SMASHED PLASTIC ANNIVERSARY @ SLEEPING VILLAGE, February 1, 2020

The Dyes @ Sleeping Village

I did some coverage of the CHIRP Radio and Smashed Plastic Anniversary Party over at Sleeping Village for Chicago Crowd Surfer. Partys like this only come around once a year...or ten in CHIRP's case. TL:DR Show was a blast. No free beer this year thought. I also had to take all of the photos on my phone. They turned out fine. It's fine. Check out the recap over at Chicago Crowd Surfer here, and join me in wishing CHIRP Radio and Smashed Plastic a Happy Birthday!  

SuperKnova @ Sleeping Village

Photos by yours truly 

Album Review: Denzel Curry x Kenny Beats - Unlocked

Unlocked is the product of a twenty-four hour recording session at Kenny Beats' studio following MC Denzel Curry’s appearance on the producer’s podcast The Cave. The album comes after a short fabricated beef between the two over social media and was announced with a short animated film that features the duo traveling throughout the internet to retrieve their leaked album. If you didn’t know the history of this album, you’d never know that it was made in a condescend window of time. These tracks are sample-heavy, pulling from various bits of found footage and commercial radio, run through a processor with a highly disorienting effect. The beats, when not comprised of human voices, usually lean towards the heavy and minimalistic, with only the faintest nods to R’nB and funk sprinkled through-out. Denzel Curry has a take-no-prisoner’s flow that verges on shouting and it’s extremely impressive to hear him maintain such a strong sense of rhythm while he spits truth from his vantage point, informed by an aggressive reading of contemporary life. Some parts feel a little undercooked, but all things considered, Unlocked hits a lot of the same dopamine centers in my brain as Run the Jewels, and that is something that I cannot bring myself to raise a fuss about.


Grab a physical spinner of Unlocked here, and check out the short film Denzel Curry, Kenny Beats - UNLOCKED below:

Album Review: Fat Tony and Taydex - Wake Up

It might be a Sunday night, but I still managed to get drunk and sassy, and that is in no small part owed to the remarkably trim MC Houston based Nigerian-American rapper, Fat Tony. Tony takes his name from the surly Simpson's mob-boss, who, over the past decade or so of the show, has acted as more of an enabler to the show's patriarch, Homer Simpson, then a genuine menace to the citizens of Springfield, [state name redacted]. I can unequivocally say that this young MC certainly was a bad influence on me tonight and is partially the reason why I'm typing this review at 130am in a craft beer haze instead of sleeping soundly with my partner in bed. I'm not complaining, though. Dude can go through a party in my headspace any day of the week as far as I'm concerned. Tony first turned heads with a feature off of A$AP Rocky's Live. Love a few years back, and has been keeping busy with several projects ever since, not the least of which was co-hosting Viceland's short-lived showcase, Vice Live. Work on Wake Up started immediately following the wrap up of Tony's hosting duties and was probably a necessary exercise in priority shifting following the abrupt end of his TV career.

Stylistically, Tony has some overlap with that of the man who introduced him to the spotlight, and both he and A$AP favor hard party-rockin' beats and have equally forceful flows. However, Tony's sound is more historically-centered, with clear influences drawn from the jazz-rap and soul preoccupations of De La Soul's Buhloone Mindstate and Ghostface Killah's Supreme Clientele, respectively. Tony also prefers to work with a single producer on each album, and this time he has teamed up with avant-garde LA producer Taydex. Taydex's beats swerve decidedly into the spectrum of chirpy, fried arrangements of misappropriated and b*sterdized samples, which defined the Soundcloud era. Taydex's influence is strongest on "Make It," but that track is far from exemplary of the album as a whole. Although, there isn't really a single track that can be singled out as representative of the sounds and themes of the album as a whole. "Godly" has some obvy Memphis horrocore vibes and might be my favorite track on the album, but the charm of "Big Ego" with its bright smack of '90s college rock bliss cannot be denied, and another standout "Run It Up" leans hard into lush soul samples, straining strings, and wet pattering beats, giving the album a much-needed dose of sensual sincerity. This earnestness is also present on the overt sex and shimmy banger, "Magnifique," which rides the line of trashy sex appeal and unimpeachable dignity of it's subject that I did not think was possible on a party track that compares the act of coitus to prepping fried chicken. I could go on, but every party has to come to an end at some point. Give this one a spin if you need something to unwind to late at night. It did the trick for me.

Grab a copy of Wake Up from Carpark records here. 

Album Review: Subliminal Excess - 2020 Demo

The dirt is barely settled on 2019's grave and 2020 is already throwing hugely satisfying hardcore my way. Subliminal Excess is a Chicago punk band that is ready to throw down in the streets and I am happy to have their backs in the war for this city's soul. You can check out my write up of their demo over at Chicago Crowd Surfer here. This is a promising first recording, and I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

Album Review: Space Gators - Intergalactic Swamp Songs

Did a quick little write up of Chicago's new pop-psyche scale-boys, Space Gators and their new LP Intergalactic Swamp Songs for Chicago Crowd Surfer. I genuinely thought I was going to hate this record and then genuinely ended up liking it. Just goes to show you, never judge a band purely on how much they outwardly love the Beatles. However, as a general rule, avoiding Beatles lovers is still a pretty good strategy for avoiding wanton trash. You may disagree, and you are welcome to that opinion (regardless of how misguided it may be). Check out my write up here.

Interview: Teenage Bottlerocket

Photo from Teenage BottleRocket (Miguel, second in on the left)

During Riot Fest 2019 I was able to catch up with an old flame of mine. There was a point in my life when I would have put Teenage Bottlerocket in my top 10 bands of all time and I'm still thoroughly geeking out over the fact that they agreed to an interview. I was able to catch up with Miguel on Sunday before their performance on the Rebel Stage and we talked about the band's new record, the attempts to reach younger audiences, and their not so subtle heavy metal influences. The conversation is brought to you by none other than CHIRP Radio. Check it out below.



These boys are going to be big someday. Maybe even bigger than...

Album Review: Higher Power - 27 Miles Underwater Water

This week I'm diving into the new LP 27 Miles Underwater Water from Leed's hardcore crew, Higher Power. I really resonated with their 2017 debut Soul Structure, and their new album is both and continuation and an exciting departure from their previous release. The band still honors their namesake heroes, Subzero, by running the torch of New York City's late '80s punk and metal crossover scene, much in the same vein as label mates Turnstile, but these boys are leaning into the hard funk and white-thrash tire-fire house production that formed the iron smelted skeleton of American alternative and groove metal until well into the late '90s. Think Deftone's White Phony dropped headfirst into the toxic green cover art of Vision of Disorder self-titled, and you'll get a sense for the oily stained quality and wild dirty energy that permeates and textures these performances. That said, there is a surprising amount of clean singing here. Still, it doesn't blunt the forcefulness of the rock elements, and there is not even a whiff of compromise about the whole operation. "Seamless" opens up with a Warzone like metallic riffed spin-cycle before dipping under a watery reverb submerged bridge, lead by bright, blinding vocals that ring out with absolute clarity of intent. "Shedding Skin" sounds like Glassjaw at their most desperate and frayed, with upper cutting funk-metal riffs that keep the track from being dragged down by its heavier, more brooding qualities. "Lost in Static" reaches some phenomenal heights with its momentous, mix-forward melodies and swift, airy leeds. Later in the album, "Low Season" slows things down to a simmer just in time for "Passenger" to pick things up again with a Fugazi meets Madball groove, backed up by a bopping breakbeat. There is even a little bit of emo space-rock on the nervous, reverb primed geyser "In the Meantime." 27 Miles Underwater Water is a gratifying album with fathoms of hard-hitting riffs, finely-tuned performances, and thoughtful lyrics in which to become immersed and forget your cares. Let Higher Power lift you up so that you can get down already.  

Grab a copy of 27 Miles Underwater Water from Roadrunner records, here. 

Album Review: Asa Tone - Temporary Music

Sometimes I get in the mood for something sparse and intricate. To fill this gap, I'm embracing the new album Temporary Music from improvisational jazz group, Asa Tone. The collective is comprised of Jakarta-born Melati Malay and New York-based Tristan Arp and Kaazi, and the current project is the product of a 2018 pilgrimage to Malay's native Indonesia (something he does at least once a year, apparently) where he was joined by his New York collogues, seemingly without the intention of recording an album. At some point, they cobbled together a temporary studio in the jungle and began sharing ideas and rehearsing. Temporary Music is the product of several of these recorded improvisations. The music features analog instruments in conversation with digital processes, and was inspired by the sounds and sights of the jungle it was recorded in. It primarily features sub-tonal beats passing under bright chiming effects, mimicking the layered foliage and stratified ecosystems of the forest. The mix recalls at different points, raindrops ricocheting off tree leaves, monkeys and frogs in dialogue with potential mates, babbling brooks relaying stories to no-one in particular, and the placid echo of distant bird calls. It's helped me appreciate the sounds of my own environment, allowing me to pick up on qualities that I would otherwise tune out. The squeak of a passerby's shoes as they hustle by me on the sidewalk. The satisfying crunch of care tires pressing into fresh snow. The coos and anxious scuttle of pigeons on balconies overhead. The impatient chirp of the crosswalk light. They're not exotic sounds, and to talk about them with any reverence feels parotic, but they are the sounds of my home, and it doesn't do me any favors to ignore them. They're worth acknowledging, if for no other reason than the teeming petri dish of urban life and endless overlapping currents that they allude to. It's a constant reminder that any sense of loneliness that I feel in this place is a self-imposed illusion I've created out of fear of fully embracing it. There is something about this album that reminds me of Brian Eno and David Byrne's collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, like field recordings from an alternative universe that differs from our own, only in language and form, but not in content and spirit. Your mileage may vary, but Temporary Music has already had a lasting impact on me and how I will be listening to music in 2020.  

Get a copy of Temporary Music from Leaving Records, here.