Monday, August 26, 2019

Album Review: BJ the Chicago Kid - 1123


I’m keeping my groove this week with the classic cool vibes of Second City native, BJ the Chicago Kid. BJ is an always-on hype man, who has worked behind the scenes to propel the careers of Kenya West, Chance the Rapper, and countless others. Despite his ubiquity in the local hip-hop scene, BJ has very few releases to call his own. His studio release this year, 1123, is only his second LP. Thankfully, it’s usually worth the wait with BJ, and 1123 sees the influencer sticking to what he knows and does best, translating the mood and flow of classic R’nB into the clubs of today. A talent he shares with the likes of D’Angelo and other enigmatic MCs. The album opens nice and easy with the smooth bass and wiggly beat of “Feel the Vibe” featuring Anderson .Paak, this is followed by the glossy, luxurious, and Chic flavored R’nB of ‘Champagne.” Other hits include the juicy bumping slow jam “Playa’s Ball” featuring Rick Ross, and the ‘00s soul throwback “Too Good.” However, the absolute, show-stopping highlight is the damp trap slapper “Worryin Bout Me,” a too hot to touch banger about minding your own damn business.

Pick up a copy of 1123 from Motown records.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Interview: Of Montreal

Photo thanks to Kevin Barnes

Of all the podcasts you could listen to this week, I think you should give my interview with Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal a try! I had a great conversation with Barnes at his most recent Chicago stop, supporting his latest album White Is Relic / Irrealis Mood. We talked about his creative process, connecting with fans, building community, and his summer reading list. It's two parter, so get ready! Thanks for CHIRP Radio 107.1FM for the opportunity to talk to such a phenomenal musician. Links below.

Part 1: Conversation with Kevin Barnes @ CHIRP Radio Podcast
Part 2: Conversation with Kevin Barnes @ CHIRP Radio Podcast

Grab a copy of White Is Relic / Irrealis Mood over at Polyvinyl

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Album Review: Friendship - Undercurrent


My review of of the latest album from Japanese hardcore and grind golems, Friendship has just been published over on Post-Trash. The band has taken a bit of a left turn with their sound, but the results are no less affecting and unruly. Worth a spin if you are a fan of Harm's Way and Nails. Link below.


I made the mistake of buying that other Friendship (PA)'s Shock Out of Season while doing research for this one. Here is my review of that album as well: It sucks.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Album Review: Lowest Creature - Sacrilegious Pain



My review of the new crossover thrash and hardcore album from Scandinavians Lowest Creature is up over at InEffect Hardcore. f you like Power Trip, Red Death, and Iron Age, this brutal onslaught of an album was conjured with you in mind. A punishing party album for the end of the world, and I dug every fire-breathing second of it. Link below.


I'm really loving the cover art for this album. If you know who did it, let me know in the comments. 

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Album Review: Thy Art is Murder - Human Target


New stuff from deathcore heavy weights Thy Art is Murder. Human Target is not their best work but it still slays. Check out my review over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Thy Art is Murder's Human Target

We're all soft targets.

Album Review: Sanction - Broken in Refraction


Everyone wants to talk about Knocked Loose, but their album one be out for a couple more months. There not even the only metallic-hardcore band making waves out there either. Like Jesus Piece? How about Year of the Knife? Then feast your ears on the purling fury of Sanction. You can read my review of their new LP over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Sanction's Broken in Refraction

Break it all. Start over. Leave no regrets.

Album Review: De Lorians - De Lorians


Checked out the debut by Japaneses psychedelic jazz ensemble De Loraians. I really dug it and you can read my review over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 


I have seen the future and it is trippy. 

Album Review: All Out War - Crawl Among the Filth


Got to cover a band who inspired some of my all time favorites. Check out my review of All Out War's Crawl Among the Filth over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.

Take a bite out of the new album by All out War 

It's good to have another album from these guys.

Show Review: Anderson .Paak @ House of Vans Chicago

Image provided by the artist

I got to see Anderson .Paak be a boss at a house party he threw at Vans' place this past Thursday. It was pretty wild. Want to know what I thunk? Click below

Recap of Anderson .Paak laying it down over at Chicago Crowd Surfer

All the pictures featured in the article were taken on my cell phone. Judge if you want but I think they came out fine.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Interview: The Drums

Photo courtesy of Jonny Pierce

Not to beat my own drum, but my interview with Jonny Pierce of The Drums is up on CHIRP Radio's web doodily. Our conversation hit a good rhythm and Johnny was a delight to chat with; shedding light on his fascination with architecture, qualifying his legacy as an indie rock pioneer, and sharing how he really feels about Bjork (spoilers: he likes her, like, a lot). Thanks to Sarah Brooks and Amanda Roscoe Mayo for making this fabulous exchange possible.


Such a nice young man. 

Friday, July 26, 2019

Album Review: Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance


Checked out the latest from forward-thinking death metal fiend's Tomb Mold's latest cosmic aggression pact Planetary Clairvoyance. Tl:dr its rules. Need more? Read my full review over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.


Expand your mind with celestial chaos. 

Album Review: Good Riddance - Thoughts and Prayers


Skate punk stalwarts Good Riddance released a new album and I wrote a review of it. Read my opinion of Thoughts and Prayers over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 

Review of Good Riddance's Thoughts and Prayers

Editor's note: thoughts and prayers mean nothing. 

Album Review: Lingua Ignota - Caligula


I covered the chilling cry of righteous anger and revenge that is Lingua Ignota's Caligula for Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link Below.

Lingua Ignota's Caligula @ CCS

This may not be my best work. My mind was a little blow frankly and I'm at a loss for words.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Album Review: Disentomb - The Decaying Light


I checked out the new album from Brisbon death dealers Disentomb and you can read my review of the album The Decaying Light over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. It's brutal and I'm feeling it.

Review Disentomb's The The Decaying Light @ CCS

Idols be hungry.

Show Recap: P4k 2019


Pitchfork Festival 2019 is thankfully over. Chicago's festival season is over stuffed with festivals and outdoor concerts during the summer and the entirety of P4K 20-whenever is always one of my least favorite parts of the season each year. Tired, over-hyped, and bougie. I'm over it. I covered a few of the acts that I actually liked this year for Chicago Crowd Surfer. You can read my thoughts at the link below. Look for the recaps attributed to MDR.

Recap of P4k 2019 byt CCS Staff

Saturday, July 13, 2019

Album Review: Victims - Horse and Sparrow Theory


Covered some crust punk this week over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Victims continues to impress me release after release and I'm glad I did a write up for this one. Link below.

Review of Victims' Horse and Sparrow Theory

What are some of your pet theories? Let me know in the comments.

Album Review: Immortal Bird - Thrive On Neglect


Another local metal band drops another boundary pushing album. We're living through a metal Renaissance in Chicago, I swear. Read my thoughts on the latest from Immortal Bird over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review Immortal Bird's Thrive On Neglect

This one's a beast.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Show Recap: Logan Square Fest 2019


My coverage of Logan Square's 2019 edition is up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. I honestly had more fun than I expected to this year. See what I thought of No Men, Hop Along, and Speedy Ortiz's after party at Sleeping Village with Froth and Fckr Jr. at the link.

Words about Logan Square Fest 2019 @ CCS

F*ck ICE

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Album Review: Baroness - Gold & Grey


It’s almost sky fire day, and I’m getting in the mood for beer and explosions with the latest LP from southern sludge and progressive metal melody mavens Baroness, Gold and Grey. The group has managed to gain serious steam since 2015’s Purple (which snagged them a Grammy nomination) with increasingly euphonious and complex compositions that retain the gritty undertow of their earlier work. They’re like an arena-ready manifestation of Kylesa who you can listen to with your partner who prefers Stevie Nicks’ post-Fleetwood material over Ozzy’s post-Sabbath bellowing. Gold & Grey is the first album the band has released since the departure of guitarist Pete Adams, with former Cirque du Soleil (yes, THAT one) performer Gina Gleason taking up his axe. Gleason is already a crowd favorite and if you have seen the band live then you already know how exhilarating it is to watch her tear through a scorching solo. So where should you start with this behemoth? I recommend the lead-off single “Borderlines” with its gooey psychedelia, sun-parched, interlocking guitar rhythms and enormous vocal harmonies, it’s an excellent primer for the rest of the album, feeling very old while at the same time fresh and evocative. The rushing and explosive grooves of “Front Toward Enemy,” the roiling, resonate blues of “Broken Halo” are perfectly crafted to soundtrack the shock and astonishment of firework season, while the swaying melody and glowing space-rock preoccupation “Throw Me An Anchor” and the loft, dusty diamond studded “Tourniquet” will help you mellow out as the smoke clears off the horizon. Gold & Grey is an iconic feeling and incendiary additional to Baroness’s already worthy catalog, as well as the punchy pyre I need to ignite the fuse on this week’s festivities.

Grab a copy of Gold & Grey from John Dyer Baizley's own Abraxan Hymns Records

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Interview: Dengue Fever

Image thanks to the band

Whoa! My interview with Cambodia psyche and indie rock innovators Dengue Fever is up over on CHIRP Radio's site. We discussed the history of Cambodian rock music, traditional cuisine, and a stage show inspired by their music, Cambodian Rock Band - a play by Lauren Yee. I had a blast chatting with the band and I think the interview turned out not half bad, not half bad at all.


I've got a fever and the only cure is a Cambodian rock band. 

Friday, June 28, 2019

Album Review: Abyssal - A Beacon in the Husk


At the bottom of the sea lives a horrible titan named Abyssal, they've emerged to disgorge their fourth LP and you can find my write up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.

Review of Abyssal's A Beacon in the Husk

For some reason I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. 

Album Review: Hatchie - Keepsake


Hatchie wants to make your dream pop dreams a reality. Check out my write up of her new album, Keepsake over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 


Your heart is like a locket. 

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Album Review: Pacific Breeze: Japanese City


It's warming up outside and I am keeping cool with a delightful blast from our abandoned future-past, with a collection of Japanese pop from the past century, Pacific Breeze: Japanese City is now on Light in the Attic Records. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Japan was experiencing an unprecedented post-war economic boom driven by new developments in technology. Many of these technical wonders were exported to the US and elsewhere, cementing the country’s dominant position as a source of innovation and generating innumerable culture touchstones, the images, and sounds of which pervade culture to this day. Luxury items like walkmans, car cassette decks, and Roland TR 808s are iconic devices in our recent culture memory, inextricably linked to a period of excess and conspicuous consumption, as well as the frivolous fun of an era immortalized in the films of John Hughes and Robert Zemeckis. Japanese artists of the era were thirsty for a sound that matched the bright future that seemed to lay ahead, and so they forged that sound for themselves, combining smooth light funk and jazz-rock fusion with a mix of Japanese and English lyrics to paint sonic portraits of an imagined, and seemingly inevitable, techno-utopia. The fresh sound of this new style was deemed “city pop" because of its association with the rising urban, affluent class of the period. But the future imagined in these songs never came to pass. A market crash in the 1989s put the bull market to sleep and effectively ended the upward trajectory the country had experienced in the decades prior. Pacific Breeze: Japanese City is a curated collection of the lost sounds of the pre-crash world, the echos of which can still be heard in modern J-pop and the now ubiquitous vaporwave of Macintosh + and others. It is simultaneously some of the weirdest and undeniably earwarmy tunes to ever receive mainstream radio attention in an industrial nation. Think Steely Dan meets Boney M, or Devo meets Dinah Shore, or Diana Ross meets Orange Juice. It’s wild. It's weird. And goddammit if it isn't wonderful. I can already tell that this collection will be a constant companion of mine this summer, giving me hope for a future that is better than today, every day.

Pick up a copy from Light in the Attic Records

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Interview: Hitter

Image provided by Hitter

My interview with local heavy rock rippers Hitter is finally airing on CHIRP Radio. We discuss heavy metal influences, recording their killer first demo, and the true meaning of friendship. If CHIRP's FM signal doesn't reach you where you live you can check out our conversation by visiting chirpradio.org. Direct link below. 


Keep an eye on these guys. They're going to be big. 

Friday, June 21, 2019

Album Review: City Girl - Chroma Velocity


I got a little whimsical with my coverage of City Girl's Chroma Velocity. Seriously, give it a listen. It is magnificent! It's up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 

Album Review: Personal Best - What You At


This week I covered the latest hard-pop heartache from very gay gal rockers Personal Best. Their new LP is What You At and my review is up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.


Girls who date girls write the best break up songs

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Album Review: Shey Baba - Requiem


All work and no play can make me a weary boy. That’s why I’m diving into the patient, transportive R’nB of LA-based singer/songwriter Shey Baba. Requiem is his debut LP which he wrote over the course of two years spent in near isolation. The goal of his sabbatical was to record an album that can invoke a sense of immersive cinematography in the mind of the listeners, as a counterpoint to the way most people enjoy music today (e.g., as background noise). Baba has a soulful, mourning quality to his falsetto singing style that is not immediately identifiable as masculine, transgressing the boundaries of gendered performance much in the fashion of Haley Fohr of Circuit des Yeux. His style fits well within the deconstructed pop that perennially flows out of Scandinavia, earning him an opening slot for Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfør on her recent North American tour. Whether it is the wilting crestfallen dance of “Born Sick” and “Dreamer,” or the searching cool electronic rhythms of “Inside Out,” or the delicate needling flood of the title track “Requiem,” this album is a bountiful font of emotional complexity waiting to be tapped for your set. 

Get yourself a copy of Requiem here

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Album Review: Fuming Mouth - The Grand Descent


Fuming Mouth is fury personified and their new album rips! I covered it over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.


This is going to make it into my top 10 for the year. No doubt about. 

Album Review: Cave In - Final Transmission


Covered the new album by Cave In over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. A full albums worth of post/space rock mixed with metalcore, born out of tragedy.


They've done better but this isn't bad. 

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Album Review: Alice Clark - Alice Clark


Today I am waking up to the lovely and long displaced voice of Alice Clark. Her debut (and only record) is considered by some lost classic of ‘70s soul. Reissued this year via WEWANTSOUNDS Records, the album was tracked live in 1972 over two days at Record Plant Studios in NYC. Due to its poor initial sales, the record quickly fell out of print and Clark retired from music. Defying the odds, Clark’s recordings were revived as an integral component of the UK dance scene of the late ’80s, pushed by the owners of Acid Jazz records and their obsession with Clark’s exquisite brassy and playful tones and her record’s tightly controlled builds and instrumental sweeps. From the patient gospel-tinted pleading of “I Keep it Hid” to the disco-drenched drama and nimble intersecting melodies of “Don’t You Care,” to the jubilant soulful funk foray “Never Did I Stop Loving You” this is a tour de force ‘70s sounds, emancipated with emotion. Allow yourself to get a little sappy today with Alice Clark and this long lost jem.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Alice Clark's S/T over at WEANTSOUNDS Records

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Album Review: Death Angel - Humanicide


Last week we saw the release of Bay area thrash legends Death Angel release the fantastic Humanicide. I like it quite a bit. My review of this politically charged return to form by the band is up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 


Humanity had it's chance. 

Album Review: Darkthrone - Old Star


Black metal pioneers Darkthrone released their latest foray into crusty doom Old Star this week. My coverage of this twisted daddy of rock album is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 


Some stars never lose their luster.  

Show Review: Doomed & Stoned 2019 @ Reggies Rock Club


Get your recommended dose of fuzz and fury with my write up of Doomed & Stoned 2019 featuring Blood Ceremony, Torche, Demon Lung, Wolf Blood, Frayle, Witch Ripper, and the incomparable Coven. It was one of those weekends that reminds me of why I'm a metal devotee. Check out my coverage over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.


It's a good time to be a metal fan in Chicago. 

Coven (Photo by me)

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Album Review: Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips


This week I covered the dusty new drone album Full Upon Her Burning Lips by Earth. It's an interesting departure for the band and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Check it out over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.  


Desert witch. Lady of the Earth. 

Friday, May 24, 2019

Album Review: Full of Hell - Weeping Choir


My mind is still reeling after experiencing grindcore genre benders Full of Hell and their new LP Weeping Choir. Read my ramblings tongues over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 


Weep for the living, not the dead.   

Album Review: Steel Pulse - Mass Manipulation


This week I covered English reggae mainstays Steel Pulse and their new LP Mass Manipulation. Read all about how to break the back of the global corporate hegemony and my thoughts on the album over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 


Forever in solidarity. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Album Review: Esperanza Spalding - 12 Little Spells


I invite you to join me in exiting the mundane with the help of the award-winning, Harvard professor, and musical polymath, Esperanza Spalding and the reissue of her seventh LP, 12 Little Spells. Frankly, she needs no introduction. All 12 of these little spells were released as standalone singles with accompanying music videos last October. It’s now being combined with a sister EP comprising of four original tracks that should have never should have been separated from its sibling. Together they complete Spalding’s vision of an album that explores the extensions and limitations, the experiential lenses, and overlapping political and real economies that are represented by the human body through an overlay of soul-penetrating jazz, R’nB, funk, and orchestral pop. Beginning with the theatrical meanderings of “12 Little Spells (thoracic spine),” through to the swinging bell-shaped groove of “Thang (hips),” to the funky floating sweeper of “You have to Dance (feet),” and wrapping up with impossibly wet sounding “Lest We Forget (blood),” this is a beautiful and exceptionally composed record. Allow yourself the luxury of becoming lost in the enchanting sweep of Spalding’s incantations.

Get a copy of 12 Little Spells on vinyl here

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Album Review: Sâver - They Came With Sunlight


Lots a brilliant brutal stuff in rotation this week.Check out my review of the latest album from Norwegian sludge metal upstarts Sâver over at Chicago Crowd Surfer.


Still curious who "they" are. 

Album Review: Possessed - Revelations of Oblivion


This week I covered the original death metal band, Possessed and their new LP Revelations of Oblivion. They're back from the abyss and I've got some thoughts on their return which you can read over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. 


Spoilers: They nailed it! 

Friday, May 17, 2019

Show Review: Perturbator at Thalia Hall

Perturbator (Photo credit: CCS)
This week I checked out the future-imperfect cyber synth wraiths Perturbator at Thalia Hall. I dug a little deeper than usual in my recap of their set and seeing their show helped me unpack some ideas that had been rolling around in my mind for the past few weeks. My coverage is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 


No future but what we make. 

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Album Review: Combo Chimbita - Ahomale


Today I am snacking on some choice rhythmic ruminations, courtesy of Brooklyn’s Combo Chimbita. While home-based in a whitewashed hipster wasteland, the band transcends their surroundings with fealty to the global south. Their expressive, sharp-edged folk-funk combines traditional cumbia rhythms with futuristic psyche and soul with overtones of Afro-Latinx diaspora and lush post-punk. Ahomale is their second LP as well as the name of the album’s central character, a vessel of ancient cosmic knowledge, who seeks to free humanity from the trappings of hubris and intolerance. The music here is infused with a sense of spiritual purpose and a mission to open the listener’s eyes to true wisdom and transcendent human consciousness. Things start out unassuming enough with the dusty western waltz and Latinx soul of “Ahomale” which give way to darkly symphonic, distorted, and surging guitar riffs, a great primer for what the band has in store for you on the rest of the album. The chilling quite-loud-quite dynamic established on the title track is further embellished on the cobweb swept, crypt diving salsa of “Revelacion” and the future-forward reggae crossfire of “Te Vi.” Moodier moments of force are offered up on the dripping dub upheavel of “Al Templo” and the trippy trap groove and deconstructed ska of “Santo Fuerte.” Escape the mundane with the guiding embrace of Combo Chimbita.

Grab a vinyl copy of the album from Anti- Records here

Album Review: Fixed Fight - Empty Homes


My review of Danish metallic hardcore crew Fixed Fight's debut Empty Homes is up over on InEffect Hardcore. If you dig Snapecase and Converge but wish they leaned a little harder into death metal territory, then this LP is definitely worth checking out.


The first rule of Fixed Fight Club, is that you don't talk about Fixed Fight Club. The second rule of Fixed Fight Club, is that you don't talk about Fixed Fight Club.  

Friday, May 10, 2019

Album Review: Versus - Ex Nihilo


This week I covered Versus new EP Ex Nihilo for Chicago Crowd Surfer. Its exactly what you want from this greying indie bulwark in 2019. Indie rock can wear me down pretty quick but I'm definitely feeling this one. Link below. 


Something from nothing means nothing, gotta have something...  

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Album Review: Ringworm - Death Becomes My Voice


Chicago Crowd Surfer is running my review of the brutal and uncompromising return of hardcore legends Ringworm and their latest tour de force Death Becomes My Voice. This may be my album of the year. Only time will tell. Link below.


Death has always been my voice. 

Album Review: Fury - Failed Entertainment


This week in album reviews I had the honor of covering a new release by art-house youth crew upstarts Fury, tilted Failed Entertainment. My review is over on Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.


Are you not entertained? 

Album Review: Helms Alee - Noctiluca


Nothing like music from a rainy city to set the mood for an overcast afternoon, right? Today I’m enjoying the angular cloud-bursting dynamics of Seattle post-hardcore mainstay, Helms Alee. Helms Alee formed in 2008 and is comprised of Ben Verellen on vocals and guitar, Dana James on bass, and Hozoji Margullis on drums. They play a loose, groovy style of rust yielding metallic punk buttressed by arching supports of terse grunge and quivering sludge metal. Being from the northwest, I guess you either mix your Drive Like Jehu with Soundgarden, or you just play Soundgarden (or you don’t play anything and get a job at Amazon HQ). Noctiluca is their fifth album and sees the band continue to maintain a solid level of energy and manicured rage through the honing of tight sheering guitars, gluey bass riffs, and duets of cleanly sung melodious female vocals and Melvins style, sky-blackening shouts. Their dynamic approach is best displayed on the shambolic drift-and-slam of the reverb wrapped “Be Rad Tomorrow.” Need more interlocking, rolling grooves? Check out the harmonic prickle and plunging grooves of “Interachnid.” Need something to sweat your angst out to? Smash play on the imposing Mastodon-esque “Lay Waste, Child” and the sludge-core knuckle-cracker “Word Problem.” Get inspired, not tired. 

Pick up a copy of Noctiluca from Sargent House Records today!

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Album Review: Chevalier - Destiny Calls


Helsinki based heavy metal heathens Chevalier just dropped their new LP Destiny Calls, and it is everything you could want out of a speed metal album in 2019. My write up is at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below.


Heed the call of destiny, and give this bad mother f*cker a spin.

Album Review: Aldous Harding - Designer


There is no one in the world like Aldous Harding, and her new album Designer is a distinctly transportive masterpiece. My write up is over at Chicago Crowd Surfer. Link below. 

Review of Aldous Harding's Designer

Design the world you deserve, not the one you were born into...

Album Review: Walking Bicycle - Chooch EP


Walking Bicycle, local alternative rockers named for a strange hybrid mode of transportation, are thankfully back with some new music. The new Chooch EP may not be breaking new ground, but it's helping to break me out of the mood I'm in today. Check out my write up over at Chicago Crowd Surfer at the link below.

Review of Walking Bicycle's Chooch EP @ CCS

Do not ask for whom the bicycle bell tolls...