Garage Rock trio The Side-Bets have released their first two single, “No Way!” and "Feel’n Bad”. The nearly formed group features members that have played with bands like TV Slime, The Lucks, and other well-respected local DIY bands.

You can catch The Side-Bets at Empty Bottle on February 3rd with Masonic Wave, DEN, and Salvation.

Klue is the orchestral drone of Dean Costello (of Disrotted) & Maxwell Citron (aka Blue Cloud). The duo has teamed up with Mount Chicago HQ / HOMHOMHOM to release their new tape, “Eruptor”. The tape is actually the sub-label SpaceTime Tapes’ third release and is filled with 36 minutes of haunting, chilling drone.

Sy Somebody has released a new single, "Idle Minds", from their forthcoming album Life Is Cruel, Let’s Be Friends. This single, the third from the album which is set to be released on January 31st, finds the band teaming up Maceo Vidal-Haymes of The O’My’s for a song that details the ups and mostly downs of boredom.

You can catch Sy Somebody on February 22nd at The Hideout.

Rich Jones and Walkingshoe (aka Bad Ambassadors) have released a second single, “Saturday”, from their forthcoming debut album which is due out this Friday, January 10th.

When asked, Jones had this to say of the track; “‘Saturday’ was the only song I wrote Summer 2015 before we really got cooking in the Fall. Had been feeling particularly low as I dealt with a multitude of things – the murder of a dear friend, the growing pains of a new relationship, a lack of trust of those around me who I’d previously felt iron clad about – that by that point in the year had crescendoed into a wave that felt like it would be tough to make it over. All the good things indeed felt so very far away from me and I desperately needed that to change”.

You can catch Bad Ambassadors at Hideout Inn on January 10th.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Parker has announced that his next album, Suite for Max Brown, will be released by the local label International Anthem in partnership with Nonesuch on January 24th.

The project is named for and dedicated to Parker’s mother, features nine original songs as well as “Gnarciss,” an interpretation of Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus,” and John Coltrane’s “After the Rain.” Below is the album’s first single, “Go Away”.

You can catch Jeff Parker at Dorian’s on March 8th and 9th.

Guitarist Cairns has released a new single called “Bleak Midwinter”. This is ambient, atmospheric, and chaotic in all the best and most dreary ways.

He also released an improvised track last month called “No Sun”. It seems like this gray Chicago winter is hitting Cairns hard.

Photo by Matthew Gregory Hollis

Singer and Actress Brigid Broderick has released a hilarious song called “To All The Boys I’ve Regretter Hooking Up With Before”. The song lands somewhere between parody, pure comedy, and inventive pop. In the lyrics Broderick references Lorde and it is clear that this is inspired by and nearly a parody of the earnest lyrics of Lorde. We hope this isn’t just a one off, but a hint at what may be to come. 

Josefina has released a new single called “Gone”. The singer-songwriter released two singles in 2019, “People Change” and "Wake Up Call”, and all three follow-up her 2018 album Starry Dome.

On “Gone” she is joined by Jim Tuerk (Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Synthesizers, Percussion), Brian Deck (Percussion), and Nick Broste (Trombone).

Violet Mice has released a second single and video from their upcoming album Everything Is Always Bad. This new single is also the album’s opening track and is called “Weird (Like Me)”.

This is work of Annie Fish who left Chicago in 2018 for New Mexico, but clearly misses our city and would love to still call it home. The album, which will be released tomorrow, January 7th, is compilation of two albums that Annie has created during their struggles in New Mexico.

It is hard to read the liner notes for this album and see Annie struggling, but the way they explain the naming of this album gives some hope. "To name this record EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS BAD is to walk up to the future without me in it and laugh in its face. It is to bring back the humor to my life. It is to choose the better path. It is to shout from the top of the mountain that I still exist."

Annie, you do exist, we see you and we love these new songs and videos!

Mute Duo has released the first single, “Canopy Bells”, from their forthcoming album, Lapse In Passage. The album, the duo’s second full-length, is set to be released via American Damage on March 20th.

This is the atmospheric ambient music of Skyler Rowe (drums/percussion) and Sam Wagster (pedal steel).

You can help Mute Duo celebrate the release of their album on March 19th at Constellation Chicago with Akosuen.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that the Stoner Metal group Tombstone Eyes released their debut album, Land In The Sky, on January 1st via the local label Akashic Records Unlimited. The sixteen minute track “Solar Barge” is the perfect track to zone out to and let your mind expand.

This is the work of Brownstone, John Brown, Mustafa Daka, and Jason Sipe.

Producer and vocalist Megiapa recently had a new song, “Lessons”, appear on a compilation from the local label KinkyElevatorMusic.

2019 saw Megiapa release her debut full-length album, ’92, and really come into her own as artist and creator.