New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
Pet Symmetry announced this week that their April tour of Japan has been cancelled and they are hoping to reschedule in 2021. The trio has a new record ready for release, but is holding off on announcing a date as well.
The trio, Erik Czaja, Marcus Nuccio, Evan Weiss, did release a new single this week called "S.S. Decompressed". The proceeds from sales through April 1st will go to the World Health Organization Relief Fund.
Pop Punk band Sleep On It has released a new EP called "The Social Distancing Collection". It features three songs the band felt best fit the mood of our current situation. The opening track is called "Burning At Both Ends" and was previously released in 2016. Our favorite track, the one that seems the most fitting, is a piano ballad called "Window", and perhaps it should be accompanied by a trigger warning for those standing alone in a room staring out a window.
Sleep On It was scheduled to perform two sold out shows at Beat Kitchen on March 28th and 29th, but those shows have been rescheduled for October 16th and 17th.
The latest EP, Better Off, from The Darling Suns is out today, March 27th. Late last year we shared the album’s lead single "Afterglow", and below is a video of sorts for the song.
The Darling Suns is currently scheduled to perform at Beat Kitchen on April 22nd with Gramps the Vamps, Vision in The Rhythm, and Thomas and the Work Men.
Ruins, Adam Schubert of Cafe Racer, has been spending his time during this period of social distancing and the shelter in place order wisely. Since March 16th he has been releasing a song a day accompanied by a fun little drawings via bandcamp. They latest song, at the time of this post, was release March 26th and is called "Whats It About".
It has truly given us something to look forward to every day and we are sure his has given him a way to stay connected and creating. Adam, if you see this, Thank You and stay safe!
Photo by Alexa Viscius
The latest album from the Chicago Underground Quartet, Good Days, is out today, March 27th, Astral Spirits. This is the blending of styles and approaches to music of Josh Johnson (synth bass, organ, piano), Rob Mazurek (piccolo trumpet, electronics, bells), Jeff Parker (electric guitar), and Chad Taylor (drums and percussion).
The album’s lead single is called "Orgasm" and it is a cover of a 1969 piece by Alan Shorter. Through out the album there is a mix of group composed and improvised tracks and a couple of solo pieces. It has been a surprising nineteen years since the last album from the quartet, and the first with the addition of Johnson.
Experimental ambient artist Forrest Management (aka John Daniel) has released two albums this month with the most recent, "Untitled", appearing just last week. Back in January, Daniel made his debut on the St. Louis label Distant Bloom with his deep exploration of Fiona Apple’s "Sleep To Dream".
Perhaps his most ambitious project released in 2020 is 4 Cassavetes, which was released on March 15th. This is a four CDr album dedicated to American cinéma vérité pioneer John Cassavetes. Daniel created his own score to four Cassavetes movies "Faces" (1968), "Shadows" (1959), "Opening Night" (1977), and "Too Late Blues" (1961).
For all trapped in doors, Forrest Management is continuing to provide deep, rich soundscapes to endlessly explore.
Despite currently being pent-up in Bushwick, indie quartet My Son the Doctor demonstrate they know how to have a good time in small spaces on debut single “Dancing In Your Basement.” A raucous ripping two minute track driven by frontman Brian Hemmert’s lilting, expressive vocal performance and driving garage instrumentation, the song is four pounds of kickass in a two pound bag, a concise, blood-pumping vamp wherein the band can tout their cohesive, breakneck rock sound. These adrenaline-pumping acrobatics are in large part the goal for the group, because when they’re not dropping cryptic, weirdly prescient philosophical tidbits in the middle of a chorus (the lyric “time is such a foreign substance” took on new meaning for many this week), My Son The Doctor’s primary focus is jazzing you the hell up. “We wanted ‘Dancing In Your Basement’ to be the first song released off the EP because, honestly, we think it rips the hardest, and we want people stoked,” said drummer John Mason. Mission well accomplished — stream our premiere of the track below, and keep an eye out for their EP Dad Time, out May of this year. Photo by Brian Stoothoff
Last month Reserve Matinee released a collection of ambient drone creations from the duo of Sara Zalek and Norman W. Long called Steelworkers’ Drone. For several years these artists have been conducting soundwalks, with the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, where they take groups to explore areas around the city through sound.
The four tracks on the album were captured in 2018 and 2019 at two of these spaces, Big Marsh and Steelworkers Park, both of which are defunct steel mills on the South Side. These tracks are meditative explorations of the space between environment and melody, each listen is a unique journey.
Nyack, NY emo three-piece Impossible Colors hit their stride on “Gravity,” laying down an uplifting triumphant track, with visuals apropos. Driving electric guitar arpeggios and concise, sprung clock drumming propel the song forward, underscoring an imaginative video of a rock mission-control room and their attempts to launch a cardboard rocket into space. The entire production creatively illustrates the song’s lyricism, which draws comparisons between long distance relationships and a lost astronaut, in a manner that incorporates both a mature worldview and a childlike sincerity, highlighting the emotive nature of Impossible Color’s sound without becoming burdened by the often tough reality of modern romance. Moreover, it’s an excellent visual and musical palette cleanser if you’re currently feeling distant from those close to you — give it a watch below, and check out their recently released full length Picture Erased.
We all need to disconnect a bit these days, and with some extra time on our hands, we can do just that. Manchester, NH resident, and prolific guitarist, Scott Geraci offers us just that in his latest record, Wander. The nearly 100-minute album is a sonic spiral staircase that one can ascend or descend in solitude or fellowship, each track glistening with worldly acoustic guitar compositions. The influences range from Spanish in ”Solitary” to tribal in “Sun Lover,” and each is brilliantly layered so that the experience is satisfyingly transportive. Geraci is timely in his delivery of a record that demands you nix crude noise and surrender to something far more sophisticated. Stream the peaceful track “Abundance” below for your racing thoughts. – Rene Cobar
Super Trio Spam Risk has released their self-titled debut album. This is the new project from Josh Rodin (of Jollys), who recently released his solo debut as Dry Dreams, along with Pamela Buschbacher (of Blizzard Babies and Pledge Drive) and Peter Reale (of Yeesh).
This is fun, playful, addictive Post Punk and one of the more surprising releases of the year so far.
