Electronic dance music occupies an incredibly unique space within the live music landscape, being one of the only genres in which the focus is primarily on the audience rather than the performer. The DJ acts as a conduit, an alchemist,…
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya has been so deeply ingrained in the Chicago underground music scene for the past decade that it’s almost easier to list the bands he hasn’t been in. Did Nnamdi play drums in 2010s post-hardcore outfit Ittō? I swear…
Black Midi is a force of nature. This much was indisputably proven on their 2022 hurricane of a record Hellfire. The genre-blending experimentalists pushed their avant-rock to new heights, edges, and breaking points, resulting in one of the most exhilaratingly…
In a contemporary punk landscape that’s dominated by hardcore, at least in the relative mainstream, Amyl and the Sniffers are a breath of fresh air; or rather, a sniff of their namesake amyl nitrite. While bands like Turnstile and Gulch…
Well over a decade into their career, The Cool Kids remain two of hip-hop’s most unheralded influencers. Chuck Inglish and Sir Michael Rocks helped lay the groundwork for what would come to be known as “blog rap,” a label used…
By guest author Aviv Hart Attempting to categorize British rock band IDLES into a genre is an exercise in semantics. Punk rock? Post-punk? No-wave? Noise rock? Take your pick, it doesn’t really matter. While all of these descriptions fit in…
By guest author Aviv Hart Wicker Park Fest has been my favorite weekend of the summer for about a decade now, providing a full music festival experience to Chicagoans for just a $10 requested donation per day. The lineup always…
Guest review by Aviv Hart. You won’t find a single music venue in Chicago that feels quite like Martyrs’ on Lincoln Avenue. There is an inimitable intimacy in the room that is the result of decades of love and elbow-grease…
Guest review by Aviv Hart. Grand Bizarre, the new record from Washington DC’s Bottled Up, appropriately fulfills the promise of its title as the appreciative crowd at Empty Bottle witnessed Monday night. The record personifies both meanings of the delightfully…
Join Our Newsletter today!
