Chicago rapper Jay Wood has gained a foothold in the local scene with his work on the mike, but his production prowess is what distinguishes his new self-released EP, Nowhere, Fast. His svelte, sturdy instrumentals contain his voice as snugly as an opulent picture frame, ornamented to amplify the character of his performances. On “Homesick,” […]
Category: Music
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Chicago indie rockers Cafe Racer say farewell with help from local punks Edging
Chicago has no shortage of great bands who could’ve found more commercial success and built entirely different legacies were it not for poor timing, a particularly unlucky tour, or any of the other variables that make pursuing art under capitalism so exhausting and difficult. I don’t begrudge the members of Cafe Racer for calling it […]
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Cellist and sound artist Dorothy Carlos brings My Ideal Is Windy to the Lincoln Park Conservatory
Gossip Wolf’s first exposure to newly local cellist and sound artist Dorothy Carlos was via her 2022 cassette Circuit Sphere (American Dreams), which features five stunning tracks of her cello alternating with synthesizer lines performed on instruments designed and built by Brian Oakes, aka United Sound Systems. The Reader’s Leor Galil hailed her work on […]
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Elastic Arts stretches out
Chicago arts organization Theatre Y launched in 2006 in Lincoln Square, then moved in February 2023 to 3611 W. Cermak in North Lawndale. “It became really clear,” says artistic director Melissa Lorraine, “as we were starting to open our doors and really trying to communicate that we were here for the community, that music was […]
Posted inChicagoans of Note
R. Brent Decker, Racetraitor bassist and anti-violence worker
R. Brent Decker plays bass in Racetraitor and works as chief program officer for Cure Violence Global, a Chicago-based nonprofit that takes a public health approach to reducing violence. As a college student in the mid-90s, Decker cofounded Chicago hardcore band Racetraitor with childhood friends from the north suburbs. The group quickly attracted a passionate […]
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Indie rockers Soft and Dumb pause work on their next album to drop an acoustic EP
Chicago indie rockers Elena “Lanie” Buenrostro and Travis Newgren, better known as Soft and Dumb, have spent much of the past year writing and recording their forthcoming sophomore album. A few weeks ago, frustrated by the length of that process, the duo paused work on the LP to record a handful of fast-and-loose songs on […]
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An all-star bill gathers at Metro to support saxophonist Mars Williams
Update: November 20, 2023. 6:55 PM. The family of Mars Williams announced that he had succumbed to cancer. The concert will continue as a celebration of life. Rest in peace. For more than four decades, saxophonist Mars Williams has been a cornerstone of the Chicago jazz scene. In his youth, he studied with the Association […]
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Sen Morimoto’s Diagnosis points to an antidote for our rotten times
Last month at the ChiTown Movies drive-in, Chicago art-pop musician Sen Morimoto hosted a listening party for his new third album, Diagnosis (City Slang/Sooper), that included a screening of Brian De Palma’s 1974 florid horror-comedy rock opera, Phantom of the Paradise. De Palma’s sui generis skewering of the music industry—of how its financial imperatives corrode […]
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Noname brings the intimate conversations of Sundial to the Vic
The songs of Chicago rapper Noname feel like opening a door into a roomful of friends who are already hours into an all-consuming conversation. Throughout her self-released new third full-length, Sundial, she cracks jokes, asks questions about race and Blackness that you’ll need to sit with, thinks out loud about how her skills create demand […]
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Lapgan borrows from South Asian music for idiosyncratic hip-hop instrumentals
Chicago hip-hop producer Lapgan, real name Gaurav Nagpal, samples and blends music from the South Asian diaspora—which has helped him learn more about the breadth and depth of music from the Indian subcontinent. On his most recent trip to India to visit family, Lapgan met a vital collaborator, voracious music collector Nishant Mittal, who runs […]
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Local metalcore masters Harm’s Way welcome Common Suffering alongside a reunited Weekend Nachos
Whether playing straightedge powerviolence in their early days or making Godflesh-inspired death metal on 2018’s Rust, Harm’s Way have always been incredibly heavy, aggressive, and mean as hell. In September, the Chicago metalcore outfit released their fifth full-length, Common Suffering (their second for venerable extreme label Metal Blade), where they double down on groovy, industrial-flavored […]
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Femdot’s Free Samples has all the suave and speedy raps you need
Femi Adigun, aka Chicago rapper Femdot (styled as femdot.) delivers his quicksilver raps with a smooth confidence that draws me in like a giant horseshoe magnet in an old cartoon. Lately I’ve mostly thought about one particular track from his September release Free Samples Vol. 2 (Delacreme Music Group): “Missy Elliott,” which reminds me less […]
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Pauli the PSM brings tenderness and pleasure to Lincoln Hall
Pauli the PSM is saucy—and he knows it. He’s an influential figure in the British music industry and a professional hottie who’s consciously taken his sweet time building a solo career. He entered the field as Pauli Lovejoy after winning the UK’s Young Drummer of the Year award in 2005. He’s gone on to be […]
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Palehound bring the heavy-hitting breakup album Eye on the Bat to the Empty Bottle
Anyone who’s ever told you to keep your eye on the ball has clearly never been hit by a bat. El Kempner, who makes music as Palehound, has learned the lesson instilled in me during a decade of midwestern softball: the importance of staying vigilant toward potential dangers and adversaries in your midst. “Suckers will […]
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Fulcrum Point presents the midwest premiere of La Monte Young’s The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer
The influence that composer and musician La Monte Young has exerted far exceeds the size of his slender and erratically available discography. Born in 1935, he presented some of his early compositions at a concert series he programmed at Yoko Ono’s loft in 1960, and they helped shape minimalist composition and conceptual art. He accidentally […]