Hailing from the singularly vibrant musical hotbed known as Chicago, CHEER-ACCIDENT has been a creative, vital force in rock music for over 30 years. They constantly strive to surprise their audiences and themselves through relentless reinvention. From dreamy pop to angular art-rock, CHEER-ACCIDENT strikes a powerful balance between personalized and unique studio wizardry and the visceral excitement of a well-honed, explosive live rock band. The band is currently a septet, comprising of various members who have come and gone throughout the past two decades. Their body of work is unparalleled in its ambition and originality, and their most recent releases, “Putting Off Death” and “Here Comes The Sunset” (to name just two, on Cuneiform and Skin Graft, respectively) demonstrate how the band continues to improve with each passing year.

Current lineup:

Jeff Libersher- guitar, trumpet, vocals

Alex Perkolup- bass

Mike Hagedorn- trombone, slide trumpet, tuba

Thymme Jones- drums, vocals, trumpet

Laura Boton- vocals

Cory Bengtsen- woodwinds, synth, drums

DroneLayer- keyboards, vocals

The story of JOLLY starts with four guys growing up in New York City. They attended public school, shared an affinity for 90s rock, and were all big fans of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

On an average temperature day in November 2006, all four guys separately decided to start looking to form their ideal band. One Craigslist reply, one high school reunion, and one awkward conversation later, JOLLY’s current lineup, Anadale, Joe Reilly, Anthony Rondinone, and Louis Abramson, was established. They began writing and recording songs, and posting their material on Myspace. A label owner in Switzerland heard JOLLY and offered them a record deal, and suddenly the band’s plans to record an EP transformed into recording a full-length album.

In July 2009, JOLLY released their debut album, Forty-Six Minutes, Twelve Seconds of Music, under Galileo/ProgRock Records. JOLLY created a small buzz, and some even said it was one of their favorite albums of the year. The album contained binaural tones, which when heard alone have a low “woo-woo-woo-woo,” sound, but scientific research shows that they actually can enrich feelings of relaxation, focus, creativity, and happiness.

In April 2010, JOLLY flew over an erupting volcano to get to Europe to play a small tour with Riverside and Pure Reason Revolution. The airplane food was salty and the flight was long, but again, JOLLY created a buzz, which led to a record deal with InsideOut Music/Century Media Records.

In March 2011, JOLLY released The Audio Guide To Happiness (Part 1), the first of a two-part series that is scientifically designed to bring a listener to a state of true happiness. The band collaborated with a professor and a few grad students at a nearby university, who conducted studies on over 5,000 subjects to perfect the usage of binaural tones to optimize the JOLLY listening experience. It was the peak of the band’s pretentiousness, but also a very rewarding undertaking.

After releasing part one of The Audio Guide, which received critical acclaim and was deemed by many one of the top albums of the year, JOLLY toured the US and Europe. Again, the airplane food was salty and the flight was long, but the band watched reruns of Friends to pass the time. Shortly after returning from tour, Mike Portnoy asked JOLLY to open for his band Flying Colors at Best Buy Theater in Times Square. He even said: “I am a big fan of the last two Jolly albums and handpicked them to open the Flying Colors show in NYC.”

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck JOLLY hard, destroying Louis’ home, which also functioned as the band’s practice space and recording studio. All of Louis’ possessions and a lot of the band’s equipment were ruined. Needless to say, the members of JOLLY were devastated, but they tried to remain positive. The timing couldn’t have been worse; the band was in the midst of finalizing The Audio Guide To Happiness (Part 2), but had to break away from the album to throw out Louis’ belongings and completely gut his home. In need of new equipment, JOLLY started a fundraising campaign, and their incredible fans came through in a big way to help the band rebuild after this major disaster.

The Audio Guide To Happiness (Part 2) is now here, and is a standing symbol of JOLLY’s recovery from the storm. Plus, all of the people left hanging from Audio Guide 1 can finally complete their journey towards happiness. Don’t be surprised if crime rates plunge in 2013.

Mano is a Middle Eastern-inspired progressive rock band based in Chicago. Their compositions utilize musical textures and sounds from varied genres of contemporary, classical, and world music. Mano fuses a rock rhythm section with classical and world instrumentation to bring a unique and energetic live music experience that journeys through intense, thematic unison lines contrasted by sections of virtuosic improvisation. Founded in 2013 by flutist/composer Joe LaRocca, Mano includes Greg Firak (guitar), Parker Grogan (electric/upright bass), Collin O’Brien (drums), Najeeba Syed (violin), Desiree Miller (cello), and Marshall Greenhouse (percussion/kaoss).

Riddle House is an instrumental progressive rock trio started by brothers Ben & Rob Lerner. Their debut album was released in 2012 followed up by their 2015 concept EP, “Nature of the Story.” Guitarist, Ben Lerner moved to LA in 2016 where he recorded and/or performed with Dug Pinnick of King’s X, Marco Minnemann, George Lynch, Gregg Bissonette, Joe Travers and many more. After a few years on hiatus, the boys are back and preparing to release a 10 year anniversary edition of their debut album as well as a new single featuring bassist, Dug Pinnick and Daniel Jakubovic in early 2023!

Zip Tang began as a conversation between Perry Merritt and Rick Wolfe at a local jam session in a suburb of Chicago, IL. in 2002. The idea was to start a fun little project covering some of their favorite artists’ music – Steely Dan, Jeff Beck, Traffic, Yes, King Crimson, etc… The search began for a drummer and keyboard player, and Fred’s audition locked in the core trio of the band then known as RPM. With no luck finding a keyboard player, Fred brought in his orchestral mate from the College Of DuPage big jazz band – Marcus Padgett – who played saxophone and a little keyboards.Soon after, the band’s name was changed to Zip Tang and the decision was made to start writing original material. The first album released in 2007 – Luminiferous Ether – gained some recognition with the track “Tower Of Tuna” and their interpretation of the “Tarkus” suite by ELP. The next album Pank was warmly welcomed by critics and was nominated for best progressive rock album by the “grass roots Grammys” organization Just Plain Folks in 2009. Great reviews continued with the two follow up releases Feed Our Heads and Das Reboot. In the summer of 2015 ZT v2.0 released their fifth collection of tunes Private Shangri-La. We are currently working on our first concept album with our new bassist Andrew Bunk. Stay tuned for the next chapter!