YOUTH BRIGADE was formed at the end of summer 1980 in Los Angeles, amid the explosion of the punk scene in Southern California by brothers Shawn, Mark, and Adam Stern. The brothers Stern have established YOUTH BRIGADE as one of the most powerful, independent groups in North America over the course of their 25 odd years of existence. The basic philosophy of the band is that “youth” is an attitude, not an age and that every generation has the responsibility to change what they feel is wrong in the world. Unfortunately, it seems that many people either forget or grow weary of this responsibility as they get older in years, so the band feels it is really important that every new generation realize this responsibility and act upon it.
YP aka Backwood Jones is an Eastside Chicago rap artist that has made his city proud. Inking a deal with Universal/Republic Records in 2011, YP started the wave of signings that featured Chief Keef, King Louie, etc.
YP started rapping in 2007 and has evolved into a beast. He has opened for legends of the game, with Q-Tip & Nas co-signing his talent. Already releasing a half dozen critically acclaimed mixtapes between 2011-2013, be on the lookout for the next offering, Backwood Jones, in Summer 2014.
In June 2010, Workout Music won WGN’s Breakthrough Band contest which landed them a $10k recording at I.V. Lab Studios. Since then WM has gained popularity throughout Chicago headlining gigs at the House of Blues, Double Door and Elbo Room.
Workout Music prides themselves on their explosive live shows; creating dance party atmospheres with confetti, silly string, balloons, bubbles, custom projection and of course, Jameson.
Dance.Sweat.Rock is the motto – and exactly what you’ll get.
The World / Inferno Friendship Society is one band that might actually be worthy of being called a “society.” Consisting of 13 members, recruited from a dream list of “everyone who you never thought would make an album together” (the most peculiar listings from their resume include former members of Blues Traveler, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons’ Half Time Marching Band), the World / Inferno Friendship Society plays every instrument known to man, and has dabbled in every musical genre you could name on a bet. Now this Music Theory class on wheels graces us with a sound that is too damn out there to be everyday pop, rock, ska, dance, or salsa (even though it sounds like all these), but is too damned goofy to qualify as serious prog-rock.
Blazing a trail since their inception, YER MOTHERS LOVERS turned the Chicago music scene on it’s head with an aural frequency never before heard. Combining classic rock, psychedelic, folk, punk, grunge, acid rock, goth, prog, jazz and pop into a molten cocktail of visceral power with a flow like pure mechanized lava in what can only be described as > Free-Form Rock and Roll > Dynamic, melodic, spacious, heavy and more distortion than your favorite news channel. A force of nature. An act of sheer musical bravado. Improvisational and dead-bolt tight. YER MOTHERS LOVERS possess a sound truly like no other > Unpredictable and always devastating >
These are promises made every day by artists leaving bands, by artists embarking on solo careers, and by artists abandoning the major label way of life. These were promises made by William Beckett upon the disbanding of The Academy Is… in 2011. These were promises emphasized, emboldened and renewed as he parted ways with Atlantic Records shortly thereafter. These were promises made to his fans, his family, and himself.
He could have been boring. He could have fallen back on TAI’s devoted fan-base. He could have taken the easy path. Instead, he chose to climb the mountain. William did it his way, just as he promised, by releasing three EPs (twelve songs total) over seven months in 2012 on his very own YIKE Records label.Chronicling the rise and fall of an epic relationship (a story that, as recent history shows, William is all too familiar with) the trilogy of EPs— Walk the Talk, Winds Will Change, and the forthcoming What Will Be (Out Oct 30th 2012)— jettison the old TAI pop-punk sound. Retaining only Beckett’s signature vocals and crafty, tattooable lyrics over electro-pop and jaunty beats. As Alternative Press describes it: “Beckett’s new music cuts a swath through contemporary pop trends, retro-rock party anthems and thoughtful balladry. Fortunately, he stamps his persona on all of these idioms with aplomb, resulting in his comfort zone growing a few more acres.” (altpress.com, Walk the Talk EP review, April 17th 2012)Sticking to his oaths of freedom, independence, and refusing to compromise has served William well. His first single, “Compromising Me”, rocketed to the top of the iTunes charts, cracking the top 20 and leading all independently released tracks. In the following months, the EPs Walk the Talk and Winds Will Change followed the same meteoric rise.Bolstered by the success of his vision, rest was never an option. In between perpetually writing and recording new tracks, William took an unconventional approach to touring. First, he embarked on a solo headlining tour across the U.S. taking with him only his trusty acoustic guitar (an instrument that is now as much a part of him as his voice) and a few digitally- stored studio tracks (his “band in a box”). Following completion of the Spring 2012 tour, he crossed the Pacific as support on a tour of Asia and returned to continue performing almost weekly at different colleges around the U.S. Add to that a packed schedule of private parties as well as dozens of groundbreaking StageIt.com live streaming performances and hardly three days pass when William isn’t playing live.William has embraced modern connectivity like the StageIt.com performances, an active blog, a YouTube page and Twitter feed, and combined it with traditional, real-world bonding experiences like countless live, intimate performances and a burgeoning fan community (The William Beckett Society). Constant contact keeps him grounded, approachable and personally invested in his fans. This personal relationship continues to fuel William’s promise to never compromise his vision or his dedication. His fans keep him honest and he loves them for that.
William Beckett has already walked the talk. He’s revealed the changing winds. Now, with more domestic and international tours planned through 2013, and preliminary work already begun on a full-length album, William Beckett is ready to show us What Will Be.
Known for the sparse, haunting qualities of the mostly solo recordings he refers to as “roots-folk music,” in which his voice is often accompanied by little more than a banjo or acoustic guitar, Whitmore began writing songs last year with some changes in mind. “I purposefully went into it wanting to make a little bit of a departure, sonically, using an electric guitar a little bit more and adding more instrumentation, more full-band type stuff,” he says.
Raised on a family farm in Iowa and inspired by the insurgent sounds of The Jesus Lizard, Bad Brains and Minutemen, Whitmore sketched out the new songs between feeding animals and tending crops. Each week he traveled two hours to Flat Black Studios in Iowa City, built and operated by his cousin and producer, Luke Tweedy. Together, where they would rehearse, record and build songs, sometimes welcoming other musicians to play live on tracks.
Energized by this diversifying, and also given the space to pair a patient sense of craft with the usual punk rock spirit to which Whitmore has always paid homage, the songs on Radium Death hum with an exigent electricity—whether amplified or not. They also present a cohesive look into those recurring Whitmore themes of respect, protection, sustenance and survival.
Witchbanger was formed in Chicago in 2009 by guitarists Chris Shaughnessy (ex-Peelers) and Omar Gutierrez aka (((oMs (revolution tattoo Chicago) out of a need to play crushingly heavy, down-tuned doom metal. An abundance of riffs were created and compiled in the depths of a Western avenue basement, and shortly thereafter, veterans of the Chicago metal scene were recruited as the rhythm section in the form of bassist John “Metal” Almonte (ex-Wickerman/Unfortunaut/Stripping the Pistol) and drummer W.M.Daniel (ex-Wickerman/Buried at Sea). The final addition to the lineup was vocalist Chip McDougall who added a much needed aggression to the band. Chemistry was undeniable and a new entity was formed and new riffage created. In their relatively short existence as a band they have shared the stage with many diverse bands that they both listen to and respect, including Mondo Generator, Wino, The Atlas Moth, Elder, Mouth of the Architect, Plague Bringer, Saviours, Weedeater, Black Skies, Beak and Heaving Mass to name a few. Driven solely to create sonically thunderous DOOOM metal, Witchbanger are inspired and driven by: weed, beer, bourbon, heavy metal, titties, CROM, tube amps, mythical beasts, analog shit, Tolkien, Crowley, Lovecraft and all the SEXY WITCHES!!!
From its inception, WITHERED has been an outlier, a perplexing charge of extremity which the metal scene has never been able to put its finger on.
“We want to compound new elements into every album,” posits guitarist/vocalist Mike Thompson, “and we’re definitely a band for metal nerds. Our audience seems to be the old-schoolers who are absorbed by this stuff every day and jaded folks of a certain age. Industry types and peers tend to get it, but that’s about it.”
Thompson’s self deprecating assessment of his creative output might be part gentlemanly humility talking or a harshly realistic take on WITHERED’s cult status, or somewhere in between, but with an impressive body of work fanned out over the course of 18 years and five albums which have weathered as many trends, the Atlanta quartet continues to confound and refuses to compromise. New album, Verloren is the band’s most daring and iconoclastic work yet, one that spits in the eye of complacency and exists as a contrarian masterstroke.
