Alternative Hip Hop artist, Backyard Hero, Paying it forward, Never Fade, North Avenue Productions, No Fans Just Neighbors. Pulaskiville, IL. In the studio with Cisco Adler of Shwayze. Rocked shows with Shwayze, Modsun, The Flobots, G Easy, Common, The roots, Uncle kracker, The Deans List, Oncue, Rockie Fresh, Chris Webby, AER and more…
Founded in 2011, World War Ten Thousand finds its influences in punk, rock and black metal as well as beer and whiskey. With sonic guitar riffs and driving drum and bass lines, their sound can best be described as skinbeam. The band has played numerous Chicago clubs over the past 10 months.
Violent Femmes is the debut album by Violent Femmes. Mostly recorded in July 1982, the album was released by Slash Records on vinyl and on cassette in April 1983
The Uniphonics have created waves of excitement across the United States since forming out of the Iowa City music scene in 2007. Their jam band approach to hip hop has led them to performances at countless major festivals and venues across the country. They’ve played on bills with some of their biggest influences, including George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Rusted Root, Karl Denson, The Roots, and Primus.
Recording Artist Vo Era is a very soulful passionate vocalist, musician, and composer……
He was born and raised on Chicago’s South side. He hit the music scene with a song in his heart and a guitar in his hand. With the love and support of his eclectic audience, Vo has performed at venues such as Reggie’s Music Joint, The Wild Hare, Winestyles (SOLO), The Underground Wonder Bar, and many clubs in the Chicago land area. Vo Era’s unique sound fuses poignantly simple lyrics with funky soulful guitar rhythms. He knows how to musically take a common phrase and paint the most colorful and extraordinary picture of life’s most common occurrences. You can identify his acute skill and life experience within his music. He’s currently a New York native and rapidly expanding in the BIG APPLE. So far he’s graced the stage at Sugar Bar, Billie’s Black, and Village Underground. He has a new hot single entitled “Honey” that’s now available in all digital stores. His debut album entitled “Honey” as well will drop August 13,2013. This is only the beginning of Vo’s Era!!
In Feb. of 2010 we began to play rock ‘n roll music. Since then, we have recorded multiple albums and have played many shows (give or take a few). Our songs range from poppy and melodic to eerie and bluesy. I reckon those feet will be a tappin’
Ovrevolt (pronounced over-volt) is the culmination of a twenty-plus year songwriting and performing partnership between guitarist John Menich and vocalist Brad Reamer who, in various formations of the band, have performed with such heavies as Ronnie Montrose, James Young (Styx), Anthrax, Randy Jackson (Zebra), and most recently, REO Speedwagon. In its current formation, Ovrevolt is powered by the potent combination of drummer Gary Kouba and bassist Michael Strack, both veterans of the Chicago music scene and accomplished musicians in their own right. Drawing inspiration from their surroundings, Chicago’s Ovrevolt uses the blues as a jumping off point, just as the English architects of rock did forty-some years ago, and meld it with unlikely influences to create something very heavy and unforgettable. Ovrevolt connects the dots between late 60’s English blues, early 70’s hard rock, Middle-Eastern devotional music, and 90’s grunge to form a cohesive sound that isn’t afraid to go off in tangents but never forgets the melody.
Led by accordionist/vocalist Rex Hussmann and drummer Jeremy Gustin, Brooklyn-based The Rex Complex pounds roots ruckus songs into people’s nervous system often resulting in a joyous shock. According to the Boston Phoenix the band “specializes in voodoo psych-blues tantrums (with a smidge of Primus).”
Railbird is an experimental pop band from Brooklyn. Their debut album, No One was self-released March 2011.
They’re not an army (there’s only two of them) and they’re not infants (although they are young), but Army of Infants still has a lot going for them — like their bluesy guitar riffs and ’90s-style grunge singing that would make Kurt Cobain put down his needle and take notice.
Since its inception, Scattergun is a rock band that has simply played what it likes, making for sets that may wander down both familiar side streets and those less explored – typically ending up at a place where both the audience and the band can have a good time.
After leaving The Chasm in 2003, bassist Alfonso “Poncho” Polo (left) felt that after almost 20 years of playing in different bands, the whole “music thing” began to feel more like a chore or a job. Rather than quitting the music business for good, Poncho decided to take a break from music completely. But in the spring of 2009, Poncho’s love for his music resurfaced but rather than just joining a band, he decided to work on his own project. Harnessing musical inspiration from bands like Root, Candlemass, Mercyful Fate, Solitude Aeternus, Trouble, Black Sabbath, My Dying Bride, Cathedral and Bolt Thrower, Poncho incorporated lyrics based on reality, fantasy and personal experiences into his songs. After forming the basis of the sound he was after, Poncho named the project Question Of Madness.
Based out of Toledo, Ohio, MOBILE DEATHCAMP has been sawing clubs in half, and leaving crowds with their collective jaws on the floor since the band’s inception in 2008. Formed by Todd Evans at the end of his 6 year stint as Beefcake The Mighty with the legendary shock rockers, GWAR, and joined in aural battle by Boe Skadeland and Chad Smith, this musical terror pocket has been consistently leveling venues across North America.
Arising from the heavy metal hotbed of Florida in the early ’90s (but originally from Buffalo, New York), Malevolent Creation helped define the sound and style of American death metal. After issuing their seminal 1991 debut, the gore-soaked Ten Commandments, the band underwent some personnel and stylistic changes, moving toward a more progressive, technical death metal sound that they continued to mine on subsequent outings like Eternal (1995), Warkult (2004), Invidious Dominion (2010), and The 13th Beast (2019).
Florida’s THE ABSENCE came onto the scene in 2005 with their crushing, Erik Rutan-produced Metal Blade Records debut, “From Your Grave.” The album and its two follow-ups, 2007’s “Riders of the Plague” and 2010’s “Enemy Unbound,” showcased the perfect mixture of heart-wrenching melodies and skull-pounding aggression, truly making them one of the premiere bands of the melodic death metal scene. THE ABSENCE further ensconced their reputation via several tours supporting some of the biggest names in metal, including Cannibal Corpse, The Black Dahlia Murder, Amon Amarth, Goatwhore, Kataklysm, Destruction and Entombed.
And then they seemingly disappeared.
Despite some setbacks in personnel coupled with a desire by some band members to explore new terrain recording/performing with additional groups or working in related fields producing or handling live sound/tour managing for others, THE ABSENCE was merely put on hold until the time was right to return. Last year, the regrouped outfit of singer Jamie Stewart, drummer Jeramie Kling (Venom, Inc., Infernaeon, Necromancing The Stone) and bassist Mike Leon (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Havok, ex-Arsis), along with the addition of celebrated guitar duo Joey Concepcion (Sanctuary, Jasta, Armageddon) and Taylor Nordberg (Soilwork, Ribspreader), teased fans with the face-melting “Septic Testament.” The reaction was phenomenal and motivated the band to continue writing and recording their epic return, and be absent from the scene no more.
THE ABSENCE’s new album, “A Gift For The Obsessed,” further proves why All Music Guide called the group “the greatest Swedish melodic death metal band ever to emerge from Florida.” Mixed at Sweden’s Panic Room (Watain, Scar Symmetry) and mastered at the country’s Ghost Ward Studios (Katatonia, Opeth), and featuring a striking layout by HKB Design (Sepultura), the album deftly mixes melodic death and thrash with incendiary guitar playing, pyrotechnic drumming and a sense of renewed hunger. Over its 10 blistering tracks – including a cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ “You Can’t Bring Me Down” featuring guest vocals by Soilwork / The Night Flight Orchestra front man Bjorn “Speed” Strid – the group not only shows no signs of rust whatsoever, but also sounds more potent than ever.
CHRIS CAPALANO (THE SCHOLARS)
It all started one fateful night at a party. The Marks were fucked up, as usual, and talking about their shared love of awful noise (aka punk music). It was inevitable; The Fuckers were born.
The Marks found two other Fuckers, Lewie and Phil. Over the summer of 2010, The Fuckers started cranking out songs, each one shittier than the last. Gallons of booze later, The Fuckers made some live recordings of their sloppy brand of punk.
It didn’t stop there. Songs kept spewing out, until the first Fuckers full length album was born. 12 songs, less than 30 minutes, entitled FUCK YOU! Since then, The Fuckers have played with the likes of The Dwarves, The World/Inferno Friendship Society and Social Distortion.
These days, The Fuckers continue to crank out songs and seek out anywhere they can destroy people’s hearing and peace of mind. Their live show is a mix of drunken ramblings and high energy songs from across the punk genre, all guaranteed to entertain.
They are The Fuckers, and they’re gonna fuck shit up!
FUCK!
It wouldn’t be an overstatement to refer to Sorrow Sings, the newest full-length from Chicago-area singer/songwriter Kevin Andrew Prchal, as a thesis set to music. Purposefully devoted to opposites: Light and dark; Heaven and Hell; Life and death; Deep love and utter loneliness, etc., Prchal (rhymes with “circle”) explores these territories with the mindset to accept, or even revel in those differences rather than pit them against each other. Even the video clips Prchal filmed with Justin Thompson and Rhapsody Productions for the album are drenched in shadows, shot in black-and-white, and nearly reminiscent of silent movies from days gone by. Upon Prchal’s launch of a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year to finish the album, he mentioned “just as light cannot exist without the dark in a room, I cannot exist without the dark in me. So rather than running from it, or trying to change it, I welcomed it.” The bottom line is that sadness may not have the same sound as joy, but it’s far from voiceless. Hence, the fitting title of this project as Sorrow Sings.
With the album being such a personal conquest for Prchal, how it got completed seems to fit a traditional wedding ritual.
Something old: The curious photograph on the cover of Sorrow Sings. This image of a man on a boat who could be either arriving at his final destination, or leaving for unknown territories, is what inspired the project in the first place. “It completely blew me away,” said Prchal on finding the photograph in a box of his grandfather’s belongings a few years ago. Unable to connect the dots due to his grandfather’s death, Prchal explained, ”I don’t know who it is or where it was taken, but it’s with this mystery that I let my imagination run wild. Many of the songs (on the album) are sort-of an imagined narrative of this man on his journey. Though most of the songs are fictional, the themes explored come from a very personal place. That man trying to get from one physical place to another is really just my metaphor of me mentally, spiritually, and emotionally trying to get to another place.” Prchal’s odes of travel, such as the lush “Follow The Mountain,” or the short mid-record centerpiece “Top of the World” act as an audio tapestry weaved from the album art.
Something new: Prchal’s blooming relationship, and how it’s showcased vividly on Sorrow Sings. “When I met my fiancée, Aly Krawczyk, I had no idea she could sing. But then one day we were in the car and she just started perfectly harmonizing with whatever song was on the radio and I nearly drove my car off the road. So, I put her to work!” Krawczyk sings on nearly every song making the album that much more meaningful to Prchal in the long-run. “This album,” Prchal explains, “serves as documented proof of our love and time together. Something that hopefully our grandkids will be happy to have one day.” On cuts like “Them Begging Birds” or the tender “Devil Don’t Know My Hymn,” her flawless delivery is a welcome anchor to Prchal’s emotional weight.
Something borrowed: The collaborative talents and efforts involved in the making of Sorrow Sings and the environment in which they were recorded. Whether it’s John Morton’s breathtaking string arrangements, the quivering pedal steel of Todd Pertll, Prchal’s string plucking and crisp vocal delivery, or the many guests that contribute throughout the record (including members of Company of Thieves, Cameron McGill & What Army, AM Taxi, Deals Gone Bad, The Quiet Revelry, and more), Sorrow Sings was brought to life in a way that wouldn’t have been possible without them. These talents were enhanced by the luscious acoustics of Koten Chapel; a small chapel in suburban Naperville on the campus of North Central College where the album was recorded. Prchal hopes to schedule a date this year where he’ll perform the entire album beginning to end for an audience at Koten Chapel.
Something blue: Shortly after recording began, Prchal’s friend and bandmate, Joe Sell, tragically passed away leaving his mark on the world, and on the first track of the album, “Rise & Dim.” “This song is not only a testament to his unparalleled talent,” Prchal said, “it’s a document of our time spent making music together.” Some of Sorrow‘s most harrowing lines come from this stunning track, with Prchal comparing lightness to water surrounding a sinking car, and how he welcomes the heaviness of a new day by singing, “I greet this howling as nothing but an old familiar friend.” Such words would sound dour coming from another’s lungs, but coming from Prchal, it’s a successful attempt to map out what’s coming, and let listeners know that he’s with us whole way.
What Prchal and company have created with this release is a timeless, wholly-relatable love letter to romanticized uncertainty. While others in Prchal’s genre of alt-country/folk have been stomping and clapping their way to calculated sunshine, he remains a vital artist coming to terms with our biggest fears, spinning yarns on par with the darkened honesty of Johnny Cash’s American series. If Sorrow Sings teaches us anything, it’s that being alive – figuratively or literally – is the only other option to dying, but it’s not without its burden. “If the world it ain’t nothin’ but diggers and graves,” Prchal and Krawczyk ponder in the last words of the album, “My dear, my darling, dig away.”
Eiffel Tower was born at a psychiatric hospital in the Chicagoland area where Alex (bass), Matt (handclaps) and Pete (bells) were working as orderlies. The three were in a seclusion room holding an aggressive patient who, in a last-ditch retaliatory effort, took the liberty of urinating on the floor. With the patient somewhat subdued, the three made a gallant dash to exit the room before the patient, hot on their heels, could egress. Things only went further awry when Alex lost his footing and slipped three feet across the slick, linoleum floor through the puddle of tepid urine. Matt and Pete instantly tumbled over Alex and found themselves equally soaked. The three spent the rest of the shift donning patient pajamas and questioning their chosen career path.
The three bonded over their work with psychotic patients and obsessively collecting their clients’ personal narratives. They found the coping mechanisms of the patients not far removed from many of their own misguided efforts to make sense of the world around them. They came to treasure these stories as the stuff of myth and legend. As the band began to write music, they focused on how alienation often leads to obsessive or delusional thinking. Musically, the band’s exultant energy was been characterized as “Frank Sinatra meets Bad Brains,” and as “marr[ying] the jangle-pop of Feelies with the playful self-loathing of Stephin Merritt.”
The trio quickly settled on the name Eiffel Tower, after the French monument. Upon its completion, the tower had widely been considered as a mistake and an eyesore. Guy de Maupassant, who reportedly hated the tower, was known to have lunched in it daily. When asked why, he remarked that it was the only place in all of Paris where he could not see the awful structure. The band Eiffel Tower celebrates the grandiose courage necessary to pursue seemingly foolhardy ambitions.
For over thirty years, several releases, dozens of international tours and hundreds of shows, Chixdiggit! has only ever wanted to have the most fun possible. Originally conceived as a Tshirt logo that three friends could sell at their high school, KJ Jansen, Mike Eggermont and Mark O’Flaherty quickly evolved into a real band with real instruments and real songs. With incredible hooks, infectious energy, inspired lyrics, and the singular motivation of having a laugh, the Calgary based band continued to produce some of the catchiest pop-punk around. Now alongside Tyler (Drums), Billy (Guitar), & Robbie (Bass), KJ carries on from scene to shining scene hoping you enjoy the show as much as they inevitably will. Let’s hear it for that!
The Manges. Old school punk rock. Weird irony. War, cinema, crime and rock references. Radical Ramones monkeys. No coherent opinions expressed. Negative minds. Low profile. High determination.