GIANT SHADOWS
AMMUNITION
Ammunition is co-founder of the performance troupe SS-Triple X. She has been gracing Chicago’s stages as an independent performer since 2006. She specializes in neo variety burlesque, feather, parasol, silk fan and LED isis wing dances, fire-eating and breathing, palm torch, angle grinder acts and body modification rituals. Merging visual percussion with power tools, Ammunition leaves the audience hot in their seats!
Ammunition holds residency at Chicago’s most notorious party, Porn and Chicken Dance Party! She is a resident performer at Debonair Social Club’s No Tell Motel produced by Sammy Tramp! She is an active participant in Chicago’s Burning Man Community and in Black Rock City. She also was featured grinding sparks for Steve Aoki, Skism, Derrick Carter, Figure, Buku, Felix Da Housecat, Tommie Sunshine and Ghastly! You may have even spotted her onstage grinding for 2011- 2014’s Northcoast Music Festival, Wavefront Music Festival, Spring Awakening Music Festival in 2012-2016, Life in Color and Reaction NYE at Rosemont! She has returned to the stage in Madison for the Fire Ball Masquerade for 4 years in a row and will be returning 2017! She made her Show Me Burlesque debut in St. Louis and Snake Oil Festival in NOLA in 2016!
She was nominated, competed and won the Performing Artist of the Year award from Chicago Raw Artists in 2011. She also won Best Gogo Dancer of 2015 for Chicago Nightlife Awards!
Ammunition is fire and grinder insured through Specialty Insurance Company.
She is locked and loaded, she is Ammunition.
SANJULA VAMANA
Ladies and gentleman! Boy’s and girl’s! Step right up and feast your eyes upon this truly amazing spectacle!!! His name, the main attraction of any midway, stage or stand fortunate enough to attain and showcase this modern day marvel! What’s in a name you may ask? Come here, and I will share with you the most phantasmal of all legends, unbeliever’s, come forth and I shall reveal to you the strange and mystical truth about the man, and the myth. He is called, “SANJULA VAMANA”! A name earned by years of dissertatious isolation, and the most unparalleled of all human suffering. Watch as he seamlessly binds the edges of almost certain death and human wonderment into a quilt of perplexing paraphilias guaranteed too warm you to the very core. He is the one, the only SANJULA VAMANA! Often imitated, never duplicated! No gaffs, no gimmicks, no doubt! BEHOLD! BELIEVE! BEWARE!
RED RUM
Red Rum is a multidisciplinary artist whose formal background is in painting and video art. Burlesque brought together the perfect combination of her love for makeup, prop building and horror film with the catharsis of a live audience. Drawing from a variety of influences she brings to the stage a unique combination of burlesque and performance art, choosing narratives that combine elements of sex, death and humor – the great social levelers. Known for her unusual costumes and skilled improvisation she strives to give audiences something they have never seen before and may never see again.
Red Rum is a core member of Hot and Heavy Burlesque in Chicago, IL and a frequent guest performer of the Dead Man’s Carnival in Milwaukee, WI. She also performs around Chicago with SS-Triple-X, Vaudezilla, Angela Eve and Eve’s Parlor Burlesque, Cirque De La Femme, the 1901 Gallery Theater, Ties and Tassels and the Festival of Flesh. When not performing she works full time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and collaborates with her husband, sideshow artist, Sanjula Vamana. Together with their son Dexter they continue to build their house of oddities.
KODIAK FARM BOYS
Hailing from Gods Country in North Carolina… KFB is a family band of demonic farm animals.
HOT ASHES
DASTARDLY TRIO
12 DIRTY BULLETS
CRACAJAC
ROBBIE B THE NAME
ROBBIE B HAS BEEN WRITING AND RECORDING MUSIC FOR SEVEN YEARS. HE GREW UP IN LAKE COUNTY ILLINOIS AND HAS ALWAYS HAD A PASSION FOR MUSIC AND BASEBALL. ROBBIE IS AN AMAZING SON, BROTHER, UNCLE AND FRIEND. HE IS CONSTANTLY LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS AND SPEAKS FROM THE HEART. LIFE HAS THROWN ROBBIE A FEW CURVE BALLS, AND AT THE AGE OF 10 YEARS OLD, ROBBIE WITNESSED THE ONLY HOME HE HAS EVER KNOWN COME TO AN END DURING A BITTER FORECLOSURE. HE HAS OVERCOME TRAGIC SITUATIONS BY LOOKING FOR LIFES INSPIRATIONS. MUSIC WAS AN OUTLET THAT TURNED INTO A SPOKEN PASSION. ROBBIE IS SUCH A TALENTED INDIVIDUAL AND THERE IS SOMETHING VERY UNIQUE ABOUT HIS MUSIC THAT SEPARATES HIM FROM THE REST.
RIVALS OF THE PEACEMAKER
Rivals layer lush harmonies and foot stomping energy with a head for lyrics and a nod to their outlaw country heroes. Walking the line between unabashedly old school and eclectic, Rivals of the Peacemaker are all about their roots, loving Emmylou Harris and Motorhead in the same breath and playing shows that take you from the dance floor to the heart, and back again.
Rivals show their love for a wide range of music with influences from country, rock, blues, Americana – The band drifts between genres weaving stories of rebels and sweethearts, heartbreaks and revenge.
Fronted by Alex Watson and Billy Watson, the two personify rowdy and romantic. Taking turns on lead vocals, The Watsons play off each other and take you for a ride. Rivals usually play as a six piece, with a tight knit band behind them – veteran players of the Chicago music scene on guitar, lap steel, and rhythm, and bringing in friends on mandolin, violin, harmonica, banjo and more. They play as an acoustic duo in select venues with Billy Watson on guitar and Alex Watson dividing time between guitar and washboard.
Rivals of the peacemaker has built a solid foundation on original music, a few choice covers and a rip roarin’ live show. Rivals have been featured artists on the Shure Give it Voice Tour, Do312, Rukus Radio, Taste of Madison, Q106 Country Showdown, and WLUW, and are currently completing their debut album to be released in the Winter 2011
THE SWAGGERIN’ GROWLERS
All good ideas start by about the fourth drink. In this case, it’s four pints of a strong stout. The local beer variety store, Smiley’s, carried growlers of it, so we figured what the hell, lets try it on draft. After all, we are brewers and musicians – arms manufacturers in the war against prohibition; The front line soldiers in the war against boredom. Therein lies the problem: we were completely fucking bored. The battle was not going well. We were in a band together. It was a good band, a damn fine one, but slow moving. A show once or twice a month, and no chance to tour outside of the occasional weekend out of town. Playing shows at the same five or so clubs. My own tension was rising, between a dead end job, a girl that just left me, and the frustration of a part time band, I was starting to genuinely go insane. I’ve got travelers blood, really. I’d spend whatever time I could burning gasoline and midnight oil, going as far as I could while making it back in time for work the next day. All the while, I was writing all of my jukebox and beatnik dreams down on any random scrap of paper I could find – A proper madman, completely in love with the world and completely in hate with the fact that I hadn’t figured out a way to go see more of it.
STEREOTYPICAL WORKING CLASS
EAT THAT PLASTIC
Four Chicagoan friends playing rock music for your third ear. We will rock your socks off. We draw from a wide variety of influences, but most people classify us as some type of hard math rock. There’s a definite psychedelic vibe going on that continues to develop, but we are not a jam band in the stereotypical sense of the genre. ETP includes members of the now defunct bands, Tough Get Going, Devlin Progress, Halos Astray, and Maus as well as the active artists Monsoon, Asa Nisi Masa, and Masochistic Values.
THE FLYIN’ HELLFISH
KELLY CONDRON
Well, it’s been a while. After playing 150 shows last year and making appearances on CBS and various radio stations across the country, I needed a break. It wasn’t necessarily a choice. If I had it my way I’d still be touring everyday, but fate and my pocket book said I might need to take some time to regroup. …… They were right. After multiple car break downs and band members changing out, a regroup was in order. I’ve spent the past 8 months in Chicago just living and enjoying music and people. I spent a lot of time playing with different musicians and writing new music and lot of time (oddly enough) surrounded by recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. Yep, that’s right. It started as something to do with my music to encourage people on my time off (I’ve played a few places like that while on tour). Well, I ended up completely loving it. There I was every friday night surrounded by people who’ve been through it all being completely honest with who they were and their healing process. It brought out change in me…in a non fight club kind of way. I’m taking what I’ve learned and now gearing up to tour again this fall with music from my self -titled album engineered by the awesome Ryan McConnaughay of Moody Radio……. With some new band members and a newly inspired purpose, we’re taking this music to the next level. We’ve already got to play with some pretty amazing groups (groups like Relient K, Switchfoot, Phil Wickham, Keri Noble, Kutless, and John Reuben to name a few) and are pretty thrilled to play with some even more amazing ones coming up (preferably Beyonce, but I’ll let you know.) Honestly, though, if it’s just us at a coffee shop playing for a few people, we’ll be excited still. I can’t wait to see everyone and for you to hear these songs live.
PREE
“Pree’s unique brand of lyrically driven, experimental pop throws a shock of light on a rare nexus of style and substance within an irresistible sonic realm.
Pree’s latest album, Rima, will be released on Paper Garden Records this fall.”
MICHAEL HAPNER
WHALE BELLY
MAGIC CITY
DEEP PURPLE “MACHINE HEAD”
YES “THE YES ALBUM”
ELVIS COSTELLO “MY AIM IS TRUE”
My Aim Is True is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello.
HOLGER
AUDIENCES
ASTORIAN STIGMATA
WHY I LIKE ROBINS
JOHN BURROWS PROJECT
THE Legend of “John Burrows” Two hours after Elvis’s death was announced publicly, a man who reportedly looked remarkably like Elvis purchased a ticket for Buenos Aeries, paid in cash, and used the name John Burrows: the same name Elvis had used as an alias several times before.
THE JESTERS
Local Chicago band, The Jesters, have been playing the Chicago scene for nearly 20 years. With a heavy dose of showmanship, The Jesters mix funk rock, ska, swing and a bit of insanity into a high-energy, action packed show. Don’t bother pulling up a chair…you’ll be too busy dancing!
OUT FOR HOURS
SAMUEL LAWTON
KAVA
Psychedelic rock is in the midst of a resurgence with groups like the Flaming Lips releasing their most experimental music in years and new acts such as Tame Impala gaining major international attention. KAVA does what comes natural to three Chicago music veterans when writing, rehearsing and performing together. Ryan Behling (bass/vox), Wilson (guitar) and Marshall Greenhouse (percussion/electronics) first met while forming AfroZep, a national touring act that fuses African influences into Led Zeppelin covers. The trio clicked from the start. It quickly became obvious that it was time to move away from strictly arranging together and start writing original music. So they packed their cars with as many instruments as they could fit and headed far out of the city where they locked themselves up in a cabin for the weekend and experimented. The result was about 20 hours of recordings that included tightly composed odd time grooves in the vein of The Mars Volta, to 15+ minute minimalist jams which featured drones supplied by the Juno and Kaossilators. KAVA has since continued to hold retreats, toured the country, performed local shows (often fully improvised), recorded 2 studio EPs plus an experimental improvised EP and in the summer of 2013 released their first full length album entitled Shikaakwa.
TRIBRACO
TUBAX
KING MARY
SAVANNAH SMITH
NIGHTDOGS
RIGHT ON DYNAMITE
THE SPHERICAL BANANA
CHARLIE PARR
A confused and shy individual, Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and rural-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and a fretless banjo. Parr has failed at most things in his life. Music seems to have rendered him unemployable and is the only thing he’s ever done with any confidence. A lot of folks have been saying nice things about Charlie, despite the lingering odors and indecipherable comments he makes. It says a lot about folks; they’re hanging in there with him, in spite of himself.
PLAN C
BALKANO
COLORPHASE
THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT
MARTHA BERNER
JOHN SCHMITT
ERIC MOELLER
The musical journey of Eric Moeller began at a very early age. Inspired by the death of a family friend, Eric wrote the lyrics to his first song at the age of ten. Ever since then, he has never stopped, and has matured into a talented and inspiring writer and performer. Today, Eric is living in Augusta, Missouri and working hard.
In the past couple years, Eric added a band to his live show. Known as Eric Moeller and the Strummalongs, they are currently playing shows around the St. Louis area and hitting the road when possible. This full band sound is a combination of Bruce Springsteen, the Clash, and current punk acts such as the Bouncing Souls and the Dropkick Murphys.
A new recording has been completed as well. The new full length record is titled ‘Daily Life’ and is due for release July 2010. It features 11 full band tracks as well as 2 solo tracks. The full band songs feature Joey Kotsybar on drums, Eric performing the lead vocal and the rest of the instrumentation, and Bruce Moeller, Nick Falcone, Brian Gunderson and Trey Garrison performing some backing vocals.
Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open. Eric Moeller will surely be heading to your favorite local venue, and putting his music out into the world.
RAMSEN
RAMBOS
DJ BATHROOM (COLDCOCK)
ZATH
LE SINGE BLANC
From France
GUSHING CLOUD
Howdy! M’name is Gus Kumo, and you can call me Gus. I’ve been makin music since 2004 or so with sampler loopy machine thingamabobs! Somewhere along the line, I met a good pal by the name of Doggy P. Lips (he’s the fella with antennas). We had the idea to join forces and perform for people, with Gushing Cloud music being the backdrop. Since 2007 we’ve been performing our unique brand of electro-funk-dj party-meets-weirdo-performance-art-goodvibes-mayhem for lovely pals across the fine state of Illinois. Along the way we’ve been joined by other friends to enhance the show, friends like Stan, Oedipus C. Dopanopolis, and Uncle Brian. We’d love to perform for you!
ELECTRIC SHEPHERD
“Take the Doors, shake ’em up with a touch of Pink Floyd and throw in some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and you have the psychedelic rock vibe of Electric Shepherd… “Down the River” sounds like it could have come right out of an intro to a Tarantino flick… This tale told through music carries the listener through a complex multi-layered universe of sound…” -MEUN MAGAZINE
THE HARD WOOD BOYS
What ever happened to all those dudes that were in those local metal bands of your youth? Well, in the case of The Hard Wood Boys they play old timey traditional folk with a twist now. With a few instruments (and some cleaning supplies made into instruments) these four long time friends are bringing you that hot new jug band joint straight from the underground. And by underground I mean rural Illinois. Featuring a washtub bass as well as mandolin, banjo, washboard and guitar The Hard Wood Boys tap into the very earliest American roots music. If the name Alan Lomax means something to you then this is your kind of band.
CELLAR TROUBADOUR
THE BEESON BROTHERS
A culmination of high energy blues, rock and funk music is what The Beeson Brothers bring to the stage. Enjoy deep driving bass lines, powerful drum rhythms, soulful organ & keys and cutting guitar lines with raw blues lyrics. The band thrives off of live performances and has been making itself a regular showcase in the midwest. Based out of Champaign, Illinois the band consists of four brothers that hail from the northern suburbs of Chicago. Ryne Beeson plays guitar and sings lead vocals, Myles Beeson is on drums and percussion, Drew Beeson can be found on keys, guitar, and vocals, and Callan Beeson is on bass, harmonica and vocals. Drawing from many past and modern influences, including genres of world music for their creative inspiration, the brothers have been writing and are preparing to lay down some original tracks in the coming months. Check out the bands website and online sources for more info on the brothers and an updated schedule of shows.
WEST
FREDDIE PHATS
SYKO
CARMEN LEE AND THE TOMORROW RIVER TWO
Described by Rockabilly-Online as pure, original country/rockabilly, it’s hard not to like Carmen Lee and The Tomorrow River Two. With their first album BIG STAR released this August and gigs throughout Wisconsin and Chicago, Carmen Lee and the Tomorrow River Two are starting to become a force in the scene. The rockabilly-country-blues singer has been writing music since she was four years old, and has never stopped since. Although Carmen Lee’s smoky rich voice has been compared to Patsy Cline and Billie Holiday, and her hit song ‘Big Star’ has been compared to an early Johnny Cash, her sound is truly original. Armed with a train-slappin’ upright bass and simple Luther Perkins style guitar leads, Carmen Lee looks the part of a classic rockabilly queen as she pays homage to 50s rockabilly/country roots and the Sun Studio sound. With Carmen Lee you can’t go wrong, her soulful crooning is sure to hit you right in the gut, if not in the heart.
SHAREEF ALI
DAN CARTY MUSIC
OWEN TOO
KARA KULPA
VILLAINS COMPANY
Villains Company is a five piece rock group from Chicago, IL, that blends the slick tones of classic and modern rock with interstellar grooves and harmonious vocals to create a collage of new and eclectic music.
THE LOGAN SQUARES
VISIONAIRE
MIKEY CLASSIC
Singer/Songwriter for The Goddamn Gallows.
DRAMA JUNKIES
GEOFF FARINA
Geoff Farina is a professional musician currently living and working in Chicago, the home of Atavistic, Southern Records, Schuba’s Tavern, the Fireside Bowl, and other institutions that patronized Geoff’s bands during the indie-rock heyday of the 1990s. Geoff continues to write original music, release records on small labels, and tour the US, Europe, and Japan as a soloist and with his current band Glorytellers. He also performs the solo guitar arrangements of Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton, Blind Arthur Blake, Sylvester Weaver, Blind Willie Johnson, William Moore, Bayless Rose, Norman Blake, Clarence White, Doc Watson, and other seminal American steel-string guitarists. Geoff performs in the Piedmont, Delta, and flatpicking guitar styles developed in the southeastern United States before WWII, using period instruments from his personal collection of vintage Martin, Gibson, National, and Stella guitars. The Last Kind Words, Geoff’s duo with mandolinist and American & Country Tune Book author Kenneth P.W. Rainey, emulate the Monroe Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, and other classic guitar/mandolin combos from the 1930s and 1940s. Geoff’s duo with guitarist/songwriter Chris Brokaw recently released a collection of pre-WWII blues, rags, and spirituals called The Angel’s Message To Me.
Geoff teaches music history at DePaul University, where his courses include That High Lonesome Sound: Bluegrass 1936-1972 and What Were The Blues? 1920-1960. He has also taught music history and music theory at Colby College and the University of Maine, and English composition at the University of Massachusetts. Geoff’s own music education includes a BA from Berklee College of Music, an MA from the University of Massachusetts, and private studies with Guggenheim fellow Roswell Rudd and guitar virtuoso Ben Monder.
Geoff is probably best known for the genre-flouting guitar style he developed during his 12 years fronting Boston’s Karate, or as one-half of The Secret Stars, the seminal early-90s duo that circulated home-made cassettes of original songs now covered by the likes of Ida and Death Cab for Cutie. Since the early 90s, he has played on 40 releases, and performed at more than 1000 venues in 20 countries, including the Brussels Botanical Gardens, Denmark’s massive Roskilde Festival, MTV Europe’s Supersonic, and NPR’s Talk of the Nation radio show. More recently Geoff has recorded 3 albums with the Roman punk/folk group Ardecore, and composed original music for Cinamazero’s annual Schermo Sonoro festival in Pordenone. Geoff’s music has also appeared in Staccato Purr of the Exhaust, a film featured in the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, and Andrew Gillis’ 2000 film Security, Colorado, a film produced under the constraints of the Danish Dogme 95 Manifesto. Geoff has collaborated with musicians Michael Zerang, Massimo Pupillo, Dan Littleton, Luther Gray, Frank Rosaly, Nathan McBride, Allan Chase, Taylor Ho Bynum, Rebecca Gates, performance artist Jed Speare, and dancer Alissa Cardone.
FRANK BANG AND THE SECRET STASH
“Frank Bang has a blue soul and a rock and roll heart. He plays that guitar like he was born with it in his hand” -Tom Marker 93XRT Chicago
Whether it be… Alone and acoustic…. Amped up and rocking with “The Secret Stash” …. Or playing guitar and singing in the All Chicago Blues Band “Cook County Kings”. Frank Bang is devoted to the music of his youth. His heart is pure rock and roll, but his soul screams the blues. Like Mike Bloomfield and many more before him, it was the combination of raw talent, hard work and devotion that earned him respect, and a following, among blues loyalists. Blues guitar master Buddy Guy chose Frank to play blues guitar alongside him on his national and world tours. When you hear him play you will understand why.
For Frank, being on the road with Buddy Guy was an advanced education in the blues, especially in the fields of guitar mastery and showmanship. The experience has not only honed his ability with traditional material to that of a true journeyman, it has strengthened his contemporary guitar presence. As well as opening up Frank to musical influences from Rock to Country, Blues and Soul music. On the road, he has jammed with some of Rock and Roll’s great legends including The Rolling Stones, Carlos Santana, Robert Plant, Jimmy Vaughan, R.E.M. John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, to name a few. He has performed on the Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and numerous European and American television specials, including a documentary on BRAVO and Jules Holland “Live”, for the BBC. His dozens of live radio broadcasts include shows on Mancow, KFOG, KBCO and E Town.