It’s not hard to believe that The Great Crusades have been a band for more than 10 years and have seven albums to their name as well as a career retrospective DVD (Key to the City). The band members’ friendships lie at the heart of why The Great Crusades is still a viable, prolific band in 2010. On the other hand, some might say the band is still together only because it took this long to make its best album yet, Fiction to Shame.
Regardless, the personal history of the band is at least partly responsible for its longevity. Although The Great Crusades was formed in Champaign, Illinois, by vocalist/guitarist Brian Krumm in 1996, the current lineup of the band has been together since 1998. The band members have also known each other most of their lives at this point.
Krumm, bassist Brian Hunt, and drummer Christian Moder went to grade school and high school (and played in bands together) in the St. Louis suburb of Collinsville, Illinois. Hunt and Krumm met Brian Leach, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist, in 1989 in Champaign. Somehow, all four band members ended up in Chicago in 1998, and they’ve managed to stay together and make great music together to this day.
The first Great Crusades album, The First Spilled Drink of the Evening, was released by Mud Records in 1997, and its sound and lyrics quickly created a cult following for the band. Rolling Stone’s David Fricke wrote, “The Great Crusades look at life through a shot-glass lens…mixing anger, muscle, and minor-key remorse like a roughneck Tindersticks with the bonus of a singer (Krumm) who’s got the tubercular pipes of Tom Waits and Axl Rose’s love child.” The album was reissued in Europe in 1998 by the German indie Trocadero Records, and the first of many European tours followed.
Damaged Goods was released by the venerated German label, Glitterhouse Records, in 2000, and by Checkered Past Records in the U.S. The critical accolades kept coming with praise from European and American press alike. Never Go Home (2002) earned 4 stars from Rolling Stone (Germany) and saw the band reach a higher public profile when a tour of Germany, Austria, and Croatia was presented by Musikexpress magazine. In 2003, the band gained even more exposure as part of their appearance on the celebrated German television program, Rockpalast.
Welcome to the Hiawatha Inn (2004), Four Thirty (2006), and Keep Them Entertained (2007) followed, each featuring a fresh approach to the band’s sound. The band continued to expand its fan base and further build its reputation as one of the most engaging, wildest live bands in the business. Along the way, the band shared the stage with a very diverse list of artists, including Gary Moore, Scorpions, 16 Horsepower, Broken Social Scene, Bottle Rockets, Steve Wynn, and Leningrad Cowboys.
Now, with Fiction to Shame, the band is poised to introduce yet another creative direction to its dedicated following. Written and recorded live simultaneously, this album includes some of the band’s most unique-sounding yet accessible songs to this point. Most importantly, however, at the heart of the record lies the sound of four great, lifelong friends making music together as they have for more than a decade.
“While it’s easy to classify Silent Songs as a return, I see it more as a celebration. A heart felt love letter to music andwhat it has given Arbogast (and letting go of what its taken from him too).
There is genuine inspiration and salvation in these songs. The disappointment of seeing peers pack it in is real, but so is the joy he takes from the memories, the tours and people he’s met. He is excited as he is reflective. This is a look back at the last ten years, but it’s also an artist being able to exist entirely in the moment, unfazed by the state of music or what the future will bring.
In reality, the full band feel of these songs is a reinvention of The Gunshy sound. It’s as much punk rock as a solitary, bar room prophet. Gang vocals, triumphant horns, swells of strings and a quickened pace all give these songs a more vibrant finish.
Arbogast can still pen delicate finger picked ballads (“Getting High in Denver” / “Ten Years”) but it’s the energetic, raw numbers that really define this LP. Arbogast has found a new sound, a new well of creativity from which he can draw. Silent Songs is a manifesto of sorts, a reason to keep singing, writing, and touring. A reason to keep living and keep loving.
We all need reason to keep the blood coursing through our veins, and search for the cause that makes us willing to let our blood stain the fields of battle.”
– Herohill
For nearly a decade, The Fisticuffs have been proving themselves as a band to be reckoned with. Their songs are fast paced, complex in nature and direct in delivery. While many bands in the Celtic punk genre lean heavily on played out and sped up traditional pub melodies accompanied by lyrics that are heavy on shtick but low on substance, The Fisticuffs make every effort to steer clear of these pitfalls. According to singer Bobby Baldwin, “If you want that leprechaun b.s. don’t buy a Fisticuffs record, go eat at a Bennigans.” The earth pounding drums and bass of Tony Dellorto and Neal Farrell meet head on with the thrashing guitar work of Sean Moriarty. On top of this mix Dave Beneventi’s mandolin and Arcadia Kust’s fiddle unleash melodies that, depending on the song, can dampen your eyes or clench your fists. Through it all are Baldwin’s growling lyrics about family, hard work, a great many sins, and life on the South Side of Chicago. The band are known for their raucous live shows that can be described as equal parts Irish wake and soccer riot. These kinds of heart racing performances are achieved by the groups love and respect for their music, fans and from the experience gained from years of playing all over Chicago and the eastern United States. In a musical landscape where the term Celtic punk is often synonymous with watered down punk rock, The Fisticuffs are hell bent on standing out. They’re all whiskey, no water.
The Fizzy Pops are from the western ‘burbs of Chicago. They have released a self-titled album in 2009 on Throw Up Records and just released their new album Manic Motives and the Art of Faking on Swamp Cabbage Records.The band alternates vocal duty between bassist Luke Ostojic and guitarist Caitlin Ferraro. The Fizzy Pops combine fast beats and snotty somewhat non-traditional, “unpretty” pop punk vocals. With their catchy riffs and energetic live performances, their songs will get stuck in your head. Their tunes channel influences from early Green Day, Screeching Weasel, The Muffs, and The Queers.
n the great tradition of The Monkees, The Partridge Family and Josie and the Pussycats comes a band actually built around a TV series. Not only does Flabby Hoffman star in their own weekly television series in Chicago (Thursday nights from 11:30pm to 12:30am on CAN-TV Cable Channel 19), but the titular figurehead of the band, Flabby H. himself, is a true activist who believes in and is attempting to instigate a modern day revolution driven by the empowerment of the righteous as a methodology for change in a world gone horribly wrong due primarily to the co-opting of media by elements of the pathological aristocracy. One can of course find the Flabby Hoffman Trio (which depending on the evening is anywhere from a four piece to eight piece band) performing and/or tooling around at nearly every decent club in town once in a while, where the Flabby Hoffman team of volunteers and cross-dressing harlequins are responsible for booking each of the bands that perform at the club for the evening in what is called The Flabby Hoffman Caravan. The Flabby Caravan is a series of shows throughout the Chicago rock circuit with about 300 gigs under its belt which features tons of great organically driven music (usually a four band line up) as well as prize giveaways, occasional comedic and acoustic tweener acts, a freaky host, customized event programs and more all of which is videotaped to gather footage for the Flabby TV series. The Flabby Hoffman Trio itself, unlike the TV bands mentioned at the top of this description who were primarily designed for teeny boppers and lumberjacks, looks to appeal to all of the disenfranchised of the world. Those pushed to the side by a mainstream media which seems like an electronic Spanish Inquisition forcing us to conform or be tortured. A mainstream cultural indoctrination device that seems more concerned with turning everyone into a mindless robot than encouraging truly creative people to create. With their hard rock, riff oriented, axe blistering antics and soul stirring lyrics, there is no doubt that this band is not in the mood to compromise. Will this trio get crushed by the weight of the imposing forces in control of our culture, or will they learn how to thrive in a world run by sociopaths that seek to crush every last vestige of individuality… If you would like to be part of this effort, join us on the TV series, join us on our efforts at movies productions and webisodes, fool around at a Flabby live show, do some original productions and help make this thing resonate…be my guest.
n the great tradition of The Monkees, The Partridge Family and Josie and the Pussycats comes a band actually built around a TV series. Not only does Flabby Hoffman star in their own weekly television series in Chicago (Thursday nights from 11:30pm to 12:30am on CAN-TV Cable Channel 19), but the titular figurehead of the band, Flabby H. himself, is a true activist who believes in and is attempting to instigate a modern day revolution driven by the empowerment of the righteous as a methodology for change in a world gone horribly wrong due primarily to the co-opting of media by elements of the pathological aristocracy. One can of course find the Flabby Hoffman Trio (which depending on the evening is anywhere from a four piece to eight piece band) performing and/or tooling around at nearly every decent club in town once in a while, where the Flabby Hoffman team of volunteers and cross-dressing harlequins are responsible for booking each of the bands that perform at the club for the evening in what is called The Flabby Hoffman Caravan. The Flabby Caravan is a series of shows throughout the Chicago rock circuit with about 300 gigs under its belt which features tons of great organically driven music (usually a four band line up) as well as prize giveaways, occasional comedic and acoustic tweener acts, a freaky host, customized event programs and more all of which is videotaped to gather footage for the Flabby TV series. The Flabby Hoffman Trio itself, unlike the TV bands mentioned at the top of this description who were primarily designed for teeny boppers and lumberjacks, looks to appeal to all of the disenfranchised of the world. Those pushed to the side by a mainstream media which seems like an electronic Spanish Inquisition forcing us to conform or be tortured. A mainstream cultural indoctrination device that seems more concerned with turning everyone into a mindless robot than encouraging truly creative people to create. With their hard rock, riff oriented, axe blistering antics and soul stirring lyrics, there is no doubt that this band is not in the mood to compromise. Will this trio get crushed by the weight of the imposing forces in control of our culture, or will they learn how to thrive in a world run by sociopaths that seek to crush every last vestige of individuality… If you would like to be part of this effort, join us on the TV series, join us on our efforts at movies productions and webisodes, fool around at a Flabby live show, do some original productions and help make this thing resonate…be my guest.
The Flatliners play punk rock/reggae that makes you want to dance and punch. Hailing from Toronto, The Flatliners have shared the stage with such bands as Bad Religion, The Suicide Machines, Anti-Flag, Against All Authority, Catch 22, BigWig, Death By Stereo, Voodoo Glow Skulls, None More Black, Big D and the Kids Table, Planet Smashers and more…They will most likely kill you, but doing so will have never sounded so sweet.
Hey there good lookin. You sure have a nice butt parts. But enough about you, let me tell you about us.
We’re a band, and we make videos. That’s the basic gist. We also do super sweet dance moves, raps about beavers, indoor roller derbies, mustache concerts, regular concerts, calendar making, arts & crafts and some other stuff.
Doin’ it With The Flavor Savers, is the name of our new web series.
Anyway, that’s what we do and who we are. Now, back to those butt parts…
Chicago rock quintet The Flips are known for writing personal songs about inner struggles. Their first album A Harm Deep But Shining tackled themes of faith, religion and identity through contemplative self-reflection and at times, outright anger and frustration. The band’s sophomore album, Better Days, delves deeper into the personal and examines the experience of living with and overcoming mental illness. This time around the band has created a thick heavy guitar based sound to complement the distressed and despondent narrative. -Jesse Menendez (Vocalo Radio)
A wise man once told us “Just stay together, and continue to write the best music you can—great things will happen.” What followed were arguably the most trying 7 years in the history of the music industry, but somehow it never felt like that to us. Needless to say, we followed his advice, and he was right…
Throughout our career, we made 2 albums with Tooth & Nail Records—a cool label out of Seattle that spawned a lot of bands we grew up listening to—and another 2 albums since going independent. We also stumbled upon fun outlets to explore our silly brand of humor, like youtube, where we’ve racked up over 11 million views on our videos.
Once we even got nominated for a Grammy, and saw a single go to number 1 at CHR Radio. Lately, we’ve forged some relationships that we’re really proud of, like an ever-growing friendship with a show called Ninjago, which LEGO produced. The show took on a life of it’s own, and now brings our band name in front of a ba-jillion cool kiddos who might never have heard of us before.
In 2012, we wrote a song that was adopted as the WGN official theme song for The Chicago Cubs, our favorite home team, as well as theme songs for NFL’s Broncos, Bucaneers and Panthers.
We’re so happy and proud that we listened to that man’s advice. Thank you, the listener, for giving us something to sing about!
The Diplomats of Solid Sound is a soul group from Iowa City, IA that performs soul music with a modern garage band twist. The current members of the band are Doug Roberson on guitar, Nate Basinger on Hammond Organ, Paul Kresowik on drums and percussion, Eddie McKinley on sax, David Basinger on sax, Sarah Cram, Kathy Ruestow on vocals. In 2008 Diplomats released an album titled The Diplomats of Solid Sound Featuring The Diplomettes on Italian Funk/Soul/Groove label Record Kicks.
The Dirty Rooks are an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois.
Dan Stalilonis
Grant Gholson
Michael Bailey
Andrew
Formed in 2006, The Dopamines wanted nothing more than to play a few shows, drink some booze and let some air out of the tires. By 2020 they’ve amassed roughly 60 songs and about as many fans, all uniting together in a hillock of drunken self loathing, regret, personal reflection and an occasional spattering of hope. They’re also douche bags and can’t play very well live. Shoulder shrug emoji.
Guitars and mile markers.
The Drastics are modern roots music. Their sound fits as easily in a Kingston dancehall as it does in an artist’s loft-party in the warehouse district. Though primarily classified as a reggae group, The Drastics embrace many styles of music both live and in the studio. This can be heard in their songs which draw from roots Jamaican music, hip hop, hard-bop jazz, afro-beat, dancehall, as well as folk music from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Take this powder keg cocktail of styles, add the pulse of gritty everyday urban living and you get one explosive sound. Not playing into any gimmicks or compromising to trends (“The Drastics deserve much credit for moving deep into unchartered territories” – allMusic Guide) The Drastics have been consistantly rocking crowds for three years from NYC to LA and everywhere in between (“dub masters, The Drastics … never fail to put on a killer party” – TimeOut Chicago).
*The King of Ruckus Rap* MC, punk rocker, Lead singer of M.O.D. Classic* Force 5 Records *Suburban Noize Records* Ex Primer 55 vox (2008-2012)
The Dwarves are an American punk rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois and based in San Francisco, California as of 2009
The Dyes are a raw rock’n’roll trio hailing from Chicago, IL. Often coined as ‘garageabilly’, they’ve dipped into a phonic realm fueled by infectious ’50s and ’60s oldies, approached with an irreverence and vigor that is anything but retro. Frontwomen Lisa and Jill formed the group as teens, then maintained the same line-up since the addition of Charlie back in ’06. The Dyes’ve had the pleasure to travel around the great US of A a time or two, sharing bills with roots rock luminaries including Johnny Powers, Reverend Horton Heat, JD McPherson, Los Straitjackets, and too many other friends to name!
Their last single “Liza Jane” was featured on Bloodshot Records’ (RIP) 25th Anniversary Comp Too Late to Pray: Defiant Chicago Roots, alongside 21 other Chi-town artists running the spectrum of classic country, bluegrass, rockabilly, folk, and rock. Described as “Cramps-and-Flat Duo Jets-fearing garage power trio spins a sleazy, lo-fi psychobilly take on a pop standard that became David Bowie’s first recorded single.”