BUTTZ TO NUTTZ

BUZZOV-EN

C.T.F. CHI-TOWNZ FINEST

CACTUS

Coming off a very successful US tour and the release of its first studio album in 10 years, Black Dawn, the time has come for founding member and world renown drummer Carmine Appice to re-energize and rebuild Cactus. The band was once heralded by critics as America’s answer to Led Zeppelin.

Appice announced today two new members to the legendary band’s line-up: bassist Jimmy Caputo and guitarist Paul Warren. Caputo replaces bassist Pete Bremy, who has left Cactus to pursue other projects. Warren, best known as lead guitarist for Rod Stewart, Tina Turner and Joe Cocker, will be the band’s new guitarist for touring, taking over for founding member Jim McCarty. McCarty remains a writing and recording member of Cactus but unfortunately i s unable to tour with the band due to health reasons.

Lead vocalist extraordinare Jimmy Kunes and harmonica wizard Randy Pratt, both of whom joined when the band re-grouped in 2006 remain in the line-up. “Nearly five decades after I formed this band, the time has come to re-invent Cactus once again,” says Appice, who also still drums for Vanilla Fudge, The Appice Brothers, and The Platinum Rock All Stars. Adds Appice: “The music remains the same and Cactus is still a ‘hot and sweaty’ band. The level, quality and consistence of the band’s musicianship is as strong as ever.”

“I saw the original Cactus live a few times, and they absolutely killed it,” says guitarist Paul Warren. “That was one of the great bands of the era, and they are still a great band, today. I am excited, and honored, to play with such an historic band!” Warren, who has his own successful solo band, is a native of Detroit and who considers Jim McCarty as one of his biggest musical influences. “”Filling in for Jim McCarty will be a challenge. Not only is he a founding member of the band, he is a brilliant guitarist and one of the best to ever come out of Detroit. Jimmy could never be replaced. I plan to honor and pay homage to his work with Cactus while still bringing some of my own ‘Detroit attitude’ to the legendary music of this band.”

Bassist Jimmy Caputo has worked in a myriad of national touring acts including The Appice Brothers Drum Wars show, which also includes both Carmine and his brother Vinny.

Cactus returned in 2016 with Black Dawn, a new studio album, its first in almost 10 years. Featuring the blistering riff-rock that the band built its reputation upon, Black Dawn is a classic Cactus album with a fresh new energy that the band has not had since its heyday in the early 1970s. The new line up of Cactus and the release of the Black Dawn CD will land just days ahead of the band’s first string of European dates in 4 years upcoming in May 2017.

The band has had a long and turbulent history. Formed in 1970 from the ashes of The Vanilla Fudge by Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert. the initial line up also featured McCarty and vocalist Rusty Day. (Appice and Bogert had originally planned a new band with Jeff Beck which was put off until 1973 because of Beck’s near fatal car crash in 1969). Jim McCarty had come from Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels and was playing with The Buddy Miles Express. Tim and Carmine also found vocalist Day in The Amboy Dukes with Ted Nugent. Together, the four musicians formed Cactus, named after the peyote cactus, which provided a key ingredient in mind-altering drugs.

While Cactus saw success from the start and soon built a loyal fan base, by early 1973 the band had collapsed mainly due to lack of real support from its label and the fact that Beck was now ready play with Carmine and Tim.
It would not be until 2006, three decades after the tragic death of Rusty Day that the group reformed with Pratt and Kunes to record CACTUS V and play Sweden Rock. When Tim Bogert was forced into retirement due to complications after a serious motorcycle accident, Pete Bremy joined on bass in both in Cactus and Vanilla Fudge.

Now, with Jimmy Caputo and Paul Warren onboard, Cactus embarks on a new and exciting musical journey – just as powerful as before – and bound to be just as successful…one way or another.

CADILLAC CASKET

CAGE

What follows below is a detailed life-long history of Chris Palko, aka Cage. While there is a whole lot of information here, none of it is filler; everything detailed below was instrumental in making Cage who he is at this point, and the story below is one of the most insane, crazy, tortured and triumphant stories you could imagine. Cage’s life has gone from watching his father shoot heroin, to addiction and violence and mental institutions to cutting an album for Columbia Records and being a rising star in the heyday of the NYC independent rap scene, to the final culmination and personal triumph that this album has become. It’s a brand new record from someone who has been through more extreme circumstances than most people could ever imagine, and has come out triumphant and a better person because of it, and whose artistic vision now reflects this.

CAINS & ABELS

Brother Dege

BROTHER DEGE

Grammy-nominated Brother Dege Legg (Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained) is one of the best-kept secrets in Louisiana; a musician, writer (Louisiana Press Award 2004, 2008), outsider artist, and heir to a long line of enigmatic characters birthed in slaughterhouse of the Deep South. It’s a been a wild ride for this boy. Like the mad love child of Son House and William Faulkner, Legg has burned a colorful trail through the Promised Land, working odd jobs (dishwasher, day laborer, cabdriver, embedded journalist, homeless shelter employee), hitchhiking, studying philosophy, and writing books while passionately championing the swampy quirks of Deep South.

Growing up, there were few promising opportunities for young man of Legg’s eccentric stripe in Cajun country and things eventually got difficult and strange: chronic bouts of depression, habitual drug use, clashes with local pecking orders and prejudices, and arrests soon became routine. During one gloomy episode – deflated and broke – Legg climbed the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge, determined to dive into the next life, but after a last minute change of heart, he humbly climbed back down and vowed to find a better way to exist. He immediately drove himself to rehab in a stolen Camaro and rededicated himself to creative pursuits, namely songwriting and writing. He soon formed the rock band Santeria who had a 10-year run of chaos and bedeviled kookiness (1994-2004). After four albums, they disbanded in an anarchic heap of bad luck, poverty, exhaustion, and voodoo curses they suspected were cast on the band to hasten their demise.

Legg spent the next year living in low-rent motels and trailer parks, writing new songs that tapped into the haunting style of the Delta Blues greats. With an odd ease, the songs poured out, spitting new life into the genre, not by hackneyed imitation, but by infusing original Delta-slide songs with his own experience of growing up in the Deep South—young, white, alienated, and lost. Legg’s Robert Johnson-on-Thorazine-style slide work paired with his droning-rural psychedelia brought the backwoods sounds of Louisiana (hurricanes, cows, cicadas) to life while remaining firmly rooted in the troubled and death-obsessed masters. This batch of songs became the first Brother Dege release, the now critically-acclaimed Folk Songs of the American Longhair (2010) – a record that Quentin Tarantino later referred to as “almost like a greatest hits album” of new Delta blues.

Home-recorded in Alan Lomax-like austerity, the album delivered postmodern tales of desperate southerners, apocalyptic prophecies, midnight angels, hippie drifters, burning barns, and the endless ghosts that haunt the history the Deep South. Quietly self-released with no distribution, no representation, and absolutely no hype, Folk Song of the American Longhair quickly earned 4-star reviews (UNCUT) and gained the attention of numerous tastemakers in film and TV, scoring sync placements on Discovery Channel’s After the Catch, Nat Geo’s Hard Riders, women’s cycling documentary Half the Road, Netflix’s The Afflicted, and most notably hand-picked by Quentin Tarantino for inclusion in the movie and soundtrack to Django Unchained.

Brother Dege quickly expanded his cinematic vision of the South with two follow-up albums: How to Kill a Horse (2013) and Scorched Earth Policy (2015). Teaming with otherworldly slide guitars, country psych, barn burning anthems, the tradition continues with his latest release Farmer’s Almanac (2018), a sprawling, southern concept album that further explores the unique mysteries of small towns.

Brother Dege’s latest album is the critically acclaimed Farmer’s Almanac, an 11-track, southern gothic journey that explores escapism, class structure, and the opiated dark side of America’s small town rural communities. Brother Dege’s fourth album swarms with otherworldly slide guitars, rustic psychedelia, possessed barn burners, and swamp-drenched cinematic songcraft.

BROTHER GEORGE

raised on mars, the land of fine spices; Developed an allergy to martian milk (the only ingredient in martian meals); Sublet their garden apartment, and moved to a more suitable home with less martian madness (a side effect of a menacing bacterial infection acquired through too much martian milking.)

Brother John Kattke

BROTHER JOHN KATTKE

Brother John has played with Eric Clapton, Steve Miller, the Black Crowes, and acquired ringing endorsements from many other musicians of renown. For example: Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant had seen John play with Otis Rush at the Jazz Café in London. When Plant and Kattke met in person at the United Center in Chicago, Plant told Kattke: “You play a mean guitar!” George Benson came to the jam session that Kattke hosts at Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago. After hearing the opening set that John played with his band, Benson told him: “You’re fearless! I thought I was fearless! You’re fearless!

BRYAN DOHERTY BAND

BUBONIC SOULS

BUGGIRL

BULLET BIN

BUN B

BURLESQUE BY RED HOT ANNIE!

BURLESQUE TWINS/ DEIRDRE DOLL

BURLESQUE TWINS/ MINA MECHENTE

BURNING LOVE

BURNING THE MASSES

BRANDON REID

BRANDON WETHERBEE AND FRIENDS

BREAD AND BOTTLE

Bread and Bottle is a Chicago punk rock band formed in 2005. Band founder Gus Fuller played guitar for the Repellents while bassist Ryan Scaccia currently plays bass with labelmates Das Kapital. Nothing would be complete without rhythm guitar player Eric Scaccia, and drummer/vocalist Donald Murphy.

BREATHE ELECTRIC

Born in the Chicago suburban basement of brainchild Grant Harris in 2007, Breathe Electric was created with you–the listener and soon-to-be biggest fan–in mind. They know the melodies you want to hear and have no qualms with delivering them through heaps of hook and catchy sing-a-long choruses. The strong minds of Japan have already tapped into this resource with an album release, as have many Hot Topics across America. Breathe Electric knows that you love to dance; they encourage it, using both electronic and acoustic drum beats for maximum boogie potential (MBP). Since you enjoy an energetic live show centered around smiles and MBP, the band is likely on their way to your town right now. So be a good host and go visit your new friends. After all, they are thinking of you.

BRENDAN KELLY OF LAWRENCE ARMS

Brendan Kelly is the bassist/vocalist of Chicago-based punk band The Lawrence Arms, as well as guitarist/lead vocalist in The Falcon and Brendan Kelly and the Wandering Birds. Kelly’s former bands include Slapstick and The Broadways. He is known for his raspy vocals, drunken demeanor, and onstage witticisms.

BRIAN DUGAN

Might be spelled Duggan

BRIAN JORDAN

BRIAN MARTIN

BRITTANY SHANE

BROKENCYDE

Brokencyde – Will Never Die”.

Brokencyde began making headlines after the group’s video for the track “Freaxxx” spread like a virus and racked up more than 4 million hits on YouTube. Since then, the group has put a stranglehold on the online world, developing an enormous fanbase that helped catapult their debut album, “I’m Not A Fan But The Kids Like It”, to #87 on the Billboard Top 200. Since then, the group has become one of the most talked about musical entities in decades, as MTVU, The LA Times, Revolver Magazine, producer Steve Albini and comic book writer Warren Ellis all cannot stop talking about the band that everyone loves to hate.

“On our last record we had a song called ‘Schitzo’ that took on new meaning as we toured in support of the album. There is a line in the song that says, ‘Brokencyde will never die!’ and we thought it was the perfect title for this record,” says Se7en from Brokencyde. “The title is a big middle finger to all the haters that to try to bring us down by spreading rumors and lies. We’ve taken all their hate and used it as fire to create this new album.”

For their new album, Brokencyde have pulled out all the stops to ensure that “Brokencyde – Will Never Die” is overflowing with salacious crunk. The album gets the party rocking with the sugary sweet pop/dance of the lead single “House Party”, and slips into some down and dirty hip-hop on “Karma Sutra”, “My Gurl” shows the band experimenting with contemporary R&B hooks, and Kottonmouth Kings’ Daddy X lays blazes through the reggae infused “High Timez”. Put together as a whole, “Brokencyde: Will Never Die” adds a polish and sparkling shine to Brokencyde’s infectious brand of crunkcore.

“With this record, we allowed ourselves more time creatively to do what we wanted, which enabled us to take things to a whole new level,” commented Mikl from Brokencyde. “This album speaks to our amazing fans that have supported us through thick and thin, but has a little something for everyone so it can appeal to new listeners.”

“I have to say this album is the best work we’ve ever put together,” adds Phat J. “Fans are going to love it, and haters beware because it’s gonna destroy the game.”

Brokencyde have endured and persevered through obstacles that would have broken bands. On November 9th, 2010 these crunk kids from Albuquerque, NM are sending a message to their detractors that they are here to stay…. Brokencyde “Will Never Die”.

BONGRIPPER

BONGRIPPER IS A FOUR-PIECE INSTRUMENTAL DOOM BAND FROM CHICAGO. SINCE 2006 THEY HAVE RELEASED 6 FULL-LENGTH ALBUMS. THEIR LATEST ALBUM, MISERABLE, WAS RELEASED LAST SUMMER.

BONZO TERKS

By pushing the boundaries of composition and improvising together cohesively, Bonzo Terks excels in unique, original and creative music. It is jazz with a startling youthful energy but make no mistake, the sound is grown-up, sophisticated, unwavering.

Harboring members that explore spontaneous composition, free jazz, ambient & textural music, noise, tape manipulations, the Quartet takes an unconventional approach to creating their unique brand of music.

 

BOOTS WITH SPURS

Boots with Spurs is a four piece progressive rock band from Chicago, IL. The band just finished it’s second album, entitled “Voodoo or Die: The Sun Never Sets Part 2” released May 5th, 2012. This album is the second installment of their two part conceptual project and features a new member in vocalist, Ty Wyffels. Ty joins original members: Clay Bail, Matt Gonzalez, and David Lugo as they plan on bringing their hard hitting, psychedelic approach to progressive rock to the Chicago music scene.

“{Boots with Spurs music} makes Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ look like a nursery story, whilst Coheed & Cambria can no longer be deemed the most imaginative band on the planet.” “I’d hazard a guess that the world just simply is not ready for these kind of ludicrous tales.”

– album review from music blog, “The Only Thing I Know For Sure”