When Q. was 8 years old she got her first punk album, …And Out Come The Wolves by Rancid. When she turned 12 she picked up the guitar. Then by the time she was a fresh, angry, 14 year-old punk she decided to start writing songs. By the time she reached the age of 16 she went on her first acoustic tour with about 10 – 15 songs under her belt. 

Then she met Mr. Matt Spiewak, a musically trained Jazz drummer with influences such as Tool and Primus. They jammed, and despite the musical differences, it worked. After they decided they wanted to get a band going they began looking for a bass player and a singer. That’s when Jordan Post, a friend from the same high school, joined the crew. Being the amazing bass player he was, Mr. Post fit in quite well musically. Though the looked, they never ended up finding a lead singer so Q. just took over singing, even though it was originally her plan to do back up vocals. Since she had been singing, playing, and writing her original songs, she relaxed into the position of lead singer.

After many band practices they fell into the name: The Half-Ass Shits. Not much happened with this line up, as Jordan eventually moved to Milwaukee to do college and have a life of his own. Matt and Q. continued as a 2 piece band, who played basement and park shows occasionally. With month breaks at a time not alot was happening for them musically. After dealing with personal issues such as moving, college, addiction, relationships, and just the chaos of moving into adulthood things started looking up for the two piece duo.

In the fall/winter of 2012, after almost half a year without playing together, they began practicing again. That March, Q. put together a Spring DIY show. For a brief period of time they added Jessie Shackelford on bass. They practiced, and played that DIY show in March. He only played with them for that show. Though the show was unsuccessful, it got them back to playing what would be a year of many more shows.

A month or so later they got a gig at a basement venue called The Owl Sanctuary [RIP] and that’s when things started to speed up again. That’s where they met Sir Dave Bonson. The Half-Ass Shits were in need of two things: A bass player and a new name. They wanted to change their name, because that spring they had a segment on the local radio station 89.9 WORT and they had to censor their name. So Dave joined the band and with that they changed their name to Skizzwhores.

Even though Dave had never played bass in a band before, he picked it up faster then most would have. …and finally! Skizzwhores were full and ready to tear up each show that they played. They played more basement venues. The Frequency. The Wisco. The Dragonfly Lounge. Down and Over. The Pollock In and other places.

They released their first OFFICIAL demo: “Exploding Ovaries.” It was recorded at the music space on Park Street by Mr. Mike Scheutte and the cover was designed by Sam Urai. They are free for download and free in person [donations are appreciated for band fun moneys though].

Recently, they played they played the yearly Maximum Ink Halloween show on Freakfest. Doing a split tribute to Joy Division and Bikini Kill they had a blast. We called ourselves Division Bikini for the show, as the line up for it was:

Sam Urai – Lead Vocals/Ian Curtis Dancing
Q. – Guitar/Other Vocals
Evan Christiansen – Bass
Dave Bonson – Drums

Skizzwhores had to part ways with their original drummer, Matt Spiewak due to personal issues. But not all was lost. Since the line up for Division Bikini had great chemistry they decided to keep Evan on bass and had Dave drum.

Ultra Nada is a 3 piece punk band from Chicago. We originally started in the summer of 2013 and been consistently performing all around Illinois area since. We recently recorded our first EP and a full album is in the works.

Ultrahazard is a Chicago-based political punk band. We stand for unity and equality. We sing about topics ranging from feminism, solidarity among artists, class war, roller derby, and revolution. All four of us come from different musical backgrounds such as Riot Grrrl, Jazz, Punk, and Reggae but our music sounds like a mix of Star Fucking Hipsters, Bomb! The Music Industry, The Distillers, and We Are the Union.