Articles

School of Seven Bells have always sounded like a mysterious reenactment of what my loins would look like under a microscope.  Sure, there's indescribable emotions and blindfolded sensations and socially unmentionable pleasures and pinky-involving kinks, but what's immediately apparent is the complete lack of shame. HOW DO THEY DO THAT? How do you create music that's best served while wearing a leotard on earth in 2016? SVIIB, and more importantly the new single "Ablaze", feel like a witchdoctor prescribed cross-pollination between The Naked & Famous and (GASP!) Savage Garden ("sweet like a chic-a cherry cola bro!), but in a way that takes the vanity and rhythms and overall seethru clothing of Empire of the Sun and mixes it with some child-like nostalgia of an afternoon spent...

There aren't many things I love more than beats. I love it when producers fire the rapper because that means I get to ride my own flow in my dome without the incessant "uh, yo" of today's rapping rappers.  But the beat has to murder. SO THEN I TRIP OVER THIS FAT ASS BURNING LOG OF HELL YEA LAST WEEK, and it's some group of bros producing under the moniker House of Spirituals. Not only can I get the fuck down with a name like that, I'm sort of giddily forcing myself to try and relax while bumping off their new new titled "Too Many Days". But I'll tell you, it's difficult letting a vibe like this relax you when all you wanna do is clap in front of your body after extending your arms behind your back and tilting your head back towards the sky. The crisp ass snap of this track is so...

Radiation City is easily one of my favorite bands of the SYFFAL era. Their music must have a spell over me because the vocals are so soft and chilling....specifically the female vocals. And while the band consists of two heterosexual couples....it's the girls who are meant for each other. I feel like I've listened to Radiation City enough to be able to distinguish who is singing what, but I just can't because their voices sound so similar. It's probably why their harmonies go together like vodka and Tang. MMMmmm.  So, when you get the gals harmonizing together with their silky jazz tone AND then add reverb?!?! I'm hypnotized. I'm like a cat's head following a ball swinging from the end of a piece of yarn.  OH LAWDY, I love Radiation City. Even Cam.  Lucky for me they have a new album...

WHAT ARE MY HIPS DOING RIGHT NOW?!?!?! AM I SHAKIRA?!?! WHY ARE MY HANDS ACTING LIKE MADONNA IN THAT ONE VIDEO OF HER IN THE BLACK ROBE IN THE DESERT BRO?!?!?! Whoever the fuck shirlette ammons is, this is some shit! "Aviator" sounds like nothing I've ever heard while sounding slightly familiar at the same time. That rhythm is something I could both make AND deliver babies to. (SNAPS SURGICAL GLOVES AGAINST WRIST) It starts off like Blind Melon's "Car Seat", but then someone throws a jar of grape jelly against the wall and a procession of dancing nuns in mauve habits walks in and all of a sudden it's a satanic Robert Palmer "Addicted to Love" music video out of an instructional BDSM porn video.  I admit it, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm 3/4 erect, thirsty as fuck, and I...

I fucking love how the pocket this fucking band plays inside of is so fucking comfortable. Astronauts sound like the most comfortable fucking cabin in the woods on earth, and while slightly mysterious, I don't get that rapey vibe at all. What? Was I not supposed to comment on their lack of a rapey vibe? I'm just being honest! Most cabins in the woods have at LEAST a small amount of potentially rapey qualities about them, but not this cabin in the woods bro. The Astronauts' cabin in the woods is furnished with futuristic and sustainable housewares, linens woven with recyclable textiles, and pictures of their mum.  "Civil Engineer" is the slight and subtle head nod inducing ear pillow you needed today without knowing you actually needed it. Watch out for these guys to potentially...

I love how Dan San sounds all at once like a soundtrack to a beach vacation home movie, something you'd imagine would play in the background in a candy factory and/or on a tropical fruit commercial. But what's weird is that I get the distinct vibe that Dan San has never actually seen a beach or something tropical in anything other than a BBC documentary. It's the disconnect between the beachy keen vibez and the Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) denim and leather jacket that make me pretty confident that the members of Dan San just drink out of coconuts to feel more relaxed bro. Dan San is the band that wears boots to the beach and never takes off the aforementioned denim and leather jacket bro. "Dream" feels like waking up in a tepid bath filled with a bone broth after enjoying an 1/...

What started out as a unknown name at the top of a list of the best rappers in the early oughts, has become something of a religion. A cult, if you will?  I ordered a CD from a rapper previously unknown to me. His name was Sage Francis and the record was called, Sick of Waiting Tables because so was I.  Fourteen years later and Sage Francis is one of my all-time favorite humans on planet Earth.  I know there are people who aren’t into his emo/wordy/smart/white style. I heard him called everything from not hip hop, to everything that is wrong with hip hop.  But Sage Francis does something on stage that only one other person pulls off. In the lineage of Jello Biafra or Gigi Allin or Jimi Hendrix, Sage Francis and Ceschi are the two preeminent performers when it comes to cult rap. I...

This is the kind of night that makes me want to be able to jetset to Portland, Oregon and back again full of whimsy and with fancy feet, bruh!  Fucking Friday February 12th at Hawthorne Theatre and Lounge, Onry Ozzborn's is premiering his mysterious new film, DUO! The show features live performances from Grayskul, Kimya Dawson, Rob Sonic, Sleep of Oldominion, Destro Destructo, Syndel, PALE SOUL, Goldini Bagwell of Sandpeople, Eddie Valiant, Graves 33, and DJ Zone! And the nut that would be running down my left leg at the end of the night.  Chicago's own Void Pedal will be flying in for this event as well! Word on the moss-covered sidewalk is that there will also be very special surprise guests, as well! Tickets are $13 in advance. $15 at the door. Or if you are a student present...

Brzowski is the homie. He’s a kindred spirit out there on the road. When you realize you’re on the same bill as a rapper from Portland, Maine opening for Grandmaster Bizzy Bee in San Di-fucking-ego, you just know.  Ole Brz has teamed up with fellow Portlander, C Money Burns, and morphed into doomsday rap duo, Vinyl Cape with DJ Mo Niklz. (The lack of vowels in Maine, I find disconcerting.) Vinyl Cape's apocalyptic li’l ditty, “Ordinary Monsters featuring Renee Coolbrith” recorded as theme music for Damnationationland Horror Film Festival, makes me want to open my arms to the end. Makes me want to dance on our graves. Makes me want to bare ass, full moon a mushroom cloud. Makes me drive my Accord off a cliff with my best girlfriend.   Brzowski is on the Doomsday Roadshow right now with DJ...