Spread Joy, Artificial Go, Body Shop
“A dream for short-attention-span punks; imagine an elastic gymnast doing a jittery floor routine to the Suburban Lawns. These wirey, zig-zag punks from Chicago make good on their band name and will bring happiness to old schoolers who love Y Pants and new schoolers into the NWI scene á la the most excellent Coneheads. Spread Joy’s absurdly weird and wonderful angles make them the Picasso of the Midwest (minus the macho BS). Creation and destruction in under a minute? Yes please” – Maximum RNR Artificial Go sounds like a cross between Swiss music group Kleenex and the wiggles. We are here to make people dance again and tap into a younger self that just discovered their curiosities of rock and roll and earthworms. Pancakes and humbuckers with flashlight-up waist belts, checkered taxis beep beep beep. Time to go!! Body Shop is a rapidly evolving, new wave/post-punk act, featuring the primal pop sensibilities of synths, drum machines, and guitars. A pseudo-religious, dance hysteria. To the uninitiated, they’re a high speed chase from Chicago, hurtling toward the after-hours of neon-soaked dance halls and insomniac freak-beat clubs. To those in the know, they’re Body Shop.
Salvation, Curve, Mr. Phylzzz
It’s been said that Salvation is a noise rock power trio with moments that will remind the listener of Cows, Nirvana and Lollipop. We’ve had the pleasure of playing with Cherubs, High On Fire, Negative Approach, Unsane, God Bullies, Local H and many other fantastic bands. We deliver a high energy and wild rock show. Our first three albums are available on Forge Again Records and our most recent album “Mock” is out on Reptilian Records. Curve makes 90s alternative/grunge . Loud sounds , lots of riffs , good melodies Mr. Phylzzz is Dirty Suit Noise Rock from Chicago.
AAAYYYAAA, Future Nest, Shinespark, DrakeAndTheBeatles
AAAYYYAAA makes midwest industrial music Future Nest is Industrial Dance music for the end-times. Give in to the sacred pull. Shinespark is bubbly, hifi, cute, sad, shiny, sweet, digital pop music for anyone. DrakeAndTheBeatles is THE NUMBER ONE noise two piece in Chicago, starring Gren Bee, performance and video tranny, and Texas Roadhouse, an animatronic monkey who does backup vocals. The project utilizes harsh synth, distorted vocals, “guitar”, spoken word about space colonization, and biblical allusions, to create *something* that might be classifiable in a genre, and you’ll at least be able to fake-bop your head to it.
Mystik Spiral, Down Boy, Coveralls
Mystik Spiral is a cover band that specializes in alternative ’90s rock for Halloween parties. Down Boy is Chicago’s first and very own Yeah Yeah Yeah’s tribute band Presenting full-album and variety setlists of alternative rock selections from the last 25 years, Coveralls provide an immersive, true-to-album experience with deliberate arrangements and snazzy outfits!
Dead Sun, Necromoon, Sleep Keeper, Edlear
Dead Sun are professional tshirt salesmen playing ballads of moodsludge and doomgaze Necromoon describe themselves as “corn fed shoegaze with slow core and post rock influences” Sleep Keeper creates a crushing, dreamy, and atmospheric live show with heavy distorted guitars, pummeling drumming, and doom-laden melodies. Edlear is a band from Chicago. Their debut singles, Dishes/The Lottery, move circuitously – never fully presenting themselves, forever dancing somewhere in the peripheral. Not quite spinners, not quite stoned, the music moves along at a workmanlike stumble. Always teetering on that precious edge of fuzzed out bliss and a crumbling internal monologue. The songs manage to pull you in with their lush distortions and sneak in the gut punches of a life squandered. The communal experience of losing the lottery becomes a solitary albatross and a quiet life of responsibility its sullen counterpart. There is loss in everything, even in not getting fucked up.
Zastava, Harvey Waters, Ira Glass, Sunshy
Equal parts scratchy, melodic, cold and guttural, Zastava is a post-punk/noise rock band from Detroit, MI. Harvey Waters describes themselves as Earth Tone Goth ira glass is a post-hardcore band from Chicago sunshy is a noise pop band from Chicago.
The Paper Cups, Bike Thief, Naked Brunch
The Paper Cups are a local Chicago garage rock band with all original songs and a unique sound. This 4 member band brings together the unforgettable lyrics and melody of great song writing and fiery guitar shredding to create songs that with stick in your head for days. Bike Thief mostly plays indie rock, but will throw in some singer-songwriter, Brazilian, and dance vibes along the way. What can we say? We’re Italian (not actually), people are gonna love us. We like to have fun on stage and It shows through our music. Naked Brunch is a four-piece slut rock band from Chicagoland. Groovy, irreverent, and eclectic, this is body-bumping rock’n’roll that’s meant to be seen live.
Grady Drugg & The Kabong Band, Prathloons, Toosh
Grady Drugg has made a career out of playing multiple instruments across multiple genres, being a sideman for artists such as Willi Carlisle, Dylan Earl, Dreamgirl, and Ings. They are putting out an album with the help of Tape Dad (subsidiary of Gar Hole Records, label of Nick Shoulders, Chris Acker, the Local Honeys, etc), and they, as well as their whip ass band are incredibly excited to finally bring their own music to audiences across the country. Prathloons is the Chicago-based songwriting project of Collin Dall. His songwriting layers poetic, melancholic lyrics atop glacial arrangements on guitar, drums, piano, & violin. The songs reminisce on the mess of getting old, the woes of life-long relationships, & accepting that the meaning of our time on earth is simpler than we think: to love and listen, and to hope for the same in return. Toosh makes rock music that goes elsewhere. As one time signature bends into another, Toosh only plays at structure and repetition, wistfully changing keys and tempos like bees cuddling in flowers. Grounded in twisted rhythms, tonal ambivalence, and liberatory politics, Toosh’s recurring message is— change is constant and relentless.
Bora Bora, Lawrence Tome
Bora Bora is a trilingual band from Chicago that plays Tropical Space-Folk music, synthesizing the lush sounds of Brazilian AM Gold with crunchy Velvet Underground sonic tones. Lawrence Tome is the King of the River. Lawrence Tome will lull you into a trance before drenching you in lilting melodies and somber stories, packaged neatly in harmonic wrapping paper and taped shut with the sticky side of eras long gone. Lawrence Tome was born and raised in a Norman Rockwell painting. When startled, Lawrence melts into a puddle of tears.
Dick Texas, National Photo Committee, The Part Timers
Dick Texas makes Experimental Folk and is from Detroit, MI National Photo Committee describes themselves as “Interesting rock, the Chicago way”. The Part Timers formed in 2022 and began playing shows in 2023. The band had a rotating cast of members throughout the spring and summer, but settled into their current lineup in the fall of 2023 to record their debut EP ‘Clock In’. The EP was a stepping stone towards a sound which they are now honing in on – pulling from roots rock, 90’s alt country, and indie rock, The Part Timers form a musical palette which weaves its way in and around the expansive tradition of twangy rock n roll.