Great Ocean Waters, Sweet Bike, Binx, Supercorp

Old friends gather amid a 90's indie rock revival to form Great Ocean Waters. Each member brings their wide array of musical influences to create a classic indie rock feel.

"Chicago four-piece Sweet Bike play emo like 2013 never ended. That makes their sound feel different than it would if they were actually in 2013, refashioning the gritty melodies of 90s emo for a new generation. Sweet Bike don’t sound nostalgic for the halcyon days of the Fireside Bowl—they seem to be calling back to Strangelight, a short-lived early-2010s Logan Square DIY space that hosted several shows by Philadelphia emo-revival poster boys Algernon Cadwallader. This also makes Sweet Bike stand out from the current crowd of fifth-wave emo acts, who are rebuilding the genre from the ground up; Sweet Bike do their rebuilding with the galloping rhythms, whiplash-inducing riffs, cycling guitar patterns, and distressed hollering that have been part of emo for decades. Their debut album, last year’s self-released Ode to Coty, is as invigorating as getting splashed with a bucket of ice water in August. Sweet Bike burst out of the gate with instantaneous intensity and slalom through these songs with the jittery eagerness of a band convinced that this is their one shot. Thankfully they don’t exclusively play like they’re planning to burn out after a single record: on “Final Battle (With Bonus Rage),” where Sweet Bike crescendo into a wall of sound, they also ease up on the throttle a bit, revealing a talent for magnetic melodies that’s much more sustainable than frantic energy." - Leor Galil from The Chicago Reader

The Lou Bega of Punk Rock

Chicago outfit Binx are a blend of punk and midwestern emo