In this modern age full of knowledge and wireless Internet it's rare to find a band with a minimal paper trail, but THE SUEVES have achieved just that. What they lack in an E-presence they make up for, in abundance, at their live show. The no-frills trio has been ripping through the Chicago music scene for the last four years and are showing no signs of slowing down, which is good news for you if a unique blend of garage-rockabilly-surf-rock is something your into. I caught up with THE SUEVES for some beers and to exchange some short and sweet words.

ASHLEIGH DYE: I know you’re all Chicago transplants, but how did you guys meet?

ANDY MARTIN: School, commercial class. We had a class where we watched only commercials, it was awesome. I sold you adderall. Then we started jamming.

ROB PISKAC: I saw him tapping his thighs in class and asked him “Hey, do you play the drums?” and he said, “Yeah, want some Adderall?”

AD: How’d Joe get wrapped into the mix?

JOE SCHORGL: Well, I met Andy through Max, who used to be in the band. We got together in Andy’s basement and started playing, then Rob joined later.

DSC_4588

AD: How does JOE & OTIS tie into this. Was it a project you had before THE SUEVES or is it just a comic strip?

JS: That’s a pretty sensitive question. I don’t really know who Otis is. Andy do you know who Otis is?

AM: I’m not Otis.

AD: How have you guys grown since you started THE SUEVES?

AM: OK, so we started as a three piece, then Rob joined the band and we were a four piece, then we lost a member now we’re a three piece again.

DSC_4594

AD: What’s the songwriting process like?

JS: Recently we’ve been playing together and making stuff up on the spot. I used to come in with guitar parts and we’d all just kind of add something to it, then I’d spend a long time trying to out words into it.

AD: You guys have been playing with the same bands for a few years now. How have you seen the scene grow and change in that time?

JS: It’s different. There’s a lot more bands that seem to be doing things. I think that we are slightly more serious. We’ve always been a live band, we’d play any show. I remember the first time the Bottle got upset with us for playing a show a week before a show we had booked there and we just didn't fucking get it. We were like, why do you care? Now I get it.

AM: Now we can rely more on ourselves as opposed to other people. In the past we’d always have to borrow a car or something. Now Joe has his van. We also were really lucky to have people recording our shows and stuff.

AD: Yeah, you guys have so many live videos, it’s nuts. Do you ask people to do that?

AM: No, never.

AD: The Knock Out comp was pretty gnarly. Got any other compilations in the works?

RP: Dogs vomiting.

AD: Out of all the places you’ve played, where is your favorite place to play in Chicago?

JS: Without sounding too cliche, I think I’d have to say the Empty Bottle. It was one of the first bigger shows we played, one of the first screen printed posters I made for a show here.

AD: Do you like to use THE SUEVES as an outlet for your illustrative background?

JS: I’ve always liked to combine the two. One frustration I’ve always had is that people always talk about art and music as if they are two separate things, which really isn’t the case.

AD: So, the name THE SUEVES comes from the name of a tribe you read about. What would your tribe M.O. be?

JS: “Why do a whole 360 when you could go 280.”

10497429_10203566914479553_4736055445172986112_o

AD: You guys are pretty elusive on the net. Is that intentional?

JS: Not really, but  I do think things at their purest level should just speak for themselves. This is something I struggle with daily, what to fucking think of the internet. I’m learning how to let something speak for itself through the internet, but a live show should be a live show, and I don’t want to hear about your fucking band telling me I need to be there on the internet.

AD: What’s on the horizon for THE SUEVES? The last thing you released was in 2013, right? It’s 2015 now, guys.

JS: Yeah, we’ve got some top secret things in the works, we also have a 7” coming out with HoZac at the end of this month. It’s great, we got the test pressing and are each taking turns having it and listening to it. We’re just waiting for it to get made, waiting for that big brown box.

DSC_4581

--------------------------------------Words & photos by Ashleigh DyeDrawing by Joe SchorglCATCH THE SUEVES FRIDAY NIGHT when they headline The Bottle with LALA LALA, THE FUNS and EARRING. It's ONLY $5 to get in!

It’s always a drag when one of your favorite bands hardly gets as much recognition as you think they should. It’s even sadder when, with just two LPs under their belt, they decide to call it quits. But alas, this is the story of YELLOWBIRDS, the brainchild of astute musician SAM COHEN, who started the project recording songs in his apartment in what what he claimed was a “disparate” attempt at making music. But it evolved into much more.The music is somewhat  an assemblage of all things old and good in pop music, blending folk, rock and soul in a unique psychedelic melange. After assembling a band of sit-in musicians for Yellowbirds debut album, 2011's TheColor, he was able to get a more permanent full-time cast comprised of close friends for the second. Though TheColor is certainly nothing to shake a stick at and consists of beautifully crafted songs, the chemistry of Cohen's newly assembled band on Songs From the Vanished Frontier (2013) is palpable. The songs hit harder and the aesthetic of the album is more honed.Outside of his own songs and bands, Sam Cohen maintains an eccentric portfolio to boot. He’s been a studio musician with fucking SHAKIRA, the musical director of a recreation of THE BAND’s The Last Waltz (Nels Cline of Wilco played Bob Dylan), and recently has toured as a guitarist with new found soul man, CHARLES BRADLEY. The dude plays pedal steel, for chrissake.So why are we praising this man and all the music he has made when he has hung up the towel? Because he hasn’t. Upon announcing the disbandment of the Yellowbirds project, Sam Cohen has also announced that he will be releasing a solo album in 2015. He just recently debuted a single over at Paste Magazine and you can listen to another one on label Easy Recording’s website. So perk your ears, listen to the old, and get ready for the new.Words by one of our trusty interns, Luke Otwell.--------------------------------------------------------That’s Amore is a not-so-new segment on this here blog where we post about music stuff we like. That’s it. We love hearing from our friends, so tell us what new bands or artists you’re digging on in the comments section. If a song you recommend to us ends up on the blog, you’ll get TWO FREE tickets to the show of your choice at the Empty Bottle. Cool!

DSC_4384

There are times when my life can feel like a fairy tale, and it all started Once Upon A Time in the sunshine filled, rolling hills of Athens, Ohio. Where the town is small, but house shows happen often, where nature reigns supreme and one of the most tight-knit communities finds a home. Athens is also the birthplace of DARK CIRCLES RECORDS, a label and collective devoted to producing and promoting independent music and art.A few years has passed since the genesis of DCR and myself, along with what I will call a power team of friends that make up the masterminds of DCR and half of SODDY DAISY have since transplanted to the one and only Chicago, Illinois. What started as a group of my closest friends loosely putting out albums and throwing a lot of parties, has begun to grow into a driving force in the DIY scene, becoming more efficient and confident every step of the way. From the outside it's easy to dismiss yet another DIY tape label emerging on the scene, but from the inside, knowing that a group of people you love is working towards bettering a community you love, well nothing can bring a tear to your eye more quickly.Tonight DCR is celebrating the release of it's first, of many, compilations and all the hard work it took to put it together. The track lists includes bands from varying genres and locations including some local legends like RABBLE RABBLE, THE LEMONS,  NEGATIVE SCANNER, and new comers SODDY DAISY. To say that this compilation is unique is an understatement, from the tracks to the custom made packing, everything about this comp is special. I got to catch up with my good pal, Maureen Neer of SODDY DAISY to talk about life post-Ohio and the growing musical empire surrounding SODDY DAISY and DCR.ASHLEIGH DYE: Living in Athens made you no stranger to playing shows and being involved in a community based music scene, but what were some of the more major transitions/adjustments that went along with doing the same thing in a much larger place?MAUREEN NEER: I think I got really lucky meeting the Young Camelot dudes so soon after we moved here...it was like, maybe two months in? I came to Chicago with two really specific goals in mind: to play in a band that worked a lot--shows, recording, tour, partying, ya know. Also to get better at cooking. I think we're still in the fledgling stage, but we're all about working hard and building community.AD: How do SODDY DAISY and YOUNG CAMELOT co-exist?MN: There's limited band cross-over at Young Camelot, because we try to showcase a diverse range of music from Chicago and elsewhere. We don't want to constantly book shows with our own bands on the bill, because then people wouldn't come to YC shows. There are so many awesome reasons why I love being involved in YC, and we definitely work with them. Now that we're in the church, YC has gotten REAL. Like, now at YC we print shirts, are potentially partnering with Dark Circles Records for distribution, we can record bands and every live performance, we have film screenings, plays... and the list goes on. We want to come up with a better way of paying performers and helping them record and promote their music. There are also twelve of us that run YC, and we all have different interests and talents, which is why we can offer a band pretty much any service they'll need cheaper than going to a different place for every thing. We want to be a positive part of the community that not only throws bangers, but helps people out. Mostly because we're all weirdos who don't want real jobs, so we're trying to find ways to do what we love. Which is music, art, and having a grand ole time.AD: What do you value most about being apart of a community of people with similar goals?MN: I think the best thing about finding your group, especially in a city as big as Chicago, is that you have so many ideas to bounce off of really talented, creative people. It really produces amazing art and music, and you know, makes life worth living and shit....

AD: SODDY DAISY is barely a year old, but has been making some major headway in Chicago. What have been some of your highs and lows so far?MN: Fighting. We got some stubborn-ass people in our band, I am definitely one of them, so sometimes shit gets, uh, volatile. They flare up quick, but don't last long. I think whenever we play a really awesome show, that's when I feel the happiest. It's the mixture of adrenaline and drugs and shouting and dancing. It's like musical therapy, I think. 

AD: How did you all meet?MN: Well, as you know, Chris Lee was apart of our caravan from Ohio to Chicago. Chris met HoneyHole Johnson and went over to play music at his house, which was the old Young Camelot on Chillwaukee Ave. One night Chris came back to the apartment and was like, "yo, you gotta come over and play with these dudes".  So, eventually I did and it was with Christian and Joey. The very cool dudes over at Situations had booked me for a show already, and I didn't know what to do, so I was like, "you guys wanna play a show in two weeks?" and that was it.

DSC_4288

AD: Why do you think DIY spaces are so valuable?MN: DIY spaces are crucial because they are havens of unfettered creativity. They promote positive community and take care of the people in it. And the music is better .

DSC_4352

AD: You and your drummer, Chris Lee, have been involved with Dark Circles for quite sometime, can you give us a rundown of your guys' history with the label?MN: I've really just recently become actively involved with DCR. Back in Athens, I didn't really do anything with them, other than drugs  (just kidding, mom). They put out two of my old bands--ELTON JOHNNY and M.O.P. Chris Lee was recording a lot of that stuff in his basement; the Danger Room. It was always freezing and I was always there until sun rise and people were always coming through and partying. It also helped that it was a stones throw from my house. One day I remember I was catching some rays on my roof, and I could see and hear Chris playing banjo. Like a creep. Now I'm doing more PR for DCR,  because I'm out at shows a lot and have met a lot of awesome bands, and we're trying to really get situated here in Chicago. We're new, but word's getting out, so it's really exciting to watch that unfold here. I feel like a geek, but I'm starting to do what I've really always wanted to do here in Chicago, and I'm happy as a clam.AD: What's in store for SODDY DAISY'S future?MN: The future of Soddy Daisy? Millions, hookers, rehab, and then hopefully, someday, a reality show on VH1.AD: What are you most excited about for tonight's compilation release?MN: Playing with our dudes from Athens, WEIRD SCIENCE!WORDS & PHOTOS BY: ASHLEIGH DYE

Space Blood Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Donnie Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Space Blood Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Space Blood Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Space Blood Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Paper Mice Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Space Blood Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Crowd Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Cell Phones Glitter Creeps Empty Bottle

Glitter Creeps is a Rock/Punk/New Wave queer night hosted and co-curated by Donnie Moore & Madison Moore, who you may know as two-thirds of Chicago punk band ABSOLUTELY NOT. Donnie and Madison started hosting Glitter Creeps at the Bottle just last month, and we've got em booked on the second or third Wednesday of the Month through the winter (at least). Madison gets behind the bar and plays "Guest Bartender" (this month: Jello Shots) while Donny plays Mr. DJ from the good ol' Piano DJ Booth. Don't miss em THIS WEDNESDAY for Party #2!

On Saturday, December 6th, we returned to Bohemian National Cemetery for Cold Moon, December's full moon that summons the beginning of the winter. For this performance, we ventured into BNC's Cathedral, where we presented three outstanding performances by Chicago's WREKMEISTER HARMONIES, RYLEY WALKER and CIRCUIT DES YEUX. The show was sold out by 8:15pm, just before we started, and the artists were joined by Brownshoesonly, everyone's favorite multi-talented projectionist. Rob Sevier of Numero Group came through once again to set the sonic tone of the evening, playing some brain-melting records throughout the event. Consequence of Sound was there to catch the mystical concert, and at the end of their review the writer "wondered whether the whole event had been some sort of ancient rite, the incantation on the steps of some final initiation. Only time will tell... until the next full moon anyway."Chicago photographer Roman Sobius sent us these fantastic photos that he took. Check em out and don't miss out on the next event at Bohemian National Cemetery. Only time will tell when that is going to go down...

Sometimes it's true that trends in music produce exhaustingly cookie-cutter sounds, but on the flip-side, sometimes those trends can help unearth true musical gems. Electric Citizen is one of those rare gems. They pay homage to the dark, classic Sabbath-esque occult psych sound, while lead singer Laura Dolan’s seductive vocals blend some deep layers into the mix. Dolan has the perfectly witchy voice to convince you that maybe, just maybe, she actually could cast an evil, life-shattering spell on you if she wanted to. Electric Citizen's driving rhythms and use of ominous organs bring a sense of impending doom that’s all brought back to the earthly realm by the bending guitar solos from Ross Dolan. It’s no surprise how well the two collaborate given that they are high school sweethearts now-married and although Electric Citizen has only been playing together for about 2 years, it sounds as if it's been much longer.This summer the group toured with WOLFMOTHER and expanded their fan base along the way. With an authenticity to their already crushing sound, it’s no surprise they’re starting to get some national recognition. Beyond being musically talented and damn fun to listen to, Electric Citizen is the whole package. Everything from their endless collections of fringed jackets and suede vests to the artfully-mixed sound with a few pops and a little hiss here and there, they feel finely aged and genuine. Seeing them play live is no different. They’ve got an ability to transport their audience and you definitely want to catch them live if you get the chance.“Light Years Beyond," from their debut album, Sateen, is the kind of song that should be listened to at top volume while on psychotropic drugs and riding on the back of a motorcycle. It’s got incredibly heady effects of badassery that wash over as the guitar riffs wind themselves around you. This is not a band for the faint-of-heart.That’s Amore is a not-so-new segment on this here blog where we post about music stuff we like. That’s it. We love hearing from our friends, so tell us what new bands or artists you’re digging on in the comments section. If a song you recommend to us ends up on the blog, you’ll get one FREE ticket to the show of your choice at the Empty Bottle. Cool!

Empty Bottle Book Curbside Splendor

In case you haven't heard, a year from now (October 2015) Chicago publisher Curbside Splendor is putting out a book about us and they want your stories, photographs, and art! This is the LAST CALL for submissions: You have until December 31st, 2014 to submit something for the Empty Bottle BOOK! Journey through the dark, twisted, beer-soaked canals of your mind to come up with something YOU think the people will want to read about.Here's what Curbside has to say about the book: "We want your stories, photographs, and art inspired by the Empty Bottle, whether you played there, worked there, partied there, made love there, or got married there—we want it!" SUBMIT YOUR STORY HERE and get updates from the book's Facebook page.

Pompeii’s Road to the Bottle has taken them to some interesting places, and the Empty Bottle will be their last stop on this long tour before returning home to Austin, Texas. They'll play one last show in Austin with their tourmates Simian Ghost, who will then return home to Sweden. There is little doubt though that Pompeii and Simian Ghost will feel at home here at the Bottle.

12

Pompeii brings a cold, calculated and modern take on shoegaze to our stage, which should have everyone swaying to and fro. Noisey called Simian Ghost, “by far one of Sweden’s most promising pop acts to come out this year.”

16

7

6

Pompeii’s songwriting is meticulous and detail oriented. They work to blend atmospheric openings that envelope the listener. They fill up the room with soft, lilting effected guitars that soothe the listener. After they’ve laid this foundation they build towards soaring crescendos.

Pompeii have been around for a decade now. Forming in Ausitn, TX back in 2004. In that time they have rarely written songs quickly, instead spending a long time focusing on all the little details that make up the sonic spaces they have put down on record. “Blueprint,” one of the singles off their latest release, LOOM, was written in three days, and that’s probably the fastest they have ever written a song. Still, it's one their best songs to date recalling a more classic shoegaze style than much of their other work. With its chugging bass line and a wall of guitars, the vocals are almost whispered as the guitars do all the yelling and the drums just beg you to move. You can give it a listen right here:

Processed with VSCOcam with hb2 preset

Simian Ghost make dreamy upbeat pop songs. With shimmering production and interesting rhythms the band seems poised to continue rising. Their lyrics are nuanced and offer a depth that rewards multiple listens, but the melodies are so immediate and instantly accessible that it’s not hard to see why more and more people are getting into this band.

Pompei 1

48

Catch them both here tonight with Minneapolis band ENEMY PLANES and Chicago’s own THE BLACK TAPE. Four bands and it’s all only 8 bucks at the door. That's something like... $2 per band -- quite a steal if you ask us!

Get your tickets here (or at the door after 8:30)!

Pompeii 2

Words by Tim.

For our 8th Episode, still with a Parental Advisoryon iTunes, we are honored to welcome three of the righteous dudes from beloved Chicago institution, Permanent Records. Dave, Robert and Jamie get around the table to talk about in-stores, Boris and other favorite bands. Then Dave gets Permanent Records founders Lance and Liz on the phone all the way from LA to talk about Permanent's Bronze Anniversary and the party we'll be hosting with them at the Bottle on Oct 27 celebrating the release of Oozing Wound's newest LP.  This month we also welcome one of our favorite local bands, Running to discuss higher education and other "high" exploits.  They'll be joining in the celebration on October 27 and then will be returning to the Bottle to open the two sold out Thee Oh Sees shows here in November.Under all the band talk and shit talk, you’ll hear songs from the following bands who will be playing Empty Bottle shows in the coming month. See you in November?Subscribe/Listen on iTunesPodcast Oct 27"Western Child" - Touched By Ghoul - Oct 31"#1 Dad" - Running - Oct 27, Nov 25 & Nov 26"Drug Reference" - Oozing Wound - Oct 27"Dog Bite" - Natural Child - Nov 12"Cold Days From the Birdhouse" - Twilight Sad - Nov 23"Moonraker" - Tüth - Nov 4

OOZING WOUND is in a genre all it's own and it literally doesn't give a shit. The three person riff-heavy, punk outfit has been thrashing skulls and taking names for roughly three years with no signs of slowing down. This month they're celebrating the release of their second full length album, Earth Suck, out on Thrill Jockey last week.  In the new record, you can find even more caustic examination of mankind, an impressive blend of punk, metal and rock & roll, and some very cheeky lyrics, that is if you can decipher them. I met up with the trashy trio for an interview that's as serious as the band itself, during which I weird out Zach Weil, discuss past wounds, and the toppings on an Oozing Wound specialty dog.

ASHLEIGH DYE: So your newest album Earth Suck, out on Thrill Jockey, was just released. What are you guys most excited for with this release?

KYLE REYNOLDS: Definitely the fidelity of it is way better. We spent a lot more time writing this one.

KEVIN CRIBBIN: It sounds way better than our first album, but I don’t think we’ve recorded the album yet. We may never.

AD: Haven’t peaked yet.

ZACH WEIL: We got out of the play really fast mind-set.KR: The second half of the album de-evolves into this really strange repetitive kind of sound. Things are stranger and more melodic. The second half of the record I really like a lot. Whatever we were doing, it was good.ZW: I think we just intentionally knew that the second half of the album was just going to be weirder. It let us feel more free to do something like that. Retrashhad already established a very specific sound, we finished side A of Earth Suck before Retrash even came out. So, side B was really more, I don’t want to say reactionary, but we felt much less restricted on what we could and could not do.

KC: We had more recording time, too, we got to think about more making intros and outros. Our friend Whitney came in and played the viola.

AD: Yeah, you guys had what, one day to record your last album?KC: It was quick, we were just stuck with what we had. I’m happy with that, too. It was just a little stressful. But, we even cut a song.ZW: Yeah, but it has it owns aesthetic. At the time it was good fortune. I worked with this one guy who convinced me to let him record us. He had one night free so we recorded four songs, and he was impressed we could do four songs, so then he interned at Electrical Audio and he got a free day. We all figured we could do an album in a day if we can do four songs in a night. In that sense it was total luck. I mean if something had gone wrong or it sounded horrible it would be another thing.

DSC_9700

 AD: How was moving from doing your first release on your own label,

Rotted Tooth

,

to putting stuff out with

Thrill Jockey?

KR: Well

Rotted Tooth

is just me. I don’t have thousands of dollars to throw into promotions and marketing. So, it was obviously totally different.KC: It would have just gotten out there so much slower. Kyle’s just one dude, man!ZW: We’re used to that, though. That’s how we’ve done everything. It’s either Kyle puts it out, or

Permanent

would put it out, or just random dudes. It’s never been remotely a big production for any record we’ve been a part of,

Thrill

Jockey

’s not even that big. It’s only five or six people working directly on something. It doesn’t feel all that much bigger, but they’ve been doing it long enough so for whatever reason now we have a playlist on

Entertainment Weekly

.

AD: I listened to that today, I really liked it! I love that a lot of your musical output, Zach you run that music blog

Heavy Wave

, and the music you review is really versatile. There’s some harder stuff, but also a lot of like late 80’s pop. How does those sort of left field influences surface in Oozing Wound’s sound?

KC: I hear things emerge here and there that allude to something else. I really like minimalist music, I love

Lungfish

and

Lighting Bolt.

They’ll get in your dome. I think in that sense we can relate to their sound.

AD: What was the process for some of your music videos you have out? That video for

Welcome to the Spaceship, Motherfucker

is insane. Did you guys work on that togeth

er?KC: That’s our good friend, Joe Martinez. I’m sorry, Joe Martinez

JR

. He’s been our go-to photo guy and he's always done videos. It was like “Dude, we need to make a video.” So, we called Joe and he had already shot a bunch of these pictures and we just had a bong hit idea to make GIFs out of them. A friend of Joe’s who works for

Mudwing Media

drew all that stuff and edited it.

AD: How many beers were shotgunned for the

Call Your Guy

video?

ZW: So many beers. Ryley Walker alone shotgunned a shit ton before cameras even started rolling!

AD: Does

Thrill Jockey

help you with your videos or is that still something you do on your own?

ZW: Oh no, we would never make them do any work for a video unless they specifically ask us to make a video. They help fund them, which is great because we have no extra money to create something like that. For the most part they’ve been pretty hands off. They’ll just ask “You guys got any ideas?” and then we say no, and then we panic and come up with something pretty fucking stupid, then we shoot. "Call Your Guy" was done in one night, "Going Through the Motions Until I Die" was a little more sporadic.

AD: Yeah I watched all three of those today, they were great.

ZW: Man, you’ve had such an Oozy day!KC: Oozing Monday.AD: Yeah I even read through almost your entire blog. I really like the harmonizing you did with your nephew Bamper.ZW: Man, this is almost getting creepy!AD: You put it on the internet, man. Do you see a future for infants in Oozing Wound?ZW: Hell yeah, if he ever wants to be a part of it we got a spot for him. Right now he only cares about Thomas the Tank Engine and some really fucking terrible cartoons. He sings though, it’s pretty cute. I played a lot of the Retrash riffs in front of him, because we were writing that while I was watching him. He seemed pretty into it.AD: Do you play into the sludginess of the sound when writing your lyrics?ZW: I just do it based on how it sounds best. I’m yelling and screaming on top of loud rock music, so it’s not surprising you can’t really hear what I’m actually saying.KR: One of the things we are self-conscious about, as a band, is having vocals that are too loud. I like when vocals are buried in a sound. Lyrics can so quickly ruin a song.ZW: Yeah there are two elements that can really ruin a song. Your lyrics are fucking horrendous or the vocal itself is unlistenable. Things don’t always translate very well.KC: There are certain times when clarity is cool, but not when you're playing loud rock in a basement. Too loud of vocals is just like when there’s too much icing on a cupcake. It’s obnoxious.AD: I literally could not agree more. I guess I should ask if you feel like you can say some more personal things since people won’t really be able to hear what is being said.ZW: I go out of my way not to be very personal, especially in this band. I free write until something cool comes out, or I’ll save pages of weird or fucked up things I read on the internet and sometimes a story kind of emerges, but I don't think we have any songs from my point of view. I mean, I relate to them, but even "Hippie Speedball" is about a roommate of mine who would go to work high everyday, which most people probably think is about me, but I don’t do that. I get it and I relate to his plight.

AD: What caused your Oozing Wound?

ZW: 7th grade. Emotional turmoil. I got called poser a lot.AD: Oh yeah, that’s in that video, Going Through the Motions til I Die. “How’s my headbanging, babe?”

 ZW: People keep walking up to me and saying that at work now. It blows.KC: I had an oozing wound once. I was almost really hit by a car. It knocked me over and crushed my bike. I got this really bad scar on my ankle, I don’t know if it was from the car or the bike, but it was right on my joint and wouldnt heal. It got really gross and gnarly. But, then I bought liquid skin, because the future is insane.

AD: Kyle, what about you? Do you have a real or fantasy oozing wound?

KR: I don’t. Wait, a street fight!

AD: I imagine some leather jackets, some switch blades…

KC: Broken bottles!

AD: And lastly I’m not sure why, but I want to ask: If Oozing Wound were a specialty hot dog what would the toppings be?

ZW: Oh man, we’ve talked about this!KR: A veggie dog with bacon. No substitutes.KC: A Chicago dog filled with that green ketchup they made for Shrek. Because fuck you Chicago and your hatred for ketchup. You can put ketchup on whatever you want, it’s America.Check out some of

Earth Suck

here

and be sure to catch them here, at the Empty Bottle,

TONIGHT

. Stop by for the

Oozing Wound Sidewalk Slam & Sing-Along

beforehand. It's all FREE, ya ding-dongs! 

Words & Photos by Ashleigh Dye

I first met Juan Wauters in November last year, opening for his band The Beets at Glasslands in Brooklyn. We became quick friends and realized we had a lot in common musically. Months later he released his outstanding debut solo album North American Poetry.  Soon after we played a handful of shows together in Austin for SXSW, where we did nothing but chill. Since then we've kept in touch and hang whenever the opportunity is there. Juan and homeboy Mac Demarco dropped by my last show in Brooklyn a couple months back, which is when the picture above was taken.To get down to business, Juan is one of the most unique songwriters in recent years. He has a weird philosophical take on day-to-day living in his lyrics. His live show and aesthetic is as unique as everything else he does. Backed by Matt Volz's artwork and an array of triggered lighting, he engages the audience by himself in the chillest way imaginable.This is his third Empty Bottle performance of 2014 and I could not be more excited to have him back! I caught up with my man on the phone today for a little interview action, and here's what he had to say.Jimmy: Sup Homie!Juan: Sup son!  Stoked to come back to Chicago and hang!Jimmy: Let's get down to brass tax real quick. Plenty of time to shoot the shit later tonight. Gotta be a pro-journalist for a second.Juan:  Whatever you want to know, bro.Jimmy:  One of my favorite things about your lyrics is your take on day-to day-living, some might say it's kind of philosophical...Juan:  I just like to think about myself and how to make myself better, you know? I just think about they way I think and how I am, and the way the world works. Kind of my commentary on the world's condition and the human condition. I don't know 'bout philosophical...that sounds kinda uptight.Jimmy:  Chill Philosophy?Juan: Yeah man.Jimmy:  Whats the main difference for you, in shifting from doing The Beets and doing solo style?Juan:  With The Beets it was more of working around the set-up and instruments we were using. But right now I can go further and explore different sounds.  And it has become a lot personal now too.Jimmy: Solo is great cause you can't break up with yourself...Juan: Yea man, just living drama free!Jimmy: So you're a cutie... You get hit on by the ladies at the rock shows?Juan:  Haha, yeah, I don't think I get hit on too much or anything like that. Sometimes, it's chill...I dunno dude. I like to share moments with the ladies and the guys.Jimmy: You just did Europe and kept posting about how you were accepting fruit. Did people hook it up?Juan:  Yeah, people brought a lot of fruit, but fruit wasn't too good in Europe. Actually, fruit is kinda bad over there. Matt Volz got some shoes. I got some shoes.Jimmy:  Was Spain really chill because Spanish is your first language?Juan: Yea, that's the first time I got to play for a Spanish-speaking audience. I've been writing a lot more in Spanish recently.  And I got to sing a lot of songs in Spanish. So get to communicate. But I have a lot of Spanish-speaking kids that come to the shows in the states too. They feel like they can identify with me, which is really cool.Jimmy:  What's next for Juan?Juan: Going back to New York and recording a record next week that's gonna come out in March. And have a different record coming out in January, it's a 50 minute song that I did with Carmelle. That one has many different moods, but is a really weird one.  It puts people to sleep, but in a good way.  Very peaceful.  But I can't wait to get the second album out in March.  I've been ready to do this for a long time!  Thats what's up son! 

 Written by Mr.

Jimmy Whispers

Hoop Dreams Basketball Commentators

Hoop Dreams Basketball Sign

Hoop Dreams Basketball Crowd Watching

Hoop Dreams Basketball Chris Kramer Jump Shot

Hoop Dreams Basketball Rascal Defense

Hoop Dreams Basketball Jimmy Whispers Jumper

Hoop Dreams Basketball Radar Eyes

Hoop Dreams Basketball Shirts Skins

Hoop Dreams Basketball Hanging Out

Hoop Dreams Basketball Skateboarding

Hoop Dreams Basketball Magic Milk

Hoop Dreams Basketball Kelly Nothing

Hoop Dreams Basketball team hozac

Hoop Dreams Basketball Michael Jordan Smith Westerns

Hoop Dreams Basketball Sportsmanship

This past Sunday, October 12th, rather than staying home and drinking Sambuca all day, we joined forces with Jimmy Whispers to host the first ever HOOP DREAMS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT. The tournament (and music fest) was located at 1834 W Chicago Ave and it was created to raise funds for CeaseFire, the Illinois branch of the Cure Violence Organization, which operates in 6 cities throughout the state – Chicago, Maywood, Rockford, East St. Louis, Springfield, and North Chicago/Waukegan.We opened the gates just after noon and the lot started filling up right away. Notable members of the community came by and sipped on beer from Revolution Brewing and enjoyed food from The Doner Men Truck and Soups in the Loop.The first game of the day got pretty heated as local record store heavyweights Reckless Records faced off against Permanent Records. Many picked PRex to go all the way since they had home court advantage (the tourney took place at a lot just a few doors down from Permanent's store). With the high-flying-heroics of the All-American Boi Chris Kramer (SLUSHY/THE LEMONS), their team looked in top form and they took an early lead.Reckless wasn't hearing it though. They kept their heads down, tightened up on D and proved the naysayers wrong. Coming out victorious, thanks in large part to the hard-nosed and wily playing of one called “Rascal” (BARE MUTANTS).The second game featured a couple of our favorite home-town record labels, with Hozac Records squaring off against Drag City. Leading the Drag City team was triple-threat Jimmy Whispers (JIMMY WHISPERS), who helped organize the event, performed a set of his music, and balled O.C. (that's outta control for all you noobs). Unfortunately for Drag City, Mr. Whispers was too busy to make many shots. Hozac jumped out to a large lead, led by strong efforts in the paint from James Swanberg (TODAYSHITS/THE LEMONS) and Spike Johnson (SPIKE AND THE SWEET SPOTS). With only two minutes left on the clock and down by 14 points, Drag City’s fate looked sealed. However, Brett Sova (AXIS: SOVA) wasn’t going to lie down and take it. He led his team back. With the help of a miracle buzzer beater, the teams headed to OVERTIME!The comeback was certainly one for the books, but Hozac proved to be far too much during OT. The clock had struck midnight on Drag City’s Cinderella Story. Such a loss could have been truly heart breaking for the Drag City dudes and all the fans that had been cheering them on during their come back, but RADAR EYES was there to rock all our troubles away. We cracked open another Revolution and it was like everybody was friends and no one was ever sad... Although it must be noted that many shooty-hoopers weren't too happy with the tournament's volunteer ref after the second game. So much for good sportsmanship!With the title match between Hozac and Reckless all set, Permanent and Drag City played each other in a consolation game. Permanent won, making them the 3rd place team in the first ever HOOP DREAMS CHARITY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT. This game was a crowd favorite because both teams had black uniforms, which led to them inevitably going SHIRTS VS SKINS.  Hell yeah - lookin' good, fellas!Speaking of “Hell Yeah” moments, Jimmy Whispers serenaded the crowd with his uniquely honest and painfully-raw love songs. MAGIC MILK jumped on stage to play along with him for part of the set. We can’t show you pictures because Kenny wasn’t wearing any pants. Instead check out these other pics of Kenny from the day, and imagine him in his underwear on your own time, OK!Fine. We’ll show you one pic of Kenny in his underpants, but that's all you get.The title game was something truly special. Reckless started out hot, raining threes on team Hozac. The lead would not last, and following a sluggish start, Hozac started scoring in bunches. It looked like Hozac had an iron grip on the game. But then Kelly Nothinig (THE LEMONS/ANIMAL KINGDOM) started to drain 3 point shot after 3 point shot to give Reckless hope and get the crowd going NUTS! Guess they don't call her Kelly "Nothing But Net" 420 for nothing.In the end it was too little too late, and Hozac held off Reckless’s advances to become the winners of the first ever HOOP DREAMS CHARITY BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT. Here are the people behind all of Team Hozac’s glory: Todd & Robyn.Former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan was in attendance, hanging out at the scorer’s table and doing a little announcing along with Joe Jeffers and Cullen from Smith Westerns.All agreed, that the reffing was really strong throughout the tournament, but truly the day was about community and charity.Photos by Sam Awesum & Roman Sobus

Though you may not assume it when listening to their music, YAWN are DIY renegades. The phrase DIY usually doesn’t bring the type of immaculate production style that YAWN’s recordings feature. They represent a sort of hybrid animal within current music that reflects aspects of both recent DIY and archaic pop aspects of music. On one side, they are self-producing and recording. On the other, they have quality sounding recordings with an acute attention to detail. They have the assets of time and artistic control on their side and it has shown ever since their first EP in 2010.

They’ve been a seminal part of the Chicago’s DIY scene outside of their own band as well with two members being two-thirds of the founding group of FEELTRIP, a local DIY studio space, venue, and label. All of but the latter are now extinct since the closing the actual space nearly a year ago. The place was host to numerous acts of all types including the ever-blossoming young locals TWIN PEAKS and THE ORWELLS, as well as JUICEBOXXX, SISTER CRYSTALS, DIRTY BEACHES, STARFOXXX (the other 1/3 of Feeltrip's founders), MICRODOT and many many others.  Who knows, we might even see a non-fiction book in Barnes and Noble in thirty years about the place and the renowned acts that played there in the span of just a couple years.But YAWN has had their own individual success as well, especially for a band who has handled their own business primarily. They’ve opened for acts like Yeasayer, Tame Impala, The Kooks, Mates of State and Yuck as well as getting featured on Pitchfork a handful of times.They came to The Empty Bottle for the release of their new LP Love Chills (Old Flame Records).As YAWN seems to be discovering (as many DIY outfits do as they mature) that when it comes to DIY-ing it, the actual release of albums and EP’s is the part you may want to DI-don’t. Even more important though is that this album marks the largest shift in YAWN's sound as they stray further away from their sampling tendencies and introduce a more traditional, instrumental approach. Most notably, percussionist/drummer Jorge Perez is heard rocking a full drum kit where before the beat would be comprised of many singular, sampled drum elements. With more guitar and organic key sounds than ever, one gets the impression of people in a room jamming rather than music being made in some strange dimension of space and time which was been the feeling of past works. YAWN was able to sit down and  talk with The Empty Bottle about their new album, new label, and how they came to be before their performance.

The new album is out on Old Flame Records. How did that happen?

Adam: We’d been sitting on it for four months, shopping around to labels. We'd met this guy Rob Mason, the guy  who runs old flame back in 2011, when we were in New york. He wanted to put out our first EP but it was already old at that point. And so we reconnected. Just a friend basically.You guys have been heavily DIY for a while, self-releasing your first LP. This one is out on Brooklyn label Old Flame Records. What was the motivation for going through a label instead of self-releasing it?Daniel: We needed the outside help. When we self-released the last album we felt like it didn’t go off as well as we wanted it to. It didn’t get the traction. When you have outside help people are willing to help with their connections and resources. Even though we essentially recorded and produced the whole thing on our own, releasing it and having someone push it out and have people listening to it was important to us.Where did you guys record the new LP, Love Chills?D: We recorded it at a place where we lived that was a recording place and a venue called Feeltrip. It used to be the studio of seminal 2000’s rock band Disturbed.So you guys had has all of the recording done by the time Feeltrips was closed about a year ago?A: Well except for one song.Could you attribute Feeltrips to the fact that there are a lot of live drums on the album and having the space to rock out?D: Absolutely. We recorded everything on our own starting with the first EP. We always had the mentality “Lets just do it and make it sound as best as possible, however we can do it.” So we were always scrappy about it. Recording one drum at a time. That’s why everything before this LP heavily weighed on samples, especially drum samples because we couldn’t get the drums to sound that big. Here with collaborative efforts with all of our friends who had equipment, who had microphones and interfaces, we finally had a way of just sitting there, going take after taker, learning as we went, recording drums. Feeltrip allowed us to do all that live drumming.

Was the dynamic of collaborating any different? Did roles within the band switch or change? Or did you guys stick to your guns?

A: Daniel started playing more bass. Right? And I definitely played more guitar. Or took it more seriously, not just sort of interjecting a solo. It weighed a lot on my guitar playing this time around. Nothing really changed, we just started focusing more on one of our instruments.D: And then production mostly. So a lot of the times when we had a song written, we were grabbing random stuff in our studio like a Rhodes that is running through the pedals, and thats cool sonically. Having a lot of fun getting cool sounds without having to go to samples. At the core of it, it was kind of the same. We all play the instruments that we usually do.Are there any pieces of gear that you fell in love with while recording this album? Any new tricks or common occurrences while recording?D: The Carbon Copy.A: The Carbon copy delay is great. That Pedal.S: Yamaha DX-& we used a lot.A: I love my VOX AC30 for recording.How has your live set-up changed with this new album?S: I’m running through Ableton on a laptop now just having a MIDI keyboard setup with the sampler machine on it and that’s pretty different because before I was just using analogue synths and this allowed us to use any sound we want. It’s different when you can just basically choose any sound that you want. Especially the ones that we used in the studio that we couldn’t use live before, now the laptop’s right there and we can just play it then and there.Before you were using a sampler/hardware pieces?S: I was using a mono synth, a DX-7 for a while, an Akai Ax80. And they're all great but they’re limited in comparison with what you can do with a laptop. There’s so many different analogue plug ins, it’s pretty endless.I know you guys are all about the studio, and have heard you guys mentioning Harry Nilson as an influence. He's notorious for never touring and basically strictly being a "studio artist." Would you guys just be in the studio all the time if you could?

A: We’d love to but that’s just a dream. You couldn’t make any money off of it. Right now, the bands make a lot on touring. But we’ve always loved the later Beatles stuff just because they explored with recordings, and pushed things you know. Brian Eno’s solo stuff where he just sat in a room and recorded.

S: Kate Bush too. It just seems so unreal to us that someone could make a living enough that they don’t have to tour.

D: But at the same time, over the last year we didn’t tour. I’m fucking excited just to go. There’s a lot of excitement that goes into it. And just traveling around…

S: Leaving Chicago. Seeing other places. Seeing other People.

D: It’s a pain in the ass sometimes. Especially if you have a piece of shit van or no money, it’s still way more fun than just sitting on your ass all year.

Speaking of vans I saw Hanksy just painted your van recently? Are you guys friends with him?

S: He used to be a writer for a blog and he interviewed us and that’s how we actually met him. We’ve kept in touch since then. He lives in New York now, but he comes by pretty often and we go to New York pretty often.

What did he paint again?

D: Vanny McBride.

vanny mcbride

S: The one before that was Van Akroyd.

van a

D: And that van got stolen.

(laughing) How do you steal a Van Akroyd?

S: I think they might have broken it for parts like the second they got it. Brought it to some chop shop or something.

For us Chicagoans looking to discover new music, what/who should we be watching out for in the local music/art scene?

A: Jimmy Whispers is Great.

S: We like this band Sexy Fights a lot and we are good friends with them but they never seem to get out of the studio so hopefully, we’ll see if they can.

A: There kind of like us; studio heads.

YAWN: Sister Crystals.

D: Yeah they’re recording. Kangaroo is recording. Their playing tonight. They’re recording with Colin Croon (Sister Crystals) at the Observatory.

A: The new Twin Peaks album of course.

D: Yeah. That shit was awesome.

Any post album release plans? New videos in the works? Tour?

A: I think we’re gonna do a house show DIY venue little tour. Try to play as many as we can in Chicago before we head out on the road in November. Hopefully November. (laughs)

S: We’re telling everybody that.

D: That’s what makes it happen. (laughs)

Words by Luke Otwell

DON'T MISS ADAM FROM YAWN AS HE TEARS IT UP ON THE COURTS THIS SUNDAY for TEAM RECKLESS RECORDS as part of HOOP DREAMS!

OSHWA is the musical brain child of Alicia Walter, starting as a solo piece, growing into the wondrously chaotic four-piece it is today. OSHWA's sound is a sonic landscape, bursting at the seams with Walter's exuberant and romantic vocals and dynamic instrumentals, all set to an array of erratic and complex time tempos.  I talked with Walter about learning to appreciate the more rigid parts of music and OSHWA's journey to a truer, more stripped down sound.

ASHLEIGH DYE: Do you want to start by telling me how OSHWA got started?

ALICIA WALTER: It started in 2010 as a solo project of mine. I was living in a co-op in Rogers Park and going to Loyola at the time, I had just transferred from Illinois Wesleyan. I was studying piano and decided that I wasn't really into that. So, I transferred to Loyola and moved into this co-op with 16 other people. It was really fun, we all encouraged each others creative process. I started throwing shows there around the same time I started the project. Jordan was the first person to join the band, it was sort of a duo for a while. We were a full band with four members about ten months after that.

DSC_8637

AD: You grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, how did that affect your view on the music scene once you got here?

AW: There was actually a really awesome music scene just in the suburbs, too. In high school I was going to a lot of shows in the suburbs. I remember coming to the city for one show at a DIY space, that I can’t even remember the name of, at the time it was really crazy to me. That wasn't something I did all the time. Its funny, because where I grew up had a really good band scene and I thought that was just how it was for everyone. Some of those people are still active in Chicago now. I think the DIY nature of things really shaped what I thought was possible when coming to Chicago.

AD: Outside of what you are physically able to play, where do you see your classically trained background in OSHWA?

AW: Three of the four of us have a decent background in classical music, I think that informs lot of our decisions in ways we can’t even really see in the moment. I think our ears tend to lean toward certain sounds that they otherwise wouldn't without our classical backgrounds. I definitely, now, really value that education. At the time when I was in college and turning away piano I was all “fuck the system, I’m sick of the rules.” But, now I feel like the rules are there for a reason and I’m so glad I know how to do some of the stuff that I was originally very against.

AD: You had this great thing you said in another interview you did that went something along the lines of “Why am I playing this piece of music for hours that so many other people have played and will play better than I will.” Which was pretty thought provoking for me.

AW: That was one of my major frustrations with studying piano. When you’re studying performance you aren't studying the way people write music, or how to write music, you’re studying how to be a performer. And in terms of piano, classical piano performance has a very limited market for jobs and actual success. Anyone is better than you, if you can do it someone can do it better than you.AD: Would you say that’s what you appreciate about having that background and having OSHWA as an outlet? You get to create your own music and standards.AW: I think studying music so professionally for so long gave me a strong sense of discipline that makes your standards really high, because you’re used to having to prove yourself daily to your professors. I think we all come from that standpoint, we really have high personal standards and high standards as a group for what we put out. And it definitely feels good to be creating and writing what you’re spending so much time playing.

DSC_8634

AD: What’s the songwriting process like for you guys? There is so much layering happening is there a certain line that comes first?

AW: Chamomile Crushis coming from a billion different places and I think we’ll look back on it as the album where we figured out how to do anything. We were recording and writing at the same time and recording ourselves, then we were recording with other people, then we re-recorded everything and recorded again, it was a crazy messed up totally un-guided process. The instrumental parts on Chamomile Crush were written totally by me, which felt nice because I was able to use my degree and the things I've learned. Now the process is a little bit different. We used to write chunks then piece them together, now I’ve been presenting a whole song to the band and we either strip it down, or add to it with other people. I think it’s becoming more streamlined, now that we are getting the rhythm of it.

AD: You’re working on a lot of new stuff right now, right?

AW: Yeah, we haven’t recorded any of it yet, right now most of our live set is new music. It’s exciting to see the new direction we are going in. With this sophomore album I think all the math-rock connotations will be dropped. It’s still rhythmically interesting, but we aren’t doing like crazy time signature changes. Now its way more like, “Here’s a pop song.” I don't think we’re simplifying in a bad way, we’re just figuring out how to do it our way. A lot of our old stuff was very chaotic and I think it was just us trying to figure out how to do something that sounds different. Now we’ve come back around and just want to jam out and take it easy. Everything is so much easier that way, too. Practice is a lot harder when your time tempos are so crazy. Having been exposed to a lot of music I think you get this mentality that “We can do this so differently and crazier”, but then you realize “Oh, I actually can enjoy just cruising around and listening to something like Beach House.”

AD: I think people can get into a mind space where they feel like if their stuff is outwardly different or unique that there isn't as much value to it. You did a block 2 block segment on living in Pilsen and talked about how much art and graffiti is around, which is all so incredible and vibrant. When you talked about that all I could think about was how your music seems to be the sonic interpretation of Pilsen’s vibrant art scene. Do you think that informs or inspires your sound at all?

AW: It does on various levels. You don’t see the street art you do here anywhere else in the city, it’s something you can't ignore, it just seeps into you. Pilsen is still somewhat off the beaten path, we aren’t Wicker Park or Lakeview, it’s still a lot of families. I really value being surrouned by people who aren’t all like me. Also, Pilsen is not centrally located at all. You’re a little bit more closed off and when you’re trying to work on something that can be a really good thing. When we were really heavily writing for Chamomile Crush that was something that really helped.

AD: You guys went on your first big tour last summer, did you have any major first tour band lessons that you learned?

DSC_8626

AW: Oh my god, Jesus Christ yes. We were really ambitious, I booked the tour, and we didn’t stay in a single city for more than a day. We played 20 shows in 18 days. We were constantly moving, there was never any chill time. The nature of doing it DIY and sleeping on people’s couches, getting back at three in the morning then having to leave again at eight caused us all to hit a wall. Like, I can’t physically do this again!words & photos by Ashleigh Dye.Listen to OSHWA here.Don't miss OSHWA tonight with BUKE & GASE and PALM. 

DSC_8390

DSC_8406

I was first introduced to Mutual Benefit in late 2009 through some mutual friends Jordan Lee and I shared in a small town in Ohio - the cassette I bought that year has played constantly throughout my life during the last five years. The songs act as a time machine, slowly whisking me away, taking me on a winding voyage back in time to hiking trails and rooftop beers with large groups of friends.For anyone who's listened to Mutual Benefit it's easy to see that it's not the just musical mind space of the prolific Jordan Lee, but a living, breathing musical entity that grows and evolves with each new experience. What started as a group of recordings done in a spider-filled basement, has blossomed into a full-blown lazer-folk dreamscape. With wondrous cameos of both people and instruments sprinkled throughout each song, the discography acts as a map of Mutual Benefit's past and future, tiny clues that shed some light on the journey that Lee has embarked on as Mutual Benefit. I caught up with Jordan before his show at the Bottle to talk about how Mutual Benefit has grown, sources of inspiration, and what being on a larger label means to him.  ASHLEIGH DYE: Your earlier recordings, especially those cassettes you made and put out, were recorded on smaller, more toy-like equipment, which was a huge element to your sound. How has that morphed and grown as Mutual Benefit has grown?JORDAN LEE: On all my recordings I try and just use what's around, so on those earlier recordings I had a lot of stuff that I had picked up at garage sales and thrift stores. For Love’s Crushing Diamond I went back to this recording studio I had interned at in Texas, he had a Moog synth and all these old Korgs from the 80’s. It was fun to be able to use those. People can kind of be low-fi snobs, like they think if it’s a good piece of equipment they won’t use it, but that’s silly. It’s kind of funny, because in some environments when you’re playing a show every day and you have to do efficient sound checks you need things to work really well. So I have this Casio that I love the sound of, but it was giving us a lot of trouble on stage. Our drummer, Dylan, who’s so much smarter than me at most things, sampled the Casio onto a sampling keyboard. So we have this really high-tech keyboard on stage, but it’s just playing a reproduction of an 80’s Casio.AD: Nice, I like the inventiveness! That seems pretty true to MUTUAL BENEFIT as a whole. You’ve traveled around and move so much that you rely on what’s around and what you can make happen. Have you released any other cassettes aside from the Spider Heaven/Drifting split?JL: I did I Saw the Sea on cassette. It was tied into this Kickstarter that we did years ago. We got invited to do a bunch of stuff for SXSW, but we couldn’t afford to get there. We did the Kickstarter for $400 so we could buy a second ticket. I released I Saw the Sea around that time, so if you bought a cassette it just helped us get there. I did a pretty good job getting all the rewards and tapes out to people, but there was one guy named Ben and his cassette came back to me as undeliverable. At the time I was moving a lot and just forgot to resend it, and I guess he lives in DC. This happened three years ago, but he messaged me last week when we played DC and he had donated $50 and was supposed to get all this stuff. He said “you got that I Saw the Sea cassette for me? You’re two years late!” and I totally didn’t have it and he messaged me back saying “you owe me $50!” So I PayPaled him the money back. That’s the dark side to DIY.AD: Have you put anything out on Kassette Klub in a while?JL: It’s pretty much totally defunct. Running a label is the exact opposite of touring. You have to be in one spot for extended periods of time and really diligent. I think a lot of people start labels for the same reason, they have friends who are doing amazing things, but no one knows or cares about it. The older I got the more I realized that someone else would do a way better job with their stuff than I could. I started to feel like I was really fucking up the careers of these people that I cared about. It’s funny because Sam, who’s playing tonight, I put out his cassette tape and totally screwed it up. I sent a corrupted file to the pressing plant and got sent 250 cassettes where side B was blank. That was one of the defining moments where I realized I wasn’t very fit to do this. I had a really interesting conversation with a friend who runs a label called Crash Symbols, they put out a lot of interesting things and are very professional, I was visiting them in West Virginia and thinking that we’re all doing this tape thing, maybe we can all band together and make it a big thing and I told him about it and he said “I definitely don’t want to do that, it sounds awful.” He went on to explain that he didn’t want to get bigger and was more than happy doing runs of 100 tapes. Which was a really interesting thing to think about, that some people are happy and complacent at different levels of action.AD: How often do you go back and listen to your earlier recordings? That Spider Heaven/Drifting cassette you made the year I met you has gotten an insane amount of playtime, it always takes me right back to that time in my life.JL: The further away I get from them, the less I listen to them. I listen to them every six months. They evoke a really strange array of memories for me. Especially Spider Heaven. I had just moved back to Ohio and was bouncing between an apartment in Columbus and living in the basement of my parents’ house. It’s called Spider Heaven because the room I recorded in in my parent’s basement had spiders everywhere. When they have babies they shoot these balloons out that are filled with 100’s of spider babies. I think it’s actually called ballooning.AD: Was MUTUAL BENEFIT your first musical project? Were you doing anything while growing up in Pickerington, Ohio?JL: In Pickerington I had a shitty pop punk band, with a lot of people that I’m actually still friends with. It was kind of Christian pop punk.AD: Where you literally singing about God, or was it just really posi?JL: The vibes were subtle, they were subtle God vibes. My parents let us have shows in the basement, we used to play at this golf course cabin, but the shows got too weird and they stopped letting us book there. I remember my mom was a 5th grade teacher, so she was always using all this clipart, and she printed out this picture of a droopy police dog and it said “Don’t Do Any Drugs.” She hung them up everywhere. Later after that I was recording some pop songs under my name.AD: Cowboy Prayer and your earlier stuff was recorded by just you, but with Love’s Crushing Diamond there were more many more outside influences in the recordings, right?JL: Yeah, the songs started out as shitty demos, then I would end up meeting someone and we would spend three or four pretty intense days together recording and playing and I would take those and fit them into the songs.AD: Did that have a lot to do with how often you moved around? What I really love about MUTUAL BENEFIT is that these cameos of musicians that are throughout the album can kind of pin point you to a certain geographical location.JL: I was starting to feel like the songs would never get done, I had worked on them for over a year. It felt like a thing that I would always be working on. It was really nice to be able to bring in fresh influences. I definitely treated it like a hobby, at times. Like I’d be with a group of people already hanging out with a bunch of guitars around, so lets just play some chords over this and see what happens.AD: You’re pretty stationed in New York right now, correct? You’ve been there about a year? How has that affected your sound, you’ve mentioned a few times that a big part of how you stay so inspired is constantly moving to new places and experiencing new people and things. Have you had to change what inspires you?JL: I’ve been in New York about a year exactly. We’ve been on the road about 70% of this year, so I am still very enamored by New York, it almost feels like I’m visiting when I’m there. When I first got there my living situation was just the worst ever, I was sharing a room with my partner and our friend. We had to air mattresses and a bunch of blankets and just called it Mega Bed. So we just were all sleeping on Mega Bed, then Dylan helped us make a loft so it upgraded to a bunk bed, now we finally have the room to ourselves. I think for a long time I wasn’t very satisfied being in one spot, I would get ansty and if a situation got weird I would think “oh I need to get on the road and be free.” I think I've grown up a little bit, to where if I have conflicts or I feel bored or weird I actually want to work it out, instead of just moving to a new city. This is also the first time I’ve been in a long-term relationship, I’m an aspiring norm.AD: Where do you think you’d want to go post new York?JL: It might seem stereotypical, but I really loved Berlin. We got to stay there for a few days on tour and the people there were so interesting and I felt really at home. There are fun little towns like Portland, or Austin where you meet these great, interesting people. Berlin felt like that, only bigger and weirder.AD: So, obviously the people that you’ve met and the experiences you’re having affect your sound, but do you think the literal geographic location you were in while writing or recording played a large role in the sound of your music?JL: Yeah, definitely. I think it’s both subtle and not subtle. The best example is Statue of a Man is about being on a train, because I was literally on a train. A lot of that album was written in St. Louis and I basically had no idea what I was doing with my life in Boston, it was so expensive and I was starting to really not like it, so I took a break and was in St. Louis for a long time. I kind of didn’t make any friends and had some really cheap rent where I could record, but anytime I went outside, the part of St. Louis I was in was so bleak and desolate and used to be a certain type of way, I think some of the songs about destruction and rebuilding, in retrospect, had a lot to do with where I was living.AD: You mentioned in an interview that being on a label where your requests, musically, can be really easily met is something that makes you feel anxious. Why does the addition of, nearly, limitless opportunity turn you off?JL: The MO for this band forever has just been to let fate somewhat dictate. If there’s not a certain type of instrument around I won’t imagine incorporating it into the song. So, when I started talking to different labels about the next record and they were telling me “figure out what you want it to sound like and we’ll make it happen” it started to really freak me out, because it’s just a totally different way of doing things than I am used to. I think the biggest reason it’s scary is because what I like to do is really take my time on a group of songs, and let life experiences happen, and to have people come in and out of my life, and for this thing to be the product of that. That you can feel that time has passed through the songs, and I think a label wants almost the exact opposite of that. “Write some songs, take a week to record them, we’ll set the release date, hopefully it lines up with festival season so we can get the single out at the right time…” Just hearing all the phrases, makes me feel like “aw, I don’t know if I want to do this.” The people on the label were super nice and helpful, but they just accidentally set off all my anxiety alarms.AD:  How do you plan to keep a sense of spontaneity in your work?JL: I have two ideas. One is to set a pretty good buffer time in between this tour and starting to write again. I want to take on some part time jobs and reincorporate into the human race. I think it really messes with your head, everyday playing a show, marketing people talking to you about how many presales there are for a show, and what blogs you should talk to, and what markets, that’s what they call cities, you need to hit. It can be dehumanizing. I definitely want to get out of that headspace. Another idea I have which started as a whim, which I have whims of ideas all the time, but this one I’ve had for over a year, which is to teach music lessons to kids. I’m not particularly good at any one instrument, but I think it could be great to meet kids and really talk with them about what they are trying to do and build a curriculum around what inspires them, make them do some really hippy stuff like write in a journal.

Chelsea Hotel Alice Boman Road to the bottle

Alice Boman Road to the Bottle

Alice Boman Road To the Bottle Bridge

Alice Boman NYC Road To the Bottle

Trumpet Lady Alice Boman Road To The Bottle

Sound Check Alice Boman Road To the bottle

Washed out beach alice boman road to the bottle

back seat alice boman road to the bottle

After trekking all over the states on her way to Chicago, Alice Boman makes one last stop in the US just for us before going back to her native Sweden for the European leg of her tour.She and her bandmates have gotten to see some great sights along the way, including a very memorable trip to the Hotel Chelsea while in NY. “We were kinda starstruck just by seeing that building,” Boman said of laying eyes on the legendary landmark.Alice Boman feels like a deeply personal secret, a secret that is delicate and precious. You ache to share it, but fear sharing it with the world. This is all odd considering Alice’s work is no secret at all. She’s actually been receiving a ton of national coverage for her two shatteringly beautiful EPs, both out on Adrien Recordings and the gentle videos that accompany them.It was an unlikely series of events that led Boman to her label. Boman sent a few songs, recorded at home, that she considered demos to a studio to inquire about the cost of recording time. The employee who received them liked them so much that he sent them along to Adrien Recordings. If not for that simple connection, we may never have heard these beautiful songs as they are.Words like “ethereal,” “haunting,” “ghostly,” and “intimate” end up being thrown around a lot in regards to Boman’s music. However, those fail to capture her entirely. You’re just as likely to encounter a word like “powerful” to describe the way she manages to craft a warm, sonic room that leave the listener shivering.It’s incredible the way Boman is able to break your heart with just her voice, piano, and the occasional bit of guitar. In 2014, when those instruments have seemingly been mined for all they’re worth, it is artists like Boman injecting not just humanity into them, but nature that allows them to continue living.Skisser, Swedish for “sketches,” is a perfect name for her first EP. Many of the songs have that feeling – they don’t feel like they start or end so much as they float across you. Like flipping through someone else’s sketchbook, their raw beauty is unparalleled in its honesty because they truly were recordings intended only for their creator. If you’re like us, you will find yourself hitting replay over and over again. The songs almost force the listener to, because as they end, it is hard to imagine listening to anything else. It seems likely that no matter how many people are here Saturday, the crowd will demand an encore.“You know I need the darkness / as much as I need the light,” Boman sings. An arbitrary line that could easily sound cliché or stilted in another artist’s hands instead feels like something you’ve always known. It also serves as an excellent parallel to the story of her work being released to the public. Everything that we have of Boman, we almost never saw as it is.Although she came on the scene in 2013, news outlets such as HuffingtonPost, NPR (TWICE), Rookie, The Guardian (TWICE), and even our own city's Chicagoist have all taken note of Boman in the past year and I’m sure they won’t be the last. The always impressive and haunting CIRCUIT DES YEUX opens the show with a stark, chilling live show that’ll leave you aching for more. Tickets are only $8 and the show starts at around 7pm.

In this installment of We Listen, we finally address that 98% of the survey responses ask for free stuff. We understand, you want everything to be free because you were amazed by your recent trek to Burning Man and why can't we all just live in a trade-based economy, you know? Yeah, man, we know... Enough hippie-talk, we have over a dozen shows and events coming up that are FREE or FREE w/ RSVP this fall, so there - free stuff for you all. Now come up with more suggestions about not free things. Also, we would like to address that 100% of the responses request free beer and while we can't do that, we do have special vouchers for drinks in the PRIZE MACHINE and we know that it is technically not free but it is still kind of free. Remember: If everything was free, we would've closed 20 years ago. Think about how sad you'd be! Now wipe those tears and keep reading - there's lots to learn.TONIGHT (9/15) Scott and Charlene’s Wedding make their Empty Bottle debut! These New York-via-Australia rabble-rousers are in the midst of their first US tour and hitting our stage on their way to GONERFEST. Joining in on this international GONER night is Ireland's So Cow, who formed in South Korea and have albums on TIC TAC TOTALLY and an upcoming/tomorrow release on GONER. Check 'em out below.

 TOMORROW (9/16) we're hosting a *SIDEWALK SLAM* before the 

LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS

 show w/ food, a dance off, prizes and more! (

MORE INFO HERE

)

lee fields sidewalk slam

 You probably know this by now but EVERY FRIDAY at 5:30 we have the

THE

HOYLE BROTHERS

come in and play honky tonk music. They've been playing the Bottle for over a decade now and it's always a good ol' time if you like country back when it was still

country

(and dancing, lots of dancing). If you don't think this is your thing then why not try something new? IT'S FREE you've got nothing to lose!

 Next MONDAY (9/ 22) North Carolina's husband-wife duo 

Lowland Hum 

grace our stage with the kind of folk-ish music you wanna ring fall in with. Joining them are 

Sünken Ships

(members of SYBRIS, MY COLD DEAD HAND, QUATRE TETE and MUCHACHA) and the sweet, hopeful, tunes of 

Darling. 

TUESDAY (9/23) Portland's

Drunk Dad

turns it up with sludgy hardcore free-jazz noise rock that breaks down the stifling genre walls of yore and rewires the wreckage into a mega-heavy alloy of scuzz, filth, and noise in a knock-down, drag-out war of ill will wrapped in a nasty bow. It rips, it kills, and Portland's

Honduran

join them - powergrind / hardcore / powerviolence / grindcore / noise / thrash - "formed like Voltron to destroy shit, and that about all there is to it." If you have any more adjectives you'd like to see in this description please let us know. This one's

FREE w/ RSVP

and there might be another free thing involved so stay tuned.SATURDAY (10/11) we bring back the

Handmade Market

 because the holidays are coming so you might as well stock up on cool gifts before you spend it all or just treat yoself. Over 30 excellent vendors will be there slanging their wares and it starts at 11 a.m. You could also just make a day of it and grab brunch / mimosas / bloody marys next door at Bite Cafe to aid you in your perusing.MONDAY (10/13) we bring Chicago locals

Lamp

/

Hollow Mountain

/

Le Tour

/ and

Strawberry Jacuzzi

to our stage. And maybe that slug looking thing, who knows? Support your local music scene. We do.

10288729_678212055588625_8861660479792935312_n

THURSDAY (10/16) is the latest curation of

Curbside Splendor (

recently named Best Chicago Indie Publisher in 2014 by Chicago Magazine

) Words+Music

#6

, celebrating their release of their Fall 2014 books, including 

Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend 

by Erika T. Wurth, 

Does Not Love

 by James Tadd Adcox, and 

Kill Manual

 by Cassandra Troyan. Special guests: Chicago best-selling author

Joe Meno

, and touring L.A. author

Jim Ruland

. Performances by

Fashion Brigade

and

The Peekaboos

.

FREE w/ RSVP

.

csfallbooks

 MONDAY (10/20) Chicago synth-punk trio

Absolutely Not

return to headline the Bottle, playing their first show here since we had them twice in one month back in the spring. These enthusiastic, fuzzy, indie-leaning garage rockers are always a delight when they bring their snotty, charismatic and lean punk tunes to our stage. 

Time Out Chicago

 has praised them for generating “infectious one-two beat punk chords. It's an IGGY POP meets KEVIN BARNES approach to jagged garage-rock."

Fire Retarded

is a loud garage-punk band from Madison, Wisconsin. They wowed us with their speedy riffs, big breakdowns and even bigger stage presence last October and we’ve been hoping they’d come back to our fair stage ever since.

Swimsuit Addition

return and are bringing all the shenanigans with their version of dirty surf-pop/cheerleader grunge. These ladies have been hailed by the 

Chicago Reader

 for their "apocryphal-Halloween-scare-story bubblegum that's full of broken glass." YUM.

Mr. Ma'am

is a two-piece garage rock meets surfer grunge band from Chicago - and it's damn good.SUNDAY (10/26) is the Two-Year Anniversary of the Beat Swap Meet and this one's free with a canned food donation. Come dig around and buy / sell / trade records.

MORE INFO HERE

.

BEAT SWAP MEET

 MONDAY (10/27)

Permanent Records

 celebrates their Bronze Anniversary with a FREE 

Oozing Wound

Record Release Show

 with 

Rectal Hygenics

and one more band that's TBA. This is going to be a shit show. Come roll around in it with us.

FRIDAY (11/7)

Tall Pat Records

brings a triple release show w/

Negative Scanner

,

Son of a Gun

,

Hollow Mountain,

and

Comm to Black

. Tall Pat Records has proven to be one of the most important record labels or things to emerge from the brain of Pat Sullivan in the last 20 years. In celebration of its meteoric rise to power in and around Chicago, the label is bringing its epic stable of bands to the Bottle for a night of endless Rock and Roll that will go until we legally have to close our doors at 2am. 

FREE w/ RSVP

.

No weak pits.SUNDAY (11/9)

Curbside Splendor

 presents an afternoon with 30+ of the finest local and regional independent publishers, presses, & booksellers. The bar will be open, the music system will be going, so grab a cocktail as you ogle some books and satiate your bibliophiliac and holiday shopping needs - because we are smart people and smart people read books.

FREE w/ RSVP

.MONDAY (11/10)

Maximum Pelt 

brings

Foul Tip

,

Lil' Tits

, and

Perfume

for another local hot 'n heavy showcase.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS. FREE STUFF FOR YOU ONLY.

DSC_7710

DSC_7711

DSC_7678

DSC_7740

Big Dipper's got a one track mind, and it's headed full-force into the depths of his own success and happiness. Ever since releasing his first EP, 2013's They Ain't Ready, the Chicago-bred rapper has quickly become everyone's favorite filth and slime-covered bear. With his inspiring confidence on stage, a personality that is wildly vivacious, his ability to stay true to himself and those around him, and a beats/flow comb that makes you want to shake your booty for the rest of eternity, it's pretty damn easy to see why we fall so hard for Brooklyn's next biggest thing. (He lives in Brooklyn now.)Big Dipper came back to the Bottle last week for a show that started with a panel discussion, hosted by the Illinois Humanities Council, and transitioned - seamlessly, we might add - into celebrations of drag, performance, femininity, and self-expression. In between sets, Big Dipper and I had some sidewalk sausages and talked all things Big Dips. We also saws some really cute dogs and danced in the street.ASHLEIGH DYE: I know hip hop and rap were a big part of your childhood, but when did the performance and visual aspect come into play? When did you realize you wanted to fuse all of those elements into Big Dipper?BIG DIPPER: Well, I went to theater school, so I was also really attracted to performance and showmanship and putting on a spectacle. I was working in Chicago doing video work. I was working as an assistant. We were doing really basic videos for non-profits and I saw the potential for video work. I realized all you need is a vision and access to the equipment. It was immediately after I made my first song as Big Dipper that I wanted to do a video for it. It was originally going to be a one-off, we made Drip Drop, and then we made the Drip Drop video. I even made a Kickstarter for it, it was the first thing I did.  I’ve always been about the music, the visual, the performance, the everything. I don’t see myself as a trained musician. I don’t really have good pitch, I can’t really sing, but I know what sounds good and the type of story telling I want a song to have. That’s what I’m attracted to: The whole picture.AD: Do your live shows have as much planning as your music videos?BD: Absolutely, definitely when I first started. Any time I work with back-up dancers we’ll have a rehearsal, we’ll talk through the entire set list, we’ll talk about all the story telling aspects of each song. Like, this song is about fucking, this next song is about falling in love, this songs about turning up at the party, so how do those feed into one another? I plan my live sets like that.AD: What’s it take to be a Big Dipper back up dancer?BD: You have to have a lot of personality. You have to be pretty fearless, too.  I just did a show up in Ithaca and my three back-up dancers were some of my friends. One runs an organic good company, one is a baker who makes vegan cupcakes, the other one is a teacher’s aid for a special needs class. None of them are trained dancers, but they’re my friends and they’re super down to shake their ass. That’s what it’s about. It’s about attitude and having fun, not who can put their leg highest.AD: The first time I saw you the backup dancers were one of my many favorite parts of the show.  They were throwing it down, but also looked like some normal-ass people.BD: I don’t look like the typical rapper. If you sort of play into 90’s stereotypes of gay men, that very trim, clean shaven man, I don’t look like that either.  I’m not stereotypical across the board, so I don’t strive to have any of the aspects of my show be stereotypical.AD: How does BD existing in Brooklyn differ from BD existing in Chicago?BD: I mean, Brooklyn is a different city, but I feel like I exist the same. The clubs and parties are different in BK and Chicago, but it's all about the people really. I have such a strong home base in Chicago with artists and performers that I want to work with for the rest of my life, but that is growing, too, in the Brooklyn and NYC communities that I am a part of.AD: You have such a commanding confidence about you and your music; it's so compelling. What's the source of your confidence?BD: Hmmm, not sure. I mean I know when I'm good at something I feel confident. But, often times I feel shy or awkward when I don't have a job to do, came to a party alone, or don't know an environment.  When I'm playing a show that is where I am meant to be, up on the stage performing. Knowing that I am doing my job, in the right place, it gives me endless confidence. But, that confidence point can easily waver, and when I get tripped up, I can fall really hard and get down on myself, so when I've got it, I revel in that moment.AD: You've developed such a good amount of grime to your sound! I love "My Phone Go." It's very Missy Elliot circa 2002. How do you keep things so slimy? What comes first, the beats or the raps?BD: The beats always come first. Sometimes I write rhymes here and there on the train, I sort of come up with ideas. But mostly it's when I hear a beat I just start with whatever pops in my head and the song takes shape pretty quickly after that. With the right combo of me and a producer in the studio, I feel like we can make a song in about an hour or less.AD:  Watching and hearing what you’ve done from They Aint Ready to the new stuff you’ve been putting out, it seems like you have really hit your stride. Was there a specific breakthrough moment?BD: Well, I’m not very patient, so They Ain’t Ready is literally the first five songs I ever made. There was nothing made during that time that I was like “No, we aren’t going to use that.” So, I am so hungry to get in the studio and work on new material. I put out a mix tape last October and anyone who has been coasting on a mix tape for over a year, I mean c’mon! A bunch of my new stuff is going to be really crazy and out there. When I first started I had a very narrow version of what I could talk about and what I waned to talk about. That has really evolved, especially since moving to Brooklyn and meeting other artist and musicians, and since gaining my own confidence to be a rapper. My flow is different, what I consider doing is different. I'm just working hard, challenging myself to get better with each track, and pushing my own limits of what I think I'm capable of doing. It is really easy to put yourself in a box after making one song or making one video.... to think "this is all I'm capable of."  So if I continue to challenge myself to grow as an artist and MC, then my shit will only get better.AD: I really love the new tunes you’ve been putting out, especially "Love Jam," literally the best love song I've ever heard; I keep singing it to my boyfriend. It also seems like the first time we've seen a softer side to BD. What inspired you to slow things down a bit?BD: I just wanted to do something different. Everyone always expects me to be so raunchy in person, but it really just comes out of me when I perform or record, so I wanted to challenge myself to do something sweeter. I love "Love Jam," as well.AD: Describe Big Dipper's best date. BD: Sex. Food. Movie on the couch. Sex. Donuts. AD: What’s your dream video collaboration?BD: Oh man, to me it’s always about scale. I feel confident in my artistry, I feel confident in my collaborators, and I think that we think things through well and have good visions. With unlimited budget I just think about everything I could have done with our past videos, everything that we are doing, just blowing it up bigger. It’s like Drake says, "no new friends." Chicago people are people I was making art with three years ago and if anything ever were to pop off and leave me with more financial resources I just want to keep working with the same people I’ve been working with, just on a larger scale.AD: I can’t wait to see "Vibbin'." You’ve been such a tease with all those photos you’re posting!BD: I literally look like a Disney princess in that video. The way that whole thing comes together looks like a Disney situation and then I have another new video that’s such like a green screen, Tumblr, very sort of independent music act type video. Being able to put both those things out in the world, being able to self-fund the green screen video and raise almost $10,000 for the other one, I feel so lucky I can straddle those two worlds. I just want to do it on a much bigger scale.AD: Rap can be so focused on hyperbole and exaggeration. Why is it important to you to stay true to yourself and rap about your life? BD: Rap is about authenticity, and even if other MCs brag about money and cars and sex and whatever, I don't have that lifestyle and I would feel foolish talking about it. I'm broke, I’m an artist, I'm gay, I have a lot of sex, I like to crack jokes, and I like to dance with my friends... and eat donuts and sandwiches... basically, that's what my music is about. I have written for other people before, and I would have to edit myself because I tried hard to make sure it sounded authentic for them, to their experience. That is the most important part of writing, I think. Well, hooks are important, writing stuff that sticks in your head is good, but when it comes to lyrics and subject matter, if you aren't writing from a real place, it is really transparent.AD: What's the significance of keeping your real name obscured?BD: I originally kept my name obscured because I liked the theatricality of it, this sort of mystery performer, but most people know my name at this point, and it isn't too hard to find out. Also, my parents weren't thrilled when I started making youtube videos, but they are into it now... AD: What does your Mom think about your raps? Has she been to a show? Was the intro to "Thick Life" a re-enactment of a real conversation you guys had?BD: The "Thick Life" voicemail is based on MANY conversations I've had with my mom. She hasn't really heard much of the music, but both my parents have watched a few of the tamer YouTube videos. They are supportive because they see that get to travel for shows and play fun gigs and that there are people out there who like what I'm doing. As long as I don't ask for money, I think we are goodAD: Lastly, what has been your favorite part of your journey as Big Dipper?BD: Everyday it is something new. I have played a ton of really amazing gigs, through crowd sourcing I've had the opportunity to shoot a bunch of cool music videos. I mean, I'm basically living out a super fun dream, and surviving.  I'm still alive. Who could really ask for anything more.Words, interview and photos by Ashleigh Dye 

If you ever want to feel like there are rays of sunshine bursting through your eyeballs and have a smile so wide it hurts, than look no further, because The Lemons are here for you. The bubblegum pop sensation is just over a year old, but has quickly become  a Chicago staple. Armed with some of the catchiest songs ever written and a carefree attitude, The Lemons are always a good time. I caught up with three out of six Lemons and talked about the secret to Lemon success, the song they can never play again, and even gave them a little lesson on ICP culture. Plus, after the interview get a sneak peak at a never-heard-before-brand-spanking-new Lemon's song!ASHLEIGH DYE: Do you guys want to start by telling me about the genesis of THE LEMONS?MAX LEMON: We had some jingles, we being Kramer and I. We started SLUSHY together a few years ago, more or less. Then I stopped playing SLUSHY, stopped playing music, and then I said, “Hey, I’ve got some jingles, help me with these jingles, Kram.”AD: What were the jingles about?ML: Ice cream shop, Best Day, Elephant, Kool-Aid Box. The core tunes that are on this tape that we have, before you know it we finished some recordings, before you know it is about five months, by the way. That was it, really. We needed a drummer, and we found the Juice Man.CK: I moved into this apartment in February or so and Max lives above me so we just started hanging out and playing guitar down here, making jingles for the VIKING SHOP, for LOGAN THEATER, for parking meters….JUICY JAMES: I was walking by the right place at the right time.AD: Literally just walking by?JJ: Yeah, well maybe I was on a bike. I saw Chris and told him “I love SLUSHY so much..” Do you remember when I rode my bike by you and told you how much I love SLUSHY? It all happened from there…AD: What’s the most important part of being a Lemon?  You seem to have a ‘don’t take yourselves too seriously’ motto.ML: Oh no, we’re very serious, very, very, very serious.  We have a good time. We hang a little bit.  There’s nothing to it, really. People come and go as they please. We haven’t practiced as a whole band in nine months!AD: How do you guys keep the vibes so posi?CHRIS TWIST: We don’t let people think about things too much. All our songs are 30-60 seconds and out set is 10 or 11 minutes. If we stretched that out and doubled it people would start to get annoyed with The Lemons, but we don’t give them the chance.

DSC_7647

AD: Describe the ‘best day’ for The Lemons.

ML: Today was pretty great; we got our tape re-released. Have we ever had a terrible day as a Lemon?CT: No, everyday as a Lemon is a best day. That’s why we play that song at every show. When we go to Atlantic City and gamble a bunch, when we go swimming in the ocean at midnight, or when we see a seal...

AD: Wait, you saw a seal on tour?

CT: In California. A seal poked its head out of the water and tried to eat my toe.JJ: It was very cute, but we were very afraid of it.  He just had a really funny smile on his face and was way too close.

AD: Seals are like the wolves of the ocean.

CT: Yeah, like wild dogs. If you see one seal, there’s probably three or four.

AD: The video for "Lemoncita", that pretty true to most Lemon shows?

ML: It’s not just a video, it’s a interactive online game. Just tossin' that out there for the airwaves.

AD: How’d you guys make the video, just record a live set?

JJ: Our homie

Jordan Spear

, who has done a lot for us, made it. He also designed the

Tripp Tapes

logo, and 

GARY Records

gave him $100, and he gave us the best video of all time.ML: It’s not just a video…

AD: How has the writing style progressed now that you’re just over a year old?

ML: This is the three, it started out as two, Twist and Lemon, and then Juicy James came in.

AD: Do you have any new material in the works? 

CT: Yeah, we’ve got a new EP we’ve been working on that will come out on

Metal PostCard

, out of Hong Kong.

AD: How did that get set up?

ML:

THE MEMORIES

, who we toured with, has done a couple releases with them. Through them the owner of Metal PostCard found us and said “Hey, I really dig your tunes, would you want to do a release with us? Whatever you guys wanna do.”

AD: How was the rest of your tour with

TWIN PEAKS

? Other than seeing a seal and witnessing part of the roof of

Babys All Right being torn off

…

ML:  MEMORIES tour was the best, and TWIN PEAKS was just as great, if not greater. We sounded, in my mind, tip top on this TWIN PEAKS tour. We finally gelled completely.CT: We were able to have the whole band for each show, which is rare. Having our full line-up for every show was dynamite. We played nice venues where we got free meals, you cant argue with that.

AD: How many times have you guys tripled-scooped at a set?

JJ: Ugh, no…we’ve been quadruple scooping lately.ML: No more. We’re actually done playing Ice Cream Shop. We’ve retired it.CT: Yeah, we played that song, like, 500 times in six months. It’s like the McRibb of The Lemons.

DSC_7661

AD: Would you guys consider spraying your crowd with lemonade, similar to ICP?

CT: What do they spray their crowd with?

AD: You guys don’t know? They get fire hoses and

spray everyone with Faygo

at their shows; it’s mutually desired and loved.

JJ: NO! We would do that; for sure we would do that!

Here's a sneak peak, extra special, first time listen to one of the new tunes The Lemons have in store for us:

Catch them WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27TH with THE DUTCHESS AND THE DUKE and  BRIAN CASE. Tickets

HERE

.

One of Chicago's greatest bands, The Lemons, have been touring all summer long. We caught up with them on their way back to Chicago from Lexington, KY (finishing up a mini-tour with Twin Peaks). By this point they had attempted to play three shows in less than 24 hours and had almost made it to Indianapolis (if not for rain). Riding in the backseat with The Lemons is all it's cracked up to be. They love each other so very much, they laugh and cry together, hold hands....but really, it's true, how do you think they come up with such sugary songs? They're just a bunch of folks who are lookin' for love, just like us.

twin peaks

At this point we were all pretty sleep deprived, and Kelly Lamone's new found obsession with Nelly and Twitter (100//) resulted in this:

555555

And this:

Then we stopped at a Love's and picked up the best souvenirs EVER - needless to say, Juicy James is/was ecstatic.

And Kelly Lamone felt like this:

britney

But that's not to say they didn't have fun before their drive back. They went in a rowboat in Boston and paddled around in circles for a few hours:

rowboatboston

Chris Twist got some sleep:

chris sleeping

Kelly Lamone and Juicy wore matching

Starfoxxx

tees:

sametee

They played a show right here in Detroit:

detroit

And Juicy SLAM DUNKED in D.C. !!!!!

Which resulted in this and a buncha other bruised band members:

bruises

But he's alright and tough as ever:

james punch

Juicy even wrote a song for us while on tour called "Juicy The 8th"!

"The best part about road trips is finding amazing AM stations that still play the oldies. And the best thing about listening to oldies is replacing normal words with vulgar words. Well, used to be! Now i'm a musician now and as such I replace the vulgar words with less vulgar ones about the same acts. It's great fun! Chris Twist and I just try to rip off as many classics as we can and see what sticks! I tried my hand at a Henry The 8th rip-off and he hated it! So i made it myself!"