loudlooppress.com

11
May
Maps & Atlases – Beware and Be Grateful

Maps & Atlases new album, Beware and Be Grateful, gets better with more repetition. At a first listen, the record stands precariously close to being sonically overwhelming. The diverse, unconventional sounds—looped vocals, shimmering synths and intermittent piano work—collide head on with the band’s traditional set of instruments.

However, after multiple journeys through, the listener starts to parse the music’s diverse elements, and can appreciate the multilayered and loaded tracks that comprise Beware and Be Grateful.

By Killian Young \ comments

4
May
Merlin Wall – Party at the Docks

It’s been a while since we last heard from Merlin Wall, and their upbeat, surfy geek-rock that was showcased on their underrated 2011 debut, Crushin’ From Afar. But the band is back with Party at the Docks, a record that feels looser, groovier and more collected – as if those geeks from Crushin’ finely settled into their own skin.

By Richard Giraldi \ 2 comments

27
Apr
Shimby Presents: Live at the Empty Bottle

Shimby Presents: Live at the Empty Bottle works as more than just a live album. Recorded by local musician and music archivist Shimby McCreery, it’s an audial snapshot of tweener Chicago, which has taken stock in thrashy garage rock that sometimes is played with a metallic fierceness and others a near quirky looseness. But perhaps more importantly, the record seamless integrates local favorites with popular indie buzz acts proving that Chicago knows what’s up.

By Richard Giraldi \ comments

13
Apr
Disappears – Pre Language

It makes complete sense that at their New Years Eve show at the Empty Bottle this past January that Disappears played a set that featured new songs and a number of covers from bands such as Joy Division, New Order, David Bowie, Suicide and The Stooges. Their latest release, Pre Language, finds the band at their strongest in terms of songwriting. Each track is distinct in mood and feel – much like the aforementioned bands – and finds the Chicago noir-rockers putting more stock into their tones, textures and nuances, which results in their best record yet.

By Richard Giraldi \ comments

30
Mar
Wanton Looks – Wanton Looks

It feels like just yesterday that I saw the Wanton Looks (pronounced Want-un, not Wan-tahn) headline “Girls out of the Garage,” a showcase for four bands with majority female members, at Lincoln Hall. Wanton Looks are simply impressive live. The quartet exudes cool confidence as its members launch into high-intensity bubblegum pop punk ditties that pummel you in the face with plenty of ferocious beats, fuzzy distortion and silky harmonies. It’s no surprise that the band would want to capture some of that spark on its self-titled debut album.

By Audrey Leon \ comments

In Irvine Welsh’s terrific novel Trainspotting, Welsh’s Scottish protagonist Mark Renton makes an observation that the world is changing, music is changing, even men and women are changing. In one thousand years, Renton prophesies, there will be no guys or girls — “just wankers.” This idea that we might one day merge into one sex has always stuck with me. I’ve often wondered what that world might look like. I’m still not sure entirely, but I think I’ve at least found its soundtrack: Chicago’s own gender-bending Shake It For Grandma.

By Joseph Montes \ comments

23
Mar
Lasers and Fast and Shit – Second: Cat Fight

Second: Cat Fight, the latest from Chicago’s Lasers and Fast and Shit, may just be the musical equivalent of base jumping. At five tracks and a hair under 10 minutes in length, the band plow through frenetic, metallic-tinged punk rock that straddles the line between danceable and rage-worthy.

By Richard Giraldi \ comments