2020
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
JUNE - DECEMBER
This year was a challenge in many ways. A pandemic on a global scale erased the life we all knew, putting millions out of work. Homebound and isolated we turned even more inward to our social media and online lives. As summer came, the cauldron of systematic racism this country has been brewing for centuries overflowed again into the streets. The largest mass protests since the end of the Vietnam war turned some cities into warzones as struggling and angry masses flooded the streets. Chicago was not exempt from the looting and state sponsored violence from police on protestors that plagued the cities of our country during the long summer of 2020. A bubbling up of decades of oppression and repression. Then as the anger started to dissipate and the protests slowed, the most contentious election in over a hundred years hit a peak, and divided our already fractured country even more. To say this year has been a challenge is to underestimate its impact.
As a live music magazine we struggled with the shift to a life with no shows. We found our footing covering new releases and interviewing musicians, but as the movement began to gain steam we went on an extended hiatus. Covering music didn’t seem very important at the time. It was a distraction from the real work to be done in the streets and non-profit organizations. We wish we could have done more to support these actions, but we did what we could from our avenue. Trying to lift the spirits of Chicago through covering it’s local music scene.
This is our chance to look back at 2020, breath a sigh of relief and look to the future. To a time when we will get to see all these great bands once again. Some amazing music was released this year. Much of it was made in 2019, true; but there are a few projects listed here that were born out of the immediacy of creation within an emergency. This is by no means a comprehensive list of Chicago music this year, these are the records we loved in the second half of this crazy and turbulent year. So without further adieu, here is our Year In Review: 2020: June - December.
-Kyle Land
Editor and Co-Founder
A note on links: Album titles are linked to Bandcamp so you can check out the art and purchase some music. These artists need our help more than ever. For many of them playing shows was a way of life, and it will have been over a year before any of them get to play another.
Buttons under shows will take you to the show article!
June
Ohmme
Joyful Noise Recordings
This duo of mad scientists are ever-evolving. Their vocal harmonies are the like usually only heard when siblings sing together. They coax sounds out of their instruments that are chilling and enticing. For their second full length album, Fantasize Your Ghost, not only have they fine tuned their sound for your listening pleasure, Sima Cunnningham and Macie Stewart are taking us on a deep dive into their minds. They spent most of 2019 on the road and used their time in the van to have long discussions about what they have, and what they want out of their lives. Pressing each other to dig deeper, much like they have challenged each other musically, finding nuggets from which to build this album. It is scary to figure out who you are, to find your voice, to ask for what you need, but the result is worth the ongoing struggle. Ohmme lay it all out in the lyrics and they composed some kick ass music to support their philosophical musings. Fantasize Your Ghost is a confluence of musical experimentation and lyrical philosophy I revel in as I listen.
Bruges
Self Release
Video Dave
AutoReserve
Chicago native Video Dave may have stretched his legs to NYC and LA, but he still reps the Chi in style and flow. Covering a week in pre-pandemic life, with a track for each day, Week 1560 takes a biographical approach to analyze the everyday. Following him from a Sunday Fun Day party, through his work week and evening bar hangs, to his Friday night date and on to repeat. Video Dave doesn’t really comment or delve deep. He simply lays out a life spent event-to-event and leaves the analyzing to the us.
NNAMDÏ
Sooper Records
A three-song EP on a best-of list? You betcha! NNAMDÏ dropped Black Plight in June and it’s a passionately put together piece of punk perfection heightened by the social lens of the moment. Black Plight is pure poetry that travels with dynamic metal guitar as a companion. Thematically, each track is a reference and re-reference to what is most-fucked about our society today, same as history. As beautiful as this album is – NNAMDÏ’s voice is great in any setting – it hurts my heart to think we are stuck in perpetual racial inequality. NNAMDÏ said it best, “Again and again / It’s the same shit.” In the end, NNAMDÏ is tapping into the power of punk music to speak to the importance of this message and why it made this list.
Chicago Musican
March for Change
Thair
Self Released
First and foremost, this is a must listen EP. Thair’s beats are sick, underlying deliciously complex layers, and all supporting vocals that are diva perfection. Lyrically, Thair captures the ongoing process of being your authentic self. It is a choice we make over and over to accept ourselves, to express ourselves. All of that wrapped up in music that soars, bumps, grooves, and urges you to move. Going against the grain of societal norms may sound like a slog to some, but Thair shows us that we have the power to make it joyful. “I don’t want your respect, I demand it, baby.”
July
Time Thieves
Anxious & Angry Records
Another great project from a Chicago supergroup. Crispy power-pop laced with a psych edge makes Time Thieves a catchy beast. Containing members from a slew of bands including: Sass Dragons, Chicken Happen, Hospital Job, Ambition Mission, Brickfight, and more; the five piece crafts an incredibly solid and tight debut.
****
NNAMDÏ
Self Released
Art just doesn’t stop flowing from this consummate scenester. This year may have sucked for a lot of us, but it was the year of Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, culminating in being named a Chicagoan Of The Year by the Tribune. The third release in four months from his prolific brain and talented hands, KRAZY KARL finds him exploring his math rock past with a jazz edge, as NNAMDÏ composed the whole record and played every instrument. A peek into the mind of a gifted artist who continues to grow and evolve with each passing release.
Dehd
Fire Talk Records
Chicago is blessed to have a band like Dehd, inspiring fans of lo-fi into a spiritual revival. Emily Kempf’s echo-y voice over the entirety of the album cuts right to the quick, playing perfectly off Jason Balla’s straight-faced vocal delivery. Graciously, the album is carried along in near sterling time with Eric McGrady on drums. “Loner” is easily a stand-out song on the record showcasing everyone’s talents in a slowly swirling musical soundscape. This is a band that charges up this post-punk genre and puts that third coast sound on the map.
Ganser
felte
One of the breakout records of the year, Ganser hit paydirt with their second full length, Just Look At The Sky. Perfectly timed for the foreboding summer of 2020, this post punk masterpiece is the best work yet from the brainchild of Alicia Gaines and Nadia Garofalo. Dark and jarring in all the right ways, like being blinded by the sun, this record kept us company during lonely backyard drinking sessions and headphone blasting walks to protest marches.
Cold Beaches
Stay Hungry Records
The third record from indie rock extraordinaire Sophia Nadia finds the musician stretching her sound, taking the lo-fi of debut Aching and the bedroom pop elements of Rooftop Honey and adding a big old dose of California-style garage rock with a surf tinge. Drifter is a transition to a more flushed out sound, with big synth orchestrations and layers of lush fuzzed out guitar, yet still contains the quiet moments that makes Cold Beaches a touchstone for that mid-20’s angsty release.
August
Devon Kay and the Solutions
AF Records
Devon Kay & The Solutions brought plenty of excitement with Limited Joy. They open with “Oh Glorious Nothing” drowning lyrics in powerful horns, synth and guitar combos. Honestly, DK&TS should do a full-on Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra move and tour stadiums, their sound is that big on this album. They sway between Ska and New Wave with tracks like “One Horse” and “In A Prairie State.” Limited Joy is 600 pounds of great music in a 50-pound bag, and bursts at all the seams.
Sex No Babies
Sinkhole Sounds
Davis
Why? Records
These dual EP’s from the Why? Records wildcard were released ten days apart. Full of soundbite samples that hit home and Davis’ signature searching lyrical content and no hook necessary outlook, they capture the panic and uncertainty of the summer of 2020 to perfection.
Davis
Why? Records
****
Spun Out
Shuga Records
Forget the origins of the band. It was the music that lured me over the edge, head over heels, deep into the world of this album. Putting on my headphones, I am transported into an experimental. complexly layered, symphony of sounds. Breathy vocals by Mikey Wells gives the music an edge. I love how the walking down the street bounce of “Such are the Lonely” is affected by the emotional stress in his vocals. It’s the standout track for me in an album full of great songs. It has pop hooks and bubbly synths and grooving rhythms. One of those songs that you think must be a cover, because it sounds so incredibly familiar even on the first listen. An instant classic.
Diarrhea Sprinkles
Self Released
Half Gringa
Self Released
It may have taken three years for Isabel Olive to follow up her gorgeous debut Gruñona, but it was worth every minute to have this gem of a record. From the contemplative “Transitive Property,” to the dulcet tones of “Silbadora,” to a spacey glow in closer “Forty,” the entire album is imbued with the positive power of an artist at the peak of their powers. A meditative work of beauty, Force To Reckon deserves to be absorbed over and over.
September
Post Child
Self Release
Bryan Alvarez has been producing solid post grunge indie rock feels for nearly a decade with his mates in Post Child, and Goners EP is their most solid release to date. Perfectly balanced thumping bass lines with deluges of feedback inducing guitar and Alvarez’s drawling angst filled lyrics recall late 90s radio rock for the perfect nostalgia trip without seeming overplayed or outdated.
****
Wreath of Hogs
Self Release
It’s easy to see how an album like Green House, Green Couch makes it on an end of year list. Andrew Rolfson’s voice generates a conflagration of power and sound surrounded by the talent of the rest of the band. It opens with “Encouragement” which is nothing short of anthemic and sets up a combination of well-written pieces of art. There’s no denying the strong story-telling aspect of these songs, but the delivery is just as powerful and envelopes what Wreath of Hogs can say in a blanket of warmth and beauty. Nothing shows this better than “Coma” and title track “Green House, Green Couch”.
October
REZN
Self Release
Doom metal extraordinaires REZN are the perfect mix of psych experimentation (how many metal bands implore dark toned saxophone?), layered lofty compositions, far flung lyrical overtones, and hard crunching jams of epicness. Their second release of 2020 (Infected Ambient Works, a collaboration with Catechism, band member Spencer Ouellette’s ambient solo project, was released in July) Chaotic Divine functions perfectly on every level. May we suggest rolling a tree, plugging in, and letting REZN devolve your overworked mind.
-Kyle Land
Joshua Virtue / Malci
Why? Records
The Why? Records cats had a busy pandemic year, and capped it off with this collab record between the elder statement Malci on the mixer and their lyrical stud Joshua Virtue on the mic. Artists to the core Why? has a creative streak that just won’t quit and since they couldn’t play out they turned to the computer and mixer and produced one compilation, three albums, and three EPs during this fucked up year. If that isn’t a drive to create, what is? Why?... Why?... Why?... As Rahim would say...Praise Art!
-Kyle Land
Dogs At Large
Self Release
Teetering between yacht rock and some form of southern folk rock, Dogs at Large put out Jeopardy at a time when rock music in this vein is most important. “Break You Out” has great vocals, killer guitar, and rhythm; and is just as happy as the riffs let you. The theme of human excess coupled with consumeristic horseshit weaves through the album but is delivered deliciously. This is best shown through “& So We’ve Seen” and “Human Paradise.” Listening to Jeopardy is like binge-watching your favorite streaming show; you’re happy when it starts, glad to be in it, and sad AF when it’s over.
Breether
Self Released
All I want right now is to connect. To feel something good. To dance away my troubles and this quarantine EP captures/delivers those feelings perfectly. The lead/title track kicks the party off with a ASRM fizzy high end and when that bass line starts to bump I am hooked. In just six songs I am delighted by wailing rock-anthem guitars, get down with a little R&B, and fall victim to psych effects bending and melting everything in sight, even me. The masterful production hits me through my headphones over and over. It is so sweet it gives me lockjaw. In a good way.
Sen Morimoto
Sooper Records
Sen Morimoto brings a smooth sensibility to everything he touches. The soundscape that leads off “Tastes Like it Smells” lifts me into a drifting misty world. But my fav moment comes halfway through the song when Morimoto deftly contrasts the swirling mist with sudden electronic crunching and blips. Things seem to go off-kilter in a surprisingly pleasant way. Even as Qari’s vocals come in to smooth the edges, the song is energized by underlying percussive elements. Balance is woven through Morimoto’s sound in many ways. Smooth and rhythmic. Conventional harmonies and atonal tension. Jazz theory brought into a grooving electronic world. Intimacy and echoing vastness. His voice and those of his collaborators. Morimoto has honed a Crystal Gem-like ability to Fuse his sound with others, creating something more dynamic and powerful in the combinations. I can’t help but think that Morimoto is showing us the richness of his musical life not just by showing us his art, but by sharing it with his friends.
Pool Holograph
Love Touched Time and Time Began to Sweat
Sunroom
Wyatt Grant’s solo project that turned into a fully flushed-out jangle rock opus producing band hits the pinnacle with this third full length. Spacious and obliquely disjointed, Love Touched Time and Time Began to Sweat grows on you like a slow moving vine. Before you know it, you’re humming along to the camouflaged melodies and nodding away with the driving low end beats.
Famous Friends / Elton Aura/ Made.Allayne
Self Released
Good Fuck
Still at the Rough Cusp of Renaissance
Self Released
Dustin Laurenzi’s Natural Language
Woolgathering Records
Slow Pulp
Winspear
Oct 9tThis indie quartet had already garnered plenty of attention before dropping their debut full length in the fall. With a couple of excellent EPs and an extensive live resume, it’s no wonder this highly anticipated release lived up to the hype. Emily Massey’s floaty vocals ride with the plodding, relaxed tone to perfection, and when they hit those raging peaks it’s pure indie gold. When shows are back, Slow Pulp will be a must catch act for 2021.
Open Mike Eagle
AutoReverse
Mike Eagle may have left the confines of Chicago years ago, but his music still holds a tone of home. Since his critically acclaimed Brick Body Kids Still Daydream in 2017 (a concept record about growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes) Eagle’s life has been full of artistic endeavors, including a Comedy Central show The New Negros co-hosted with Baron Vaughn, launching numerous podcasts, starting a new record label, producing a daily instagram livestream called “Drive Time Radio” during the early months of the pandemic, and as this record expertly lays out went through a ton of personal shit. With plenty to dig into Anime, Trauma and Divorce has plenty of touchstones of how 2020 laid many of us bare in multiple ways.
-Kyle Land
Growing Concerns Poetry Collective
Self Released
One of the year's most inspiring and important releases. McKenzie Chinn and Mykele Deville once again teamed up with producer Jeffery Michael Austin for Growing Concerns Poetry Colletive’s second full length in the midst of a year that needed this release. Half spoken word, half hip-hop / R&B grooves, this pure gold record needs to be experienced. Filled with bravely beautiful lyrical endeavors set to perfectly toned compositions, BIG DARK BRIGHT FUTURES gives a glimpse into the black experience in real and touching ways.
-Kyle Land
David Quinn
Self Release
The Chicago Honky Tonk scene has been in full explosion for years, and while we couldn’t come together to two-step, swing, and waltz the night away this year, it doesn’t mean the party stopped completely with plenty of online get togethers for the loyal honky tonkers. Chicago upstart David Quinn has been a mainstay in the scene for a few years and the drummer turned frontman produced a collection this year that is sure to have you tearing up the boards in your living room, kitchen, or front porch (wherever you have the room to swing!). Packed with plenty of Bakersfield tempo and a lush Nashville style production Letting Go will satisfy old and new country fans alike.
Joel Ross
Blue Note
Alayne May
Self Released
Knox Fortune
Nice Work
Cordoba
Amalgam
“I just get bored as a player doing what I’ve heard done before. I really want to create something that reflects how I see music in my own way. I think other members of the band are that way, too, and I feel like that is what has drawn a lot of us together.”
Rich Jones & Montana Macks
Self Released
A collab born from a childhood friendship, these two cats have known each other for a long time, which becomes clear as Rich Jones’ smooth rhymes flow over Montana Macks layered beats like velvet. While Jones is no stranger to social commentary he leaves his party self behind completely on How do you sleep at night?, delving deep into the complicated layers of our present predicaments. He doesn’t promise any answers but it's comforting to know you’re not the only one asking.
-Kyle Land
****
The Cell Phones
Don’t Panic Records
Can you name another bass/drums/vocals trio? The only one we can think of is Nomeansno, and they were around for decades. After taking some time off for vocalist Lindsey Charles to have a little Cell Phone, they came blasting back with this pounder of a record. Be prepared for the headphones to blast from your ears as this trio produces a wicked sound far louder than two instruments and some vocal cords should be able.
-Kyle Land
Angel Bat Dawid and The Brothahood
International Anthem
The queen of Chicago nu jazz recorded this incredible set at JazzFest Berlin in the midst of dealing with being mistreated by the festival and experiencing racism in Germany first hand (for the full story check out the bandcamp page for the album). The events led to a passionate and resonating performance captured for posterity and packaged here with a few soundbites from the trip for some context. If you’re not familiar with Dawid’s amazing music, this is the perfect place to jump in with both feet, and soak yourself thoroughly in the riotous beauty and power that emanates from her clarinet, ivorys, and unmistakable voice. And her insanely talented compatriots in experimentation are one of the best ensembles assembled in jazz today.
November
Shannon Candy
Self Released
Tapping into authenticity’s kernel of truth is key to creating music that connects to people. Shannon Candy’s solo album So Long, gives me that, “I’ve been there” feeling. She doesn’t just tap into authenticity, she blows it wide open with a snap of her fingers.
I’ve been to a fair number of shows on my own. Sometimes I bring a book to keep me company between bands. I’ve found this to be the best way to get someone to talk to you. Now don’t get me wrong, I love meeting people at shows, afterall dear Crowd Surfers, you are my people! But sometimes, just sometimes, I’ve had a run-in with someone just like the people described in “Well Actually.” When Candy repeats that bouncy exasperated lyric, “I didn’t ask” I laughed out loud. Even though this song is speaking to her experience as a fem musician, I felt a connection as a fem music fan, hell any fem in the world, any person in the world could have had that moment. Suddenly something that was highly personal becomes highly universal with just three magic words. It doesn’t hurt that this kind of bouncy sweet n sour garage punk is right in my wheelhouse. In true punk rock fashion, the 8 songs clock in under 20 min. This album will breeze by faster than it takes you to finish eating that candy cane.
Mac Blackout
Trouble In Mind
Chicagoan Mark McKenzie dons the punk moniker Mac Blackout to deliver the jam-packed EP, Love Profess. The title track and “Wandering Spheres” is experimental jazz through and through, letting loose a noisy flow of wild soundscapes designed with purpose. “Magic Hour 2020” is creepy but harkens the days when musicians like Beck were putting out cool, experimental shit like Mellow Gold. The stripped sounds on this EP are unmatched, especially in tracks like “The Virus” which one could only wonder is it computer-related as the sounds suggest or a deeper look into the detached and isolated feeling most of us are getting these days. McKenzie’s growth as a musician shows through on “Dear Mom”, closing the album with a perfectly tied bow.
Luke Titus
Sooper Records
To cap off a killer year for Sooper Records, drummer and pop experimenter Luke Titus dropped this invigorating collection of alt-R&B jams that show the talented range he can embody. After years behind the kit for some of Chicago’s premiere emcees, Titus’ full length debut is a confident and extremely well crafted work of art. Featuring some great local artists like Favyn Lenae, Elton Aura, Qari, and label mate Sen Morimoto, he shares the stage like a seasoned pro at the age of 24.
Jordan Reyes
American Dreams
Video Dave and Smoke Bonito
Hella Personal Film Festival 2
Self Released
TR!C
December
Gal Gun
Self Released
These indie pop punkers ended the year with a bang on this burner, full of angsty love songs and bouncy catchy choruses. Brothers John and Thomas O’Brien backup guitarist/vocalist Colin Burns with Beach Bunny bassist Anthony Franco Vaccaro behind the kit, giving Critical Hit it’s cymbal laden splash. We needed this pick me up to make it through what is sure to be a lonely pandemic winter.
Joan Of Arc
Joyful Noise Recordings
A collection of songs recorded over the course of three years, Joan Of Arc’s final album (at least Tim Kinsella claims it is the last after 25 years), feels like a fitting end for the project that came to embody a more experimental sound than any of the other bands that grew from the trunk of Cap’n Jazz. Putting to bed an act that has been a mainstay of midwestern music for decades is a tall order, and Kinsella and long time collaborators Melina Ausikaitis, Bobby Burg, and Theo Katsaounis (who are all members of Aitis Band) pulled off the challenge with their typical nonchalance.
Wreath of Hogs
Self Released
“Writing after those two releases is completely new territory that I grapple with every day. With the first album I had years of ideas collected in my joint sockets that just needed cracked. They all came rushing out. It didn’t feel for a second like there was a decision to be made. This was the feeling, this was what I needed to say, this was how I was going to say it and I needed to say it now or I wouldn’t be able to move forward.”
Various Artists
Warm Violet:
a benefit for chicago community jail support
“Our goal is to abolish the criminal punishment system in Chicago, America, and the world. We believe in taking care of people along the way, since it's a big fight and it feels significant to us to be providing genuine, unconditional, not means tested care to those who leave jail.”
Dave Vettriano
Fire Talk
Previously working with locals such as Dehd, Deeper, Ohmme, Lala Lala, Melkbelly, and playing guitar with The Hecks- this is the debut release from producer Dave Vettraino- a soothing yet spacey collection of instrumental soundscapes that peers inside the mind of this heavily credited engineer. Each song captures its title essence, stretching audio bytes into long form sensations designed to make you truly ‘feel’ the music. Exercise is no easy listening, but a worthwhile meditation of what sound can be.
Sonny Falls
All That Has Come Apart / Once Did Not Exist
Plastic Miracles
“It’s honest, I’m not making anything up. If anything I don’t think anyone could really be angry. It’s just a bunch of shit that’s true and I tried to sing about it respectfully.”