ALBUM REVIEWS
December 2019
Red Scarves
Annuals
Red Scarves
Red Scarves’ new album Annuals delivers music so smooth I am swooning from the opening track, “Time She Takes.” Eric Novak’s first deep glam growl grabbed my attention as Braden Poole warmed things up on the chorus. Then Novak hits those falsetto notes, and I get weak in the knees. The interplay between guitar, sax, and keys ending the song is truly dreamy. It is an excellent way to start this jazz-infused rock album. Make sure to check out the epic build and soaring vocals on, “Could You Still See Me.”
For a different side of Red Scarves listen to “Greet the Day.” A more traditional indie rock jam with vocals by Poole. It is an uplifting track with a really satisfying turn towards psych midsong. Although the genre influences shift from song to song, every track will keep you swaying and marveling at their stellar musicianship.
These guys will surely be beyond when they perform this music live.
Giants Chair
Prefabylon
Spartan
Kansas City birthed a certain post-grunge sound in the 90s that was brought to an apex by acts like Season To Risk, Kill Creek, Vitreous Humor, Boys Life, Shiner, and of course Giants Chair. In smokey clubs (yes you could still smoke everywhere in the 90s), all ages coffee shops, and house shows galore, a scene sprung up that rivaled any cities; and kids, punks, and early hipsters soaked it up like it was life's breath. Returning after twenty years on ice, Giants Chair bring back that same riotous energy and reverb soaked power chords with new record Prefabylon. The trio of Scott Hobart (Guitar/Vocals), Byron Collum (Bass) and Paul Ackerman (Drums) are missing none of the fire that made Purity and Control and Red and Clear into local classics. Opener “Rust Belt Rooster” comes out swinging and they never slow down the breakneck pace as the ten tracks squeal by in a cloud of fuzz and snare whaps. Plug in, kick back, and let Giants Chair propel the time machine back to our post-grunge soaked youths.
Town Criers
Town Criers III
Town Criers
Full of that jangle Chicago sound mixed with a propensity to fully rock out in classic garage style, Town Criers returns with their third self titled EP in two years. The squeal of guitar from Scott Truesdale perfectly matches the tenor of Andre Baptista’s vocals while scenester Kevin Allen (we see this dude at every local show with his camera) rips into his kit, providing the background for their sound that is awash in 60s and 70s influences, while firmly planted in the indie vibes of the present. “Rain” kicks off the collection with a solid punch, as they explore their latin roots with “Lamento e Consolação,” and wrap it all up with a hipster story of the city in “Avondale Tale.” In between moments of indie guitar rock glory, are shades of a band coming into its own, with moments of mature songwriting that lead to an overall solid effort from this young quartet. The psychedelic drawl of “Genghis Khan” and “Let the Sun Shine” show just how far they can push their genre mix into uncharted territories.
Camp Edwards
Beloit EP
Camp Edwards
Mixing a propensity for pop punk and early emo rock, à la Cap’n Jazz and Joan of Arc, is nothing new but young Chicago quartet Camp Edwards is doing a right bang up job on their debut Beloit EP. Elements of indie rockers like Pinegrove or Joyce Manor are stirred up with the classic 90’s elements on display to create a stew that is sure to satisfy punks and indie fans alike. Jameson Ghalioungui’s melancholy vocals blend with the tunes to create a seamless cohesion that most young bands simply don’t capture. Ballad “Without You” shows off all of these layers at once, while the lazy chords and light lyrics of the intro to opener “Beloit” gives all the right feels to set up this catchy collection that will have you reaching to spin it again as soon as the last chords of closer “I Love You” abruptly halt.
Camp Edwards is playing Dream House this Friday, December 20th. Opening a free Monday show at the Empty Bottle on December 30th. And at Silvie’s on January 10th.
Lord Mantis
Universal Death Church
Profound Lore
Partially because they needed to mend their wounds. Partially because it was time. Partially because you can only hold your suffering in so long before it starts seeping out of your pores. For all these reasons and more, we have a new album in 2019 from incorrigible local purveyors of perversity, Lord Mantis. Their fourth album Universal Death Church is a long-awaited follow up to 2014’s frighteningly severe Death Mask and the first album released since former drummer Brad Bumgardner from what the Cook County coroner has ruled a suicide. Also during this window, lead singer Charlie Fell left and rejoined the band. His exit was first instigated by a disagreement between him and guitarist Andrew Markuszewski, with the death of Bumgardner reportedly acting as the catalysis for the reunion. The album resulting from this turmoil feels like a “back to basics” release that looks back on a past that has henceforth never been revealed to the public, while simultaneously continuing the band’s ritual of finding new psychic crevasses to plunder in their grubbing pursuit of extremity.
Lord Mantis’s sound is often categorized as blackened sludge. A fitting category for sure, as their tectonic grooves and treacherous winding arrangements conger repressed memories of how shocking one’s mind may have found Neurosis upon first encounter, while Markuszewski petulant tremolo picking and Fell’s piercing shriek invoke the northern chaos gods of Immortal and other second-wave black metal pathfinders. Although, as fitting as this label feels at times, it also falls short of describing the damaged quality of their music. Almost like their performance is a deliberate act of self-harm. Most metal aims to sound empowering. Lord Mantis doesn’t indulge in such fantasies. Instead, they pour out the black tar excavated from their innermost consciousness onto the images of masculine assertiveness only to watch skin boil and flesh recoil. I’d call it torture rock, but that seems a little too on the nose given the fluid, permeable quality of their music and the way each element bleeds into and infects the others. The track “Fleshworld” off of Universal Death Church exemplifies this interstitial virulence with its mutinous mutating structure, the way its chords churl back on themselves to swallow their own loose entrails, and the way the guitar feedback and cutting vocals interact to smother and nurture each other in abusive familial intercourse. It’s one of the better tracks on the album and most in line with their established sound, but not exemplary of the album as a whole.
As mentioned prior, Universal Death Church seems to be reaching back into the band’s past for something, and in the process, uncovering something hitherto unseen. There is a strong Ministry presence on this album, “Qliphotic Alpha” sounds like one of that other Chicago firebrand’s edgier deep cuts with its electric and industrial components, bolted onto a slow carving groove, pernicious percussion, and strangled vocal performance. Other parts of the album feel more nakedly black metal in conception, like the frill-less opener “Santa Muerte” and the rushing cry of “God’s Animal.” Elsewhere “Damocles Falls” channels a black mirror reflection of Inter Arma’s approach to post-hardcore, with the distinctively peak Lord Mantis addition of a snot plagued vocal performance, sure to trigger your gag reflex. Tracks like these are a bit of a glimpse behind the curtain for the listener. Whereas the band’s influences where once veiled in a whirlwind of inscrutable punishing sound and self-hatred, they’re now transparent and intractable. Almost like Lord Mantis has learned to like themselves enough to allow us to get to know them better and see their true selves. What’s maybe most surprising about this development is that their exposure is as terrible to witness as the obscuring pageantry of pain they previously exhibited.
Andrew Robert Palmer
Parlour PunkAndrew
Robert Palmer
A sense of humor is often missing from folk and punk rock; and when it crops up, as in Andrew Robert Palmer’s newest collection Parlour Punk, it can be a breeze of fresh sounds to get you through the long Chicago winter. A local DIY stalwart who has been self releasing an extensive collection of work since 2015’s Ghosts and Bees (A Retrospective), with a dozen albums and EP’s under his belt in a mear five years A.R.P.’s prolific output is clearly impressive. With Parlour Punk he explores life's changes as he goes through that most grown up step, buying a house. A fully acoustic punk album is not a new concept but A.R.P. approaches it in his classic do it yourself mode by performing the entire record himself (except for some cello parts), in his newly purchased home. With tunes like “Chasing Time” and “Worried Dad Rock” he explores family life in the face of a “scary world.” A theme that runs throughout the record, but comes to a hopeful conclusion in closer “We Still Sing,” as he faces our societal woes with a message of perseverance, his guitar, and a pen.