Exploded View is coming

  I saw her as Anika at Empty Bottle way back in 2011. That just feels so long ago.  Her deep chalky voice that can almost replace James Earl Jones and stoic performance I found absolutely fascinating. Sadness Hides The Sun I recorded on my camera. What Anika says in the title of this song I would say about every song I encounter from her.  I liked Anika because she was this Noir soundtrack that never fucking quits. With shadows cast in words and music. Its easy to follow what she says and move to the music behind her. This was one of them shows that I found myself visiting again in my memory a lot. Her music was deep, the words powerful, and all together bassy and movement inducing. You wanna dance to this shit and put your hips into it, because its fucking sexy.  Anika branded her mark.  The only relic I took home was this poster from the wall. I don't often see them dated down to the year. I did not buy any merch. More than likely I was too broke. Without taking something home I got YouTube videos of Anika. So some distance comes with the familiarity. The Noir never left with Exploded View. And they are coming to Empty Bottle this November.

 Only with a brightest sun will you cast the darkest shadows. That is Exploded View, bringing the clouds at 3pm. Exploded View seems to have come from the Blade Runner universe.  As far as fictional dystopian worlds....yeah, I would say more Blade Runner than Mad Max....no, not even with Charlize Theron. This is Blade Runner/Brazil day or night an urban future world forever dark and in slow decline. Brightest Sun, harshest Sun. Anyway, here I am trying to go on about this band and look where an unleashed mind brings back while your out looking for the music that seems to suit best.

 My experience with Exploded View begins with Anika and continues like its an old and weathered Soul Train. Anika rides this train with a Vulcan steeled indecipherable poker face. She's a chill hand that holds the reins over shit. Its wondrous to see it live.  Sadness is one of those that hit you like its Ian Curtis telling you himself.  And his voice had that nervous mechanical quality to it. The stoic Anika  under the surface.....you know how Obama had his Anger Translator.  You just wanna see what that look like. We wait the Vulcan to betray any expression. That is part of it, her near mechanical delivery and yet every track is it's own self sustaining legend.  She makes it work and I am glad she is coming back. Masters Of War she owns it with her own muscle.  I can hear all of them in a row, I don't feel over saturated, or over exposed to the artist. I can YouTube binge on Anika like you wouldn't believe.  So this binge will naturally bring me to her work with Exploded View, her new band and self titled debut album on Sacred Bones Records. And where do I start....its like getting on a moving merry-go-round. Orlando is steady, powerful and disciplined.....and that video for it in the beginning...wow. Lost Illusions broods and simmers with a purpose over Anika's indifferent wails.

  No More Parties In The Attic so far even before seeing them live is a highly anticipated favorite of mine.  After binging on her videos, a signature emerges, becomes recognizable.  Every song has her stamp but they all have their own reasons to be someones favorite.  Each track holds its own like they are the only one worth hearing.  This show at Empty Bottle in early November....I hope I make it to this.
Zig

CrashPop!

 Windy City CrashPop Festival...This is the second year they have this.  They will have this again at Chop Shop on North Ave on Saturday 29th September.  It will start early...at 5pm. Just how many more nights are we gonna over work Cory for this? So that brings in Lightfoils and Panda Riot. I think he organized this whole event. I think there is new work coming from Lightfoils. I believe by this fall the Panda's tour will be behind them, and they will be home in Chicago.  I am happy to know they are staying.  Astrobrite has always been and only now am I exploring, and as I trip over, more music still.  2007 is when I became aware of the Pandas, them and Star.  They was good.....Scott Cortez played guitar, only I was too busy thinking how pretty Ms Shannon is. Star was an early contemporary of the Pandas, often playing the same gigs, but certainly it began to look good for Star. I noticed them opening for good touring bands. They were local and they were around during a very impressible time for me.  Scott Cortez was behind it but I was too busy staring at Shannon.  So now, I'm going over Astrobrite, and its a YouTube fucking rabbit sink hole... but, a bigger picture emerges from the fractions you collect.  You come out of this sink hole having survived a few cave ins but now I see Scott Cortez and now I'm kinda star struck...Leopold star struck. New Canyons is another very active Chicago band that I've taken for granted. Until one night at Smart Bar, pow! Now I get it.  Its thoughtful and slow vibe thinly veils a rolling avalanche of bass, synth and driving guitars.  Whimsical is another I am looking forward to seeing live. The lead singer I see all the time at Shimmer, the monthly Shoegaze night held at Slippery Slope. This is the first time seeing her on stage. Chicago is a real hub, and I'm stupid lucky to be waking on the park bench where all this shit happens and begins to happen. Even as we lump all these bands in a single shoegaze event. Lets say you go down every collapsing YouTube rabbit hole, each feeds into another...you come out of it, eventually. Your vision in the fog becomes sharper.  It just blows me away that I can be so close to this music.  Its a hyper local thing. It affects how I see them and write about them. New Canyons have been around for ever and only lately are they hitting me. Where the fuck have I been.

  There will be more bands for this event. I just mentioned who I am most familiar with. So this thing is happening again 29th September, a Saturday, at Chop Shop. It starts early at 5pm.  I'm just glad the bathrooms are ok.  Its real fortunate for us to have a once monthly shoegaze night  at Slippery Slope, and to even see some of the musicians that play the music is really fucking cool.

I post the pictures of the bands I saw. By some set of miracles they all call Chicago home.  There are a lot of great fucking bands from Chicago that do not stay. Fielded, Angel Olsen, Cross Record,...ok I'm drawing a blank after that, but you all get the fucking point. I just wanted to stick them names up there some how. Its an uphill thing for a band to exist here. This is the culture that most defines a place, and yet exists so precariously.  I'm glad Panda Riot toured the West. It fascinates that they can be the touring band. When they play here its from their newest Infinity Maps. I wonder if they play from the other albums on their tour....anyway that's just me imagining seeing them that one time in that rare tour. For others out there its gonna be that one iconic performance that makes them a fan. And they gotta soak up all they can from one single performance, or maybe three over the span of years. Anyway....rambling on. I am totally looking forward to seeing this, Saturday 29th Sept.
Zig 

sister crystals

  I miss Sister Crystals, they were...or are this sweet Chicago dream pop, shoegaze band that I once saw with the Pandas...at the Pandas. I guess I use the past tense because I have not seen them as of late. This band hit the spot, right away. They were first called Magic City, and soon after they renamed themselves Sister Crystals. Its ever so fortunate of me to have a few downloads of them and vinyl. So I'm not completely depending on Youtube videos. Well, there are a few songs that I've only seen on Youtube. There was a span of let's say three years in which all these dream pop, shoegaze bands, local bands were circulating actively and often appearing together along with the middle outside act. Pale Dian played quite a few times here under their old name Black Stone Rangers, played with the Crystals,Videotape, and the Pandas. Just to be safe let me throw in Lightfoils. So, Crystals I have seen in the context of a wider network. And indeed it influences how you see a band in front of you. There is a wider constellation to include them in....or not. With me, it was the wider network that brought them to my attention. There is always a forward drive to their swirling guitars. Their songs have these long moments when its just the guitars playing. They are often like the long exclamation point to the last word that Lauren sings. Hard To Imagine is just like this. Lauren's voice has space to sound alone, and then the swirling storm of guitars takes over.  And the swirl of guitars have this way of answering back and continuing on from Lauren, and building and building from that echo until. You Won't Let Go does this and builds on and on like a stoner Warpaint jam session. So this is one of those bands that I would see a lot before I ever had anything tangible to play. Now I do, and here and there I see some of their Youtube videos or just listening to the downloaded LP and EP. I do miss them.
Zig