Feminazgul spins anarchy, feminism, and literature into atmospheric black metal on No Dawn for Menon April 17, 2020 at 4:01 pm

Margaret Killjoy, the self-described “mistressmind” of North Carolina-based Feminazgul, announced on March 16 via Facebook that due to the pandemic-slash-shitstorm, her atmospheric black-metal band would release their first full-length, No Dawn for Men, ahead of schedule and make it available for purchase on a pay-what-you-can basis. Killjoy, a trans woman, also writes queer anarchist steampunk and folk horror, which helped Feminazgul’s debut EP, 2018’s The Age of Men Is Over, make big ripples in subcultures beyond the metal scene. The themes she explores in her prose often bleed into her songs; the new album’s monumental “Bury the Antlers With the Stag” reminds me of her 2017 novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, in which a rural squatters’ commune is terrorized by a vengeful spirit in the shape of a stag with three antlers. Though Killjoy made The Age of Men as a solo endeavor, on No Dawn for Men the Feminazgul lineup includes lead vocalist Laura Beach and California-based violinist and theremin player Meredith Yayanos–and the fleshed-out instrumentation lends an ethereal dimension to the hair-raisingly shamanic “The Rot in the Fields Is Holy.” Killjoy enjoys playfully appropriating quotes and imagery from mythology and classic fantasy to flavor her anti-patriarchal, anarchist message–both of her album titles are quotes from The Lord of the Rings, and the band name of course riffs on the word for the Ringwraiths in the Black Speech. On No Dawn for Men she deals with vengeance, defiance, the ascension of nature, and the acceptance of death: opening track “Ill, Mother of Death” begins with a pastoral idyll and turns into a Maenad-mad invocation of a death goddess. Lovely instrumental “Look Not to Erebor” provides an eerie and melancholy respite after the renouncing fury of “Forgiver, I Am Not Yours.” This is a rich and unsettling album, full of horror and beauty, and I’m going to be revisiting it a lot. Killjoy also expresses her worldview through other musical endeavors, making neofolk as Alsarath (the EP Come to Daggers dropped in January), blackened doom as Vulgarite (the EP Fear Not the Dark nor the Sun’s Return came out the same month), and electronica as Nomadic War Machine (the track “The Flood Came Over Me” arrived in March). Killjoy has a methodical bent to her prolificacy; she sorts and organizes the different aspects of her creativity into categories, and uses varying sounds to conjure varying energies. As in her work as an author, she tailors the style of her prose to the vibe of the story at hand. v

Feminazgul spins anarchy, feminism, and literature into atmospheric black metal on No Dawn for Menon April 17, 2020 at 4:01 pm Read More »

Haley Fohr joins forces with Bitchin Bajas on Jacqueline, her second album as alter-ego Jackie Lynnon April 17, 2020 at 4:05 pm

A few years ago, Haley Fohr, who makes experimental rock music under the name Circuit des Yeux, introduced a new project where she inhabited a drifter-turned-drug-pusher alter ego named Jackie Lynn. Her 2016 album under that name mixed dejected pop and stripped-down electronics with off-kilter alt-country; its second half in particular had a mysterious, dangerous vibe, and listening to it felt like picking up a hitchhiker on a deserted highway not knowing whether they were harmless or a serial killer. So when I heard that Fohr was releasing a second Jackie Lynn album, I imagined that her musical antiheroine’s latest adventures would have taken her further down the rabbit hole of darkness. Instead, the record feels brighter than its predecessor, even a little glamorous–an about-face that’s even implied in the more genteel spelling of her name, Jacqueline. Much of this has to do with the fact that Fohr has expanded the project into a full band with help from Bitchin Bajas members Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan. Opening track “Casino Queen” immediately plucks the Jackie Lynn of yesterday from her smoky backroom poker games and drops her among the red-velvet ropes and twinkling lights of Vegas, while other songs lack any tinge of society’s underbelly: the orchestral “Dream St.” feels more like floating down a river than flirting with trouble, and the hook-laden “Shugar Water” is practically uplifting. Fohr has described Jackie Lynn as a long-haul truck driver in this chapter of her story, and each song is a snapshot of a day in her life. So while the darkness may return down the line, this independence and freedom suit her well. v

Haley Fohr joins forces with Bitchin Bajas on Jacqueline, her second album as alter-ego Jackie Lynnon April 17, 2020 at 4:05 pm Read More »

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs conjure the kind of wild shows we miss while the world’s on lockdown on Visceralson April 17, 2020 at 4:10 pm

It may be a while before the sort of all-out raging rock show that’s so hot and packed you leave smelling like other people’s sweat is once again part of human existence, but Newcastle Upon Tyne five-piece Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (or, more concisely, Pigs x 7) won’t let that feeling fade into memory without a fight. Formed in 2013, they mix heavy rock, metallic riffs, and a little spacey psych with ample amounts of weirdness and fun–they’re the sort of band you wish were a regular presence on your local circuit, whether you ordinarily listen to their style of music or not. The title of Pigs x 7’s new third album, Viscerals, feels like the perfect choice. Right from the opening track, “Reducer,” which is anchored by a blistering, Stooges-worthy groove and searing lead guitar, the record sounds so raw you can practically smell the grimy clubs and basements that normally host this sort of band, and its sky-high energy level can make the walls of wherever you’re self-quarantining feel infinitely more confining–and in this case, that’s a good problem to have. The hard-rock chorus of the anthemic “Crazy in Blood” practically demands cheap beer and a cheesy music video, but the punk-addled vision of Pigs x 7 makes it feel like a deliberate goof rather than self-satire. Things also get a little absurd on “Blood and Butter,” a horror story of social anxiety and well-mannered poisoning that’s mostly spoken word, drums, and reverberating rumbles. The album isn’t all over-the-top silliness, though: Pigs x 7 get more complex on long-form burner “Halloween Bolson.” So what if you can’t go out? Crank up Viscerals (on headphones if necessary), and try not to bash your head against the ceiling as you let off some pent-up energy. v

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs conjure the kind of wild shows we miss while the world’s on lockdown on Visceralson April 17, 2020 at 4:10 pm Read More »

Lido Pimienta’s Miss Colombia is a luminous anthem to resilienceon April 17, 2020 at 4:50 pm

Contemporary music informed by cultural traditions that have withstood the test of centuries uplifts my spirits like nothing else; in these times, it seems to hold a magic that can help us all withstand adversity. Lido Pimienta’s new third album, Miss Colombia, is the highly anticipated follow-up to her Polaris Prize-winning La Papessa. The Barranquilla-born, Toronto-based Afro-Indigenous multimedia artist recorded the album in her home studio as well as in San Basilio de Palenque, a Colombian village founded in the 17th century by escaped enslaved persons. On Miss Colombia Pimienta further evolves the hybrid electronic and Afro-Indigenous sound she established on La Papessa and 2010’s Color, but she takes a more organic and sensual approach to electronics, surrounding her vocals with lush, rounded effects and beats. Her soaring vocals, which are front and center here, are grounded in the ecstatic chanting of Afro-Colombian spiritual music as well as references to Caribbean Colombia’s musical traditions, including horn-rich cumbia subgenre porro and the percussion-centered bullerengue–a precursor to cumbia born in San Basilio de Palenque and traditionally danced only by women. To perform her compositions, Pimienta has enlisted Cuban-Colombian jazz band Okan, members of San Basilio de Palenque’s famed Sexteto Tabala, female singers from Cantaoras Grupo Raices de Palenque, the Road to Avonlea Choir, and front woman Li Saumet of punk cumbia act Bomba Estereo. “Eso que Tu Haces” (“That Thing You Do”) features porro-infused beats that swell majestically amid swirling, lush, orchestral horns. “Pelo Cucu” is a slow, mournful bullerengue that celebrates the African texture of the singer’s hair and defends it against unwanted touching. Pimienta makes music that offers the promise of overcoming struggle. The lyrics to “Resisto y Ya” make me feel especially hopeful: the lines “Nunca se acaba la luz de lo que vuelve . . . en la luz, resisto, y ya” translate to “The light of what returns never ends . . . in the light, I resist, and that’s it.” I’ve had that track on repeat, so I can savor how its chants and percussion seamlessly veer into an electro-bullerengue pop bop blessed with a sunny, supremely danceable groove. v

Lido Pimienta’s Miss Colombia is a luminous anthem to resilienceon April 17, 2020 at 4:50 pm Read More »

Chicago rapper and cult legend Sharkula focuses his flow on BBQ Fingaprintson April 17, 2020 at 4:53 pm

If you spent much time in Chicago’s artsier north-side enclaves, you’ve likely crossed paths with Chicago rapper Brian Wharton–he goes by Sharkula, but he’s also sometimes known as Thigahmahjiggee. And if you’ve ever talked to him, he’s inevitably tried to sell you something: a homemade CD-R, a T-shirt he’s drawn on with Sharpie markers, or (more frequently these days) a graffiti-indebted painting on canvas or a piece of cardboard. And if like me you devour old-school hip-hop, fringe music of any genre, and artwork by iconoclasts, chances are you at least own a few of those CD-Rs, bought from Sharkula on the sidewalk, on the Blue Line, or in a bar he’s wandered into, selling his wares out of a bag like the Tamale Guy. Sharkula has become such a frequent presence in my everyday life that he defines my picture of Chicago as much as our stalagmite skyline, even as we’re sheltering in place; a couple weeks ago, I ran into him outside the Dill Pickle in Logan Square, where he’d brought his art to sell to the few pedestrians in sight. Thankfully his music is also accessible online, which is all the more important now that the social interactions that typically fuel his sales have temporarily vanished. (On Tuesday, April 14, Natalie Figueroa and Mike “Shazam” Bangles launched a GoFundMe to help Sharkula during the pandemic.) At the end of March, Sharkula released a new full-length, BBQ Fingaprints, on local label Static Switch. Sharkula famously colors outside the lines in his songs, with non sequiturs that sometimes clash with his beats and a flow that sometimes departs from logic, but on BBQ Fingaprints his free-associative raps are a little easier to follow than usual–and as charming as ever. v

Chicago rapper and cult legend Sharkula focuses his flow on BBQ Fingaprintson April 17, 2020 at 4:53 pm Read More »

We’re living (and dying) in a historic momenton April 17, 2020 at 6:15 pm

This COVID-19 interlude will have a place in history. We can too.

On Thursday, the Chicago History Museum announced the launch of “In This Together,” an effort to collect a digital record of the pandemic era as we’re living it, in “real time.”

CHM is inviting residents of Chicago and the suburbs to contribute stories, diaries, photos, videos, and audio recordings of their lives during this time of illness, economic disaster, and isolation.

“Now more than ever, the Chicago History Museum is committed to sharing Chicago’s stories,” CHM president Gary T. Johnson said in the announcement. The museum will post much of this material at chicagohistory.org/documentingcovid19. Some will go into the permanent collection.

There’s more information about “In This Together” at chicagohistory.org/covid19history/. Contributions can be made here.

I’m sending them my snapshot of Millennium Park in shadow, barricaded and empty on a sunny April afternoon. The only other time I’d seen the city this vacant and eerily quiet was on 9/11, a few hours after New York had been hit.

What have you got? v

We’re living (and dying) in a historic momenton April 17, 2020 at 6:15 pm Read More »