When sludge-rock progenitors the Melvins formed in a Seattle basement more than a quarter century ago, it’s a fair guess they never expected they’d keep at it so long, let alone sell VIP tickets to their concerts. Named after a widely loathed clerk at the grocery store where singer and general weirdo King Buzzo worked, the group started playing a mix of teenage favorites—Hendrix, the Who, and the ’80s hardcore punk canon. A few lineup changes later, they took a distinctive turn towards the slow, heavy, and droning, emerging as torchbearers for the nascent sludge-rock genre. With a guitar sound like sharpening an epoxy-covered pencil, funereal drums, and vocals somewhere between a blown speaker and a busted Lysol can, it’s fair to call them an antidote for New Wave. Their first two releases, “Six Songs” (subsequently expanded and re-released as “Eight Songs,” “10 Songs,” and “26 Songs”) and “Gluey Porch Treatments,” were regarded with particular reverence in Louisiana’s metal scene, inspiring bands like Eyehategod, Acid Bath, and Buzz*oven. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week my band, the Butts, played Reggies Rock Club. We’d never played a show at a “real” venue before—we were excited. It was 21+, so our large twenty-year-old fan contingent couldn’t come—but we were still excited. It was a free show; surely some people would come. The weather wasn’t so cold. It was right off the Chinatown Red Line stop. It would be a good show. We’d rock their socks off. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2006, the Salem Baptist Church in Pullman hosted a “Night of Terror”—one of those Halloween events some religious groups have to scare the crap out of kids. Only the things they use to scare them aren’t skeletons or ghosts, but abortions and homosexuals—because getting the former or being the latter presumably means you’re going straight to hell. You don’t even have to attend to take part in the horror.

This year, I hoped the event would once again take place—so that I could write about it in disgust, not because I actually support it—but alas, apparently negative publicity and public outrage have convinced the church to pull the plug (I don’t know for sure those are the reasons behind the move, but I’d like to think so). This left me without an article to write, but in retrospect, it’s much better this way. Read the rest of this entry »

In the late 1970s, when wearing a leather jacket and spiking your hair was still likely to get you heckled on the street (or worse), Johnny Rotten infamously wrote “I HATE” on a Pink Floyd T-shirt, wittingly creating a fashion-friendly manifesto for the movement. Punks in London set out to rebel against the pompous, virtuosic prog rock in vogue at the time, rejecting the bombast of guitar solos and light shows along with the complacency of the British public.

If the shock of punk’s first eruption has faded away, alas, the first wave of bands created a simplistic model slavishly imitated for decades. By 1980, punk had become a formula: throw three chords together, get a mohawk and a scowl, and there you have it—instant rebellion. Originally about breaking down tradition, punk had acquired its own set of taboos. Toronto natives Fucked Up, who play at Reggies on Thursday, self-consciously break dozens of them, and are all the more exciting for it. Read the rest of this entry »

Chicago’s Chinatown district has changed a substantial amount since the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the beginnings of a Chicago Chinatown were born. In the late 1800s, most of the Chinese immigrants in Chicago lived near Clark and Van Buren in downtown Chicago. However, Chinese-Americans faced substantial housing discrimination in Chicago, and established Chinatown as a safe haven Today, Chinatown continues to expand as a neighborhood, recently spilling over into the neighborhood of Bridgeport to the south. The hustle and bustle of the Chinatown neighborhood is hard to miss, as the streets of Chinatown are lined with hole-in-the-wall restaurants and delectable bakeries, frequently busy and serving a diverse group of customers. There is also no shortage of grocery stores and specialty stores. From its summer festivals to the countless number of gift shops, Chicago’s Chinatown may not be the biggest Chinatown in the country, but it certainly is one of the most vibrant. Read the rest of this entry »

Grunge, pop, and rock: these labels say surprisingly little about the bands playing this Friday at Reggies Rock Club. Mudhoney, an essential band of the 1990s Seattle grunge movement, has just released “The Lucky Ones,” a record that is consistent with the band’s history of incorporating different musical genres into their signature fuzzed-out sound. The catchy riffs of Chicago-based band the Fake Fictions aren’t pure pop, but contain echoes of punk and surf-rock as well. Hailing from Detroit, Easy Action brings a harsher sound, with roaring vocals and a distorted guitar layered over a heavy bass. This unique combination of music should amount to one heck of a show, one that is as much fun as it is frenzy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Anti-Nowhere League (ANWL) has been dedicated to the performance of noisy, obnoxious, unbearable, violent punk since the 1980s. The group’s first performance, and subsequent arrest, was at the 1980 carnival in Tunbridge Wells in its native England. ANWL has since formed followings of vehement haters and supporters among the public and “musicians.” The band—who’s also developed an independent record label, Nowhere Records—is currently in the middle of its “American Tour.” On April 8th, the guys play at Reggies Rock Club. Lead singer Animal, one of the original founders, talked to the Chicago Weekly about ANWL over the past twenty-five years, the band’s upcoming show at Reggies and its informal (but apt) title: the “bastard sons of punk.” Read the rest of this entry »

Coming from a movement dominated by kids who are all attitude and no talent, The Vandals approach punk rock with a unique professionalism. The group, who will be playing at Reggies Rock Club this Friday, eschew the radical politics and scenester posturing of some of its contemporaries to focus instead on actually making music. “At the end of the day it’s music, not just punk rock,” says bassist Joe Escalante in an interview with Skratch Magazine. Lyrically, they’re more concerned with humor than revolution. Fan favorite “Anarchy Burger” mocks the seriousness of other punk bands with its tongue-in-cheek chorus: “Anarchy burger, hold the government.” Other songs find humor in the mundane like “How They Getcha,” a song about a fortuneteller. In an interview with Citizine, guitarist Warren Fitzgerald says that writing punk songs about ridiculous topics is one of his favorite tricks. A fan hears the screaming and the fury and thinks that The System is finally crumbling, but “then you read the lyrics and it’s like, ‘Oh shit, it’s about fuckin’ Miss Cleo,’” says Escalante. Read the rest of this entry »