THE CELL PHONES
Chicago has no shortage of inventive underground bands that borrow from punk, indie rock, metal, and any other pulse-quickening style to create a deranged, idiosyncratic sound. But no one in town does it quite like the Cell Phones. This three-piece can whip up as much noise as a crash of rhinos—if rhinos had thumbs and the dexterity to pull off tight, supple melodic flourishes on guitar. Bassist Ryan Szeszycki and drummer Justin Purcell flit between burly breakdown grindcore breakdowns and grungy doo-wop with start-stop precision, while powerhouse front woman Lindsey Charles lends the band’s severe sound a playful looseness with her coarse screams and honeyed coos. On their new third full-length, Battery Lower (Don’t Panic), the Cell Phones direct their anger and frustration at trivial pop-culture nonsense and monstrous political malfeasance alike: “Untitled 3 (Ode to Eddie Brock)” takes jabs at the ham-fisted Venom movie, while “53 percent” eviscerates the white women who’ve supported Trump’s patriarchal, misogynistic, and tyrannical administration. The Cell Phones capture the gathering outrage that’s peaked in 2020—they go from zero to blastoff in seconds flat—but they also express love, hope, and seemingly every other emotion in a way that’s downright life affirming. When your days feel bleak and long, Battery Lowercan help you recharge to keep fighting.
COUGARS
Cougars are a Chicago-based rock band previously signed to the New York-based label Go-Kart Records. In 2023 they signed to Expert Work Records. This is their first new record since 2006.
MOON PUSSY
Moon Pussy is a loud, noise-rock band piloted by Cristina Cuellar (Vocals, Bass), Ethan Hahn (Guitar), and Cory Hager (Drums) blasting through 4-dimensional space. Their sonic spaceship is a finely tuned machine pieced together from up-cycled materials and well lubricated by cheap beer and indigestion. Their own unique sounds have been refined over the years, usually in detriment of their profession careers, through a consistent digging in of their heels on bad ideas. Originating from humble beginnings with a focus on contributing to local non-profits through a music medium and an extensive guerilla marketing campaign, Ethan (Kaboom, Tank Tank, Handbrake), Cory (Drink to Victory, Douche, Last Men, NFU) and Cristina (Fetish Eyes) are now looking to expand their experience to the great unknown.
CHURCH FIRE
Nearly four years since the release of the basically prophetic summer camp doom diary, Church Fire's new album out now on Witch Cat Records is somehow noisier, more confrontational and more both fraught with and purging of the trauma of facing the escalating threat of authoritarian conservative culture. The band — now a trio with the addition of Kate Warner formerly of Mirror Fears and David Samuelson moving to drums,with Shannon Webber still in the role of musical catharsis shaman on vocals — takes aim at that ambient, corrosive darkness with a playful and spirited critique set to paradoxically strident and fluid beats.