Road to the Bottle

Keep up with touring bands as they make their way to the Empty Bottle.

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Brian Chippendale is Black Pus. One half of the noise rock behemoth Lightning Bolt, Chippendale has been writing songs on the side for most of the band's twenty year tenure. He released his 9th full-length as Black Pus, All My Relations, on Thrill Jockey on March 19th and is finally getting the attention he deserves for the effort.

Chippendale's live drumming shreds any notions you may have had of the instrument to little bits of loose-leaf paper, soaks them in all sorts of bodily fluids, stuffs them into jumbo-sized slurpee straws, and machine guns them back through your brain like silver bullets. What's even more nuts about a Black Pus show than its Lightning Bolt counterpart, is that Chippendale controls the bass tones through an oscillator connected to his kick drum instead of relying on bassist Brian Gibson to provide the sounds.

In an interview with Tiny Mix Tapes, Brian described Black Pus as a "fresh canvas." When he and Brian jam nowadays, they frequently run into the problem, "Oh shit, we did that thing about ten years ago." Pus provides Chippendale the opportunity to "move forward with every little stupid idea that I ever want. I don't have to bounce it off of anyone..." He also addressed the increasing role of vocals in his music--he's been trying to "branch out, and again just break down a few more rules that I set for myself...I think I've been growing as a vocalist." For a guy who treats 'rules' in music like Beavis and Butthead treat their teachers, this is a promising direction. 

Black Pus plays Empty Bottle on Tuesday, May 7th, the fourth date on a tour that leapfrogs across the country in one month. Chi-town thrash experimenters Oozing Wound open, along with a clan of synth-proggers from Michigan, Mounds.

)))) Show starts at 9pm ... Tickets are 10 bucks at the door, or 8 bucks in advance, dum dum ((((

~*~ Check out a couple videos of tracks from the new record."1000 Years" is made up of a series of Brian's childhood flip-book drawings and "Hear No Evil" is produced by Light Hits (duo of Kelie Bowman & Jessie Rose Vala) and featured on Pitchfork tv oOo ~*~

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It's been an exceptionally long road to the Bottle for Boston underground punk pioneers Unnatural Axe. "Is Gonna Kick Your Ass" came out in 1978 and though these dudes only stayed together for a few short years, the impact they left on the early American punk scene was huge. Three and a half decades have only cemented their cult status. 

Although the Axe has done numerous reunion tours since their initial breakup, Friday May 17th marks the crew's Chicago debut. Lucky for you, their headlining show is one of four nights of Hozac Blackout Fest 2013, hosted by yours truly. Other bands on the bill that night include Tyvek, Eat Skull, Make-Overs, Buck Biloxi & the Fu*cks, and Winter Bear. 

Richie himself (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) has put together some tracks on the interwebs--one of which is a previously unreleased Plasmatics cover--to get you in a fightin' mood for their set. Check 'em out here:

+++ Show starts at 8pm & is $25 at the door or online +++ 

==> 4-Day Passes to Blackout Fest can be found here <==

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Mmm the delicious taste of girl-fronted, melodic speed-rock from Canada--it's the champagne of punk. Vocalist Mish Way is a vicious banshee on stage, raising the dead mosh impulses inside the most stubborn of foot-tappers and beer-sippers. White Lung released their killer second LP "Sorry" on Deranged Records last May and have been touring like animals since, sharing stages with folks like Iceage, Merchandise, and Metz. 

Chicagoans MAGIC MILK and Polish Gifts will match White Lung's manic energy to round out a show that'll be nothing short of hostile. Join us this Thursday, April 25th. Show starts at 9 PM. 

/\/\/\/ Tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the door /\/\/\/

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We're proud to be welcoming back indie-pop sensation Marnie Stern to our stage. Her latest album, The Chronicles of Marnia, dropped last month and we're still singing along.

Through her gradual musical evolution, she remains true to what her fans have come to know her for: shredding. Intricate guitar work has and continues to be a sharp distinction in each of her albums, setting her apart from the pack.

Be sure to catch her while she's around, as she'll be leaving for Europe later this summer.

Also taking the stage this night are local three-piece Mayor Daley and Baltimore's noisy grunge revivalists Roomrunner.

+++ Show starts at 9pm // Tickets are $12 +++

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Experimental folk trio Akron/Family are returning to the Empty Bottle for the first time since 2005 on Tuesday, April 16th. Their latest release, Sub Verses, is set for release April 30th via Dead Oceans. You can pre-order now!

With a world tour under their belts and already a high number of albums out, Sub Verses takes on a slightly different direction from previous releases, incorporating a variety of musical styles and influences they were able to blend together flawlessly. SWANS' Michael Gira has some really inspiring things to say about it.

These guys make it look easy up on stage, showcasing their improvisation skills and effortless vocal harmonies.

Starting the night off will be LA native M. Geddes Gengras and minimalist rock four-piece All Tiny Creatures.

+++ Show starts at 9pm // Tickets are $12 +++

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An Iceage show isn’t necessarily ‘fun’ in the traditional sense of the word. Sullen, brooding, and vicious are adjectives more in line with the mood to be expected, but if you get satisfaction from listening to the band’s second record, You’re Nothing, released on Matador on February 19th, you’re probably down for a quick, banter-less set during which you might get hit. Lead vocalist Elias Benner Rondefelt is a haunting presence and is not afraid to participate in the pit.

The Danish four-piece is young and pissed off—making short, brutal punk songs with fresh noisy textures and strange song structures that translate well live. They've been on tour in support of the new album since late February across Europe and the West Coast and are finally making it to the heart of the heartland next Wednesday, April 10th.   

Put on your best boots and join us for a night of hardcore. Chicago outfits Violent End and Final Grin light the fire. 

+++ Show starts at 9pm // Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 at the door +++

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The Veronica Falls spring tour has hit North America and is headed straight for Chicago! After a busy schedule of East Coast shows, V-Falls is all warmed up and bringing the heat to the Bottle next Thursday, March 14. V-Falls will be coming straight from good old Cleveland, and will be making their way on west after entrancing us with their poised pop hits. The band is touring with their new LP, Waiting for Something to Happen, and while they've done some growing up on this album, V-Falls still retains the gothy goodness we know and love. Check out these rad photos from the beginning of their tour, along with the group’s new music video which was shot in a Portuguese Cemetery. To keep with their Prince of Darkness vibe, Veronica Falls performs new hit “Teenage” in the midst of ghostly grave stones. Don’t forget to grab your tickets here to join the goth pop party of the year at the Bottle with Cold Showers and Love of Everything. Tickets are $12 advance, $14 day of the show. Show starts at 9PM.

Here's the video of V-Falls playing their new single "Teenage" in a cemetery - super goth!

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Night Beds set off on tour this past Friday in support of their February 5th release on Dead Oceans (Phosphorescent, The Tallest Man on Earth), Country Sleep. They hit the Bottle this Saturday night--March 2nd. Winston Yellen's expressive and versatile tenor dominates atmospheric alt-country ditties that are steeped in Nashville sound and, you guessed it, pretty dreamy (not to mention Winston himself). Yellen has been evoking comparisons to Ryan Adams and Jeff Buckley; in short, this is the real deal. 

Indians, the pseudonym of Copenhagen's Søren Løkke Juul, released an understated yet majestic debut album, Somewhere Else, in January and is opening for Night Beds on the U.S. portion of the tour. Cat Martino delights us with the first sounds of the evening.

:: Show's at 10 PM & Tickets are $10 ::

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Twenty-four year old Jacco Gardner writes and performs beautifully crafted baroque-tinged psych pop to the same caliber as legends Syd Barrett and Colin Blunstone, respectively of The Pink Floyd and The Zombies. A native to the Netherlands, Gardner's approach to songwriting and producing includes layers of springs, harpsichords, mellotrons, and acoustic guitars. He creates a lush and heavily nostalgic sound not unlike modern contemporaries MMOSS, The Paperhead, White Fence and Quilt.

His first US tour starts in early March and takes him all the way down the east coast and through the Midwest. His debut LP, Cabinet of Curiosities, will be released by Chicago's Trouble In Mind Records in February. Be sure to pay him a visit here at the Empty Bottle on March 19th!

http://jaccogardner.com  http://troubleinmindrecs.com/bands/jaccogardner.html

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Minneapolis's Fuck Knights gather influence from 50's and 60's garage and blues acts, creating a sound that is equal parts Gun Club and Shadows of Knight, adapted to a rougher sound akin to garage punk contemporaries Ty Segall and Human Eye, among others. They even got the opportunity to record an EP with Gary Burger, original member of 60's weirdo garage group The Monks!

Their latest full-length release, Let It Bleed, is available through Boss Hoss Records.

They'll be playing the Empty Bottle on February 18 with surf punk trio The Lucks and Flesh Panthers.

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Meg Remy's solo project U.S. Girls is hitting the road for a three-week tour throughout the Midwest and east coast this February. A lo-fi dream pop act with influences in 80's kitsch pop and no wave, she utilizes rundown synthesizers, drum machines and tape reels to create lush, repetitive soundscapes.

Catch her here at the Empty Bottle on February 2 with tour mate/producer/husband Slim Twig and Chicago's sludgy-noise-rockers Mayor Daley. U.S. Girls latest LP, released by UK label Fatcat Records this past October, will be available for purchase from her, alongside handmade cassette box sets and her own collages.

http://yousgirls.blogspot.com  http://fat-cat.co.uk/site/artists/u.s.-girls  https://www.facebook.com/yousgirls

Check out the new music video for "Work From Home", by visual artist Chrissy Jones.

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"BRONCHO BRONCHO / Your girlfriend's lame." 

It's this sort of blunt attitude that makes Oklahoma's BRONCHO so irresistable. Their songs are straight-up and badass, with titles like "Pick a Fight," "I Don't Really Want To Be Social," "Record Store," and "Losers." 

Ryan Lindsey-of Starlight Mints-spearheads the operation, with lieutenant Jonathan Ford, aka Unwed Sailor. You get the feeling all the pressure to be anything besides what they want to has been lifted off their shoulders.

BRONCHO's debut album, Can't Get Past The Lips, was released in August of 2011, is 20 minutes long, and is a radical amalgamation of all that's come out of garages since "garage-rock" was first born. The Replacements, Iggy, and The Ramones pump through their veins like a punk virus, infecting songwriting brains trained for pretty pop. Ford assures us, "It's not nostalgia, it's natural."

The band hasn't been on tour since June of this past summer, but has a slew of dates scheduled right into April. Their gig at the Empty Bottle on Wednesday, February 6th is the second show on the docket. 

Skating Polly opens on the tour and is two girls (ages 12 & 17, no joke) who love riot grrrl and "wanna take over the world." 

Tickets are $8 in advance or $12 at the door. 

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Brooklyn's Ava Luna are in the midst of ripping across the eastern half of the U.S. this January on what they have coined a "winter lonesome tundra tour." They're playing an 8-band party in NoLa tonight, but will spend the next week galloping up to Chi-town for a date with us on Friday, January 25th.  

If you haven't heard their soul and punk-spliced progressive pop, you gotta hit play below. Their music is anxious yet gorgeous and sounds like the curious toddler of Phil Spector and Dirty Projectors. It's fast-changing, arty, and simultaneously genre-destroying -- how could you refuse? 

The 7-piece gaggle is still riding high on their first full-length, Ice Level, an intricate and compelling 8 tracks released last February. We're expecting another killer show from these savvy vets, just like when they opened for TWIN SISTER at the Bottle almost a year ago.

Chicago garage-pop darlings Summer Girlfriends open, along with experimental space rockers from Brooklyn, Celestial Shore. 

Tickets are $7 in advance or at the door.

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Gringo Star makes sunny rock n' roll that's as psych-tinged as it's lightly Southern-fried. They switch instruments a bunch during their shows and take themselves just seriously enough. Their set on Thursday, January 24th is sure to warm up your body and weird out your head. 

The Atlanta crew released a new 7" on December 4th. You can stream the rad A-side, "Going Way Out," below. 

Hometown boys The Nothingheads open and rock. Dark pop-punk reminds us of early Cloud Nothings. Also playing are John Carpenter and Boots with Spurs. 

Show starts at 9:30 PM and tickets will be $7 night-of or beforehand. 

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San Francisco's Magic Trick dropped "Tim Cohen's" from their name a few years back and have since developed a reputation outside of being a side project of The Fresh & Onlys frontman. In fact, one might wonder if this is the project he's more passionate about these days (aside from the fact that The Fresh & Only's release Long Slow Dance was one of the better indie-psych-folk-rock records of 2012).

The four-piece make weirdo psychedelic folk, in true Bay Area fashion. What makes them unique is the soft, atmospheric tone of their music, fit with subtle arrangement quirks, fresh world rhythms, trippy noises, and rich reverb. 

Their second proper LP, Ruler of the Night, came out on Hardly Art this past June. They play the Empty Bottle on Thursday, January 17th, near the end of a winter tour for them that starts with nine dates opening for Father John Misty. 

Chicago's own The Cairo Gang join the bill. They released their first album in six years, The Corner Man, in October and we're stoked to have em back to our stage. Newcomers The Blast Beats start the night off with their lo-fi pop goodies.

Show starts at 9:30 PM. Tickets are 8 bucks, in advance or at the door.

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The Soft Moon's set on Saturday, January 12th might turn into more of a goth dance party than a rock n' roll show, and we couldn't be more excited. Captured Tracks' reverb-friendly womb has birthed yet another beauty for us to host at the Bottle. 

Whether you think Joy Division is overrated or underrated, if you have any inclination towards the hypnotic and/or demonic, get your keister over here. Oakland-bred songwriter Luis Vasquez broke out of the constraints of bedroom recording this past October to bring us Zeros; a spiral staircase to Hell, where at each floor the listener is blessed with a unique interpretation of fury, despair, and fear. Atmospheric swaths of post-punk and darkwave minimalism are at the same time both dancy and driving, iced with delightfully foreign synth sounds and sparing, yet poignant howls from what surely must be a banshee.

Live audiences are bathed in black and white, mind-contorting video projections, which make the show feel even more like an apocalyptic dance party. 

The Soft Moon's Saturday, 1/12/13 date at the Empty Bottle is their fourth on an east coast+ tour, that begins at Mercury Lounge in Manhattan and ends at the Black Cat in DC. We're lucky to have 'em and they're lucky to be joined by Majical Cloudz, a Montreal DJ duo that makes lyrically intense, minimalist synth-pop, and Chicago ambient beauties Pillars & Tongues. 

Show starts at 9:30 PM. Tickets are $10, at the door or online. 

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Brooklyn’s Parquet Courts have a track called “Stoned and Starving” and it’s one of the most understated and insightful songs we’ve heard all year. They have found a voice that sticks out amidst the howling masses of DIY-garage-punk-lo-fi-till-I-die bands. Maybe it’s their Texas roots (see: their album cover).

Whatever the reason, the tightness of their grooves is unmatched; with chugging, locomotive post-punk bass and a drummer whose timing rivals that of a G-D metronome. Their songwriting is as crisp and American as a red delicious off the branch in October. Jangly and occasionally even twangy guitar riffs swim in and out of focus as Andrew Savage’s deadpan, but urgent, and sometimes spoken, delivery compliments lyrics that explore the motivations and disappointments of being a young person in America today. All in a way that manages to avoid being trite, stays punk, and evokes the likes of The Modern Lovers, Pavement, and The Velvet Underground.

The Empty Bottle has the pleasure to host the crew on Thursday, December 27th with the proprietors of Indiana proto-punk, The Gizmos (yes, the same dudes from the 70’s; mostly). The Chicago date is Parquet Courts' third show on a holiday tour that begins opening for Fucked Up in Brooklyn and traverses the country in a little over three weeks.

“Light up Gold,” the group’s first proper LP came out in August on Dull Tools.

Show starts at 9:30 PM. Tickets are $10 at the door or in advance.