"I Wish" is a track from "Dispatchee", the newest album by the far-flung group of tramps and vagabonds knows as The Cordeliers. It features the violin of Billie Howard, of the Chicago group The Paver (http://www.thepaver.com/). Not much is known about The Cordeliers at this time. Playing effortlessly with genres and trading turns at the microphone constantly, the three-piece project can be dangerously hard to define. Do so at your own peril. One can only presume that they are assembled in some smokey barn at this very moment, overdriving their amps and keeping all the owls awake. They don't play out much but, when they do, anything could happen. We just don't know.
The Variable Why is the Chicago-based project of Nick Sherman, who was once known far and wide as "the mayor of DeKalb." Nick has his fingers in a lot of musical pies, and we will hopefully be tasting some more of those pies in the months ahead. Since it is usually a solo effort, The Variable Why can change gears very rapidly according to what kind of music Nick feels like making. Because Nick is extremely capable of making any type of music under the sun, (the guy is like a musical octopus, able to do it all seemingly at once) you know what you are going to hear is gonna be quality. "Nature Boy" was generously provided for this edition of Silo and Sky. It was most likely written and recorded while Nick was draped in the lightest of silken kimonos, much to the dismay of his housemates.
Konrad is the namesake project of Rock Island, IL dweller Jeff Konrad. Konrad’s music is influenced from just about every genre you can find at a college radio station. His proximity to the “wrong side of town” keeps him in touch with the street, while his fertile imagination gives his music an optimistic vitality. He has worked with many musicians from the Quad City scene. This track “Like a Breeze” features Konrad and Donnie Bobb flipping styles back and forth with a catchy groove and memorable hook.
Fingers Lift is a Midwestern band that makes most of its music from beneath a frozen mountain of snow and ice. At times borrowing members from the DeKalb group Things Falling Apart (who we'll be hearing from in a later installment of Silo and Sky), it is usually a two-man band and a cat. "Japanese Pears" is provided exclusively for Silo and Sky. Brandon admits to listening to too much "Graceland" while writing it.
Matthew Dotson is an L.A.-based musician/producer of hybrid vaporwave/dance/noise music. With an extensive formal education in music, he composes genre-hopping, layered panoramas. Junk vistas, robot orchestras, sleaze-beat gonzo funk...he'll find the groove, or chaos, at the heart of things. Matthew has been making challenging and rewarding music by himself and with others since a fourth-dimensional rust-being saved his life and told him a secret at a crosswalk when he was young. He can tell you what key a streetlight hums in.
A DeKalb, IL expat, Reckless Triumphant now hails from Philadelphia, PA. The solo work of Nat Kundanis-Grow, who played in every single DeKalb band for a good 5-year period, Reckless Triumphant seems to function as an internal sounding-board for the multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter. With songs that explore the dread of planning meals on a non-existent budget, an obsession with old tennis matches, or maybe a pizza topped with brains, listening to Reckless Triumphant can sometimes feel like you’re picking up on the running thoughts of a sleep-deprived musical madman with a philosophical bent. That sounds about right.
Boba Loma, our contribution from the DeKalb-based Handmedown Satellites, was written for an as-of-yet unrealized film called "P-Apple Force." It is the chase theme in which Mark follows Brandon hither and yon in an attempt to share his sulfate-laden dried pocket apples. Eventually they do share the pocket apples. The movie ends with the dirge "Down in the Old Apple Pocket Well." Since the film has been in limbo, the song has also been added to the new HMDS album Golagat.
Gary Butterfield is a man with many irons in the fire. As one half of the popular weekly podcast "Watch Out For Fireballs!", one would think he wouldn't have time to make music, keep several websites going, write, and run some more podcasts....but he does. Gary's music perfectly encapsulates pop sensibility and marries killer keyboard hooks with highly intelligent lyrics. Compress this all under layers of synth and drum machines and you get a shining mirror ball, hanging non-ironically, in a club where the fun kids shake it to the new, new wave. Consider hiring him to write the music for your podcast, if you have a podcast.
The Bandcamp tags for Demons say it all: experimental, soul, Chicago. Demons exorcises the souls of a hundred old songs into a beautiful, organic and articulate homunculus of pure meaning. Sometimes sly, sometimes frenetic, always heartfelt and entertaining. What's more, they make it all look so easy! "West Huron" was provided exclusively for Silo and Sky. We are truly thankful to our Demon overlords.
NW Indiana/Chicago based indie artist Joshua McCormack combines a love for Beatlesque pop, Buckley-esque vocals, and Waits-like instrumentation. Making music since he was a kid, Joshua has delved into genres ranging from metal to gospel to strange hazy lounge. If you are lucky enough to share a campfire with him some night, be sure to brush up on your best Tom Waits sing-along voice, because he will consistently nail it until the sun comes up.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joshua-McCormack/122927731083474
https://soundcloud.com/josh-mccormack
https://soundcloud.com/josh-mccormack
Tyranny Is Tyranny is the title of the fourth Chapter of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." Featuring ex-members of the now-defunct The United Sons of Toil, this Madison, WI group is seemingly in the perfect place at the perfect time to deliver their brutal renouncement of the ills of capitalism. With a deep knowledge of the past, and a message for the future, Tyranny is Tyranny plays with their hearts on their sleeves. Loud, angry, and honest. Our featured track comes from their new album "Let It Come From Whom It May."
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