April 16
According to the Armed’s guitarist and co-producer Dan Greene, the hardcore collective’s latest album is a “joyous, genderless, post-nihilist, anti-punk, razor-focused take on creating the most intense listener experience possible.” The follow-up to 2018’s
Only Love features assistance from Mark Lanegan, Queens of the Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen, producer Ben Chisholm, and executive producer Kurt Ballou. The famously mysterious group revealed its member lineup for this album in the live video for lead single “All Futures.” –Sam Sodomsky
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NOW is the latest album from Damon Locks, a bandleader, composer, visual artist, educator and influential figure in Chicago s cultural communities. Locks has a long history in music - one of his earliest bands was the experimental rock and post-hardcore group Trenchmouth, formed in 1988 and featuring his friend Fred Armisen on drums. The Black Monument Ensemble is a recent project that began with Lock’s own sample-based creations, layering audio clips from Civil Rights Era speeches over programmed beats. It’s since expanded to include a four-piece band and a six-piece choir; a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers, and dancers making work with common goals of joy, compassion, and intention.
Last modified on Wed 28 Apr 2021 05.05 EDT
Ashley Monroe
I started writing songs after my father died when I was 13. I used music to release the sadness that was flooding my heart and held on to my guitar like it was a float in an ocean. As an artist, Iâve always wanted to provoke chills, because to me that means Iâve connected with the spirit thatâs giving me the music.
Iâve become known as a purveyor of sad songs, but this album is different. Life and motherhood have changed me. Iâve realised that so many things I used to lose sleep about donât really matter. Melodies were coming to me that sounded heavenly and blissful. Long chapters of my life have been very hard, so I thought, what if I just freeze, yâknow, this joy?
These 10 recent releases make a Jazz Appreciation Month soundtrack
April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and there is no shortage of music to appreciate.
The sound draws from deep, historic wells, and you could spend more than a month diving into just one iconic player s credits.
Still, if you re looking for a new way to celebrate music with 2021 stamped across it the young year offers an abundance. Masters with longevity, rising stars, fresh collaborations. 2021 has been a great year for jazz just like every year.
Here are 10 of the best releases from the first third of 2021:
Releases from the class of 2021
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For over 30 years, Damon Locks has been in the middle of Chicago arts and culture. Locks moved to the city in the late â80s to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the first of many local pillars that would become well acquainted with the multi-talented composer, musician, educator, and visual artist. Heâs worked for cultural institutions ranging from the cherished indie label Thrill Jockey to the world-famous Field Museum where, legend has it, he once planted a cassette of his punk band Trenchmouth in the African exhibit.
His endeavors look different today, but his ethos has hardly changed: Locks uses every connection at his disposal to raise artistic voices from the street level to the eyes of downtown and beyond in the name of healing. Heâs worked with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and teaches art at a state prison, as well as at schools all over the city. But today heâs probably best known for fronting the Black Monument En