RCRD LBL

Saying that Chicago's the Yolks channel the Pharaohs, the Mummies, Jimmie Rodgers and Ray Davies might make your ears think they've heard that sound before.  And while there's nothing remotely "progressive" about the tunes of the Yolks, it's pretty undeniable that these three fellas know how to write a pop song.  Instantly catchy without being washed in fuzz, featuring your classic guitar, bass and organ sounds, the Yolks don't disappoint.  Minus the fact that they say "steez," in "I Do What I Do," from their 7" Introducing the Yolks, the song could easily be playing on your local Oldies station.  "Don't Blame Me" from the Wandering 7" is decidedly more lo-fi, but it could easily pop up on the "lost 45s" late nite show and nary a baby boomer could contest it.  The fellas are playing with the Black Lips post Lollapalooza at the Empty Bottle on August 1, if you're in Chicago you should be fittin to be there.

Sounds Like: CoCoComa, the Smith Westerns, Lover!, the Okmoniks

Download: The Yolks - I Do What I Do

Download: The Yolks - Don't Blame Me

The Yolks @ MySpace

The Yolks @ RCRD LBL

What do you get when you take 30 musicians from around Chicago, dress them in varying shades of blue, take away their instruments and tell them to go?  The Blue Ribbon Glee Club takes punk rock songs and turns them into a capella (with occasional percussion banging) romps through their collective consciousness.  According to Josh Dumas, one of the groups founders, "there's no director, no one doing vocal arrangements or anything.  Everyone sings what they think sounds nice and then it just coalesces somehow."

Sounds Like: Bishop Allen, Attack Formation, Dark Meat

Download: The Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Bad Kids (live)

Download: The Blue Ribbon Glee Club - Words and Guitar

The Blue Ribbon Glee Club @ MySpace

The Blue Ribbon Glee Club @ RCRD LBL

Photo by: Chris Anderson

You know how in TV shows like Freaks & Geeks and The Wonder Years, even though the nerds were getting stuffed into lockers and being ignored by the blonde girls, their existence always seemed preferable because even though they may have been into D&D, they could have more fun on non-alcoholic beer than everyone at the kegger?  Switch out the D&D for obsession with weird old punk and garage records, non-alcoholic keggers for shows at venues that serve real actual booze (though legally not to you) and caring about the other kids for hanging with your buddies and making goofily awesome songs with beat up guitars.  You always sort of knew the nerds ended up alright, but the Smith Westerns are one up on those kids since they're already unquestionably more rad than most of the people in the room.

Sounds Like: Black Lips, Lover!, CoCocoma, Tyrades, Brian Jonestown Massacre

Download: The Smith Westerns - Irukandji

Download: The Smith Westerns - Spiritus Sanctus

The Smith Westerns @ MySpace

The Smith Westerns @ RCRD LBL

If witchy women doing evil practice Black Magic, unsavory scientist robots in a dark vacuum practice Blackmath, their main instrument a heavy metal abacus and their voices distorted by the whir of jagged blades.  One Blackmath logo is pitch black with the silhouettes of a man and woman in white - perhaps the only survivors after the business end of said abacus slid down and wiped out civilization.  This is music that reverberates with isolation, dust, fire so hot the flames are blue and an apocalyptic speed.  "Reading Mysteries," sounds like trying to decode 0 and 1 hieroglyphics in a damn cave.  Look-over-your-shoulder desperation propels "Walking at Night" down endless alleyways with guitar and synthesizer sirens ringing out in enveloping doom.  The feel good record of the year for sinister androids everywhere.

Sounds like: A Place to Bury Strangers, Atlas Sound, Big Sleep, Battles 

Download: Blackmath - Reading Mysteries

Download: Blackmath - Walking at Night 

Blackmath @ MySpace 

Blackmath @ RCRD LBL

Sometimes it just feels good to be kicked in the balls by a rock band.  There are nine songs on the Tyrades S/T album and it's done in 22 minutes.  Live, you're lucky to get that much.  But it just doesn't seem to matter because any amount of assault from the Tyrades is enough to leave your ears ringing, your neck aching and an inexplicable thirst at the bottom of your throat.  "Let Down" is a frenzy of back and forth male female vocals that refuses to let up until the final venom-filled exchange.  Tyrades get more 'experimental' and show they aren't afraid of a 'tempo change' or two in "Couples," all the while sounding like they're coming through your speakers filtered by decades of smoke and whiskey consumption.  "I Am Homicide" comes form a Killed By Death 7" and starts like every song in their live set, "I AM HOMICIDE! GO!"  It's that kind of practiced professionalism and premeditated perfection that makes the Tyrades the Symphony Orchestra of punk music.  (Insert sarcasm here).

Sounds Like: Lover!, CoCoComa, Be Your Own Pet