Truthisms Teleports to New ChicagoNow Home

These Extractions of SnapCracklePop et al. are no longer to be found on WordPress!

This is the new banner for Truthisms designed by Silas Reeves.

The blog officially relaunched this week as part of its move to the Tribune’s blog network, ChicagoNow, so you can find future posts and musings by going to:

http://www.chicagonow.com/truthisms

For inquiries, please feel free to send me an email at truthismschicagonow@gmail.com

You can also add me on Twitter @photoscriber, become a fan of Truthisms on Facebook, and add Truthisms on ChicagoNow as a friend.

May the truth find you all, you prospect punks.

REVIEW: Chapterhouse Returns, Closes Final Chapter in Chicago

With their LAST TOUR EVER wrapping up in California this weekend, I give you my final goodbye to Chapterhouse who will lapse into obscurity for the last time.

Here’s my review of Saturday’s Lincoln Hall show in Chicago.

“You’re never gonna see us again,” cried Stephen Patman of Reading, England’s shoegazers Chapterhouse, after an hour-and-a-half set of emotional and aural highs. The band kicked off their last ever tour at Lincoln Hall to a nearly sold-out crowd at midnight Saturday, playing Chicago for the first time in 16 years.

It’s tough not to recall the 2008 My Bloody Valentine reunion at All Tomorrow’s Parties New York Festival (which I covered for Yahoo! Music), when the ‘gazer gods reunited for their first U.S. show in 16 years. The Jesus and Mary Chain also reunited in 2007, making Chapterhouse the most obscure end of the scene’s revival spectrum–a wave that has been prompted partly by the resurgence of nugaze bands and 2nd generation fans in the latter half of the 2000s.

German electronica musician and producer Ulrich Schnauss joined Chicago’s Airiel at the end of their set and segued into his own 45-minute whirlwind of Robin Guthrie-inspired drone meditations. Schnauss steadily pruned his synth knobs throughout the set and crackled into and out of acid-house grooves, with visual projections of cityscapes behind him and the crowd swaying throughout. Even while arriving at a thundercloud finish, he didn’t break a sweat.

You can read the full review, and see photo extras, on Gapers Block here.

REVIEW: Deerhunter Free(way) Show

Here are a few excerpts from Saturday’s not-so-secret Deerhunter set, which I reviewed for Chicago’s Gapers Block…

It was May of 2007 the first time I saw Atlanta-based noise rockers Deerhunter. The band was opening for Chicago’s own The Ponys for their headlining slot at The Echo in Los Angeles. Cryptograms had been released that January, but I was really into The Ponys’ droning garage jams then and couldn’t wait to see them for the first time. Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox towered over the stage wearing a flora print mini-dress that night, singing with mic-in-mouth gripped by his teeth. He jolted around the stage along to Cryptograms‘ more angular tracks, putting everyone in a daze that thoroughly upstaged The Ponys’ following set.

Saturday’s free Deerhunter show was less about noise-making and more about fanservice and clever publicity, but that didn’t make it any less entrancing. Hundreds of fans showed up early to the Chicago River underpass at 560 W. Grand, a location disclosed only a few days beforehand as part of Levi’s + Urban Outfitters Secret Generator Series. Deerhunter previewed most of their new songs for the first time in advance of their third full-length album, Halycon Digest (out tomorrow).

Here’s the link for the full review, plus photo extras!