Recent Poster Designs

Here are four recent posters that I've designed for some friends:

Halloween Recap

Well, if the state of my ears this morning is any indication of how insanely loud it was last night (thanks Tony!)... and what a night it was! It was such a pleasure to join in the festivities with both Rabid Rabbit and Indian. My thanks to all of them for including me in such a killer show. I had the best of both worlds, getting to see/hear two of my favorite Chicago bands play incredible sets and getting to jump up on stage with them for a pair of intense songs. With Rabid Rabbit it was a reprise of "Suicide Song" (AKA "Gloomy Sunday"), which I first performed with them back in February. For this outing, Dave Rempis, who is also on the studio version, joined in live... another one of those "How have we never met before?" scenarios. It was cool to meet him and to play with him. And with Indian, I played synth/noise and I provided a few quick screams on "Worshipper of Sores," from their 2005 album, "The Unquiet Sky." And, in the middle of that, was a totally monumental performance by Monarch. As a huge Winter fan (the band, not the season, for fuck's sake), it was great to hear something equally glacial sounding, but with a uniquely feminine feel to it. Emilie's vocals were devastating -- at one point, all I could think of was Monarch!/Pharmakon split 12-inch -- and, my god, their set was remarkably tight... not at all belying the fact that my bandmate Kenny Rasmussen from Anatomy of Habit was playing drums for them after only two days to learn "Sabbat Noir" and to practice with them. Kenny did a phenomenal job and they sounded fantastic. They were also such nice people to hang out with, even if only briefly. It was great to see so many friends come out to the show and to see such a full house in support of what has definitely become a Chicago institution... Halloween at The Hideout...

The Reader on Rabid Rabbit "Suicide Song"

Here is a nice review of the Rabid Rabbit song that I contributed vocals to - "Suicide Song" - written by Miles Raymer and published in the Local Release Roundup section in the new Chicago Reader:

RABID RABBIT

"Suicide Song" b/w "Gnos Edicius"

In 1936 a shoemaker in Budapest named Joseph Keller killed himself. In his suicide note he reportedly quoted the lyrics to a 1933 song called "Szomoru Vasarnap" (usually translated as "Gloomy Sunday") by pianist Rezso Seress and poet Laszlo Javor. Within the year another 17 suicides were rumored to be linked to the song, and soon wild stories spread that put the worldwide "Gloomy Sunday" death toll in the hundreds. In 1968 Seress jumped from his apartment window to his death.

If this sounds a bit like an urban legend, well, I won't argue—the folks at Snopes.com are skeptical—but you have to admit it's also totally metal. Rabid Rabbit thought so too, and the local doom-metal quartet's new cassette single is a very loose cover of the song, performed by an expanded lineup that features guests Michael Zerang on percussion, Dave Rempis on saxophone, Mark Solotroff on vocals, and Bruce Lamont on sax and vocals.

click to enlarge

Many of the first recordings of the song sound better suited for a serenade scene in an early talkie than for a long bath with a razor, but in RR's hands "Gloomy Sunday" is definitely miserable enough to push a potential suicide over the edge. Nearly 12 minutes long, it moves from sludge rock to an everything-is-melting psychedelic interlude and then into a vocal part where Lamont, Solotroff, and RR bassist and singer Andrea Jablonski sound like a gang of cenobites performing some sort of macabre musical theater. On the flip side the entire thing plays backward (the tape is actually a continuous loop), which is needless to say even creepier. It's the best artifact yet to come out of the increasingly intimate and somewhat mystifying relationship between Chicago's metal scene and its improvised-music community.