GOSSIP WOLF

A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene

IN THE YEARS since Gossip Wolf covered the live debut of experimental postpunks Facs in January 2017, they’ve become one of the best bands in town, dropping dense albums at least yearly and playing consistently high-caliber concerts. (The Sleeping Village release show for Void Moments last spring, with Melkbelly and CB Radio Gorgeous, would’ve been great if COVID-19 hadn’t canceled it.) On Friday, May 21, top-shelf Chicago label Trouble in Mind releases Facs’ fourth album, Present Tense , where drummer Noah Leger , bassist Alianna Kalaba, and guitarist-vocalist Brian Case marry the dark, rumbling energy of their earlier efforts to a broader and more melodic songwriting palette—to this wolf, it sounds like a light at the end of a long tunnel. On Friday, May 14 , via Bandcamp, the band streams a performance of the album recorded at the Metro’s Top Note Theatre in January. Tickets are $5.

Gentrification began washing away visionary spaces in Wicker Park even before its 90s peak as an arts mecca, but the majority- BIPOC organizers at Equity Arts hope to stem the tide by implementing a community- minded model for sustaining cultural venues—including their creative hub at 1542-1550 N. Milwaukee, which includes Heaven Gallery and LVL3 Gallery. On Thursday, May 13, they host the free online talk Monuments Out of Movements: Redefining Community Spaces, which features Metro owner Joe Shanahan , Silver Room proprietor Eric Williams, Honey Pot Performance director Meida McNeal, and Heaven Gallery’s Alma Wieser ; AMFM founder Ciera McKissick moderates. Registration via Eventbrite is required.

Last week, electronic trio Purelink (aka Millia Rage, Kindtree, and Concave Reflection) dropped a delightful ambient EP, Bliss/Swivel . It’s on Bandcamp now, and with any luck it’ll be on wax soon!

—J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL

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