Weakened Friends is one of the best indie rock bands out there right now. Bringing in aspects of jangly late 90’s slacker rock, confessional emo rock from the early 00’s, and the best parts of the indie pop of today, they create emotionally engaging and fun music. 

This band feels like a mental and emotional cleanse. Their music reflects a past sound but their lyrics embody the self-care movement of the modern day. If you’ve ever wanted to drop a toxic friend or get out of a relationship that is hindering your self-worth, Weakened Friends is the band you’ll want to listen to for solace during any times of tumult. I would attribute this to the honestly of their lyrics, and the way they’re delivered only backs that feeling up. 

When I first got my hands on this session, I thought to myself, “oh someone spelled Weekend wrong. The band’s name must be Weekend Friends.” I’ve never been so wrong in my life. They even take some time between songs to make fun of people messing up their name. That’s not a hindrance, though; I give them props for coming up with a band name that’s interesting and original. 

I was really excited to listen to and write about this session. Weakened Friends is a really cool band that is genuinely on the come-up, and you don’t want to miss out on this wave.

Costello is a band born from the crossroads: in a tin box buried beneath the gravel lies the pure essences of blues and psych rock-and in a hushed whisper they combine and summon this music of heavy rhythms and squealing guitar. In that forge of sound, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd are sitting around trading ideas, sending them forward through time and into this session. 

Costello’s music is a transcendental pysch evaluation. Through the chugging guitar that moves between blues riffs, and the melodic, reverb soaked singing, the band takes you on a journey that explores the deepest parts of our psyches. Within each song exists an amalgam of moods that never give up their true nature, allowing the songs to float in a subconscious flux like a strange image in a dream you spend the whole next day futilely deciphering. Their album cover shows the day reflecting as night on a body of water, filling the dark sky with white stars that might not actually be up there. It might imply that what we experience consciously is not only reflected in the subconscious, but deepened and changed there as well, as if it were a whole different world. And that might be where Costello wants to take you. 

Even though the band’s sound is distinct and consistent, they aren’t afraid to try new things and break out of their own mold. While some songs begin and end in similar places, others feature more experimental structuring. Costello is just as capable of busting your door down as they are to string you along through a patiently tense build-up. 

Costello creates songs that each get to live their own life, and without relying heavily on hooks and refrains, each song really does sound like conscious trip.

Heavy Looks’ riff-heavy garage rock reminds us, as a species, why we ever made rock music, and why we made it loud. Their riffs are simple but entirely refreshing, and act as the raucous break from electronic music many of us have been secretly hoping for. The idea behind garage rock in America is that most people had a garage or some other empty space in which the youth of the day could plug in and bust up popular conventions, creating sounds that couldn’t come from any other room in the house. Heavy Looks lives up to that idea and mixes their Midwest sensibilities with gut-punching West Coast energy, taking the listener to a place where they can think about skating or fast cars and still be mature, emotionally intelligent adults. Most snobs would revel in telling you that rock music is dead; as long as we have bands like Heavy Looks, we have nothing to worry about.

Come and flashback with The Golden Grass. This is American rock n’ roll plain and simple. In a time of throwback bands and psych rock acts, these guys stand alone. The overall vibe of the band is sunny, laid back and fun while paying tribute to the sounds of late 60’s and early 70’s hard rock.

Look, punk is probably dead. But that doesn’t mean parts of its sound don’t exist elsewhere in music today-they do. And the influence is everywhere. To be honest, it’s probably been dead for quite some time now. But only the original wave, the genesis of punk, is truly dead-what has grown in its place sounds completely different and has entirely different goals.

Now we get to Kali Masi, who brings punk music to an emotional maturity. They mix the abstract parts of punk-the energy, the speed, the yelling-with modern emo’s focused introspection. They run in the same vein as bands like Citizen, but Kali Masi differs in one huge way: their inclusion of math rock. Whether or not they’re actually playing in different time signatures, they utilize the same recognizable guitar and drum mastery as bands like Tiny Moving Parts. Intricate instrumentals and equally deep lyricism makes for a density that requires a second listen if you’re not already doing that out of pure, surface level enjoyment. 

Kali Masi is another great band coming out of Chicago. It is really interesting to hear all the different sounds that can come out of one city. Where some cities might retain a certain sound that permeates each band almost unwittingly, Chicago seems to be spitting out completely original acts at all times. I guess it goes to say something about the city itself, the way that it is its own, complex world that hosts a myriad of perspectives and refuses to be pigeon-holed into a single sound or the memory of a single famous band that has come from there.

Dig down deep in the swamps of Paducah, KY and you might hear the sounds of The Legendary Shack Shakers creepin’ along. Since the mid 90’s these guys have been doing rockabilly and blues on their own terms. Rolling on Soo Line steam and whiskey, the Shack Shakers get it done.