In their new video “some people pray to feel closer to god” oeugons are real take us on a ride through Chicago that lets us sit back and breathe in the artistic wonder and multiple identities embedded in our city.
Call for submissions!
Deadline: December 1st
Send to: sickmuse.chi@gmail.com
Dear loyal and disloyal readers,
We are now accepting submissions to The Sick Muse #11. This unique issue will be printed on newsprint and distributed for free to 5000 people! In the spirit of its newspaper format, the theme of the issue is mass media: how do ideas propagate? How does art and knowledge move so that they can move us? How does power play into this? How does form play into this?
As always, The Sick Muse is a platform for the expression of your experiences, feelings, philosophies related to music and art and how it happens in Chicago. Beyond the issue’s theme, we also accept anything that can be printed on a page that hovers around musicking and art-making in Chicago. This could include articles, lyrics, poetry, photography, essays, graphic art, stories, histories, dialogues, profiles, interviews, comics, and love notes.
We are also seeking two commissioned (paid) works. More info here.
In sickness and in health,
TSM
#10 is the first 68-page, full color, glossy, 8.5 x 11″ issue of the Sick Muse, bursting with knowledge and fresh creations. Centered around the theme of ~utopia~ the issue features:
Letter from the Editors
To our loyal and disloyal readers:
This issue that you hold in your hands holds many utopias.
The specific word stretches back 502 years, when Sir Thomas More coined the term from the Greek in his 1516 book Utopia. The idea is as ancient as it is futuristic. In the Great Lakes oasis of Chicago, utopia has driven many people and many projects: the Miami Confederacy, Lucy Parsons, the Haymarket Riots, the Nation of Islam, and the town of Pullman, to name a few.
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was one such project, and it brought thousands of people to Chicago to explore, mingle, work, protest, and marvel at the future of urban life. It took place during a period of tidal shifts in society (400 years after the arrival of Columbus; 30 years after the Emancipation Proclamation; 22 years after the Great Chicago Fire; 16 years after the end of Reconstruction; 7 years after the Haymarket Square protests; 1 year before the Pullman railroad strike; 3 years before the Plessy v. Ferguson case) and cast the future of Chicago’s architecture and culture. Utopia according to the organizers of that fair was, like the organizers themselves, Eurocentric, white, capitalist, and male. But there was pushback to that vision. We find utopia in the struggle led by Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass to protest the racism of the fair. In the history of oppression there is always also an intersecting history of resistance.
If you’re reading this in time with the issue’s release (June 22-30), there is another Chicago World’s Fair happening. The World’s Fair 2018 is the remix of the history of the 1893 Expo, creating community in a world that transcends money and borders. Like this issue, the WF2018 is a platform for the utopian visions lighting Chicago now and from the roots. We ask, what is utopia without money and borders? What are our fantasies and forecasts for a free world, a fair world, a World’s Fair? Join the parades, workshops, performances, potlucks, and conversations all week; the schedule is online at www.nomoneynoborders.com! #nomoneynoborders
This publication has focused on the art and writings surrounding the community of independent/underground musicians in Chicago that generally falls under the purview of the DIY Chi. The lines that determine what is DIY Chi, and what is not, are blurry and confusing. For a demonstration of this blurriness one needs not look further than the names of the separate facebook groups devoted to it: “DIY Chicago,” “not diy not chicago,” and “Chicago DIY Rap & Hip Hop.” Like any good utopia, DIY Chi is never quite one. It is frequently debated whether pDIY Chi is a good thing or not; that is, whether it effectively offers anything better in its do-it-yourself ethos than the conventional setting for music at established venues with established artists. We will say some things with certainty. First, there is indisputably a supply of unimaginably talented musicians and artists all around us that grossly overwhelms what is seen as the industry proper, with its money backing and inherited prejudices and established venues, publications, musicians, and distributors. What’s more there is a demand for this music and a willingness to create it in spite of all the constraints of money and borders, as people from all walks of life crave the community, reflection, and raw energy that sometimes only music can provide.
The DIY Chi roots in and grows from past versions of itself in a way that is constantly moving toward paradise. We have been experimenting with sustainable, alternative living situations and forms of exchange and justice for years. When our collective dream of a freer, happier, art-fueled world is attacked and falls, we don’t end up at the bottom, forgetting all the progress we made. We hold on to it, and change and continue building towards our dreams with the tools we’ve fought for. We are our ancestors’ wildest dream and we are building utopia.
Your Editors
Front cover by Benjamin Karas. Back cover by Xander Black.
Published June 22, 2018 as part of the World’s Fair 2018.
Happy Halloween, you sickos.
til death do we part,
TSM
PC: by Michael Egon Schiele. ONO set from Hostel Halloween: The Last Refuge
Blood Licker was the featured band of TSM #8. If you haven’t heard em’, go take a listen and then come back to read this post.
–> Blood Licker bandcamp
Blood Licker is a duo, a melding of two minds, and possibly…probably…brains. BL’s shows are distilled magic. Seeing them in a concrete building, you’re immediately transported to a forest: you know that below that building’s foundation, there’s fungus, roots, and decomposing plant/buggo matter. BL helps you remember that soil is alive. BL’s Whitney and Mark are the kinds of spirits who reveal things in the shadows, replenish energies, and rock super hard. Also, they love rats; that’s why we did the r thing there, to get that in somehow!
Following are excerpts from Jolene(isha) W/E interview with Blood Licker and lyrics from their 2016 tape Malignant. For the full interview pick up a copy of The Sick Muse #8!
*******************
How is the forest connected to Blood Licker?
Observing the divine represented in Nature fuels what we make. She may be soft or harsh in Her instruction to us. We take solace in spending time in the woods, listening to the rhythms of birds, wind, animals, and plants. Much of the material on the demo cassette “Malignant” regards the destructive impact our culture has on Nature, and what actions She may take to exact retribution. We make a tiny humans’ attempt to show our gratitude and implore chaos.
Do you think it’s important to be comfortable with eeriness?
We do feel it is important to sit with, experience, and translate fear/terror into sound and performative gesture. We would not classify this as being comfortable with eeriness, but rather paying close attention to environment and confronting instinctual dread to strengthen empathy and capability to communicate through that dread. Comfort is never our objective. Comfort may kill the urgent need to express. We will never be complacent to the powers and currents we seek to confront.
Do certain feelings have sounds?
Most certainly. We are intrigued by lending sensation to the opposite sound of what we might immediately imagine a feeling to have – – such as a deadly dangerous soft coo, an ecstatic scream of delight, a plodding drum cadence that induces anxiety, or a tape loop of blistering static that represents calmness.
What things do you do to capture elements of horror in music?
Come see us play live.
TSM #8 is now available online & in stock around Chicago! Hugging the issue is our first risograph-printed cover designed by Madeline Horwath and printed by Perfectly Acceptable Press.
***
Letter from the Editors
Hello loyal and disloyal readers,
Another issue you say? What makes this issue any different you say? Well, for one, we have these cool wavy lines goin’ all over the place, that’s neat. But also we have some amazing content. With this issue, feeling somewhat self-reflexive, we decided to look at what we are doing when we write about music. In the first piece, starting on page 4, we collect writing about writing about music from three professional writers. Likewise looking inward, editor Sasha Tycko wrote a very moving piece about how self journey, identity, and queerness are wrapped up in music. Looking outward, into that summery chicagoland, we present the world of Blood Licker, our featured band, follow up by an interview with a new DIY venue called VCR, and an article about autism and music. This issue also features out first risograph printed cover, printed by Perfectly Acceptable Press, and designed by the lovely Madeline Horwath, who also sprinkled this issue with many illustrative illustrations…Of course, some things never change, and we got the usual smattering of amazing lyrics/poetry/shoutouts. And, we again included the photography of Samantha Callahan, because we couldn’t help ourselves.
We are always looking for feedback, and we are always looking for new people to work with, so get in touch if you think you groove with us. We reaffirm DIY. We are here for all ages shows. We are here for affordable shows. We are here for venues that pay musicians. For safer spaces, for marginalized people in positions of power, not just on stage. Art that is for community, not for profit…We can’t control our environment but we can transform it. We do it ourselves because we do it better.
In sickness and in health,
the editors
sickmuse.chi@gmail.com
