HIDDEN GEMS
Piglet | Lavaland
Honest question: how many people outside of Chicago have heard this band? Among my Chicago friends, who still take math-rock seriously (obligatory reference to Noumenon, who will finally release their debut EP in two months, and coined the term “party-math”), Lavaland has maintained something of a revelatory status, indisputable for its finger tapping and bat-shit time signatures. For those of us outside Chicagoland, Piglet is one of the only easy steps in to Chicago math: blistering in its technicality, but approachable enough to share a couple Old Styles in the back of the house show.
by Max Sebela

Bustin’ Melonz | Watch Ya Seeds Pop Out
This album is available for download on plenty of blogs, but it’s hard to find out much about Brooklyn’s Bustin’ Melonz, who sorta dropped off the map after 1994’s Watch Ya Seeds Pop Out. The production is simple and scrappy, as is the MC’ing, but the album’s full of these cool understated moments, like when the beat drops out just for a second under “Walkin on air in my Airwalks./ People talk when I walk through the streets of New York” in “Don’t Big Up.” With its staticky skits between songs and its minimal jazz riffs, Watch Ya Seeds Pop Out sounds like something you’d play on the stoop when the sidewalk’s steaming and you can’t wait to hear that Italian Ice cart jangling down the block.
by Erin Sheehy
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