Gossip Wolf is convinced that psychedelic Chicago six-piece Diagonal would’ve been stars in the UK if they’d been around in the mid-90s. Fans of the Verve and Spiritualized might want to dig through their back issues of NME and Melody Maker to make sure these folks aren’t time travelers! Their debut album, Tomorrow, combines hazy waterfalls of shoegaze guitar, serious pop hooks, and “guy howling in an empty cave” vocals. It drops Monday, July 2, on local label Midwest Action, and that night Diagonal play a free show at the Empty Bottle with Plastic Crimewave Syndicate (led by Reader regular Steve Krakow), Texas psych-rockers Lake of Fire, and local stoner-doom unit Black Road.
Chicago’s Bad Sons play fast, melodic street rock that’s as classic as a biker jacket bristling with safety pins. Their new seven-inch EP, Cry Tough, is the musical equivalent of a hard-luck punk spiking up his Mohawk and carving his ex-sweetheart’s name into his arm with a broken beer bottle—not that Gossip Wolf would know what that’s like! You can buy a copy when they play East Room on Sunday, July 1, with New York punk troublemakers Nancy and Austin goon squad Trouble Boys. They’re surprisingly nice! v
