Scott Lucas & the Married Men
/ Black Jake & the Carnies / Many Places

SCOTT LUCAS & THE MARRIED MEN

For anyone remotely in-the-know of Chicago’s music scene, Local H is a band name that surely rolls off your tongue. But during the rock duo’s downtime, frontman Scott Lucas doesn’t exactly kick his feet up. For the past few years, the singer/songwriter/guitarist has spread his musical aptitude to Chicago electronica group, the Prairie Cartel. Most recently, Lucas has crafted yet another new project—the Married Men... In his newest musical outfit, Lucas proves himself a rock and roll chameleon, shedding his tough Local H exterior and evoking a tamer sound and stage persona. The sextet, which has just wrapped up work on its forthcoming debut, George Lassos the Moon, set the stage for the Disciplines. Their lineup alone (violin, accordion, guitars, drums) proved not only would they sound nothing like Local H, but chances are they wouldn’t sound much like most contemporary indie bands.

BLACK JAKE & THE CARNIES

BLACK JAKE & THE CARNIES, a thrill-a-minute mixture of music and mayhem led by the pied piper of the macabre, “Black Jake” Zettelmaier! These nontraditional ne’er-do-wells disinter traditional instruments from their folky tombs and imbue them with new unnatural life. Jolts of punk, ragtime, blues, and circus music course through every fiber, creating a rampaging crabgrass monster of dynamic energy you just can’t ignore. Friend and foe alike can’t help but marvel at their foot-stomping, genre-throttling licks.

MANY PLACES

Dark folk songs you might walk through the city or float on water to.