Maggie Kubley of Celine Neon drops a video about a private kind of self-care

By the time Emily Nejad and Maggie Kubley of Celine Neon amicably retired their electro-pop duo in 2018, Kubley had already released several appealing solo tracks and videos online. In 2019, she compiled several of them on an EP, Come Over, and that spring she staged a musical storytelling event based on the songs at Steppenwolf Theatre. Kubley isn’t done with that material, either: this month she collaborated with local filmmaker Sarah Minnie on a new music video for the title track, which she says depicts “a woman frantically trying to get ready for an unexpected booty call when she finds herself transported into a magical forest of trippy sensuality and fairy-fueled self-exploration.” This wolf thinks it’s the best video about “quality alone time” since “I Touch Myself” by the Divinyls! On Thursday and Friday, December 30 and 31, Kubley performs in the Fly Honey Show’s New Year’s celebration at Thalia Hall.

New York hardcore veteran Matt Grande and prolific Chicagoan Craig Woods (Pink Eyes, Hot Bagels) make noisy punk as Recent Ancestors, and “Satisfied,” the blustery lead single from their new self-titled EP, is a must for fans of hideous call-and-response screams and nonstop instrumental explosions. The EP drops Friday, December 24, on four labels, including Woods’s Be Happy Records; only 50 physical copies exist, so get your one-sided ten-inch lathe-cut record now. All four labels will donate their proceeds, and Be Happy’s share will benefit the Rogers Park Free Store mutual-aid project.

^{Craig Woods of Recent Ancestors runs Be Happy Records, one of four labels releasing the band’s new EP}

Chicago rapper Neph piqued this wolf’s interest with last year’s EP More to Come, and last week he delivered on the promise of its title by dropping the full-length Hell if I Know, whose brisk, heartfelt tracks foreground dreamlike samples and punchy percussion. The way Neph cuts through the cluttered sounds and irregular rhythm of “Hour Glass” will promptly win over any underground hip-hop head. 

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