Antifolk band Boo Baby drop their long-in-the-works second album

Chicago antifolk unit Boo Baby have been hanging out on the edge of this wolf’s awareness for years, having opened for the likes of local indie darlings Whitney, K Records singer-songwriter Karl Blau, and Chicago-raised outsider artist David Liebe Hart. Boo Baby’s loose-knit indie folk provides a fitting backdrop for the earnest delivery and irreverent lyrics of cofounder and lead songwriter Robert Salazar. On “Jazz?,” from Boo Baby’s new album, The Opening Band, Salazar sings of the struggle to find parking in Wrigleyville during a Cubs game—and he does it with enough charm to milk that painful premise for giggles. Boo Baby celebrate the release of The Opening Band by headlining Sleeping Village on Friday, February 4. Waltzer and the Foons open; tickets are $15, $12 in advance.

^{The Boo Baby single “Jazz?” has been on Bandcamp for more than two years, which gives you some idea how long they’ve been working on the new album where it appears.}

In 2018, the Reader memorialized Chicago dance-music producer and multi-instrumentalist Dan Jugle, who’d just died at age 37. At the time, his close friend Beau Wanzer, who’d played with him in Juzer, mentioned that the duo had made unreleased recordings that he hoped would eventually see the light of day. Late last month, Dutch electronic label Rubber released three tracks from those archives digitally and on 12-inch vinyl, and their skittering, propulsive techno vibrates with menacing power. At 4 PM on Saturday, February 5, Wanzer and Jugle’s longtime friend and collaborator Mike Broers will celebrate the release with free DJ sets at Gramaphone Records.

^{This posthumous Juzer release includes a remix by Dutch techno artist Unit Moebius Anonymous.}

If they’d been a band in the 1970s, local garage-soul squad Hollyy would’ve had records featured on shop racks next to blue-eyed-soul masters such as Hall & Oates and the Doobie Brothers. On Friday, February 11, they’ll drop their sophomore EP, If You’re Ever Lost, whose easy melodies and sunny arrangements sound like a perfect antidote to Chicago weather this time of year. On Saturday, February 5, Hollyy open for Motherfolk at Subterranean.

^{One of the advance singles from Hollyy’s forthcoming EP}

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