Recording: Bitchin Bajas

Artist: Bitchin Bajas

Song: Keiji Dreams

Recorded at Monarch Tavern, December 7, 2025.

Bitchin Bajas - Keiji Dreams

This Chicago trio returned to town promoting the recent Inland See album, and indeed tackled all four of its pieces in their set. With the stage heaped with gear like a mad scientist's analog synth laboratory, the group let the music do the talking, eschewing banter (and, by and large, stage lighting) as they moved from more meditative soundscapes to some Switched On groovers.

Monday Roundup #47

In the absence of concert listings, my regular Monday dispatches have fallen off. After bringing some life to the blog with the "bumping into" series, I figure I should get back in the groove. I'm guessing that this will be a bit like what used to get shoved into the end of the post when I was doing listings — some bandcamp suggestions, nods to a few livestreams, and sundry community notes (email me if you have anything that needs broadcast in the latter category!). Plus maybe a look back through the MFS archives.

---

Livestream nation:

• Apologies as this veers well into the self-promotional this week. First off, Track Could Bend returns this week — for the next while, expect pre-recorded sets to appear on youtube on the series' traditional first Tuesday of the month. There's a certain amount of figuring shit out that needed to be done, so I figured I'd make like a B-movie scientist and experiment on myself, convening the trio Our Way to Fall (where I'm joined by Liz Lima and Del Stephen) to play a "soundcheck" of sorts as I work out the kinks on how I want to record and present audio and video. The good news is this sounds pretty fab. The visuals are a work in progress — I know I want something a little lo-fi and rough around the edges but still visually interesting. You can check out how close I got to the mark as the set premieres on youtube tomorrow night (December 7th) at 7 p.m.:

• Meanwhile, I recommend the Audiopollination series in this space as a matter of course, so I can say without reservation that you wouldn't want to miss a duo set from Glen Hall and Elizabeth Lima... and you might also enjoy some things that Patrick O'Reilly and myself are cooking up. (livestreams here on Friday night. Free. Facebook event.)

---

Concert listings:

• Ladyfinger [Diane Roblin (piano & keyboards) + Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone)] / The Emmet Ray 2021-12-12 (Sunday). $10. [FB event]

---

Video hits:

• Very exciting to see Vicky Mettler's Kee Avil project make the move up to Constellation Records, announced by this visually-arresting video:

---

It happened this week...

• ...on December 8, 2017 at Lee's Palace (Dan Burke: 60 plus 20).

The Highest Order feat. Michelle McAdorey - Carry On Warm

• ...on December 12, 2017 at Smiling Buddha.

Bitchin' Bajas - Circles on Circles

[Do remember that you can click on the tags below to go back and find the original posts (and often, more stuff) from these artists.]

Recording: Bitchin' Bajas

Artist: Bitchin' Bajas

Songs: Circles on Circles + No Tabac

Recorded at Smiling Buddha, December 12, 2017.

Bitchin' Bajas - Circles on Circles

Bitchin' Bajas - No Tabac

On a snowy Tuesday night with temperatures plunging, the hardiest deep-groove heads persevered to check in with this Chicago trio. Previously unknown to me, when I got the invite I assumed they'd be, like, a garage rock band — but that unindicative name is the only thing about this unit that wasn't sleek and elegant. Offering a sort of analog-bubblebath of planetarium vibes, this was the sort of music probably best experienced while sinking deep in your beanbag chair. Psychedelic prog-synth noodles with some nods to Terry Riley, there was even a Sun Ra cover in the mix as the band stuck mostly to tunes from their recent sprawling Bajas Fresh album.