Trey Elder has worn many hats since arriving in Chicago, ranging from sound engineer at the infamous Double Door, Head of Sales & Consulting at Intelligentsia Coffee, American whiskey connoisseur and educator, and Operations Manager of Jerry’s restaurants While at Jerry’s, Elder booked an eclectic array of music 7 nights a week for several years, organized many craft beer and spirits focused dinners and events, as well as oversaw all PR and marketing.

In 2019, Elder launched Quiet Pterodactyl, a non-profit that creates experiences, enjoyment, education, and entry into arts and music. In his “spare time”, Elder has created music in various original projects, as well as booked/promoted local and national touring acts at venues all over Chicago.

Elder is a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, and currently serves on planning committees with the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce on Chicago’s north side.

In this episode we dive into Trey's history with involvement with various facets into Chicago's music community along with the history of Quiet Pterodactyl and his work during the pandemic to help both artists and venues.

Featured Tracks:

Miirrors: Sinistry

Moritat: Weapons

Neptune's Core: Turning Red

Al Rose is a Chicago-based singer-songwriter and musician with a unique and powerful vision which has helped drive his work as originally co-leader of Buffalo Trout, to his years spent as a solo performer and also leading his current band, featuring a roster of top-shelf musicians, The Transcendos. Al's latest release and eighth album, Again the Beginner is a set of 13 good and true songs which features some of his best work musically combined with some of the most nervy and scathing set of lyrics he’s yet composed. It’s a heartening and bracing experience; one man’s attempt to come to terms with modern times and that broken feeling many folks today feel in the pit of their stomach. The stakes couldn’t be higher: this is your life; our time is running short, and every personal crisis seems tied to an accumulating sense of public dread. After all, a lot has happened since Rose dropped his last album in 2016, a resurgence of authoritarian encroachment, COVID-19, and unstinting attacks on democracy at home and abroad.

Featured Tracks:

Don't Know Why

Shooting Straight

Sign on the Doorpost

Said & Done

Dignity & Grace

Like most musicians operating under the new normal, Mark Lofgren (The Luck of Eden Hall, The Thin Cherries) has been spending time in his home studio crafting intimate recordings. Black Moon Book II, an album of exquisite bedroom pop that touches on relationships, memory, isolation and, most explicitly, the healing power of hope and love, is the follow -up to his Black Moon Book released in 2020 and his 2014 solo debut, The Past Perfect.

In this episode Erik and Mark have a pretty wide-ranging conversation around pets, family, studio work, coping with the pandemic, work-life balance in the tech/creative space while diving into the creative process behind making of Black Moon Book II.

Featured Tracks:

Waxing Crescent

We Don't Leave The Yard

Waning Crescent

More at markalanlofgren.bandcamp.com

Idol Throne is a Power-thrash metal quintet from Northwest Indiana with strong progressive tendencies.

[FFO: Crescent Shield, Destiny's End, Jag Panzer, Helstar, Fates Warning]

In this episode Erik Oldman chats with guitarists Jason Schultz, Martin Bowman and vocalist Jake Quintanilla about the band's formation and the process for creating their full-length release "The Sibylline Age" (Stormspell Records)

Featured Tracks:

Unholy Warrior

Raven's Blade

White Wolf

Unto the Earth is a four piece metal band out of Chicago, straddling the lines between stoner, desert, doom, and sludge, with shoegaze and heavy psych influences. Formed in 2019, they have embarked on a musical odyssey that combines driving drums, melodic basslines, layered guitars, and evocative lyrics, while paying tribute to the influences of their youth.

Erik Oldman chats with bassist and vocalist Simeon and guitarists Yosh and Jed about the collective creative process around their debuit full-length "The Dawning", how the band came together and what they have coming up for this year as part of the release plan.

Featured Tracks:

It's a Good Day To Die

Awake the Elders

Demons of Demolition

Strange Riders

Colin Peterik is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer from Chicago, IL. His songwriting style, drawing from pop, psychedelic rock, hip-hop and soul influences, is eclectic. Expertly produced and featuring powerful vocals, his music is infused with infectious hooks, strong melodies and poignant lyrics.

In this episode Erik Oldman chats with Colin about creative process and background of his latest release "Everything and Nothing"; The Jam Lab, his full-service production facility; what it's like growing up as the son of Jim Peterik, founding member of Ides of March and Survivor, and what he's up to for the Fall of 2022.

Featured Tracks:

Smile

Everything and Nothing

Michiana

My Secrets

Cocaine Nights

In this episode Erik Oldman chats with producer, engineer and Chicago punk scene veteran Chris DeQuick about what he's been up to since the on set of the pandemic, his background and experiences in recording music and highlighting some of the work he's helped record.

Featured Tracks:

Old Identities - The Damn Tracks

Evil Men - Torch The Hive

Sundowning - The Damn Tracks

Dust Biters are a four-piece dirty rock outfit from Chicago that you only wear on nights that call for cheap beer and whiskey chasers. Dust Biters is the music they play on the fast rides with height limits at the county fair - taboo and macabre subject matter trojan-horsed with D beats and guitar leads. The band formed in 2019 months before the pandemic hit and have used the last two years to write, record, play shows, and begin cultivating a community of like-minded musicians and visual artists. Last year we released a single and an EP and will be releasing our debut full-length record on August 12, engineered and produced by Alex Lackner - guitarist of Lazarus A.D. (Metal Blade) and producer and engineer of Repentance’s latest release, “Volume I-Reborn”.

Parallel with the album release, They have a collaboration beer with Metal Monkey Brewing and a burger with Kuma's Corner in the works.

In this episode, the band sits down with Erik Oldman to talk about what it is like being a Covid band, navigating the music industry landscape, how we network and cultivate collaborative relationships while learning to balance life, work, and art.

Featured Tracks:

Pray For Me

Progeny

Lushed Up

Dear Evil

Chicago-based quintet Polarizer creates "loud, spacey, and epic rock" combining heavy walls of sound with echo-laden, introspective passages and progressive-rock sensibilities.

In November 2021 they self-released "Love from the Underground" as sort of a culmination of a decades worth of work and a document of material with their latest lineup.

In this episode, Erik chats with vocalist and lyricist Taylor Brennan and guitarist Ian Palmer about the creation of the album, the lineup changes, getting through the pandemic and the changes that becoming a parent brings to a musician.

Featured tracks:

Metronome

Le Drame De Os

Eventually you get caught

One for One

Cosmic Bull is a brand new project from vocalist, songwriter and scene veteran Mark Vickery,

Vickery's deep vocal stylings were featured while he served as guest vocalist for Chicago acid jazz pioneers Liquid Soul before fronting a loose collective who would become the acid jazz/trip hop juggernaut Sumo, who took over Liquid Souls residency at Elbo Room during their heyday and then went on to gig around the area for many years before calling it quits in the mid-2000s.

Mark started writing new music of a different sort during the lockdown of 2020, releasing it under the name of Cosmic Bull. For his latest release he collaborated with former Sumo colleague and notable saxophonist Paul von Mertens, also of Poi Dog Pondering fame, along with scene vet drummer Kevin O'Donnell and Scott Tallarida at his Trigger Chicago studio.

Cosmic Bull's 27x2 EP was released last March.

In this episode Erik and Mark discuss what Mark has been up to since coming out of his hiatus with Cosmic Bull and the creative process behind getting the EP together, along with the changes in the music industry over the last 20 years.

Featured Tracks:

Joe Namath Moment

Unless You Know People

The Sweet Art of Holding On