Illinois

Illinois:

White Mystery

PHOTO: DIANE WHITE

CITY: Chicago
SONG TO DOWNLOAD: "Powerglove"
WEBSITE: whitemystery.bandcamp.com

WHY THEM: Our first experience with Chicago's guitar-rock duo White Mystery was every bit the match for their boy-girl take on guitar/drums grunge: half-drunk in a sweltering Brooklyn basement with the band backlit in such a way as to cause us to question whether or not they really both had flaming-red, curly hair or if it was just a trick of the lighting, the levels set to a deafening volume and bodies flying everywhere. Turns out the bit about the hair is true, and their music is every bit as ferocious as we half-remembered. On their self-titled debut, the siblings yelp stories in tandem over a mess of guitars and drums reflective of the abandon and bravado now expected from their region of the US (see: Black Keys, White Stripes, etc.). Only, instead of singing about love and loss and whatever, the stories tend toward a tongue-in-cheek take on the everyday. Like Miss Alex's preferred transportation (walking) or when she met her best friend (Halloween). Rock and roll? Hell yeah.

ALSO CONSIDERED: YAWN — It's pop in a light-hearted, twee style reminiscent of Architecture in Helsinki or even Vampire Weekend. Their homonymous EP is full of marimba, group chants, and samples of children laughing.