ANCHR’s Artist of the Week: Wet Leg

Photo by Hollie Fernando

I first heard of Wet Leg very recently when I got an excited text from a friend telling me to listen to their single “Chaise Longue” (thanks, Bonnie). The song begins with a steady drumbeat and pulsing bassline that drives into cheeky and playful lyrics, including a callback to the iconic line in Mean Girls “is your muffin buttered?” With a mix of head-bobbing melodies and slightly absurd lyrics, Wet Leg has a quirky magnetism that easily (and quickly) attracts positive attention.

The aforementioned song only debuted earlier this year in June of 2021, so Wet Leg’s journey is still in the beginning stages. The band came together quite simply when musicians and songwriters Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers rode a Ferris wheel together in their home place of Isle of Wight and decided to start a band. The pair say that they are inspired by artists like The Ronettes, Jane Birkin, Ty Segall and Björk— and in the handful of their released songs, you can certainly pick up nods to those influences.

While it’s been a whirlwind for Wet Leg so far, the best is still yet to come with the recent announcement of their debut, self-titled album and a slew of upcoming tour dates, including their live premiere in the United States. You can pre-order the album ahead of it’s April 8th release date here, and see where they’ll be playing next here. If you’re in Chicago, make sure to join us at their Thalia Hall gig on March 4, 2022.

ANCHR’s Artist of the Week: Snapped Ankles

This week’s ANCHR AOTW is going to be a short one because the band I am highlighting is somewhat mysterious. They only go by surnames, they call themselves forest people, and they perform in Ghillie suits which cover them head to toe.

Photo Credit: Tom Morley

The band I’m talking about is Snapped Ankles. They came together in 2011 when a group of friends with the same artistic head space started performing at warehouse parties in London. They have three albums under their belt with their most recent one, Forest of Your Problems, coming out just this past July. Their most played track on Spotify is “I Want My Minutes Back” and it's definitely, to me, a song that makes me bob my head. From listening to a number of their songs, I can't help but hear some Animal Collective, some Thee Oh Sees, and maybe even a hint of Jay Reatard.

I first heard of Snapped Ankles while at the Iceland Airwaves Music Festival in Reykjavik. They performed a late night set at Gaukurinn, but since I had never heard of them before, they weren't even on my radar of acts to see. That night I, and the group of friends I was there with, ended up in a basement watching Icelandic heavy metal band Une Misere. It was one of the more violent mosh pits I had ever been in and someone kept pinching the back of my arm throughout the performance. The Une Misere sweat fest was totally fine, but when looking at Iceland Airwaves Instagram stories once I got back to the Airbnb, I realized we may have made a mistake. The crowd at the Snapped Ankles show looked lit. Everyone was jumping and dancing and have a grand ol’ time. I wasn't sure what I was looking at as the band on stage looked like a bunch of bush people playing instruments.

The next day, a number of people were talking about how awesome the Snapped Ankles show was and that I missed out on one of the best sets of the weekend. I'm hoping to remedy that mistake when they open their U.S. tour here in Chicago at Empty Bottle in March, 2022. If anyone reading this is curious to see what a Snapped Ankles live show actually looks like, I hope you'll join me at the Bottle.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Squid

Squid is Louis Borlase, Oliver Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell and Anton Pearson // Photo by Holly Whitaker

As venues open back up and tours are getting announced again, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to see some live music from bands I’ve never seen before. One band in particular I’m looking forward to seeing for the first time is Squid, a band made up of Louis Borlase, Oliver Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell and Anton Pearson, with a sound that fuses everything from post-punk to jazz into a fluid genre of its own. Formed in 2015 in Brighton and now based in London, Squid released their debut record titled Bright Green Field on May 7th this year, following up a handful of singles and EPs.

Bright Green Field opens with the ambient 40-second blip titled “Resolution Square” that fades seamlessly into “G.S.K.”— an upbeat track that features abrasive, punchy vocals layered over a brass-infused groove. In just the first few minutes of the debut album, it’s easy to identify the admiration for ambient and jazz music that brought the band members together initially during their years at University, but their fluid sound winds itself throughout the entire 55-minute long album.

Squid is a band who simultaneously blends unexpected sounds together and blurs the boundaries on defined band roles by having everyone wear multiple hats and make an array of contributions. They describe their unique process best by saying that the record is a product of five heads operating as one. “We’re all going through different phases of our life as a band and as individuals so that contributes to the eclecticism which is inherent in what we do,” Pearson elaborates.

Being keen on collaboration within the group also transferred into having several guest performers come in for the recording of Bright Green Field. In addition to having orchestral and jazz musicians like Black Country, New Road’s Lewis Evans on saxophone and multi instrumentalist jazz musician Emma-Jean Thackray join in, Squid recorded about 30 of their friends voices and collated them all to form a distorted and layered choir of their own.

Make sure to snag your own copy of Bright Green Field here, and keep up with Squid’s upcoming tour dates on their Facebook.

ANCHR's Artist of the Day: Accessory

If you’re in tune with the Chicago music scene, you’re likely already familiar with musician Jason Balla’s projects Dehd, Earring, and the no longer active NE-HI. Balla’s latest musical endeavor comes in the form of his lo-fi solo project: Accessory. Under the Accessory moniker, Balla released the track “Eyes for Berlin” this past Monday, as a follow up to the 2018 album Blue Tape. Balla describes the sensation of finding a new perspective in a familiar setting in the song— “It's about finding new eyes. Seeing the old and everyday that has become the background of my life with a fresh sense of wonder.”

The new music arrived just before a hometown headline gig at The Empty Bottle on Thursday, January 16th. With a live line up that will feature members of Bunny, Deeper, Grapetooth, The Hecks, Twin Peaks, and V.V. Lightbody, this Accessory show will certainly deliver a fresh perspective of some of Chicago’s finest musicians that we’ve all come to know and love. Tune into “Eyes For Berlin” below, and grab your tickets to see Accessory with Tenci and Products tonight here.