Rockin' The Southlands!
That slogan was forever implanted in my brain when I first became Afternoon radio DJ at The Kat 105.5, in November 1996. I returned to close to where it all began the last weekend of May 2025. five minutes from the site of our 500-foot transmitter tower in Braidwood, Illinois, the Chicago Southlands rocked live at Top Fuel Saloon. Indeed, it felt like The Graveyard Shift & Local Limelight all over again. uniting the metal masses was Oblivion Zero, this fierce progressive hardcore...
Rockin' The Southlands!
That slogan was forever implanted in my brain when I first became Afternoon radio DJ at The Kat 105.5, in November 1996. I returned to close to where it all began the last weekend of May 2025. five minutes from the site of our 500-foot transmitter tower in Braidwood, Illinois, the Chicago Southlands rocked live at Top Fuel Saloon. Indeed, it felt like The Graveyard Shift & Local Limelight all over again. uniting the metal masses was Oblivion Zero, this fierce progressive hardcore four-man metal band, led by singer Kyle Ripley has just released their fourth EP, Flaws In Sunlight. Unlike their previous third one, Revenant, this is not a concept album which told the haunting tale of a psycho pirate, who meets his shipwrecked demise. Oblivion Zero served up the entire five track EP to moshing masses onstage. I talk with singer Kyle Ripley, after their foundation shaking release show set. When last we heard from former A.D.D. drummer rock drummer Jason Delismon, he fronted the melodic, progressive hard rock band, Frontline. Now he goes it alone with his second solo single. A treat for any Puddle Of Mudd fan.
Lady Strange, from the far southwest of Joliet suburb LaSallle, evokes music of the long since forgotten glam metal and hair metal era of the mid to late 80s. They will soon open for long since forgotten hair metal band, Trixter. Their new Ep wouldn't sound too out of place in a club where strange and intimate ladies dance from pole to pole. I'll give their tunes a whirl.
We'll rock back to when futuristic space age industrial metal band Genotype rocked live light years ahead with tales of cyber-Wi-Fi gone amok. Six years ago this week, the Rockford band screamed their way into Reggie's in the South Loop. actually, dual personality singer Kadie Kirby took care of the screaming end.
Forward we go, with the slightest touch of throwback, into the ever-evolving Chicagoland original Metal, Punk, Alternative Rock and Power Pop scene:
Oblivion Zero-New Year New Fear
Oblivion Zero-Invasion
Next To Eternity-The Entity
Lady Strange-Psycho Love
Enuff Z'Nuff-Freak (with Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick)
Jason Delismon-This Time
Fierce Atmospheres-Fear Is A One Way
Space Age Zeros-My Brooding Friend
Flatfoot 56-Mud
Genotype (interview from Reggie's Music Joint-6/2/16 Local Loft Episode 27)
Genotype-Cyberfi
Genotype-The Awakening
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