ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Cheekface

Photo by Miriam Brummel

Everyone has heard the saying “When life hands you problems, make problemade,” right?  Well, we can thank southern California trio Cheekface for that life quote. Cheekface is a fun and amusing threesome composed of Mark Edwards, Greg Katz, and Amanda Tannen. Presently, they have 3 albums under their belt, with their most recent, Too Much to Ask, just being released this past summer.  A couple of weeks before the album was released, the band sent out postcards announcing the new album and release date, but mine must’ve gotten lost in the mail because it was a delightful surprise to me when my Spotify told me there was new Cheekface out. 

Cheekface, personally, sounds like if Cake, Gustaf, and Mitch Hedberg had a love triangle that birthed a musical, lyrical, and jocular progeny.  Cheekface's songs are a cocktail of jokes, fun, wit, and melody that touch on subjects ranging from politics to instances when life just kicks you in the nads. 

I haven’t gotten the chance to see them live yet, but I’m hoping the stars align so that I can attend their TNK Fest show at Lincoln Hall on January 19.  Cheekface will be treating the Chicago audience to special edition merch and they will even be playing their Too Much to Ask album front to back. You can grab your tickets to catch their show in Chicago tomorrow here, and follow them for more updates.

ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Geese

Photo by Daniel Topete

We've got some new and exciting rock coming out of NYC everyone! Lucky for us, they’re migrating west for the winter and playing three shows in Pittsburgh, Michigan, and Chicago before heading out on a European tour.

Geese is a 5-piece group composed of teenage friends Max Bassin, Dominic DiGesu, Gus Green, Foster Hudson, and Cameron Winter. A career in Rock & Roll was not originally the aspiration of the band. Being 18 and 19 years old, the group figured they’d have some fun making music in the downtime Covid-19 provided and then head off to college once they graduated high school. Plans for college, however, have since been put on pause once Geese's music began to take flight.

Right as the pandemic began to swoop across the country in Spring 2020, Geese uploaded some of their self produced songs on to Spotify, to which lead to them getting management and eventually a label. Fast forward to Halloween weekend 2021 and they now have given us a great album to enjoy. They haven't played many live shows or gone on tour yet, but they do have a music festival under their belt in the 2021 presentation of Atlanta's Shaky Knees Music Festival. They even made their late night debut when they performed on Colbert. In May, they will be on tour opening for indie rock heroes Spoon on the West Coast leg of their tour, but ANCHR readers don't need to wait that long to catch them. They will be performing at Chicago's Tomorrow Never Knows Festival headlining a show at Lincoln Hall that also sports two other ANCHR favorites: Native Sun and Gustaf. I personally am excited to check them out. Their song “Low Era” is a certified bop. Come through so you can say you saw Geese's first Chicago show— get tickets here!