Geronimo!

As good as anything on MTV's 120 Minutes in its heyday. Fans of Chavez, Hoover, Jawbox, and Polvo would do well to check this - The Huffington Post

This weekend local rock trio Geronimo releases The Burden of Genius, the second volume in a cassette series it started last summer called Buzz Yr Girlfriend. The five-track tape includes a heavy, fuzzy take on a classic from Beat Happening, "Indian Summer." On Sat 6/23 the band will celebrate with a show at Township. - Chicago Reader

This weekend local rock trio Geronimo releases The Burden of Genius, the second volume in a cassette series it started last summer called Buzz Yr Girlfriend. The five-track tape includes a heavy, fuzzy take on a classic from Beat Happening, "Indian Summer." On Sat 6/23 the band will celebrate with a show at Township. - Chicago Reader

CoSigned rockers Geronimo! get instant cred for naming their series of cassettes Buzz Your Girlfriend (which are also available for no cost, digitally) after one of the more memorable lines of the one of the best Christmas movies of all time, but their infectious, fuzzy, punky rock and skyscraping guitar riffs deserve real attention. Now, they’re back with Vol. 2 – The Burden of Genius, and early cut “Neon Head” is a rolling juggernaut, all aggressive power and no looking back. By the time guitarist/vocalist Kelly Johnson gets to his shredded delivery of the repeated line “and you wait til the money rolls in,” heads should be nodding, fists pumping, everything building to the concussive barrage of riffs that close out this winner. - Consequence of Sound

Welcome to Tapes ‘n’ Tapes, a bimonthly video series focusing on local cassette labels to help get the feel for why some people have turned to tapes for their musical medium.
Ben Grigg doesn’t run a label, but he’s no stranger to releasing music on his own. He’s been doing it himself as the key player for fuzzed-out indie rockers Geronimo since 2007. Recently, Grigg and his bandmates decided to start a cassette series called “Buzz Yr Girlfriend.” The group will record a handful of songs onto a 4-track tape, dub the tunes onto a limited number of cassettes, and then hand them out at shows. Geronimo just wrapped up the first volume of the series, which the trio will be giving away at its headlining set Aug. 17 at Subterranean.
Before the cassette release show, The A.V. Club headed to Grigg’s base of action at his West Town apartment to discuss creating a personal memento for fans, dubbing his music onto a Johannes Brahms cassette and Calvin Johnson’s mixtapes. - The Onion AV Club

When I ask Chicago-based trio Geronimo! if the exclamation mark is entirely necessary, guitarist and vocalist Kelly Johnson responds, “I don’t think we ever regret using the exclamation point. I know I personally think it adds some pizzazz. There are a few other Geronimos out there, but we’re the only one that you read as a scream.” It fits the band’s articulated noise, which often includes Johnson or keyboardist and vocalist Ben Grigg yelling or (at the very least) rocking the expletive out. On slowly explosive “Battery Acid Moustache”, Grigg screams, “My baby’s got a fever!” against thickly electric call-and-response guitars that push and pull like the end of a relationship.
In fact, Geronimo!’s debut LP, Fuzzy Dreams, was recorded amidst the throes of ending relationships. Extracting himself from a painful breakup, Johnson brought his two childhood friends and band mates (including drummer Matt Schwerin) back to their hometown of Rockford, IL to record the album in Grigg’s divorced parents’ empty house. They set up their respective amps in different rooms and played their instruments in the same room together, resulting in each song’s organic climax and denouement as the band members riff off each other. Most of Geronimo!’s songs begin that way. As Johnson says, “I write a lot of parts on guitar, but most of the time everything changes once we start playing in practice. We sort of structure it on the fly.” You can hear it in tracks like “Table Legs”, which moves seamlessly from vitriolic hair-band shredding to Jim Morrison-esque murmuring to billowing synth pads and even trumpets. And that’s how almost every Geronimo! song, which average about seven or eight minutes in length, plays out.

The band has been compared to Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr., and Pavement, with leanings toward Explosions in the Sky. Of all the bands Geronimo! sounds like, Johnson says The Doors comparison is “a bit of a stretch.” But the distant, echoing vocals against a trance-like whisper of a melody on “Fill Me Up” beg to differ. The resemblance on that track in particular, and on Fuzzy Dreams’ quiet moments, is uncanny. Slightly psychedelic “Judgment Day” ends the album with organs and epic wa-wa horns while Johnson sings, “Judgment Day/And the fiery lakes/Are miles away/With you right by my side.” It’s a cutting double entendre for a breakup, suggesting either reconciliation or retribution depending on your perspective. And that, according to Johnson, is what their music is all about: “People hear what they hear based on their subjective palette, and that’s fine. I don’t care what we remind people of. I know what we sound like.”

Their distinctive, uncompromising sound caught the attention of Max Becker, a friend of the band and creator of Minneapolis blog Northern Outpost. He directed a music video for “Design Yourself a Heart”, the first single off Fuzzy Dreams. Fat, thrashing guitars wailing against a quickening drumbeat reminded the videographer of running water. So, in the video, the band members drip water as they run down alleys, ooze water while crawling along some tarmac, and creepily spit up water as though it were air. “It’s an abstract concept of drowning on dry land, whether that’s self-imposed or external is up to other people to decide,” Johnson explains.
The band just finished recording a second full-length. Tentative song titles (which sound more like Flight of the Conchords than the tracks on Fuzzy Dreams) include “You’ve Got a Dad in Rockford”, “The Wizard Is Rising”, “Me Likey”, “Why Did You Leave Me?”, and “Clown Feelings”. In the meantime, they’re releasing a series of four-track cassettes collectively named Buzz Yr Girlfriend. Geronimo! will be handing them out for free every three-to-six months during their live shows, with the added bonus of side B being whatever the tape was before Geronimo! taped over it. Some might get Johannes Brahms, for example. Be sure to catch one of their shows, and a free cassette, when they hit the road in October. - Consequence of Sound

The exclamation mark in the name of Chicago-based rock band Geronimo! certainly reveals a lot about the music it makes: it is loud. After a nine-month gestation period, the trio self-released its debut, Fuzzy Dreams, in April 2010. Composed by Kelly Johnson (vocals and guitar), Ben Grigg (vocals and keyboards) and Matt Schwerin (drums), Geronimo!'s uplifting sound embraces you with the spirit of '90s rock.

In the light of two previous EPs (2009's A Different Kind Of Greatness and 2008's What Happened To Your Face? ), Fuzzy Dreams reflects a consistent blend of grunge, atmospheric garage-rock, guitar-rock, shoegaze and space-rock, while successfully creating a fascinatingly original sound. - CMJ.com

The exclamation mark in the name of Chicago-based rock band Geronimo! certainly reveals a lot about the music it makes: it is loud. After a nine-month gestation period, the trio self-released its debut, Fuzzy Dreams, in April 2010. Composed by Kelly Johnson (vocals and guitar), Ben Grigg (vocals and keyboards) and Matt Schwerin (drums), Geronimo!'s uplifting sound embraces you with the spirit of '90s rock.

In the light of two previous EPs (2009's A Different Kind Of Greatness and 2008's What Happened To Your Face? ), Fuzzy Dreams reflects a consistent blend of grunge, atmospheric garage-rock, guitar-rock, shoegaze and space-rock, while successfully creating a fascinatingly original sound. - CMJ.com

The Chicago-based, Rockford-reared trio Geronimo! went the self-release route for its debut album Fuzzy Dreams. Two members of the band recently met up with Eight Forty-Eight music critic Althea Legaspi to discuss how they went about making it.

Geronimo!’s debut album may be called Fuzzy Dreams, but there’s a lot more concrete and muscle in the mix than the title implies. More than half the songs clock in past five minutes, some approaching the eight-minute mark. Amid the fuzzed-out guitars is a sonic landscape of weighted tension and rumbling release.

An element of menace and danger pervades much of the album, but there’s a lot more going on in Fuzzy Dreams.

For instance, “Deep Warmth” unfurls hazily, and noisily builds, before receding. The dynamic and melodic “Fill Me Up” has trippy touchtones. Ben Grigg manipulates his keyboard to sound like a bass, and he explains that their songs develop from jams, where they piece meal different ideas to create something new.

GRIGG: We just kinda sit down and start playing and usually have a little tape recording, and if something sounded good, then we can go back to it and pick out the parts that we like, and then fuse them together into something.

There’s a dichotomous, anxious style in Fuzzy Dreams. The trio, who now live in Chicago, describes their hometown of Rockford as a conservative, decaying industrial city with high unemployment and crime rates, racial tension and lots of churches.

Still, they say they have an affinity for their hometown. They even recorded Fuzzy Dreams in Rockford. It was tracked live at Grigg’s parents home, which Grigg says was left empty after they divorced.

GRIGG: The cool thing about the house was we could record live with just our amps in separate rooms. Kelly’s guitar amp was in the garage, and my bass amp was in a bedroom, and Matt’s drums were set up in the living room and we played around Matt, and we could all make eye contact and things like that, and courtesy of our friends with nice things, we could all listen through headphones to what our amps were doing and it made for a really, really natural recording process because it’s not like we were laying one track over another track over another track. For the most part it was us like we normally play, us staring at each other. It was really comfortable.

The trio lived at the house, recording over a series of weekends. They thought it would give them the chance to create whenever they were inspired, but more often than not they just had fun. Still, Grigg says inspiration and experimentation found their way into the album while recording, like during “Nakijima.”

GRIGG: During the recording process there’s a little like break section in the song where there’s some angular guitar, and Matt does more weird things with the drums. We felt it could benefit from more kind of weird noise in there. There was piano in the house, luckily, so we recorded banging on the piano luckily, but then we realized the sound of shattering glass would work well with everything and we also recorded Matt and Kelly and I doing a stream of consciousness talking.

Kelly Johnson, who was raised an evangelical Christian but no longer practices, was working through a breakup. He explains how the song “Table Legs” intertwines two common themes of his writing for this album.

JOHNSON: I just like the imagery of different spiritual images that I think about and then also the imagery of desperation that someone can feel in a relationship at times, and I just kind of like mixing those images and imagery, I think it’s interesting to me at least, to keep it vague. I’ve always identified with a lot of the spiritual imagery in the lyrics like the Pixies, I look to that, and I always liked the directness of you know the Cure, a little more blunt in the lyrics. So I like to mix a little bit of both of those sides.

LEGASPI: Most of the album’s songs were fleshed out prior to recording, but the final song on the album, “Judgment Day,” was fully realized at the house. Johnson says it started with a simple idea.

The idea I had just starting out small, and then building to a cacophony, and then Matt just laid down this pretty standard, but really appropriate groovy beat, and I was like “Oh that’s great, that will be the middle part” and then we kind of went on that and then Ben laid down some piano and ideas kind of rolled as we started playing and it was a kinda organic process altogether.

While Rockford may have only found its way into their music subconsciously; it seems an apt setting to capture Geronimo!’s Fuzzy Dreams. As Johnson explains:

JOHNSON: It’s interesting because all of our best friends are still from Rockford. And I think there’s a strange appreciation we have coming from there. Anybody that you meet outside of Rockford, you meet in the city or you meet somebody else, you automatically have the kinship of “Oh you grew up in Rockford, and you had to leave.” And, for som - WBEZ 91.5 Eight Forty-Eight

Before I received my copy of Fuzzy Dreams, the debut full length from Chicago’s Geronimo!, I knew absolutely nothing about the band. One spin lead to another, and before long I had become a lifelong fan. The trio has managed to create a living breathing monster of an album that draws influence upon just about everything that was great about 90s rock. There are calculated blasts of post-punk and math rock flourishing side by side with quirky indie guitar rock, grungy distorted aggression, and all the fuzz you can ask for. The band have brought together the incredible sounds of Fugazi, Built To Spill, and Hum, molding their influences into their own intricate masterpiece, traveling great distances of sound with brilliant structure and sonic ability. Whether the band has the drive to reach a larger audience remains to be seen, but Fuzzy Dreams leaves no question of their talent, leaving the future of Geronimo! worthy of paying close attention to.

“Thunderbattles” contains everything an opener should, roaring waves of noise and feedback, a hypnotic beeping reminiscent of a large van backing up, and a groove so entrancing that you are momentarily lost in their frantic indie convulsions. Lead singer/guitarist KJ Blaze and keyboardist/vocalist Ben Grigg harmonize with catchy vocal melodies that sit comfortably in the mix without ever seeming overbearing. “Design Yourself a Heart” stomps with a punk rock spirit and attitude that flows with upbeat charm and youthful attitude. The rhythm tramples forward, combining joyously with warm buzzing guitars that’d make J. Mascis proud. “Fill Me Up” slows the pace down, instead showcasing the Fugazi-esque side of their repertoire thanks to angular and bleak guitar work that sinks with dense drumming and deep bass tones. The vocals during the verses are heavily psychedelic, almost nearing the territory of The Black Angels, before a clean and simplistic vocal approach takes a commanding control.

“Battery Acid Moustache” is not only a great song title, but the extended psych jamming is out of this world, no LSD required. The song warps you in with a slow intro serving as the “calm before the storm” before the relentless psychedelic guitars begin their spiraling ascent together with pulsating keys. The first of three tracks spanning nearly eight minutes, Geronimo! waste no time, using their lengthy songs to showcase their shifting structures and time signatures without “noodling” or wandering too far. Matt Schwerin’s drumming is a constant highlight during the entire 48 minute album, rolling over all in its path with jazzy experimentation both subtle and explosive. “Nakajima” shows a softer side that further expands their musical reach into the indie pop realms. Despite the lack of heavy attack, the song is unbelievably dense, with spastic time changes and a sensational cloud of fuzz that gently blankets the entire mix. The vocals cut through the fog with an honest approach that is reminiscent of …Trail of Dead’s Conrad Keely. “Approaching the skyline” is upbeat and maniacal, a musical headtrip where Schwerin’s drumming is once again the definite highlight thanks to stunning polyrhythmic beats. The spiraling groove of guitars and keys certainly hold their own as well, as Geronimo! display exactly what a tight band can accomplish. The song’s only vocals are the title, giving the song a strong Fang Island vibe containing happy sun soaked experimentation that lifts and builds with dizzying splendor.

“Deep Warmth” finds the band crawling forward with a relaxed and dreamy tempo and sharp, angular, guitar melodies. This ode to summer roars with restrained splashes of reverb, duel vocal harmonies, and sludgy indie guitar work rich with distortion and trailing feedback. The rhythm is kicked up into high gear around the four minute mark, finding the band shifting into a freefall of trickling guitars and blaring horns for added texture. “Table Legs” will instantly transport you to the blistering desert sun soaked sounds of the new psychedelic movement brought on by The Entrance Band, Sleepy Sun, Imaad Wasif, and company. Slow, woozy guitars ride side by side with enormous drum fills that hit both gently and with thunderous force. Blaze’s fretwork and Grigg’s keys wander through the vast desert rock sound, forming riffs the equivalent of giant puffs of smoke. “Judgment Day” closes the album on a peaceful note, courtesy of acoustic guitars, spacey keyboard atmospherics, optimistic marching drums, and a triumphant horn section. The album comes to a close with an undeniably celebratory spirit, almost as though Geronimo! know they have created something truly special.
- Exploding In Sound

"There’s no doubt that Bucktown-based rock trio Geronimo! has a sense of humor. On multiple occasions they’ve tried out the mischief seen on FX series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (i.e. filling pop cans with wine and eating burritos hands-free from their pockets). The group also named one of its EPs “A Different Kind of Greatness,” an ironic nod to an old slogan from their hometown of Rockford, which Money Magazine repeatedly voted as one of the country’s worst cities.

What isn’t a joke is Geronimo!’s full-length debut, “Fuzzy Dreams,” a brawny and unpredictable rock carnivore that rolls a variety of indie and alternative touchstones into a compelling rumble, all while using a pitched-down keyboard in place of a bass." - Metromix Chicago/Redeye

"There’s no doubt that Bucktown-based rock trio Geronimo! has a sense of humor. On multiple occasions they’ve tried out the mischief seen on FX series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (i.e. filling pop cans with wine and eating burritos hands-free from their pockets). The group also named one of its EPs “A Different Kind of Greatness,” an ironic nod to an old slogan from their hometown of Rockford, which Money Magazine repeatedly voted as one of the country’s worst cities.

What isn’t a joke is Geronimo!’s full-length debut, “Fuzzy Dreams,” a brawny and unpredictable rock carnivore that rolls a variety of indie and alternative touchstones into a compelling rumble, all while using a pitched-down keyboard in place of a bass." - Metromix Chicago/Redeye

JUNE 27
1. Geronimo! (3 p.m. at the Cascio Interstate Groove Stage)
Listening to Geronimo!'s debut LP, Fuzzy Dreams, it becomes obvious that the Chicago trio isn't interested in being straightforward. Eight-minute songs like "Table Legs" and "Battery Acid Moustache" lurch around patiently, scraping out needling solos and crashing into noisy territory without losing the groove. - Onion AV Club Milwaukee

JUNE 27
1. Geronimo! (3 p.m. at the Cascio Interstate Groove Stage)
Listening to Geronimo!'s debut LP, Fuzzy Dreams, it becomes obvious that the Chicago trio isn't interested in being straightforward. Eight-minute songs like "Table Legs" and "Battery Acid Moustache" lurch around patiently, scraping out needling solos and crashing into noisy territory without losing the groove. - Onion AV Club Milwaukee

The guys from Geronimo! originally hail from Rockford, and it shows. The now Chicago-based trio creates the type of skuzzy rock hazed over with a layer of gritty distortion that sounds like it came from Illinois’ grittiest city. But this isn’t a bad thing, and though their sound is grungy, they balance it nicely by infusing melodic pop and psychedelic rock.

We caught them at Schubas last April for the record release show of their debut LP, Fuzzy Dreams. We were originally there to see headliners Kid, You’ll Move Mountains, but Geronimo! stole the show with a passionate performance and an uncontrollable fervor. Much of their set was taken straight from the album, which also contained a dynamic energy, mixing together lengthy psychedelic jams like “Table Legs” and “Battery Acid Moustache” that you can put you in a daze with vigorous, somewhat poppy tracks like “Approaching the Skyline” and “Judgment Day.”

The album is a winner, but this band must be seen live to be truly appreciated. Watch the expression of frontman KJ Blaze’s face as he shout-sings into the mic, the delirious mile-wide smile of keyboardist Ben Grigg and the wildly flailing arms of drummer Matt Schwerin, and you’ll know just what we mean. Check them out tonight at Fireside Bowl (oh, memories), along with locals Bust!, Warren Franklin and The Please and Thank Yous. - Chicagoist

The guys from Geronimo! originally hail from Rockford, and it shows. The now Chicago-based trio creates the type of skuzzy rock hazed over with a layer of gritty distortion that sounds like it came from Illinois’ grittiest city. But this isn’t a bad thing, and though their sound is grungy, they balance it nicely by infusing melodic pop and psychedelic rock.

We caught them at Schubas last April for the record release show of their debut LP, Fuzzy Dreams. We were originally there to see headliners Kid, You’ll Move Mountains, but Geronimo! stole the show with a passionate performance and an uncontrollable fervor. Much of their set was taken straight from the album, which also contained a dynamic energy, mixing together lengthy psychedelic jams like “Table Legs” and “Battery Acid Moustache” that you can put you in a daze with vigorous, somewhat poppy tracks like “Approaching the Skyline” and “Judgment Day.”

The album is a winner, but this band must be seen live to be truly appreciated. Watch the expression of frontman KJ Blaze’s face as he shout-sings into the mic, the delirious mile-wide smile of keyboardist Ben Grigg and the wildly flailing arms of drummer Matt Schwerin, and you’ll know just what we mean. Check them out tonight at Fireside Bowl (oh, memories), along with locals Bust!, Warren Franklin and The Please and Thank Yous. - Chicagoist

The debut LP from Geronimo!, Fuzzy Dreams, plays like a record from a band who's gotten good at building full-lengths. With overtones of the grunge era, Pavement and space-rock, Geronimo! powers through the record with a cohesive and compelling sound. Each song not only holds its own, but fits exactly where it should in the progression of the record as it reaches its varied heights.

The guitars at their best fill the scope of those on a Hum record, airily distorted and enormous. They'll expand into the whole space of a song, then drop away leaving only drums and bass in their wake. It makes for a propulsive bait-and-switch technique that moves songs like "Battery Acid Moustache"along their eight-minute length. "Deep Warmth"similarly switches between empty space and towering guitars, though it meanders a bit too far into the former for most of its play time. The song doesn't find its drive until the four-minute mark; when it does, it builds into an exploding vortex of sound before trailing off again too soon. "Table Legs,"perhaps the track most comfortably in the space-rock genre, hits a powerful mark as it brings the album to its climax. Lead guitar zig-zags all over like sonic lightning and horns slip in amid the urgent climb towards the roaring finish.

Shorter tracks like "Nakajima"or "Approaching the Skyline"echo the stylings of Guided By Voices and act as compositional counterpoints to the longer epics. The latter maintains its own sense of adventure as the title words are bellowed between juicy, sky-high riffs and a low-end, power-chord crunch. For its simplicity, it's one of the most cohesive and satisfying tracks on the record. Here, especially, the humor and quirk of a Malkmus creation shines through. Fuzzy Dreams may be spaced, but it never wallows in the melancholy of Hum, preferring either awe or aggression in its affect. It's never fazed by the heights it reaches, propelled steadily by powerful musicianship and composition. Geronimo! have pushed themselves into the air with a record unafraid of being tremendous. (E-Van Records) - Performer Magazine

The debut LP from Geronimo!, Fuzzy Dreams, plays like a record from a band who's gotten good at building full-lengths. With overtones of the grunge era, Pavement and space-rock, Geronimo! powers through the record with a cohesive and compelling sound. Each song not only holds its own, but fits exactly where it should in the progression of the record as it reaches its varied heights.

The guitars at their best fill the scope of those on a Hum record, airily distorted and enormous. They'll expand into the whole space of a song, then drop away leaving only drums and bass in their wake. It makes for a propulsive bait-and-switch technique that moves songs like "Battery Acid Moustache"along their eight-minute length. "Deep Warmth"similarly switches between empty space and towering guitars, though it meanders a bit too far into the former for most of its play time. The song doesn't find its drive until the four-minute mark; when it does, it builds into an exploding vortex of sound before trailing off again too soon. "Table Legs,"perhaps the track most comfortably in the space-rock genre, hits a powerful mark as it brings the album to its climax. Lead guitar zig-zags all over like sonic lightning and horns slip in amid the urgent climb towards the roaring finish.

Shorter tracks like "Nakajima"or "Approaching the Skyline"echo the stylings of Guided By Voices and act as compositional counterpoints to the longer epics. The latter maintains its own sense of adventure as the title words are bellowed between juicy, sky-high riffs and a low-end, power-chord crunch. For its simplicity, it's one of the most cohesive and satisfying tracks on the record. Here, especially, the humor and quirk of a Malkmus creation shines through. Fuzzy Dreams may be spaced, but it never wallows in the melancholy of Hum, preferring either awe or aggression in its affect. It's never fazed by the heights it reaches, propelled steadily by powerful musicianship and composition. Geronimo! have pushed themselves into the air with a record unafraid of being tremendous. (E-Van Records) - Performer Magazine

The guys in Geronimo are originally from Rockford (as is my brother-in-law), so I was hoping for a little more Cheap Trick, but hey, this is pretty awesome all on its own. The band’s first full-length album, Fuzzy Dreams, is full of (well) fuzzy guitar riffs, swirling solos, psych-pop vocals, and everything I wouldn’t expect to surface in a recently released rock record from here in Chicago. It’s a scratching, scraping, thumping, grooving, massive album that is nearly impossible to accurately describe. I hear nods to many different bands including Smashing Pumpkins, Sebadoh, Black Sabbath, Silversun Pickups, The Doors, Veruca Salt, Hum, and Built To Spill. I know, that’s quite a list but there’s just so much going on here.

My wife doesn’t like Fuzzy Dreams at all, but don’t let that sway you (even though she usually has good taste). Some of the songs are 8 minute long tripped-out jams (“Table Legs”) but there’s just as much room for dense focus and songwriting as there is spacey guitar explorations. It’s heavy without being metal and and melodic without being saccharine. It’s noisy and adventurous while also being easily digestible. That’s what Fuzzy Dreams is; it’s everything (OK not everything, but a lot of things). Heck, the band is even gnarly enough to include horns when necessary and close the album off on a sunny (and almost triumphant) note with “Judgement Day.” Check out the songs below and hopefully you’ll dig ‘em. I do. - Can You See The Sunset From The Southside?

The guys in Geronimo are originally from Rockford (as is my brother-in-law), so I was hoping for a little more Cheap Trick, but hey, this is pretty awesome all on its own. The band’s first full-length album, Fuzzy Dreams, is full of (well) fuzzy guitar riffs, swirling solos, psych-pop vocals, and everything I wouldn’t expect to surface in a recently released rock record from here in Chicago. It’s a scratching, scraping, thumping, grooving, massive album that is nearly impossible to accurately describe. I hear nods to many different bands including Smashing Pumpkins, Sebadoh, Black Sabbath, Silversun Pickups, The Doors, Veruca Salt, Hum, and Built To Spill. I know, that’s quite a list but there’s just so much going on here.

My wife doesn’t like Fuzzy Dreams at all, but don’t let that sway you (even though she usually has good taste). Some of the songs are 8 minute long tripped-out jams (“Table Legs”) but there’s just as much room for dense focus and songwriting as there is spacey guitar explorations. It’s heavy without being metal and and melodic without being saccharine. It’s noisy and adventurous while also being easily digestible. That’s what Fuzzy Dreams is; it’s everything (OK not everything, but a lot of things). Heck, the band is even gnarly enough to include horns when necessary and close the album off on a sunny (and almost triumphant) note with “Judgement Day.” Check out the songs below and hopefully you’ll dig ‘em. I do. - Can You See The Sunset From The Southside?

"...The Cascio stage (sponsored by the Shepherd Express and WMSE), typically a light in the dark that is Summerfest’s booking, didn’t miss a step Sunday, offering a diverse lineup of Chicago and Milwaukee bands. Chicago’s Geronimo, who got in on in the second spot, was one of Sunday’s best performances, ripping through a set of aggressive bluesy post-punk as the heat of the afternoon started scorching." - Thirdcoast Digest

"...The Cascio stage (sponsored by the Shepherd Express and WMSE), typically a light in the dark that is Summerfest’s booking, didn’t miss a step Sunday, offering a diverse lineup of Chicago and Milwaukee bands. Chicago’s Geronimo, who got in on in the second spot, was one of Sunday’s best performances, ripping through a set of aggressive bluesy post-punk as the heat of the afternoon started scorching." - Thirdcoast Digest

Geronimo!’s bio tells me they’re from Rockford, Il. This somewhat surprised me, as I’ve been to Rockford, and it was my impression that nothing good could grow in that toxic soil. I went to a Motley Crue concert there, and it was the first time I’ve been thoroughly patted down before a show since, I don’t know, 1998? They have a restaurant called the Machine Shed there, where you can get, no joke, a plate of meat scraps. Just a bunch of odds and ends, with potatoes on the side. Pretty gnarly, right? Geronimo! is gnarlier. Aside from the exclamation point in their name, I can’t think of anything I don’t like them about them.

They’re a three piece, but they sound much bigger. Especially when they crank it up -- songs like “Design Yourself A Heart” and “Judgement Day” start as nice, angular pop songs and then explode with the ecstatic fury of dudes playing absolutely as hard as they can. The basic sound is math-y indie rock with lyrics that are shouted and yelped as often as they’re sung, but Fuzzy Dreams is way better than that description implies. There are three tracks that clock in at over seven minutes, and these are generally the best ones; Geronimo! display a real sense of adventure, branching off into elaborately arranged tangents that don’t advance the songs so much as elevate them, and you can almost hear the band sweating. That’s a compliment.

It actually makes sense that these guys hail from a vast wasteland like Rockford -- you don’t develop these kind of chops hanging out and looking cool. The Geronimo! boys (Ben Grigg, Matt Schwerin, and KJ Blaze) have done the obvious time studying at the feet of the masters, and then also more time (obviously) practicing their instruments, and they’ve arrived at the unique, charmingly handmade sound that drives Fuzzy Dreams. And all that time was well-spent, because this record kills. From the vaguely menacing white noise that begins the album to the gloriously fucked-up blast of jazzy skronk that ends it, there’s not a dull moment here -- every time you get a little nervous about a song with four minutes left to go, the dudes hit you with another blast of crashing drums and chromey guitar fills, destroying any sense of “time” and “space.” Have you ever heard a hole being torn in the fabric of existence? Pick up Fuzzy Dreams and you will, a few times over. It’s real hot shit. - Assault.it

Geronimo!’s bio tells me they’re from Rockford, Il. This somewhat surprised me, as I’ve been to Rockford, and it was my impression that nothing good could grow in that toxic soil. I went to a Motley Crue concert there, and it was the first time I’ve been thoroughly patted down before a show since, I don’t know, 1998? They have a restaurant called the Machine Shed there, where you can get, no joke, a plate of meat scraps. Just a bunch of odds and ends, with potatoes on the side. Pretty gnarly, right? Geronimo! is gnarlier. Aside from the exclamation point in their name, I can’t think of anything I don’t like them about them.

They’re a three piece, but they sound much bigger. Especially when they crank it up -- songs like “Design Yourself A Heart” and “Judgement Day” start as nice, angular pop songs and then explode with the ecstatic fury of dudes playing absolutely as hard as they can. The basic sound is math-y indie rock with lyrics that are shouted and yelped as often as they’re sung, but Fuzzy Dreams is way better than that description implies. There are three tracks that clock in at over seven minutes, and these are generally the best ones; Geronimo! display a real sense of adventure, branching off into elaborately arranged tangents that don’t advance the songs so much as elevate them, and you can almost hear the band sweating. That’s a compliment.

It actually makes sense that these guys hail from a vast wasteland like Rockford -- you don’t develop these kind of chops hanging out and looking cool. The Geronimo! boys (Ben Grigg, Matt Schwerin, and KJ Blaze) have done the obvious time studying at the feet of the masters, and then also more time (obviously) practicing their instruments, and they’ve arrived at the unique, charmingly handmade sound that drives Fuzzy Dreams. And all that time was well-spent, because this record kills. From the vaguely menacing white noise that begins the album to the gloriously fucked-up blast of jazzy skronk that ends it, there’s not a dull moment here -- every time you get a little nervous about a song with four minutes left to go, the dudes hit you with another blast of crashing drums and chromey guitar fills, destroying any sense of “time” and “space.” Have you ever heard a hole being torn in the fabric of existence? Pick up Fuzzy Dreams and you will, a few times over. It’s real hot shit. - Assault.it