No Wristbands! We Drink For Free

Jason Narducy has carved out quite a career for himself in music. His first band, Verboten (which he began as a pre-teen), was influential in getting Dave Grohl in started music. Subsequently he for…

Welcome to 2024 and our 40th episode everyone! We're so happy to be talking with Ken Draznik and James Wald from one of our favorite bands of all-time, The Vertebrats from Champaign, IL. We talk ab…

Did you ever wish you had your own music festival? Well, our friends Stacey & Erik Olson are living the dream! In 2022 they put together the first fForest Fest in Morris, Illinois with a few of the…

Bruce Finkelman decided on a late night drive down Western Avenue to open his iconic Chicago music club, The Empty Bottle. So he took the $942 he had in savings and made the plunge. Thirty years la…

In our latest episode of No Wristbands! After Hours, we got a chance to talk with two of our favorite people over at CHIRP radio - Jenn Sodini and Shawn Campbell. Jenn is the host of the fantastic C…

Milwaukee emo band Barely Civil joins us for No Wristbands! episode 36. Connor Erickson (vocals, guitar), Isaac Marquardt (drums) and Alex Larsen (lead guitar) share their thoughts on their great ne…

Kenn Goodman joins us to talk about the long history of Pravda Records. 2024 will be the 40th anniversary of Pravda and Kenn explains how it got this far. We also talk about his musical history and…

We are so damned excited to have Frank Turner join us for this one. We talk about his upcoming visit to Chicago to play Riot Fest, his opening gig for Bruce Springsteen, his thoughts on songwriters…

Deanna Belos joins us to talk about her great Chicago punk band Sincere Engineer. Deanna is the songwriter, singer and guitarist in the band and began putting out records in 2017 with the album Rhom…

Leor Galil is a senior staff writer for the Chicago Reader and has written there for a dozen years. His work as a freelance culture and music journalist has appeared in numerous publications, includ…

We're very excited that we got the opportunity to talk with Beverly Rage (vocals/guitar) from queer garage-pop band Bev Rage & the Drinks for episode 31. We talk about Bev's musical journey from Can…

Bridget Stiebris and Haley Blomquist from OK Cool are back with us After Hours to discuss their new ep Fawn. We go track by track and also talk about what they got coming up on tour.

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We had a great time talking with long-time Chicago musician Brian Case for episode 29. We talk about his musical history with 90 Day Men, The Ponys and Disappears. And we get into detail with his c…

We are beyond excited to have Glenn Kotche on the show for episode 28. It's a dream come true (although Glenn said we have to have bigger dreams than that!). We talk about how he got started as a d…

Haley Blomquist and Bridget Stiebris from local Chicago band OK Cool join us for episode #27. We talk about how they got together to form a band, what their songwriting and creative process looks li…

Bruce Adams joins us for episode # 26. He co-founded kranky records and recently authored a wonderful book, You're with Stupid: kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music. We talk about Br…

Bill Roe of Trouble In Mind Records joins us for episode #25. Bill and his spouse Lisa played together in the garage band CoCoComa and in 2009 they started releasing records on their Trouble In Mind…

Dan Ozzi - author of the national bestseller SELLOUT - The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore 1994-2007 - is our guest for episode #24. He also co-authored (with Laura Jan…

John Rossiter joins us to talk about his latest release Shepherd Head, as well as his 2020 record Welcome to Conceptual Beach. We discussed his songwriter process and how his music has evolved. And…

Peter Gill, leader of the band 2nd Grade and guitar player in the band Friendship, joins us to talk about his music history, his songwriting and more. And, of course, we talk about his favorite thin…