Hugo Reyes has spent that last 10 or 15 years listening to music and going to shows in Chicago. He's also been writing in-depth articles about the emo, punk and hardcore scenes for places like The Alternative (@GetAlternative), Twitter (@hvreyes5) and his Medium page. You can also catch him on the podcast "Watch Me Pod". He joined the pod to talk about his love of music, what he's listening to and writing about and the things he loves about Chicago

The No Wristbands team got the chance to track down Fake Fruit at their recent shows at South By Southwest in Austin earlier this year. And from there, we convinced Hannah D'Amato (vocals & guitar) and Alex Post (guitar) to join us on the show. They join Mark and Tom on the pod to talk about their self-titled Fake Fruit debut album, being on the road and, of course, visiting Chicago.

Photo credit: Frank Swider

Katie Tuten and Jennifer Estlin join Mark and Tom to discuss what it’s like to own and run their historic venues in Chicago. They also get into detail about how the Chicago Independent Venue League (CIVL) was formed and how it helped all of our treasured community venues band together to survive a devastating pandemic and live to tell about it.

Donnie Biggins wants to book your band. The owner of Chicago music venue Golden Dagger has a lot of experience - he’s done it at places like Subterranean, Lincoln Hall, Tonic Room, and Fitzgerald’s. And he’d also love to have you stop in to his Lincoln Park location to hang out and talk and have a coffee. Mark and Tom talk about all that, plus being sober, playing music and, of course, his favorite things about Chicago.

Remember a time when The Beatles were controversial at the Old Town School of Folk Music? Jimmy T does! Jimmy has been around the OTSF scene for decades and was instrumental in bringing pop music ensemble classes to the school. He joins the pod to talk about his time at Old Town, from starting in the Armitage music store to teaching countless Chicagoans through his classes.

Julia of Ratboys joins the pod to discuss starting the band, operating a band in a pandemic, and all things Chicago.

Spencer Tweedy joins Mark and Tom to talk about all of the cool stuff he’s been up to, from the Case Oats record, to the Mirror Sound book project, to starring in The Tweedy Show. They also talk about what it’s like to play drums with Mavis Staples after school (and of course they talk about all the things he loves about Chicago).

Kip Berman has charted a musical course that’s taken him to a level of fame that feels big in the indie world. His band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart earned critical praise, but that was just one stop on his journey of making music. He joins Mark and Tom for a candid conversation about making music with his friends in Pains and his new “solo” venture The Natvral.

How Mark Greenberg ended up managing Wilco’s loft is a “right place at the right time story” on the surface, but Mark’s journey to get there is the story of a music lifer who never thought he couldn’t or shouldn’t take that chance moving to Chicago or walking into Lounge Ax to ask Sue Miller if his band could get a gig there one day.

Dylan Slocum of Spanish Love Songs is about as honest a frontman as you’ll meet in the biz - and he’s definitely not a punk (just ask him). He joins Tom and Mark to talk about his creative process and how the band is making its way through the pandemic music world, including the challenge of writing angry songs at a time when everyone is hurting.

Need to remember what song Hüsker Dü opened with at their first Chicago show? Aadam Jacobs has your back. Aadam has spent his entire adult life building an archivists’ dream collection of concert recordings from Chicago’s myriad venues.

Bob Nastanovich of the bands Pavement and Silver Jews, along with the Three Songs Podcast, and Brokers Tip Records joins us to discuss his career from driving a Manhattan bus to joining Pavement, to owning racehorses, to starting his own podcast, and label.