Daundry- Ian Bond, Sebas-tian Jones, Katrina Hildeb-randt

Interview: Matthew Hocutt, Shaye Rosengarden, Yeon Park, Evan Santos

Words: Shaye Rosengarden

Daundry headlined Grant Slam Fest in May 2024 at Jonquill Park alongside local bands Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Joe Glass, Intoner and Raingarden, bringing in a substantial crowd of energet-ic fans. Daundry was the last act to take the stage in the early evening, which proved no matter for a crowd that met the music with a rampant mosh pit. Lead gui-tarist and vocalist Ian Bond smoked a cigarette through-out the giant mosh, proudly hammering his guitar with a thick layer of distortion as the crowd kicked up clouds of dirt from the mound in front of the stage.

In March of 2024, Daundry released their debut album, Pria, which adopted a much grungier and heavier sound than their earlier EPs. The opening track, Testicular Torsion, sets the atmosphere for the album with a sludgy bassline and an impressively fast finger-picked guitar riff– all of which break down at the end of the song into a math-rocky explosion. The band distributed a physical release of the album on CD through Oregon-based non-profit label Pleasure Tapes, which included a special edition obi (small banner on

Ira Glass’s debut al-bum, Compound Tur-bulence Flexing for the Heat, was a particu-lar favorite released in July 2024. It stands out with gnarly distort-ed guitars, shrill screa-mo vocals, articulate rhythms and unexpect-ed elements like a sax-ophone– all creating a signature collective sound. The band drew influence from the methods of Chicago’s late underground audio engineer Steve Albini by capturing organic sounds in the studio with microphone place-ment and minimalized post-production. This is reflected in the roomy tones of the drums and vocals, reminiscent of other Chicago-made records such as Goat by The Jesus Lizard and At Action Park by Shellac. Brooks Han-non recorded the album at Chicago’s legend-ary Electrical Audio, a studio founded by and synonymous with the late Steve Albini.

A few weeks before their release, I caught Ira Glass at Logan Square Arts Fest 2024 in the sweltering 90 degree heat alongside Chicago shoegaze sta-ple Airel, making for a sweaty yet memorable show. The band took the stage draped in all-black attire with mili-tary-style accessories, and throughout the set vocalist Lise Ivanova took swigs from a jar of honey to relieve her voice from giving out. The crowd was diverse, from punk rockers to families, all exposed to blistering post-hard-core and tense guitar riffs under the sun. The fest had an array of local vendors selling clothes, jewelry and records, with two stag-es for displaying acts. Logan Square Arts felt like a proper commem-oration of Chicago’s sound through the var-ious bands that per-formed and an immense community presence.

Words/Photos: Shaye Rosengarden

Interview: Matthew Hocutt, Shaye Rosengarden

Ira Glass is Lise Ivanova on vox and rhythm guitar, Sunny Betz on lead gui-tar, Landon Kerouac on drums, Jill Roth on sax-ophone, and Kaleb Wal-lace on bass. At Esquina, we invite the group to talk about their band philoso-phies, antics, and time re-cording at Electrical Audio.

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