Here we gift again!

The Christmas holiday season is the biggest for giving the gift of music. Nowadays it not really physically wrapping that long wanted vinyl LP, cassette or CD. It could simply be putting a treasured Spotify gift card or I Tunes download card into a festive stocking or crudely wrapping that cheap MP 3 player under the tree.

No matter the season, Local Loft unwraps new original Chicagoland metal, punk, alternative rock & power pop, and we keep giving it to you all year long.

Metal is so many different varieties. Mostly hardcore intense metal dominates, with unclean vocals and ultra fast guitar & drum grooves. Old school traditional metal has not been put to rest. Heroine Sentinel rocks in this fashion. The 4-man band from Chicago's South Side combines a clear, high pitched vocal wail with a lightning-fast guitar chord and percussion rhythm. I talk with bassist Jose Salazar as they get ready to unite metal fans old and young at Soundgrowler Brewing in Tinley Park, Saturday, December 21st.

With well over 1 million cover versions, the traditional Christmas Carol Silent Night has even gone through a rapid-fire punk interpretation by Los Angeles veteran punk band The Dickies in1978. BlockChain Coalition rewrites history with a totally new recreation, different chord structure and vocal style from singer Tony Engel. They're sure to bust it out at BCC's last show of 2024, This Saturday, December 7th at Basecamp Pub & Eatery in Lisle.

Coming off one of the longest holiday celebrations of all time, Thanksgiving, you got in at least four off days of needed rest & relaxation. The Chicago alternative band Off Days rocked through a non-stop mixture of 60s psychedelic rock & 80s new wave. As, five years ago this week, they played live at a venue whose off days would be permanent, in 2020, being financially unable to rock on, hurt greatly by the COVID lockdown, Wire in Berwyn. We rock back to it.

Let your ears, if not you gift opening hands, tear through this merry lineup of original Chicago rock. The unraveling includes:

Heroine Sentinel-Debt Slave (live from Live Wire Lounge in Jefferson Park-8/24)

If I Were The Devil-Traitor To The Cross

BlockChain Coalition-Silent Night (A reimagination by BlockChain Coalition)

M & R Rush-Heavy Metal Christmas

Jungle Rot- Genocidal Imperium

Whut?-One Choice

Sweetie-Showgirl

Vortis-Crisis

Calidus Timebomb-Final Pill

!3-Monsters-Hang Around (Live From punk Rock Tacos 52-8/10/24 Cemitas Poblanas, Villa Park Local Loft Episode 341)

The Off Days (interview from Wire in Berwyn-12/5/19 Local Loft Episode 116)

The Off Days-Junkie Girl

The Off Days-Kiss Of Death