In Rotation: Nude Model - Crying Games

Chicago post punk group Nude Model's debut album is a well-polished set of songs. The rhythm section often takes the lead, while the guitar shoots in and out. Vocals from Michael Guarrine amplify the underlying texture. "Sex Sex Sex" builds from a slow instrumental opening to a lumbering pace for the bulk of the song, to a barrelling, frenetic final minute with alarming guitar and wide-eyed vocals. This is always a highlight in their live sets. The energy transfers nicely on tape. Nude Model has played shows relatively infrequently since their start about three years ago. Whenever they have played, they have sounded like a band that plays all the time. This album is the backing behind that.

I'm driving down interstate 90 toward Chicago. Minutes earlier I hastily dropped an application in the mailbox. It's dark. My jacket is still wet and the wipers are going. I'm driving down a highway I had ridden countless times since childhood. This time, I'm thinking about an increasingly less hypothetical move down the highway into city limits. My pocket starts buzzing. I'm late. It's Danny. It's time for them to go on. I suggest he tell a couple jokes. I'll be there soon. We hang up. Belmont exit. Danny told me he has a new band. This band is different, he said. I approach the tangled overpass triple intersection of Belmont, Western and Clybourn. I turn up the wipers. It's around here somewhere. I turn down Clybourn. I see nothing. I go through the thunderdome of an intersection again, the opposite way. I'm even later than I was before. I park. Years of hardcore, grunge punk, punk punk shows in basements, in cafes and bars. The wind is the only problem worse than the rain. Has anyone invented a wind-resistant umbrella? I walk through the thunderdome, the way I originally drove. Beyond the ramps is brick building after brick building, from the back or the side. I come to a door with the letter C on it at peephole height. Constellation. I pull the metal handle. The bar looks old, in a classy way. No sign of any bands. Plain black door across the bar. Guy sitting next to it on a stool. Money to guy. Pull metal handle. Nude Model is already playing. They are on a wood floor, next to a grand piano. Many people quietly watch. Old people. People sitting down in chairs. Rows of chairs. I stand by the door. Remember the scene in The Matrix Reloaded when Neo opens a door in the house to see a mountainous landscape? I catch the last few songs. A jazz band plays next.

When I opened that door to Nude Model's first show I felt like I was entering another stage in my life. Danny Brawlins, guitarist for Nude Model, is my brother, in the interest of full disclosure. Crying Games is out on his record label, Don't Panic Records & Distro. Get a cassette through their Bandcamp page. Nude Model plays the Burlington Bar on Saturday night with Horrible, Moonstruck and Supervisor. More info on that show here. Stream Crying Games below.