The best song this week is "The Woman on the Screen" by Boris

Nothing this week really jumped out at me until I was riding along the lakefront path after the Super Bowl and I was smacked in the teeth with a tripleshot of Boris / Torche / Lightning Bolt. My mind was wandering to the golf course I was riding by and BAM, drums and crazy fuzzed bass and DRUMS and ferocity! I don’t normally cotton to open hi-hats ringing throughout a song, but when the riffs are this fuzzy and deep, the tinny hi-hats provide a roomy, practice-space looseness; it sounds like a bunch of people just snagged some instruments, hit record and started kicking ass. The riff hits hard on off-beats but hammers the 1s and the 3s -- a syncopation trick that adds heaviness but keeps the downbeats head-boppingly catchy.

I don’t usually listen to a Boris record all the way through, but every time one of their songs comes up on shuffle, I’m reminded of how much power and ferocity they pack into every song--even the pretty ones (“Parting” comes to mind). Somehow “The Woman on the Screen” had never piqued my interest before, but this time it leapt from the earbuds straight into my brain and had me pedaling faster and hitting the back button on the iPod as soon as it was done. And I can't lie -- I wasn't even 100% sure it was Boris. 99% of me said Boris, 1% said "but maybe this is Part Chimp?" Both bands have similar production qualities and talents for seismic, crushing rockness.

“The Woman on the Screen” is the best song this week. And if you’re putting it in a playlist, follow it up with Torche and Lightning Bolt. You won’t feel the cold.

The best song this week is "Depailure" by Electric Hawk

I saw Electric Hawk open for Del Rey at the Empty Bottle last year. It was a "free with RSVP" show, so attendance was a no-brainer. Opening was Wizard Rifle, from Portland, who were so good I bought a CD and t-shirt. Two-man madness with a tendency towards sprawling epics with nods to Lightning Bolt and general punishment.

Electric Hawk, a three piece instrumental metal band from Chicago took the stage next. I wasn't expecting much, and all I got was one of the best sets I'd see all year. A band whose gear is perfectly matched to their sound, whose drummer hits with insane intensity and precision, and whose riffs burrow into the gut but shift and slide enough to keep the brainwaves melting. I was floored, the kind of floored where I drunk-texted friends and posted on Facebook as soon as I got home that night -- and actually felt good about the drunk posting the next morning.

That night I took home a three-song EP they were giving away on burned CDs, and it lived up to the show, which had me excited for a full-length...which I picked up this past week. It's a fantastic listen, front-to-back, and they have solidified their standing as one of my favorite Chicago bands. The best song for this, the inaugural week of this website, is in the middle of the record, it's called "Depailure," and there is a great video of them performing it here.

Catch them at The Empty Bottle with The Life & Times and Sweet Cobra on 2/24.