Today we’re celebrating curator Melissa Flowers’ birthday. Mel has been working with Rock in Chicago since 2014, as a reviewer and also an occasional cohost of the original Rock In Chicago Show podcast.
Mel is also the bassist for Americana-Folk trio the Secret Lives and blackened hardcore group, Tides Cult. Check out the bands below. Starting in May, Mel will host an open mic at an art gallery very third Saturday. It’s an acoustic open mic encouraging acoustic artists, spoken word artists, poets, etc. to come out.
For her birthday, Mel curated a 90-minute playlist of some of her favorite bands from many different scenes and genres from our area.
| Track | Artist |
| Lonesome Low | Al Scorch |
| Sinaia | Russian Circles |
| Last Fair Deal Gone Down | Jon Langford |
| Apocalypse Now (& Later) | Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers |
| She Took A Lot Of Pills (And Died) | Robbie Fulks |
| Speedin’ North | Joel Paterson |
| World Devourer | Like Rats |
| Manifest | Andrew Bird |
| One Way Ticket | ROOKIE |
| Crystal | The Waterfall King |
| Infestation | Harms Way |
| Shot in the Head | Weekend Nachos |
| Worth It | Colleen Wild |
| Think About U | Amero$ |
| Give No More | Pulchra Morte |
| Coma Noir | The Atlas Moth |
| Stars | Hum |
| Bron-Y-Aur Stomp | Devil in a Woodpile |
| Alien With a Sleep Mask On | Ratboys |
| Til We’re Dead | Guardrail |
| Radio Coup D’etat | Evil Engine |
| Remember the Taker | The Steepwater Band |
| The Unlimited Space Around Us | Family Groove Company |
Mel's Birthday Playlisst
Check out Mel's Projects
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The Secret Lives
The Secret Lives is an up and coming Americana/folk rock band out of the southwest suburbs of Chicago. TSL is comprised of Andy Victory, Rachel Darling, and Mel Flowers. The trio provide a unique Southern Gothic tinged Americana sound with powerful, engaging, and retrospective lyrical content.
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Tides Cult
Purveying a furious brand of blackened hardcore, Chicago-based quintet Tides Cult tilts equal nod to black metal’s shrouded nocturne and hardcore’s pissed-off onslaught. Bucking all trendiness for authentic second-city grit, the band’s underground spirit reanimates the dead, shocks the living, and conjures anything and everything in between.