Russian Circles

FUN FUN FUN FEST 2011

• Fun Fun Fun Lists

• Friday Interviews

• Public Enemy

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• Anarchy Championship Wrestling

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Omar Souleyman

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Saturday Interviews

• B L A C K I E

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• Tune-Yards

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Paint It Black

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Neal Brennan

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• The Damned

  BY MARC SAVLOV

• Sunday Interviews

• Henry Rollins

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

• Slayer

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

Fun Fun Fun Platters

• Boris

  Heavy Rocks

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Beatbox

  Goblin

  BY CHASE HOFFBERGER

• Hull

  Beyond the Lightless Sky

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Black Lips

  Arabia Mountain

  BY DOUG FREEMAN

• Girls

  Father, Son, Holy Ghost

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Mates of State

  Mountaintops

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Lykke Li

  Wounded Rhymes

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

  Hysterical

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• M83

  Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Joe Lally

  Why Should I Get Used to It

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Russian Circles

  Empros

  BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

• Tinariwen

  Tassili

  BY AUSTIN POWELL

• Cold Cave

  Cherish the Light Years

  BY MELANIE HAUPT

• Jim Ward

  Quiet in the Valley, On the Shores the End Begins

  BY RICHARD WHITTAKER

Russian Circles

Rather than a continental drift, Empros maps the Earth when it yielded a single landmass. The Chicago instru-metal trio's fourth LP coalesces suitelike from sea to sea, beginning with the dive-bombing doom of nine-minute opener "309." Big-gun recoil in the seventh and final minute of the succeeding "Mládek" (Czech music tribute or Slavic evocation?) fades into the blue vista of "Schiphol" (Amsterdam), itself outlined in atmospherics building to tsunami. Likewise the chamber echoes mounting an "Atackla." "Batu" (Indonesia) circles but never lands, while closer "Praise Be Man" gurgles the end too early, but this hot comet Empros is anything but Greek. (Fri., 6:30pm, Black stage)