Kids These Days was a hip hop band from

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. The band formed in 2009 while the members were teenagers and their debut album ''Traphouse Rock'' was released in 2012. Their split in May 2013 served as a launch pad for

Vic Mensa Vic (; es, Vic or Pancracio Celdrán (2004). Diccionario de topónimos españoles y sus gentilicios (5ª edición). Madrid: Espasa Calpe. p. 843. ISBN 978-84-670-3054-9. «Vic o Vich (viquense, vigitano, vigatán, ausense, ausetano, ausonense): ...

and Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, among others.

History

In November 2009, the band won first place at

Congress Theater The Congress Theater is a historic movie palace in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago. Fridstein and Company designed it in 1926 for the movie theater operator Lubliner and Trinz. It features ornate exterior and interior design work in a ...

’s Next Big Thing competition. In 2011, the band performed at South by Southwest, at

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Summerfest Summerfest is an annual music festival held in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. First held in 1968, Summerfest is located at Henry Maier Festival Park, adjacent to Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's central business district. Summerfest attracts app ...

on July 1, at Lollapalooza, and at The Roots Picnic started and hosted by The Roots on June 2. On June 13, 2012, the band performed on Conan O'Brien's TV show, Conan at The Chicago Theatre. During the Fall 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strike, Kids These Days performed at the union's Solidarity Festival in Union Park. Kids These Days 2012 debut, "Traphouse Rock," was produced by Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and mixed by Mario C. In May 2013, Kids These Days decided to split up.

Beyond Kids These Days

launched his own career and continued to pursue his musical talents. He worked on collaborative songs with rappers such as Chance the Rapper and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. He currently fronts the punk-rock project 93PUNX. Nico Segal, the horn player, also released 2 mixtapes, Illasoul: Shades of Blue and the Donnie Trumpet EP as Nico Segal and currently went on to perform in The Social Experiment with Greg Landfair Jr. Lane Beckstrom went on to produce and record his own electronic music under the name Lane. His debut EP "Argot" was released on January 20, 2015. Rajiv Halim recently released his debut album Foundation in August 2015. Three previous members of Kids These Days, Macie Stewart, Lane Beckstrom and Liam Cunningham, along with Matt Carroll, formed the band Marrow. Macie Stewart formed the band

OHMME Finom (formerly known as OHMME, and Homme) is a rock band from Chicago, which singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist duo Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart formed in 2014. Since 2016, Matt Carroll has been FINOM's drummer. Background Both Cun ...

, with Sima Cunningham, which remains active as of 2020. As of 2019, Stewart also plays violin and sings in Chicago's avant-garde jazz community, including as a member of Marker, led by

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compos ...

. Liam Kazar (Cunningham) backed the duo Tweedy on tour. In 2021, Kazar released a solo album and was regularly performing in Chicago, including with his band.

Members

*Liam Cunningham, a.k.a. Liam Kazar – lead vocals,

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

*Macie Stewart – lead vocals,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

–

rap vocals Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

*Lane Beckstrom – bass *Greg Landfair Jr. – drums * Nico Segal –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*J.P. Floyd –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

*Rajiv Halim –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Hard Times EP'' (2011) * ''Traphouse Rock'' (September 2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kids These Days Musical groups from Chicago Musical groups established in 2009 Midwest hip hop groups Musical groups disestablished in 2013