Kids These Days was a
hip hop band from
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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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 ...
's
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
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): ...
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 ...
*
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): ...
–
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