The Mysterious Hub Tour

An Insane Journey Into Chicago's Underground

     

This amazing labor of love was the sequel to VoidWare's Zen and the Surveillance of Bicycle Messengering, a seamless one hour ride through the industrial soundscape of downtown Chicago in digital stereo via bicycle.

As legend has it, all of the bands on this Cd had at least one member that was a bike messenger in Chicago. There were no conditions to bands submitting music and no one was turned away. As a result, there wasn't a more interesting compilation released that year.

Fifty years after Albert Hoffman took the infamous ride home from the laboratory in what is know as the first LSD trip, producer Rod Richardson takes listeners on a virtual psychedelic trip of loft parties, dive bars, and bizarre ambient out takes that he encourages to be listened to randomly.

There are some amazing discoveries along the way. From Warped Tour vets like Alkaline Trio, to Hip Hop members, All Natural, this is not your average local band compilation. The song "How You Said It", comes from a now defunct Pruno, while Pruno member Sappy is having great success with his new band the Siderunners. Most intriguing is a track called "Blood" that features a 'sample' of a real police officer harassing a courier for not wearing a bright enough shirt! Local favorites like Mental Insect, Disarray and Slink Moss also contribute previously unreleased material. VoidWare artists, Darkk Brothers turn in a monster jam, a great example of their "ant-acid jazz" stylings as well as Kaleid, who offer one of the strangest electronic ditties you'll ever hear.

As previously mentioned, the album is peppered with sonic oddities like building implosions, the "bicycle harp" (which is a rubber band stretched around a pair of handle bars), weather and traffic conditions, the cooking of mushroom tea, talking elevators and more.

If you ever wondered what the grand daddy of all x games is and what that lifestyle was truly like...this is where the expression "party like a rock star" came from and believe me: They meant it!