Plastic Crimewave (born Steven H. Krakow), otherwise known as Steve Krakow, is a Chicago-based illustrator and writer, avant-garde musician, music historian[1] and impresario. He is the editor of Drag City-published magazine Galactic Zoo Dossier, eponymous front man for Plastic Crimewave Syndicate and co-member of Spiral Galaxy, founder of the Million Tongues Festival, and Vision Celestial Guitarkestra. He writes and illustrates the "Secret History of Chicago Music" comic in the Chicago Reader and co-hosts WGN-AM's Secret History of Chicago Music series. He runs the Drag Cityimprint label, Galactic Zoo Disk and Guerssen records imprint Galactic Zoo Archive.
Crimewave has been called a modern guru[7] of psychedelic art, music and culture of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a "freelance mind-wizard".[8] Regarding his artwork and music, British musician and musicologist Julian Cope has called Crimewave, among other things, "a Futuretro freak",[9] while Crimewave himself says he pulls inspiration from the "vibrationally bizarre.".[10]
The Secret History of Chicago Music is Crimewave's hand-lettered and illustrated newspaper column that appears in the Chicago Reader. It covers "pivotal Chicago musicians that somehow have not gotten their just dues,"[13] and is a semimonthly feature in the newspaper. The column runs in coordination with WGN's Secret History of Chicago Music segment on The Nick Digilio Show, in which Crimewave takes listener phone calls related to the featured musician. On occasion, the featured musicians will call in.
In November 2015, Curbside Splendor published a compendium of more than a decade of Secret History strips called My Kind of Sound.[14]Pitchfork Media's Jessica Hopper described My Kind of Sound as "an education even for us know-it-all music obsessives, and are the only comics that have sent me directly to the record store to dig in the bins for dusty gems."[15]
Other
Crimewave has written or currently writes for Arthur Magazine, Stop Smiling, Roctober, Time Out Chicago, Seattle's The Red Telephone, Big City Rhythm and Blues Magazine and podcasts for Anthology Recordings. He has given lectures at Stop Smiling headquarters.[16]
Music
Plastic Crimewave Sound
Crimewave's band, Plastic Crimewave Sound, was a psychedelic acid punk band based in Chicago. The band consisted of Plastic Crimewave, bassist Mark Lux (Raspberry Kidd), drummer Lawrence Peters (Skog Device), Steve's brother Adam (Hands of Hydra) on second guitar.[17] They toured with Acid Mothers Temple, Comets on Fire, Oneida, The Ponys, The Gris Gris, Marble Sheep and others, and played at the Terrastock festival and international festivals. The band has been compared to Chrome, Can, Ya Ho Wha 13, Sonic Youth, Hawkwind and has a cult following.[18] After Plastic Crimewave Sound disbanded, Kraków formed a power trio, Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, with Anjru Kieterang (bass) and Karissa Talanian (drums), now Jose Bernal (drums).[19][20]
Million Tongues Festival
Crimewave curates the celebrated Million Tongues Festival in Chicago. The annual music festival includes international folk artists, experimental and underground, often featuring "cult" artists from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Now in its fifth year, the fest has seen performances by Bert Jansch, Peter Walker, Michael Chapman, LSD March, Michael Yonkers, Simon Finn, Plastic Boner Band, and Terry Reid, among others. Crimewave took the festival name from a line in Clive's Original Band's, "Song of Ages."[21]
Vision Celestial Guitarkestra
Inspired by experimental 1960s music ensemble Scratch Orchestra, free-jazz musician Alan Silva's Celestial Communication Orchestra and Glenn Branca's guitar symphonies, Crimewave has organized many "Guitarkestras," featuring an orchestra of up to 100 seasoned and novice volunteer guitarists.[22] It has been called an "art-freak happening" and "overwhelming sonic assault".[23] Crimewave loosely conducts the performances,[24] typically encouraging the guitar orchestra to play in the key of E. Crimewave says E is "the closest chord to 'Om'".[25]
Galactic Zoo Disk
Crimewave runs the Galactic Zoo Disk imprint label under Drag City, which has reissued or released archival releases by JT IV, The George-Edwards Group, Ryan Trevor, Ed Askew, Sandy Bull, Midnight, Michael Yonkers, Spur, and others. Crimewave also has the roving imprint Galactic Zoo Archive which has co-released LPs by Simply Saucer, Ono, Bil Vermette, and Red Square.[26]
Moonrises, Etc.
Plastic Crimewave played in progressive avant-garde trio Moonrises.[27] Their 1st s/t LP was released by Logan Hardware and their sophomore LP was released on Captcha Records in February 2013.[28]
Past Crimewave duos include Solar Fox, Goldblood, Black Hole and Scum Ra.[29]
^"Archived copy". www.chicagoreader.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
