In 2018, emerging musicians commonly hashtag artists they admire on Instagram or @ them on Twitter, hoping for a signal boost that might get them new listeners. In the 80s and 90s, though, the analog to this social-media circuit was tape trading (eventually people started using burned CDs, but “CD trading” doesn’t have the same ring).
Polonsky no longer calls Chicago home—he’s lived in Los Angeles and New York over the past several years—but on Wednesday, November 28, he and his backing band come to GMan Tavern for a homecoming show celebrating the release of Unreleashed: Demos and Rarities 1996-2018 (Jett Plastic), a mix of album outtakes and unreleased tracks from the self-imposed hiatus in Polonsky’s solo career. It’s the perfect opportunity to remind yourself that guitar pop hasn’t lost an ounce of its power since it was invented.
