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Flavorwire interviews 8 Inch Betsy’s Eli Burke about what it means to put out this album in the wake of friend and bandmate Meghan Galbraith’s death.

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The finality of death often spurs a reevaluation of life. For 8-Inch Betsy’s Eli Burke, the loss of bandmate Meghan Galbraith to illness was both shocking and devastating, but the record they made together, The Mean Days, proved to be a vehicle for the catharsis of grief.

8-Inch Betsy has been scraping by in the underground for more than a decade. The erstwhile Chicago queercore band toured with the likes of Gossip, Marnie Stern, and Jucifer, but never really had quite the impact outside of Chicago that they did at home. By the time Galbraith became ill last fall, The Mean Days was already recorded — the process had started in 2010 — and the band had even re-tracked the drums after their drummer quit for a second time.

But it was during a hospital visit from Burke, in which Galbraith gave the go-ahead to make the final push to release The Mean Days, that the album came together in earnest. When Galbraith’s condition didn’t improve and she passed in January of this year, the release took on new significance for the people she left behind. “At that point, it was like, ‘It has to happen now, I need to do this,’” Burke says. “Then grief kicked in, and it was really hard for me to let go of it. I knew I had to release it, and I wanted to. It was really important for me and her family and Steve Albertson, who’s one of her best friends, to get it out there. But I was having this sort of… once I get it out there, it’s over. And I don’t have that.” READ MORE…

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The Chicago Reader has written a massive feature on 8 Inch Betsy and deceased front-woman Meghan Galbraith

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Huge heart, 8 Inch Betsy: Remembering Meghan Galbraith

Ten months after her death, the community she left behind honors her positivity by welcoming her queercore band’s final album into the world.

Eli Burke came to Chicago from Tucson in summer 2003 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but a friend from Arizona who’d already moved here had other plans. Burke (then going by Liz) had played bass in Tucson with drummer Stephanie Levi in a punk band called 8 Inch Betsy, and once they both lived in Chicago, Levi spent months trying to get Burke to come practice with her. “I eventually caved,” Burke says. “And I’m glad I did, ’cause it was good.”

Levi had recruited a singer and guitarist named Meghan Galbraith, and in summer 2004 the three of them began playing together in a Chicago incarnation of 8 Inch Betsy. They clicked immediately, developing what Burke describes as an alchemical connection at their first practice—they’d turned two of Galbraith’s solo songs into full-band numbers by the end of the night.

The band kept playing regularly till 2012, when Burke moved back to Tucson. On January 22, 2015, Galbraith died at age 35 after a long illness, and since then it’s become especially clear that she played a big role as a catalyst and inspiration in lots of places besides 8 Inch Betsy. Everyone I interviewed for this story talked about how unfailingly supportive she was. Galbraith was quick to offer an ear or lend a hand, emotionally or professionally, and pushed friends new and old to follow their dreams. She helped people get jobs or find apartments, and she always encouraged anyone who wanted to make music, sometimes helping them with songwriting or showing them the ropes of touring or running a band. Beginning in 2008, she volunteered as a band coach and counselor at Girls Rock! Chicago, which has established a Meghan Galbraith Scholarship to honor what it calls her “infectious positivity and incredible generosity of spirit.” In the scholarship’s first year, an outpouring of donations from those who’d loved Galbraith allowed the camp to waive tuition for five girls. READ MORE…

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PopMatters premiere’s F.Y.I.’s track “Hueman” off of new EP Age / Sex / Location

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Los Angeles rapper F.Y.I. releases his new EP Age / Sex / Location today, and you can hear the track “Hueman” below. Combining clever wordplay with a strong message to listeners that there’s a lot more to individuals than mere black and white. Couple that with a strong, boisterous backing arrangement, and you’ve got yourself a potent track.

“‘Hueman’ sounds like revolution,” he tells PopMatters “It’s raw. It’s rap meets rock, but not in a corny or forced way. Live guitar was fitting on a track like this. It’s an anthem for people that want to express themselves without being boxed in. It’s part of my message over mayhem mantra. All the people that follow my music and like what I represent, I call them “Huemans.” By combining the words ‘hue’ and ‘man’ I’m saying people are colorful, not one dimensional as sometimes presented in in this very black and white world we live in. I ultimately want a rap crew called Huemans which consists of me and like minded rappers and producers. I felt it was appropriate to make a statement song about the idea behind the name and that’s how the concept and song was created. ‘Hueman’ is edgy and energetic, so I’m super charged to see how people will react to it.” LISTEN HERE…

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BuzzBands.LA premiere F.Y.I.’s’ “No Shx!” from his new EP, Age / Sex / Location

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Mid-city Los Angeles rapper F.Y.I. has been doing his thing for over a decade now, formerly going by the name Foreshadow, and co-founding the L.A. rap group Those Chosen in the mid-Aughts, releasing the “5ive” EP in 2010, produced by IZ Avila. His debut, 2014’s “Yo! The Places You’ll Go” with its Dr. Seuss reference, was full of great beats and interesting rhymes with substance, especially on the great tracks “Like Me,” and “Dopamine” featuring Ab-Soul and his Those Chosen cohorts to close out the album. His sophomore project, the new “Age / Sex / Location” EP, arrives next Tuesday. The six-track effort was produced by frequent collaborator Dual Output and builds on its predecessor with dynamite production incorporating live instrumentation, and a dynamite flow to match it. The lead single “No Shx!” (think ‘it’ in lieu of ‘x,’ for the grown-ups) coasts on a smooth dancehall groove built around a lively bass line and melancholic sample that resembles the phrase “you don’t know shit,” with Nigerian-born singer/songwriter Smalls on the hook, and F.Y.I.’s rhymes both quick in speed and wit. Other standout tracks are soul-flipping funky rhymefest opener “One Thang” and the soulful ode to the boo, “Our World.” LISTEN HERE…