Valaska

Just as it appears, it’s Alaska with a V. Valaska. Album three from the Dave Valdez-led quartet is called in.cho.ate. To my ears, it’s as solid an album as I’ve heard out of Chicago all year. Songs and more songs. Well written, recorded, performed, arranged and crafted songs. I like the songs. But, what I really like is that there’s a band that can still actually assemble an album of ten songs worth hearing. You know? Songwriting is not easy. I’d consider the act of writing memorable songs to be hard. So, Dave Valdez of Valaska will be my guest on Local Anesthetic this Sunday night at 7:30 not only because he writes (with his band mates Zach Porlier, Matt Holmes and James Young) good songs but because writing good songs is difficult and if an artist is able to string this many good songs on one album, well, I need to personally shake their hand. Valaska is a special band and in.cho.ate will be on my Anesthetic Best of ’16 list without a doubt. Tune in for more this Sunday night. Thank you for listening. PS. The release show for in.cho.ate is tonight at Wire. - WXRT