- Courtesy of Argot
- Savile & Olin
If you’re a Smart Bar regular you’d probably recognize Karl Stein. You can’t miss him if you drop by the club on Saturday—that’s the night Stein, who is just a few inches taller than six feet, works as a bouncer. He’s been working at Smart Bar for close to five years, and had been a longtime regular before that. “Smart Bar is unlike any other club in the city—it’s truly, in my opinion, the only club I’ve been to in Chicago that’s strictly about the music,” Stein says. “You can go there in your pajamas and flip-flops.”
Dieli says he and Garden began work on the demos for Thanks, Karl in the spring. “We had been working on this record during a time that was, and still is, really bright for house music in Chicago—we were feeling a lot of energy and electricity in the air,” Dieli says. “In that regard we wanted to make a record that kind of encapsulated that in a certain capacity.” With its sumptuous melody, inviting guitars, and punched-up drums “Thanks, Karl” radiates even when it segues into a minimal-percussion pattern.
- Courtesy of Argot
- The Thanks, Karl B side
