Cex, Love of Everything

Rjyan Kidwell, a.k.a. Cex, certainly knows how to keep listeners guessing. On his first few records, he adopted a white rapper persona and came across as a wittier and less violent Eminem; he then turned on a dime, picked up a laptop, and became an intelligent dance music composer who toured with the Postal Service and the Super Furry Animals. After taking time off to work on his side project, the bizarre and noisy Sand Cats, Kidwell has returned with a sex-obsessed punk-funk album titled, appropriately, Actual Fucking. Live, Cex never manages to stick to a script, and recent shows have found him nattering on about everything from riding bikes to quitting jobs before playing any actual music. Still, when he finally manages to shut up and play his guitar, the music is mind-blowing. Chicago buzz band Love of Everything, which mixes introspective lyrics and childlike toy instruments, opens the show.