Illinois Entertainer

Fall Out Boy
Little White Castles For You And Me

The “underdog” card is a favorite of Midwesterners. Ozzie Guillen, though Venezuelan by birth, famously played it during the White Sox’s run to the World Series in 2005, giving wide berth for Lovie Smith to do the same as the Bears approached the Super Bowl this winter. So forgive Patrick Stump if he invokes it while describing Fall Out Boy’s history as a North Shore band trying to gain respect on their road to the top.

• Read more: Cover Story: Fall Out Boy

Hello, My Name Is Neil

IE: How often do you get the “What’s it like to be Vince Neil’s son?” question?
Neil Wharton: I get it all the time. It’s either that or “Vince Neil doesn’t have a son.” I use to get irritated with the second one, but hey, it comes with the territory. And to answer the question: It’s just like being the son of anyone else. My dad just happens to have a really cool job.

• Read more: Hello, My Name Is Neil

CocoRosie
Fairies And Elves And French Graveyards, Oh My!

“I feel bad sometimes for journalists, because it is hard for us to relate to other music,” explains Sierra Casady of CocoRosie, when asked to help describe the recordings she makes with her sister Bianca. “Putting what we do into different categories is challenging for us because we honestly don’t think that way. When we’re making music we’re very, very free and when we’re recording, our goal is to capture a living moment. And a lot of times that means just being surprised and following, like, a very mysterious note or a mysterious ghost out into the garden and just, like, actually recording some field sounds and taking that back into our little old studio and recording some vocal improvisation tracks.

Appearing: 5/12 at Metro (3730 N. Clark) in Chicago.

• Read more: CocoRosie interview

Jon Rauhouse
Stents And Sensibility

Similar to a scene in a movie where the young ingénue approaches the aging rock star seeking an autograph for an older relative, folks come up to Jon Rauhouse all the time. “Everybody tells me their mom loves my record or their grandma loves my record or they clean their house to my record,” Rauhouse says over the phone from his home in Phoenix. But the longtime banjo and pedal steel guitar player takes it all in stride. “Music does different things for everybody. I just love playing . . . I’m getting to do something that I never thought I’d get to do at this age,” he says.

• Read more: Jon Rauhouse interview

Static-X
Nu World Order

The voice on the phone reminisces about living in Chicago, partying at Medusa’s, befriending the keyboardist of Ministry, and selling 1 million copies of an industrial-influenced metal album released in the 1990s. But it’s not Al Jourgensen talking. It’s Wayne Static, the frontman of Static-X.

Appearing: May 23rd at House Of Blues in Chicago.

• Read more: Static-X Interview

Superchrist
To Hell And Black

Chris Black sits at a table in a Lakeview bar, slowly stubs out the orange glow of a Marlboro Red, takes a drink of beer, and prepares to tell the story behind his band Superchrist’s new record. It might not be as dramatic a tale as Smile or Chinese Democracy, but the album Headbanger was a pain-in-the-ass nonetheless and a process the frontman/bassist is glad to have finished.

• Read more: Superchrist interview

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists
Pound The Pavement

Considering Ted Leo And The Pharmacists toured at least four, maybe five times (the frontman can’t exactly remember) behind 2004’s Shake The Sheets (Lookout!), the guys are understandably exhausted. And that’s not to mention the outings behind three prior records, or Leo’s time in the East Coast post hardcore scene (circa late 1980s into the ’90s) with Citizen’s Arrest, Animal Crackers, and Chisel. But rather than popping pills to keep the wheels of alternative intensity turning, Leo and company turned to a rich list of rock ‘n’ roll luminaries for inspiration and realized they’re a hell of a lucky bunch to do what they love for a living.

Appearing: 4/28 at Metro (3730 N. Clark) in Chicago.

• Read more: Ted Leo Interview

Selling Out Drama

DJ Drama busted, Eric Clapton brings his friends to Chicago, Paul McCartney likes his music like his coffee, and the suburbs battle the nightclubs.

• Read more: File: April 2007

Casino Royale
Rocky Balboa
MGM/Sony Pictures

When it was announced Pierce Brosnan would no longer be filling the tux of Bond, James Bond, the chatter among industry insiders and the blogosphere reached a kind of critical mass. Would it be Clive Owen? What about Colin Farrell? When little-known actor Daniel Craig was chosen, the response was swift and sure: Who’s this Craig? Why Craig? Ugh . . . Craig. He certainly can’t play Bond, he’s blonde for cryin’ out loud. What in the name of George Lazenby are they thinkin’?

• Read more: DVD Zone: April 2007

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Like most bands placed on the new-millennium wing of emocore — whipping-boy offspring of Rites Of Spring, then Sunny Day Real Estate, then The Get Up Kids — Fall Out Boy were given little recognition until they hit it big. IE featured them when their breakout album, From Under The Cork Tree, was released, but traces of the band from 2003’s Take This To Your Grave looking backwards in this magazine are faint.

• Read more: Fall Out Boy 2

“According to most people’s thinking, a guy that sits on a big bucket lookin’ north, wearing a cap with the bib of the cap turned east, and he’s got a jug of corn whiskey on his left side on the ground and his pants are torn on the south side of it, and he has a cigarette hanging on his lip that’s west. He’s got to be drunk, or half drunk . . . that’s supposed to be the way a blues singer is . . . but that’s not true. It’s a myth. We’re people just like everybody else.” – B.B. King, from the Chicago Blues Reunion: Buried Alive In The Blues documentary.

• Read more: An Evening With Jimmy Burns

Saying analog recording is becoming a lost art is no longer even a debatable subject. Heck, just a few years ago it seemed the technique was on the verge of extinction when Quantegy Inc., the last company to manufacture reel-to-reel tape, abruptly shut its factory doors and filed for bankruptcy, putting studios in a tizzy and scrambling to snatch whatever tape they could.

• Read more: Committed To Tape

It’s a lesson in taking the high road and not bashing your ex in public. Make that ex-boss.

• Read more: In Through The Out Door

In honor of International Guitar Month, “Gear” takes a look at some of the newest guitar pedals hitting the market in 2007.

• Read more: Got Pedal?

If you think flamenco music means a lace mantilla, castanets, and responsive guitar licks, then Ojos De Brujo (Wizard Eyes) have got something for you. In Spain, flamenco isn’t just music but a culture, and the ramshackle, 10-member ODB collective represent the evolving nature of that culture and serve up a hypnotic fusion that demands the world listen. Forget the Gipsy Kings; if you haven’t heard Ojos De Brujo then you haven’t heard contemporary flamenco.

• Read more: Flamenco Fusion