Archive for April, 2009

Something Old, Something New

Listening to Chicago Blues: A Living History (Raisin), a two-CD set that covers 1940 to the present and features an all-star band of blues traditionalists including Billy Boy Arnold, John Primer, Billy Branch, and Lurrie Bell, led me to think about Jimi Hendrix. A space-age bluesman, Hendrix took the genre in a new direction. He [...]

Local Studio Happenings

As of March 1st, BOTA STUDIO will no longer be operating at RECORDING ARTIST WORKSHOP in Lake In The Hills. Owner Don Byczynski will open a 2,000 square-foot complex in Grayslake on April 15th. The new BOTA includes a 21×15×12 A Room, 18×15×12 live room, and 13×11 B Room, both connected to five isolation booths. [...]

Clearing The Static

You have to feel for The Haunted. The band had a kick-ass North American tour set to kick off this month before, well, shit happened . . . big time.
That kick-ass package became significantly less so March 2nd when both Kylesa and Intronaut announced their intentions to join Mastodon’s spring tour (April 30th [...]

Is Journalism Dead?

In 1991, I met writers Michael Miner and John Conroy after they gave a presentation on independent journalism at an adult-education seminar.
In those pre-Internet days, The Reader was the thick, independent weekly everyone picked up on Thursday afternoon, so they could plan their weekend. Miner wrote its popular “Hot Type” media column, and Conroy was [...]

The Right 1?

Martin
1 Series

Due to a slowing economy, C.F. Martin & Co. is bringing back its acclaimed 1 Series of acoustic guitars.

Local Record Reviews

Conveniens is a drum-and-keyboard duo that worked in the 1980s and is currently reissuing its catalog. Clear was its third and final album and is filled with Conveniens’ trademark new age/space/jazz vibe. Funny thing is, the stranger the group gets, the more interesting it is. This is not pop music by any means, but is [...]

Around Hear Pg. 2

Frontman Dewey Dunlap has that perfect, smoky, lazy voice for The Dunlaps‘ dusty alt-country, and he lays down some nifty licks on songs like “Get Quicker,” but is there room in Chicago for more insurgent country? Of course. On its debut, Here Come The Dunlaps . . . , the group gets bogged down in [...]