Illinois Entertainer

Ministry
Jour Gonna Miss Me

On a sultry August 18th, 1995, Chicagoans and pilgrims stuffed the Riviera Theatre for a last chance to catch the Ramones live. Opening act Gren, a grunge-era also-ran, had the word “ignored” redefined for them while all anyone wanted to hear was that iconic “One! Two! Three! Four!” 30 more times. As victory lap/farewell tours went, the Ramones were able to close on a giddy high. Finality never felt so good – so they did it again.

Appearing: May 8th through 11th at House Of Blues in Chicago.

• Read more: Cover Story: Ministry’s Farewell

Counting Crows
Two Days A Week

“As far as I can tell — and I can’t guarantee this — I am real. It has often seemed to me like this was all a part of my imagination. Which is largely the problem. The fact that my life has seemed like a figment of my imagination to me is largely the problem in my life.”

Appearing: August 22nd at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

• Read more: Counting Crows interview

Panic At The Disco
No Exclamation Reqired

For the particularly ghoulish among you, the British video is still floating around on You Tube, as creepy as it was when it was first filmed in the summer of ‘06. It’s a particularly chilling clip from that year’s Reading Festival, showing ebony-garbed, eyelinered Panic At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie strutting onstage, launching into a droning emocore song alongside guitarist Ryan Ross, and . . . promptly getting beaned with a full beer bottle thrown from a decidedly anti-emo segment of the audience. We’re talking unconscious. Out. Cold. It wasn’t quite the warm U.K. welcome the then-teenage members were expecting. And it could’ve easily killed poor Urie, who was hastily dragged offstage to recover.

Appearing: May 23rd & 24th at Congress Theatre in Chicago.

• Read more: Panic At The Disco interview

Dimmu Borgir
Lords Of Commercial Chaos

For their first band photos in 1993, Dimmu Borgir wore foot-long spikes on their arms and posed with medieval swords and homemade clubs at night in the woods near Oslo, Norway. In the tradition of one-time Mayhem vocalist Dead, who committed suicide two years earlier, they smeared their faces with shock-white greasepaint, bubonic-black eyeliner, and inky, exaggerated frowns.

Appearing: Sunday, May 4th at House Of Blues in Chicago.

• Read more: Dimmu Borgir interview

Hot Chip
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Foppery

In a reserved, studious manner, Alexis Taylor most resembles Napoleon Dynamite’s Internet-dating lothario Kip, sans moustache. Diminutive and soft-spoken, it’s slightly hard to believe in a mere five hours — seersucker clad — he will muster the exuberance to perform in front of a sold-out, undulating sea of bodies. One on one, Hot Chip’s lyricist exudes a down-to-earth mentality erupting in spontaneous likability that seems to transfer quite well to the stage.

• Read more: Hot Chip interview

Q&A With Dennis DeYoung

IE: What have you been up to since appearing on these very pages two years ago?

Dennis DeYoung: I’ve been on the road, including some extensive touring in Canada, and I saw the double disc [The Music of Styx: Live With Symphony Orchestra] go platinum and the DVD triple platinum in Canada, which is miraculous, especially at my age! After the success of those projects, I made my first solo rock album since 1988 called One Hundred Years From Now and had [the title track, a English/French duet with Eric Lapointe] as a number one single simultaneously on [Canada’s] pop, AC and rock charts.

• Read more: Hello, My Name Is Dennis

Nacht Nacht — Who’s There

Shoot, we’ve already got a Dimmu Borgir feature in this issue, might as well keep the black metal ball rolling with some Nachtmystium news. Actually, the Chicagoans don’t want to be coined “black metal” anymore, but we’re doing it anyway, otherwise it screws up the whole intro.

• Read more: File: May 2008

Juno
Fox Home Video

Time was when an independent film simply meant a film released outside the studio system by an independent production company. However, once the Sundance festival became as much of a corporate-sponsored entity as any other film festival in the world, a vast majority of independent films have tried to one-up each other on the hipness scale.

• Read more: DVD Zone: May 2008

“Around Hear” is a monthly feature where a stable of IE writers review albums sent to us by local musicians. If you are interested in having your CD (must have a minimum of three songs) reviewed and are Illinois-based, mail it and any other media materials to 657 A W. Lake St., Chicago IL, 60661. Everything that meets the aforementioned guidelines will be reviewed in the order received. This may take several months.

There’s simply no neat way to summarize what Algernon sounds like on Familiar Espionage, though the instrumental troupe drops hints of indie rock (”Eraserhead”), jazz (”Transmission Received”), and classical chamber music (”Mission Protocol”). The highly unusual but surprisingly well-blended mix falls somewhere between the ongoing hipster appeal of Tortoise and the random but deft ramblings of Brand X (Phil Collins’ overlooked ’70s experimental jazz act). (www.myspace.com/algernonmusic)
– Andy Argyrakis

• Read more: Local CD Reviews

Plenty of people dislike Dave Mustaine (read the Al Jourgensen cover story for one), but you have to give the Megadeth frontman credit for Gigantour.

Its virgin run in 2005 wasn’t all that impressive because a lineup clogged up by Bobaflex, Dry Kill Logic, Symphony X, and Life Of Agony wasn’t a convincing reason to part ways with $40. Lamb Of God and Opeth as main supports on the following year’s package were huge improvements over Dream Theater and Fear Factory, but the problem was still getting through all the mediocre (or worse) acts before the big guns – the roster was wildly inconsistent.

• Read more: Third Time’s A Charm

Solid Cables
Dynamic Arc Ultra

Looking for a guitar cable that doesn’t fall apart after a few months? Solid Cables say they have an answer. They bill their Dynamic Arc Ultra as the world’s toughest guitar cord, designed to be “extremely rugged, gig friendly, abuse proof” and offer “exceptional tone.” Solid Cables also say the Ultra can pull an object weighing up to 10,000 pounds without breaking!

• Read more: Solid Like A . . . Cable

“There’s been a lot of agitation on the part of the electronic media and regular press to open up the courtrooms,” says courtroom artist Andy Austin, author of the new book Rule 53: Capturing Hippies, Spies, Politicians, And Murders In An American Courtroom (Lake Claremont, $19.95). Rule 53 is a Federal Rule Of Criminal Procedure, which prohibits cameras and recording devices in the courtroom, in turn ensuring artists like Austin have a job.

• Read more: Andy Austin, Courtroom Artist

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“It was really important to us that we didn’t go out just Bush-bashing. So we started jamming with a bunch of different people who live around us [in Texas]: Burton [C. Bell] from Fear Factory, Wayne [Static] from Static-X. Just had a bunch of people dropping in and out. It wasn’t like we sat down and did an album; this was going on over a period of a couple years. Finally we had enough covers so I said, ‘You know what? We’re a pretty good fuckin’ rock band. I would like for people to remember us like that instead of just Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush Bush — grumbling malcontents. This is a pretty kick-ass rock album.’ So we wanted to go out with a party album instead of fist-shaking. I’m glad we did that.”

• Read more: Ministry continued

home last

One super-conscious model that remains in place is how Jourgensen’s career will play out over the next three years.

• Read more: Ministry end

When pressed to point out places on the map known for contributing recognized, high-end recording studios, Orland Park probably fails to make the short list. Yet, tucked within the vast span of suburbia, complete with Bar Louie chains and Borders and Barnes & Noble vying with each other for the same pool of book browsing, latte-deprived customers, is Passionworks Studio.

• Read more: Day At The Park