Archive for November, 2011
Not your problem
Few people these days can boast of a unique kink — that moment when only you know the joke, and can savor it by repeating the words to clueless friends and colleagues. That’s what we get from Stew & The Negro Problem, the Warm, Safe & Sound benefit, Crystal Stilts, and The Knux.
To be Loveless
“I talk so much shit I forget who I’m talking to,” Lydia Loveless spits out in the defiant “Can’t Change Me.” She’s pugnacious all right — through just about every track on her Bloodshot Records bow Indestructible Machine.
Cyber Monday!
Logically, if you’re surreptitiously stealing time from your employer to scout online deals, you’re probably not wasting a minute on a music site. But if you were . . .
Epstein who?
Your pre- and post-turkey billet includes a former Chicago Cubs general manager — not to mention City And Colour, Tinariwen, a Henhouse Prowlers benefit, Atlas Moth, Yukon Blonde, Corey Taylor, and Waters.
The pre-turkey comedown
Thanksgiving eve is annually as wet as Mardi Gras — musically, it’s also drier than a microwaved turkey dinner. This weekend is your last chance before Midwestern winter sucks your music choices away. Witness Hey Rosetta, Yellow Ostrich, Girl In A Coma, Thinker Thought’s 10th anniversary, and XD Records’ first-annual showcase.
Puscifer live!
In spring 2010, serial frontman Maynard James Keenan brought his Puscifer act to The Vic for a three-night stand. The run of shows saw the act deliver a highly theatrical series of concept performances, including one night’s hillbilly-centric event, wherein Keenan played the part of country-fried frontman Billy D.
Patrick Stump live!
By now, much has been said about the funky and soulful direction of former Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump‘s solo career. Though a departure from the power-punk of the artist’s full band catalog, the recently released Soul Punk (Island) full length strongly plays to Stump’s adventurous pop sensibilities– sensibilities the artist had on display […]
Best of both worlds
A critic’s darling and commercial juggernaut. Classic and forward-thinking. A virgin and a whore. We crave these combinations; The Barr Brothers and Garland Jeffreys try to provide them.
Paul Simon live!
Tipping the scales of 70 seems to have lit a spark in Paul Simon, not necessarily enhancing his laid-back personality, but giving him renewed creative vigor. The recent studio set So Beautiful Or So What (Hear Music/Concord Music Group) is among his most magnetic since Graceland (though it favors folk over African arrangements), while his […]
Ray Davies live!
He may not tour very often, but thankfully Ray Davies’ music never goes out of style. Between an endless stream of classics he wrote and sang for The Kinks to the occasional solo chestnut, there’s plenty of material in his arsenal, which translated to no less than two-dozen tunes in front of a healthy crowd […]
Monday, Monday
Not much overlap in the competition for your dollaz on the 14th. You’re either gonna focus all your energy on breaking something (Wu Lyf), dancing with somebody who loves you (Body Language), or geeking the eff out (Emperor X).
Taylor day
Six years ago, Maria Taylor made a solo album. We’ll give you one guess which night the author of 11:11 plays Chicago. Also in town this weekend: John Scofield, Ron Pope, The Dirt Drifters, Nikki Lane, and Premonition13.
Smile! You’re in Chicago!
Though our review of The Beach Boys’ The Smile Sessions (Capitol) won’t appear ’til December, since we’ve been listening to it so much we thought we’d use it to filter our previews of Pat Jordache, Joe Lally, and Skrillex.
Managing expectations
Reversals of fortune work fine in books and movies, but in music — where the protagonists and narrators tend to be one in same with their authors — they’re not always so appreciated. In town next week, Rachael Yamagata, AA Bondy, and Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter know. White Denim might yet learn.
Chickenfoot Saturday!
Supergroup Chickenfoot is Sammy Hagar teamed with fellow Van Halen exile Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, and guitar god Joe Satriani, formed out of live jams at Hagar’s club, Cabo Wabo Cantina in Mexico.
Recent Comments