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American band
As the election cycle amps up, we’re in line for some more hopelessly partisan bickering, a lot of which will shamelessly exploit the 9/11 anniversary. There are ways to get around the politics of it all — this weekend has Grand Funk Railroad at the Honor Flight fundraiser in Woodstock.
The little continent that could
With colorful exports such as Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, and Cut Copy, it’s easy to forget the gritty side of Australia. Paul Kelly arrives in town next week, as do non-compatriots John Hiatt, The Jim Jones Revue, Adam Levy, Painted Palms, and The Dirt Daubers.
Blondie live!
Unlike several veteran bands that cling to a repertoire of old hits, Blondie entertained a capacity crowd at House Of Blues Wednesday night with several tracks from its latest release, Panic Of Girls.
Pearl Jam 20 review!
As career choices go, rock ‘n’ roll isn’t exactly the most reliable path. Failure is the rule not the exception. So any time a band reaches any sort of recognizable milestone, it’s usually cause for celebration. When that benchmark is two decades, well, a simple Hallmark card isn’t going to do it.
Guster and Jack’s Mannequin live!
Between the constant rain, empty spots in the pavilion and lawn, and complete mid-set power outage, Chicagoland’s famed outdoor venue Ravinia wasn’t real kind to Guster and Jack’s Mannequin on Saturday night, as both bands played their debut show there. Fortunately, neither group let those challenges affect their sets.
Fruits of Labor
Labor Day traditionally represents the spiritual end of summer — oh yes, it has spirit, how ’bout you? — but don’t tell ANR, Fruit Bats, Male Bonding, Robert Earl Keen, or Motopony, all in town this week.
RIP Honeyboy Edwards
Bluesman David “Honeyboy” Edwards died last Monday aged 96, a dyed-in-the-wool Delta bluesman whose final decade would be his most prolific.
Cover Story: Tom Morello
International Man Of Solidarity Tom Morello is not getting Audioslave back together. We want to get that out of the way first, because just about every other project you could associate him with is live.
Interview: Erasure
Tomorrowland One of the synth-pop era’s most innovative, infectious, and flamboyant acts, Erasure has spanned two-and-a-half decades with constant rotation in the clubs, with the occasional, percolating radio smash.
Interview: The Horrors
Cat’s In The Cradle Horrors frontman Faris Badwan is eager to discuss Skying, his quintet’s sonically adventurous new third album – a record that’s just landed him squarely in the Top Five on the U.K. charts.
Backstage@Lollapalooza
Catching up with artists playing Lollapalooza was tougher than we thought. Even with some acts stuck in town after their sets in order to play afterparties, we came up against a wishlist of musicians with schedules more hardwired than the festival’s own rigid set times.
Around Hear: September 2011
Local Band Reviews Music-wise, Clara May‘s debut CD, Hush, is a bit all over the place – which is perhaps a reflection of its chief singer/songwriters being first and foremost a filmmaker/corporate executive/grad student and religious/equal-rights activist/author, respectively.
Caught In A Mosh: September 2011
Nouveau Sheet Music Remember last month when I conducted an interview with myself? Pretty awesome, yeah? To defend myself against accusations of narcissism, though, my reasoning for that column needs clarification: The originally planned feature with Swedish band Ghost never materialized.
Hello, My Name Is Susan
Q&A with Human League’s Susan Ann Sulley IE: What’s been going on during the decade between Human League albums? Susan Ann Sulley: The last album, Secrets, didn’t do so well because the record company [Papillon] went bankrupt when it came out, and we had to pick ourselves up from that.
File: September 2011
Festival Tragedies The way they’re marketed – like vacations – it’s easy to forget that music festivals are as prone to fate’s whim as anything. While flash-mob gate-crashing at Lollapalooza didn’t become a national epidemic like the England riots, Cheap Trick‘s experience at the Ottawa (Canada) Bluesfest in July shockingly repeated itself twice more in […]
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