Recent Articles
Boris reviewed
Boris With Michio Kurihara Rainbow (Drag City) Low-end, Japanese noise terrorists call in a reinforcement for psychedelic doodling. Appearing: October 30th at Empty Bottle in Chicago.
Wall To Wall Guitar Festival live review
Wall To Wall Guitar Festival, Take Two Krannert Center, Urbana September 13 – 15, 2007 When curator and artistic director David Spelman brought the first Wall To Wall Guitar Festival to Champaign-Urbana’s Krannert Center For The Performing Arts in 2005, it presented the guitar as an object worthy of Serious Study. Through 30 artists and […]
Rilo Kiley, Johnathan Rice live!
Rilo Kiley, Johnathan Rice Riviera, Chicago Saturday, September 15, 2007 Stationed in front of a gold lamé curtain Saturday night at the Riviera, Rilo Kiley proved they’ve officially gone Hollywood. Then again, the quartet (now aided by two backup singers/instrumentalists) have always had ties to Tinsletown. Guitarist Blake Sennett and lead vocalist Jenny Lewis’ former […]
Okkervil River live!
Okkervil River Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Okkervil River are a sloppy band — it’s largely what makes them so effective. Frontman Will Sheff sings as if he has no control over his voice while the rest of the Austin band claw at their folk rock with more crazy, less horse.
Sonata Arctica preview
Sonata Arctica Metro, Chicago Friday, September 21, 2007 Some time ago, the editorial staff at Illinois Entertainer received a few scathing, handwritten letters scolding our coverage choices. It seems this fellow, who didn’t bother backing his criticism with a name, felt CD reviews by acts like “Scoop The Poop Dogg” were pointless when you could […]
Bonde Do Rolê preview
Bonde Do Rolê Empty Bottle, Chicago Friday, September 21, 2007 Does anyone know how to say “sexcore” in Portuguese?
Iron And Wine preview
Iron And Wine Metro, Chicago Sunday, September 23, 2007 Ssshhhhhh . . . Iron And Wine is trying to be louder.
The Brunettes preview
The Brunettes Schubas, Chicago Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Hobbits aren’t the only thing to come out of New Zealand since the start of the new millennium. Enter The Brunettes. This perky, mousy-colored-hair duo made a ruckus on the other side of the globe with two full-length releases, Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks and Mars Loves Venus, […]
Merle Haggard reviewed
Merle Haggard The Bluegrass Sessions (McCoury) Back-to-basics country music has been ubiquitous ever since Rick Rubin convinced Johnny Cash to have a seat. Merle Haggard, who has been releasing albums this year like the format’s going out of style (which it is), is going so far back he has come upon something he has never […]
Federico Aubele reviewed
Federico Aubele Panamericana (Eighteenth Street Lounge) Federico Aubele and Che Guevara seem unlikely bedfellows. Aubele surely had the Argentine revolutionary’s Motorcycle Diaries in mind when he envisioned this album traversing the Americas, but the two trips (Guevara’s actual, Aubele’s figurative) couldn’t be more different. Appearing: November 10th at Schubas in Chicago.
Rush live!
Rush First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre, Tinley Park Saturday, September 8, 2007 Some people call Rush dinosaurs. After all, the three bandmates have been around for more than 30 years churning out the same quality pseudo prog-rock that fans know and love. Judging from the myriad plastic dinosaurs adorning guitarist Alex Lifeson’s amp rig, Rush knows […]
Editors live!
Editors Park West, Chicago Tuesday, September 11, 2007 The sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and English post punk quartet Editors have little in common other than the band’s scheduled performance Tuesday night at Park West. The band weren’t even a twinkle in NME’s eye in 2001 and deal almost exclusively in personal politics.
Hideout Block Party review
Hideout Block Party The Hideout, Chicago September 7 & 8, 2007 After last year’s ridiculously perfect pairing of Touch And Go’s eclectic roster of artists and Chicago’s most delicious “dump” (as Frames frontman Glen Hansard eloquently put it Saturday night), the 2007 edition of the annual Hideout Block Party had big shoes to fill.
VHS Or Beta, Walter Meego live!
VHS Or Beta, Walter Meego Subterranean, Chicago Tuesday, September 4, 2007 There are certain shows where it’s obvious why one act is performing as the opener. There’s an apparent schism between skill level, stage presence, and/or notoriety, to name a few differentiating factors. And then there are shows where two or more acts share a […]
Aesop Rock preview
Aesop Rock Metro, Chicago Thursday, September 13, 2007 A decade in the can, Aesop Rock is still one of the biggest fish in indie rap. Back when he started, the failure to gain at least a modicum of mainstream attention would have signalled failure; nowadays people are ready to hand him a gold watch.
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