Recent Articles
Dead To Fall CD Review
Dead To Fall The Phoenix Throne (Victory) Metalcore is dying. Or should we say it’s dead? Frankly, we’re surprised it lasted this long, and on their third Victory release, Chicagoans Dead To Fall try to avoid being part of the funeral.
The Five Mod Four CD Review
The Five Mod Four Whiskers (Contraphonic) Milwaukee’s resident wiseacres have some hometown Violent Femmes, but Whiskers picks up more on lo-fi, via Jason Loewenstein and The dB’s.
The Essex Green CD Review
The Essex Green Cannibal Sea (Merge) On Essex Green’s second album for Merge, third overall, they finally break rank with Elephant 6 psychedelia and foray into the testosterony Spector-pop world Belle & Sebastian currently inhabit.
Azita CD Review
Azita Detail From The Mountain Side (Drag City) This ultra-quick EP is a companion to Chicago playwright Brian Torrey Scott’s musical of the same name.
Geoff Farina CD Review
Geoff Farina Already Told You (Southern) No longer practicing Karate, Geoff Farina takes time away from his bazillion other obligations for this lonesome EP.
Back In Black
Gus Black Autumn Days (Cheap Lullaby) On his second solo album, melancholy Brit Gus Black makes a Beck album.
If Hope Dies CD Review
If Hope Dies Life In Ruin (Metalblade/Ironclad) Combining metal and hardcore? Shit. Why didn’t someone else think of this?
Magneta Lane CD Review
Magneta Lane Dancing With Daggers (Paper Bag) “The female Strokes.” Gawd, that sounds awful, doesn’t it? With truth dripping from the likes of Sleater-Kinney, who needs a salty box of caged rage?
State Radio CD Review
State Radio Us Against The Crown (Nettwerk) State Radio’s Chad Stokes grew up in a seemingly carefree manner. Coddled by musical parents in Massachusetts, he was allowed to travel to and live in Zimbabwe after high school and then went to college in Vermont. So, of course, he makes protest music now.
Crystal Skulls CD Review
Crystal Skulls Outgoing Behavior (Suicide Squeeze) We can blame MTV all we want for instant gratification, quick cuts, and making “artists” give us what we pay for, but it’s worked out pretty well for the consumer. Crystal Skulls aren’t handing out anything, however.
Neko Case live!
Neko Case Vic Theatre, Chicago Friday, March 31, 2006 While the debate rages whether Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is a darker affair than 2002’s Blacklisted, Neko Case used Friday’s gig at The Vic to bring considerable levity to her material. Casting the cloak of reverential austerity aside, Case led a five-piece band through a […]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah live!
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Metro, Chicago Monday, April 3, 2006 To say it has been a busy year for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would be quite the understatement. An Internet phenomenon and a word-of-mouth success story, the Brooklyn quintet’s self-titled, self-released debut (unleashed in 2005) has not so quietly sold in the neighborhood […]
Beth Orton live!
Beth Orton Vic Theatre, Chicago Monday, April 3, 2006 Like she told us in our April feature, Beth Orton has been revitalized by her latest album, Comfort Of Strangers. While it did yield her best album since her debut, it also skewed her vision at the Vic on Monday and presumably on this tour. Somehow […]
Art Brut live!
Art Brut Metro, Chicago Thursday, March 30, 2006 Rock ‘N’ Roll has always been fueled by excessive ego and/or id. Oasis is the greatest band ever; just ask them. The Hives once told a capacity crowd at Metro, “Thank you Chicago! You’ve been great. And so were we.†So it was a bit odd that […]
Dresden Dolls preview
The Dresden Dolls Metro, Chicago Friday, April 7, 2006 And you thought Nickelback was out of place on Roadrunner Records? On a label known for ultra-heavy bands like Slipknot, Sepultura, and Type O Negative, Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione, the two musicians who make up The Dresden Dolls, don’t fit in. Then again, we don’t […]
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