Cover Story
Cover Story: Plain White T’s: The Timing is Right
It’s 2024, and somehow, “Hey There Delilah” is making headlines. Again. The iconic Plain White T’s song went viral when Drake and parody rapper Snowd4y shared their version entitled “Wah Gawn Deliah.” So, what did Plain White T’s singer/songwriter Tom Higgenson think? He’s flattered but still questions if it’s real. Yet, he’s in awe […]
Cover Story: Kerry King • Solo Time
Five years since Slayer played what was to be the band’s final gig on November 30, 2019, on their Farewell Tour during a hometown show at the Forum in Los Angeles, guitarist Kerry King has resurfaced with the release of his first solo album, From Hell I Rise (via Reigning Phoenix Music). Recruiting former Slayer […]
IE REWIND: The Sisters of Mercy • The Proud Villains • Appearing at Aragon Ballroom October 23 • Chicago
Like many of us over the past three COVID-constricted years, I — as both a journalist and a human being, in general — spent a great deal of time looking back, reflecting on past decisions, discoveries, and early drug-related derailments, and not always comfortably. I’ve made a few mistakes over my crazy, always-colorful 46-year career, […]
Cover Story: Jamey Jasta on Milwaukee Metal Fest, Solo Music and The Future
By Kelley Simms One of the country’s most nostalgic metal festivals was resurrected in 2023 and will, thankfully, return for a second straight year. Initially founded in 1987 by Jack Koshick (also the founder of March Metal Meltdown), the Milwaukee Metal Fest has a storied history and was once an annual global metal music tradition […]
Cover Story: Elbow • Love & Friendship
In Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film covering his early mid-‘70s music-scribe years, Philip Seymour Hoffman — channeling legendary rock critic Lester Bangs — has some sage advice for Patrick Fugit’s earnest teen hopeful William Miller. In the cold, cutthroat new world he’s entering of publicists, exotic junkets, free booze, and possibly drugs, it’s all […]
Cover Story: Ministry • Age of Disinformation + March 14 Aragon Ballroom Photo Gallery
My apologies, Dear Readers. And I’m not joking here. I really believed that — after an adventurous, always enlightening, occasionally drug-blurred four-decade career in rock journalism that kicked off in the Midwest fresh out of high school back in halcyon 1977 — I had nothing left to offer, no moving words left to conjure, no […]
Cover Story: Alkaline Trio • Urgent Energy
Alkaline Trio is no stranger to the macabre. The Chicago punk outfit doesn’t shy away from talking about heavy topics like loss, addiction, and depression. But even when they’re talking about how everything sucks, they do it with a wink and nod. Their wry lyrical wit paired with punchy high energy music makes their […]
Cover Story: John 5 • Immersed In Music
When it comes to musical diversity and performing genre-hopping styles, guitarist John William Lowery (aka John 5) is one of the most prolific. Whether he’s creating rock, industrial metal, funk, EDM, progressive, or bluegrass compositions, the lethal six-string slinger is guaranteed to shred all over it. With a musical resume that includes such diverse artists […]
Cover Story: Trans-Siberian Orchestra • A Quarter Century of Christmas
If you still haven’t experienced the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual winter holiday show, you should seriously consider adding it to your bucket list. The TSO traveling holiday rock opera is a multimillion-dollar act that has grown exponentially since the band’s inception, making it one of the biggest-grossing concert bands in the US. In true holiday-giving […]
Cover Story: The Hives – The Best Part of the Day
When a band makes a grand return after a decades-long absence, it’s a mix of emotions. There’s equal parts dread and excitement, happy to return to adoring fans, yet anxious to see if anyone still cares, especially in the short attention span of the streaming age. But those pesky thoughts never seemed to bother The […]
Cover Story: Corrosion Of Conformity • Destination: Heavy Chicago
Chicago’s newest music venue, Avondale Music Hall, will be hosting its inaugural heavy metal festival Heavy Chicago over the course of two weekends. Headlining the festival on Saturday, October 28, is Chicago’s beloved doom pioneers Trouble, which will be extra special as this will be the band’s first hometown show in five years. “We are […]
Cover Story: Juliana Hatfield • Can’t Get it Out of My Head
It was a great lesson to learn during the pandemic: Sometimes, if you’re open to it, the Universe will reward you with small, subtle signs that everything — despite any outward appearances to the contrary —is alright with the world at that particular moment. Even something as insignificant as a digital clock can prove […]
Cover Story: Butcher Babies • Double Trouble
From just a quick glance at each other while on stage, Butcher Babies’s duo bombshell vocalists—Heidi Shepherd and Carla Harvey—know exactly what each other is thinking… and they can’t help but to crack up or give each other a sly smile. As best friends performing in a band, Shepherd and Harvey have been slugging it […]
Cover Story: Hozier • Beautiful Language
It might not have swept over him like some Hokusai-impressive wave. But Irish folk-rocker Andrew Hozier-Byrne — who records and performs as simply Hozier — has been caught in the subtle currents of spiritual change since he turned 33 this March. It’s the fabled Christ age, when your proper career trajectory is clearly revealed to […]
Cover Story: Moby • Liberating Me
If you had the luxury of compiling a wish list of gab-gifted guests for the Perfect Dinner Party, you could do a lot worse than inviting techno-jazz-pop-ambient-symphonic Renaissance man Moby. Personally — without even touching on his four-decade, genre-jumping musical career— he has a true wealth of achievements to discuss, including his photography […]
Recent Comments