Cover Story
Cover Story: Elbow ⢠Love & Friendship
In Almost Famous, Cameron Croweâs semi-autobiographical film covering his early mid-â70s music-scribe years, Philip Seymour Hoffman â channeling legendary rock critic Lester Bangs â has some sage advice for Patrick Fugitâs earnest teen hopeful William Miller. In the cold, cutthroat new world heâs entering of publicists, exotic junkets, free booze, and possibly drugs, itâs all […]
Cover Story: Ministry ⢠Age of Disinformation + March 14 Aragon Ballroom Photo Gallery
My apologies, Dear Readers. And Iâm not joking here. I really believed that â 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 â 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 doesnât shy away from talking about heavy topics like loss, addiction, and depression. But even when theyâre 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 heâs 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 havenât 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 bandâs 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, itâs a mix of emotions. Thereâs 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
Chicagoâs 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 Chicagoâs beloved doom pioneers Trouble, which will be extra special as this will be the bandâs first hometown show in five years. âWe 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 youâre open to it, the Universe will reward you with small, subtle signs that everything â despite any outward appearances to the contrary âis 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 Babiesâs duo bombshell vocalistsâHeidi Shepherd and Carla Harveyâknow exactly what each other is thinking⌠and they canât 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 â who records and performs as simply Hozier â has been caught in the subtle currents of spiritual change since he turned 33 this March. Itâs 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 â without even touching on his four-decade, genre-jumping musical careerâ he has a true wealth of achievements to discuss, including his photography […]
Cover Story: Love and Rockets ⢠Reissues & Reunion
Not that a random Google quest can sum up the alpha/omega significance of any particular subject. But when you punch in âLove and Rockets, bandâ on the search engine, one of the Frequently Asked Questions it churns up is a deceptively simple âIs Love and Rockets Goth?â Itâs a conundrum that still confounds bandleader […]
Cover Story: Betty Who
As Australian-born pop composer Betty Who recalls it, the only things missing from her recent spine-tingling trip into the supernatural were Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and their trusty old VeeDubs Mystery Machine with which to beat a hasty retreat. Because Zoinks! The three specters she encountered were all too real and not engineered by some local huckster […]
Cover Story: The Church
Sometimes, great art can become something like a snowball as it tumbles downhill after its initial creation, colliding with â then absorbing â many other diverse mediums, expressions, and even creators themselves as it goes. Take, for example, Australian author Jane Harperâs riveting mystery novel from 2016, The Dry. It lures you in from the […]
Cover Story: Elle King
If youâre craving some homespun wisdom in these complicated, hi-tech times, you need look no further than old episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies, a popular CBS TV series that ran from 1962 to 1971 (and 1993 film) and applied old-saw simplicity to complicated modern society. For any Gen X-, Y- or Z-er who might have […]
Recent Comments