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Spins: Tom Petty • Wildflowers One-Step LP
Tom Petty Wildflowers One-Step LP (Because Sound Matters/Warner Bros.) This review focuses on the quality of a new prestige-format vinyl pressing of Wildflowers. For this writer’s retrospective assessment of the songs on the album, search illinoisentertainer.com for the feature-length November 1, 2020, review of Wildflowers & All the Rest. Wildflowers is a special album in […]
Spins: The Rolling Stones • Black and Blue Super Deluxe LP box
The Rolling Stones Black and Blue Super Deluxe LP box (Interscope/UMe) Featuring Billboard Hot 100 #10 ballad “Fool to Cry,” 1976 album Black and Blue found the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band continuing a transition away from its reliable foundation of blues and roots rock that it undertook with 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘n’ […]
Photo Gallery: MGK with Julia Wolf at Allstate Arena • Rosemont
MGK (Machine Gun Kelly)/Julia Wolf December 4, 2025 Allstate Arena Rosemont, IL Photos by Edward Spinelli Rapper/songwriter/producer MGK (formerly Machine Gun Kelly) powered through a packed two-hour set featuring 35 songs and an array of pyrotechnics at Allstate Arena. Surprise guest Halsey joined MGK for two songs, and Julia Wolf joined him later to assist […]
Spins: Carl Perkins • Dance Album of Carl Perkins LP reissue
Carl Perkins Dance Album of Carl Perkins LP reissue (Intervention) All one has to do is utter the words “one for the money,” and practically any fan of pop music history can fill in the rest. This collection of genre-defining rockabilly and formative rock ‘n’ roll classics was first released in 1958 and is […]
Spins: Foghat • Fool for the City Expanded 50th anniversary – 2xLP
Foghat Fool for the City expanded 50th anniversary 2xLP (Bearsville/Rhino) With an evolving lineup around founding drummer Roger Earl, English rock band Foghat has endured for more than 50 years. The group still stretches its creative muscles, and the band’s audience helped Foghat earn a #1 album on the Blues chart with Sonic Mojo in 2023. The […]
Spins: Ronnie Wood • Fearless: Anthology 1965-2005
Ronnie Wood Fearless: Anthology 1965-2005 2xLP (BMG) There’s so much more to Ronnie Wood than his status as “the new guy” after his 50-year (and counting) tenure as a principal member of the Rolling Stones. This mostly-chronological 20-song anthology spans the years 1965 to the present. It helps tell Woods’ broader story as a solo […]
CinemaScopes: Peter Gabriel • Taking the Pulse
Peter Gabriel Taking the Pulse Blu-ray (Mercury Studios) This film documents a portion of one night from Peter Gabriel’s ambitious 2010 tour in support of his New Blood album. Although Gabriel isn’t touring new material here, he performs many of his most popular songs in new orchestral surroundings. Rather than the typical “rock band with […]
Spins • Yusuf/Cat Stevens On the Road to Findout: Greatest Hits
Yusuf/Cat Stevens On the Road to Findout: Greatest Hits (Island/Cat-O-Log) This 24-song 2xLP set introduces newcomers to the songcraft of Yusuf/Cat Stevens through an arc of recorded work spanning 56 years. The collection serves as musical accompaniment to the recent memoir Cat: On the Road to Findout, which serves as a firsthand account of the […]
CinemaScopes: David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus
David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus Blu-ray (Sony) In Fall 2024, David Gilmour undertook a tour of residencies in just four cities around the world to introduce new music from his solo album, Luck and Strange. For the majority of Pink Floyd and Gilmour fans who could not attend the well-reviewed concerts, this set will […]
Feature: FYC at 40 – Roland Gift’s Holiday Look Back…
For most revelers, the Holiday Season automatically triggers warm, comforting feelings, filled with sensory delights like the fragrance of pine trees, the taste of cocoa, eggnog, or mulled wine, or the orange glow of a winter hearthside fire. But Roland Gift is not so easily moved by surface aesthetics. At 64, the former Fine Young […]
Rock of Pages: Gift Guide 2025 • Tom Petty: The Life & Music • Bruce Springsteen & Born to Run: 50 Years
Tom Petty: The Life & Music by Gillian Gaar Bruce Springsteen & Born to Run: 50 Years by Sean Egan (Quarto) Finding the perfect gift to impress and delight the obsessive music fans in your life can be tricky. Chances are that these folks already have every album or single released by their favorite artists. […]
Feature: Limahl • So This is Christmas
For many, one of the main comforts of Christmas is tradition, reliable rites, rituals, and touchstones that kick in annually and give form and function to said season. There’s a tangible hearthside warmth to it all — you just instinctually know that it’s upon us once again, as you buy your tree, spice up the […]
Cover Story: Cheap Trick • Won’t Slow Down
It’s not a cautionary tale exactly, nor is it an Abandon-All-Hope-Ye-Who-Enter-Here warning. But for any bright-eyed, optimistic young artists out there currently considering a career in music, Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson has a few wise words to offer that might, at the very least, give you pause. Or, at worst, stagger you as senseless […]
Media: December 2025 • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Pop-up Exhibit
Many of us worried it might never return after shuttering its previous location, but in October, the Museum of Broadcast Communications made a triumphant comeback in a new location, with an assortment of new exhibits. The date wasn’t chosen randomly. It was the 100th anniversary of Johnny Carson’s birth, and Johnny Carson is the big […]
Live Review & Photo Gallery: Paul McCartney at United Center • Chicago
Paul McCartney United Center Chicago, IL November 25, 2025 Review by Jeff Elbel. Photos by Ed Spinelli. Can it really have been eight years since the last time Sir Paul McCartney performed in Chicago? The still-fab former Beatle was a relatively regular presence during the 2010s in the town he first visited with his old […]
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