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One week to go!
Everyday Is Halloween dusts the weekend off its shoulders and returns for the 24th. We’ve only got a week left of these babies!
Every Song Is Halloween
Any chumballone can throw on a Slayer record to soundtrack his Halloween party. Sometimes your guests call for something far more eclectic. Like Mercyful Fate. Just kidding. Terrence Flamm cooked up his ideal mix.
Your Friday Halloween three-fer
With only 10 days left in our Halloween sales event, we’re giving away three entries at a time. This weekend only!
New York is for losers
The CMJ Music Marathon runs this weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It’s more dignified than South By Southwest, but still an unforgiving task to distinguish a cadre of hipster acts who all sound the same. Chicago? We have Amon Tobin, The Bo-Keys, The Sounds, Phantogram, Juicehead, The Misfits, Exitmusic, and a benefit at Unity Church.
Alien lanes
Digging up the past never seems to go well in life, but in music it’s lucrative. Mostly. Some artists manage to get snagged on invisible tastemaker defenses that arbitrary decide who get plaudits, and who don’t. This weekend stars Cymbals Eat Guitars, Vagabond Opera, Big Tree, and Cory Hart.
Nocturna: transmissions
In our October 18th edition of Everyday Is Halloween, we turn to one of the longest running spooky music traditions in Chicago — year ’round.
More Halloween than a Halloween
No one has embraced Halloween and horror’s cliches like this man, yet turned them into something so idiosyncratic and identifiable.
Portishead live!
Portishead‘s first Chicago show in well over a decade was often magnetic without an excess of on-stage motion. This British group, which stood at the forefront of the trip-hop/down-tempo ascension in the early ’90s, played it cool and composed while revisiting its three-album catalog on October 12th.
Dierks Bentley live!
Dierks Bentley rolled into Chicago Sunday, led by Illinois State Troopers and followed by more than 300 bikers.
Bryan Ferry live!
As the singer of Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry’s already earned seminal status in the glam, art-rock and new-wave worlds, though he continues to make sophisticated strides in his solo career. Touring behind his first non-covers collection in eight years, Olympia (Virgin), marks a suave and soulful evolution for the veteran, who through two hours, spellbinded […]
Interview: Patrick Stump
Falling Far From The Tree Just because someone’s a Fall Out Boy fan doesn’t mean they’re going to like Soul Punk (Island), and the opposite might go for anyone who dismissed the band in the past. That’s because Patrick Stump had a completely blank canvas for the first time in his career, and allowed all […]
Interview: Butch Walker
Ghost Writer It should come as no surprise that Butch Walker loved Taylor Swift’s megahit, “You Belong With Me,” nor should it be surprising that, in a couple of hours, he recorded his own version of the song – one that did it huge heaping piles more justice. It might have been a little surprising […]
Interview: Dum Dum Girls
What Dreams Are Made Of It’s easy to laugh at Dee Dee Penny’s current predicament. “There’s a lot of construction outside my apartment,” she says over the phone. “I can’t hear a thing. It’s awful.”
Caught In A Mosh: October 2011
There’s an old saying that goes “It’s better to have an unpopular opinion that’s popular than vice versa.” Actually, that’s not a saying at all. I’m not even sure it makes sense. It’s either cosmic or idiotic. I made it up while listening to Grand Magus (Iron Will!), drinking coffee, and writing this column one […]
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