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Interview: Freddie Gibbs
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere The indie rock scene fuck with me, man, cause I’m grinding like the same way they grind,” explains Gary, Indiana’s premier rhymeslinger, Freddie Gibbs (born Freddie Tipton). “I don’t think that my whole process has been that of a typical rapper.”
Interview : JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
It’s A Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance World He knows how it looks. JC Brooks can’t factor his age, background, and performance style and think there’s no one out there raising an eyebrow and spitting out a toothpick. He’s not quite the blackfacehedging outrage that Jon Spencer Blues Explosion could be, but this is Chicago.
Profile: Rainbow Foundation Music Inc.
With The Help Of My Friends For the past 20 years, the Rainbow Foundation Music Inc. has staged a series of benefit concerts, rock ‘n’ roll auctions, and toy drives to help Chicago-area children and families in crisis. Along the way, the organization has staged shows with a who’s-who of local and national classic rockers, […]
Caught In A Mosh: January 2011
Johnny, 5 Is Barely Alive What a strange year for picking a top-five list. This is the first time I’ve ever had so much trouble choosing my number one, for starters. Usually there is a hands-down favorite and the real fight is duked out for the fifth and final spot.
Chuck Berry’s aborted New Year’s show
Photographer Tim Hiatt was shooting Chuck Berry’s rare, local appearance on New Year’s Day, a gig that was cut short when the rock legend slumped over his keyboard and couldn’t continue. Click for photos.
Elvis Costello’s Coffee House Show
Chicago Theatre, Chicago Monday, December 20, 2010 You would have been forgiven, on a cold and snowy winter’s night, if you chucked your Elvis Costello tickets and just hunkered down in front of a crackling fire. Never mind the Bears were also playing, nothing else seemed to matter to the 3,500 who saw Costello at […]
Satch-a Claus is coming to town
Thanks to Trans-Siberian Orchestra, orchestral guitar rock has joined instrumental acoustic-guitar picking as a default holiday-music setting. (Along with rockabilly, oddly.)
Holly Days
Metro presents its annual “Home For The Holidays” concert series, which begins tonight and runs through the 30th. The idea is to draw separated college kids together over cheap — er, inexpensive — music and help some less-fortunate folks out, as well.
Plus or minus
The plus/minus stat remains unique to hockey, an exploitable but generally accepted measurement of a skater’s defensive worth. It’s an aggregate of the number of times a player is on the ice when his team scores either at even-strength or shorthanded, versus the amount his side concedes while at equal numbers or on the power […]
Usher & Trey Songz live!
Allstate Arena, Rosemont Friday, December 3, 2010 While Usher could’ve very easily ended up in the early-’00s R&B bargain bin, his career found an unexpected resurgence thanks to a pair of hot new projects (Raymond v. Raymond and follow-up EP Versus), plus an arena show that had no trouble selling out the Allstate Arena. But […]
‘Aftermath’ Recreates Vintage Rolling Stones
Satisfaction Guaranteed Aftermath, a dramatic play with live music that runs through January 23rd at Signal Ensemble Theatre on the North Side, takes audience members back to a critical point in the career of The Rolling Stones.
Cover Story: Umphrey’s McGee
The Taming Of The Stew This year won’t be the first time Umphrey’s McGee end a year playing sold-out shows in Chicago. In fact, it will be the fifth consecutive. The venues differ (Vic, Riviera, Auditorium, Aragon) yet each time that Jam Productions announces the on-sale, it’s a surprise. Like, “These guys are headlining the […]
Interview: The Bad Examples
Put The Kids To Bed This article is an accident. It was spawned by a chance encounter with the FitzGerald’s Web site, where the words “The Bad Examples (Record Release)” were spied on the December schedule. IE’s instinct was to sneer, “Hasn’t anyone in Berwyn ever heard of updating a Web site?” and navigate away.
Interview: The 1900s
The Dawn Of A Century Don’t call The 1900s deserters. The band might have wasted a bundle of positive media buzz and eager fans gained from its promising 2007 debut, Cold & Kind, on two years of near-seclusion (the group did grace a handful of Chicago summer festivals and lent its talents to a benefit […]
Interview: Lee DeWyze
Roughing It Long before he won “American Idol,” Lee DeWyze was slugging it out in Chicago with an eponymous band, having released a pair of albums on WuLi Records, drawing some WXRT airplay, and getting cameos on a sports show called “The Chicago Huddle.” Though that path could’ve maybe/possibly/eventually led the 24-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist to major-label […]
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