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Cover Story: Tim Burgess
Benjamin Disraeli believed that âChange is inevitable; change is constant.â John F. Kennedy reckoned that âChange is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.â But leave it to Charles Darwin to summarize it best: âIt is not the strongest of the species […]
Featured: My Back Pages
First, let me preface this with a little disclaimer. Call me a misanthrope, but â in all my 40-plus years of rock journalism â I have never really been a sharer, outside of my stories. I see no use for social media; I donât care what your opinion of my work happens to be; this […]
Media – May 2020
The Mix Morning show (WTMX, 101.9FM) is now officially called Eric in the Morning with Melissa and Whip. After an unprecedented run of success during morning drive time in Chicago, everyone knows Eric Ferguson, the star of the show. Most also know Melissa McGurren, a trusted co-host for many years. But who in the world […]
Cover Story: Lucinda Williams
Many artists â when looking back on their catalogs â often wish that they could have done better, compositionally speaking. Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. But when Grammy-winning folk-rocker Lucinda Williams undertook her comprehensive tour last year, celebrating the 20th anniversary of her landmark third Car Wheels on a Gravel Road effort, she never once […]
Feature: Testament and Exodus – Coping with COVID
On paper, it looked like a brilliant idea â the recent comprehensive “Bay Strikes Back” month-long tour of Europe, featuring Bay Area thrash-metal stalwarts Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel. It was just the timing â Feb. 6 to March 11 â that proved a bit unfortunate. It happened to coincide with the appearance of the […]
Feature – The Claudettes
Symphonic cartoon-music maestro Raymond Scott meets titanic blues pianist Otis Spann meets punk iconoclasts the Minutemen. The Stooges meet Burt Bacharach, without the horns. French yĂŠ-yĂŠ pop at the old west saloon. These off-kilter combinations arenât deliberately ironic; theyâre legitimate attempts to make an elevator pitch for Chicagoâs baffling, delightful, and utterly unique band The […]
Spins: Greg Dulli ⢠“Random Desire”
Greg Dulli Random Desire (Royal Cream/BMG) Calling this âthe first solo albumâ by The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli isnât technically truthful â unless itâs a deliberate attempt to erase 2005âs Amber Headlights altogether. Whether first or second, it was time for another musical road less traveled for Dulli. Surviving way longer than most rock […]
File: Q&A with Mike Campbell
Discovering your own particular avenue of expression is not always easy for a young artist. Take the late Tom Petty, for example, who started out sounding a lot like his vocal idols, Bob Dylan and The Byrdsâ Roger McGuinn. He just couldnât help it â that was his creative jumping-off point, which quickly developed into […]
Cover Story – Best Coast
Best Coast anchor Bethany Cosentino admits that her duoâs chiming new Always Tomorrow set, it’s fourth, just might be the Feel-Good Album of the Year. But in retrospect, she only wishes that she at first didnât have to feel so incredibly bad just to compose it. And she isnât waxing poetic when she describes the […]
Hello My Name Is…Tim “Ripper” Owens of the Three Tremors
Although the Three Tremors concept was initially conceived in the early 2000s by Iron Maiden wailer Bruce Dickinson, Judas Priest screamer Rob Halford, and QueensrĂżche belter Geoff Tate, it never came to fruition. However, in 2018, Cage vocalist Sean âThe Hell Destroyerâ Peck began tossing the idea around with journeyman vocalist Tim âRipperâ Owens (ex-Judas […]
Cover Story: Green Day
On the most instinctual gut level, Billie Joe Armstrong gets it. No question. A la cinematic director Godfrey Reggioâs 1983 visual masterpiece Koyaanisqatsi, life â nationally and around the world â has tipped completely, horribly, maybe irrevocably out of balance. On one recent day alone, the headlines said it all: Freakish, climate-change-spurred floods are swamping […]
Live Review and Photo Gallery – Dirty Honey at Bottom Lounge
Dirty Honey Tuesday, February 11 Bottom Lounge, Chicago For the past year, some music industry folks have been working themselves into a piranha-like frenzy over L.A. blues-rock quartet Dirty Honey. Formed in 2017, the band features singer Marc Labelle, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian, and drummer Corey Coverstone. The buzz surrounding the band is heightened in […]
Live Review: DeadMau5 at Navy Pier
Deadmau5 âCube V3â Saturday, February 1 Navy Pier, Chicago From 2008 to 2015, Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, was the inescapable force in the world of electronic dance music, one of the most prominent and most easily recognizable names in the genre, putting out albums like Album Title Goes Here and While(1<2). To many people, he […]
![Cover Story: Grace Potter [with added Photo Gallery from Riviera Theatre]](http://illinoisentertainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/gp9-e1581298059207-150x150.jpeg "Cover Story: Grace Potter [with added Photo Gallery from Riviera Theatre]")
Cover Story: Grace Potter [with added Photo Gallery from Riviera Theatre]
In the DC Comics universe, Superman always had his Fortress of Solitude, a secluded palace on the frozen Arctic tundra where he could go to muse on his complex relationships with villains, the Justice League, and indeed his planetary protectorate, humankind itself. Not bad, as exotic getaways go. Vermont-bred folk-rocker Grace Potter, on the other […]
Cover Story – Caroline Polachek
The relationship between art and its attendant inspiration has been analyzed countless times over the years. The French painter Henri Matisse, for instance, said that the main impetus for creativity was simply courage, while author Jack London believed that you had to hunt it down with a club. Renowned acting coach Stella Adler posited that […]
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