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Cover Story: Børns

Brassneck | July 31, 2018 | 0 Comments

Today Garrett Borns might be the foppish baroque-pop trendsetter who records as simply Børns, with three adventurous albums to his credit, including the new Blue Madonna, his second for Interscope. But there was a time not so long ago when the Michigan native was at the mercy of a pack of marauding masked bandits after […]

Stage Buzz: Real Friends “Composure” Listening Party & Interview

Brassneck | June 20, 2018 | 0 Comments

On Friday night, Tinley Park’s Real Friends held a “secret” listening party for a select group of fans in support of their forthcoming third full length, Composure. The evening event was the last of three listening party events held throughout the day across the Chicagoland area. In the modern industrial workspace of Chicago’s Rowboat Creative, […]

Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater: 1935-2018

Brassneck | June 3, 2018 | 0 Comments

Blues legend Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, who passed away on June 1 of heart failure, towered over the Chicago music scene both literally and figuratively. At six feet four, he cut a striking figure, slashing his left-handed guitar with his signature blues, rock and funk riffs. Born in a Mississippi cotton field and nurtured by […]

Cover Story: Dorothy

Brassneck | April 30, 2018 | 0 Comments

In the music industry, never underestimate the sound man. From his back-of-club vantage point, he usually sees – and knows – all. Two years ago, singer Dorothy Martin was playing a small San Francisco nightclub with her namesake outfit Dorothy, to a rabid crowd of mostly teenaged girls, who had copied the quasi-Goth look she […]

Cover Story: Judas Priest [Updated]

Brassneck | April 1, 2018 | 0 Comments

After an impressive five-decades long career, British heavy metal pioneers Judas Priest show no signs of slowing down with the release of their explosive 18th full-length studio album Firepower (released March 9 on Epic Records). On 14 blistering tracks, Priest delivers the indisputable, classic heavy metal sound that hearkens back to the band’s heyday. The […]

Cover Story: Ministry [Updated]

Brassneck | March 24, 2018 | 1 Comment

Chicago’s beloved industrial metal machine Ministry is back. After the sudden death of longtime guitarist and friend Mike Scaccia in 2012, leader/vocalist Al Jourgensen decided to put Ministry on indefinite hiatus. During the band’s downtime, “Uncle Al” spawned a side project, Surgical Meth Machine, and released a self-titled debut record in 2015. It was pretty […]

Cover Story: The Vaccines

Brassneck | February 28, 2018 | 0 Comments

Fans will have to forgive the cheesy film reference, chortles Justin Young. But for a while there recently, the anchor for brainy British folk-punkers The Vaccines actually came to believe that he’d somehow lost his magical inner mojo, just like Austin Powers in Mike Myers’ hilarious espionage spoof The Spy Who Shagged Me. And no […]

Live Review and Gallery: Robert Plant at Riviera Theatre

Brassneck | February 22, 2018 | 0 Comments

Riviera Theatre, Chicago Tuesday, February 20, 2018 Leave it to Robert Plant, arguably rock n’ roll’s most famous and ferocious front man of all time, to keep his eyes focused primarily on recent interests rather than recycling his glories of yesteryear. The man who turned down more cash than could ever be counted to reunite […]

Eddie Shaw (1937-2018)

Brassneck | January 31, 2018 | 0 Comments

A huge, gaping hole has been left in the foundation of the Chicago blues scene with the passing of Eddie Shaw, who died on January 29 at age 80. Beloved by all for his warmth and charisma, Eddie was also a walking encyclopedia of blues history. Born in Mississippi, he learned to play blues by […]

Stage Buzz : The Jesus Lizard at Metro [Updated with Photo Gallery]

Brassneck | December 8, 2017 | 0 Comments

Though they stopped just short of a “full monty” (as the gallery will atest), Chicago’s Jesus Lizard showed everyone their goodies during a sold-out show at Metro, Friday. Performing in Wrigleyville on only one of only six tour dates, the powerful quartet pulled themselves out of the mothballs, playing with precision and aplomb, and sounded […]

Cover Story: Wolf Alice

Brassneck | November 30, 2017 | 0 Comments

It’s what every artist aspires to; one would imagine – a famous director one day finding their life so remarkable and their look so photogenic that it warrants its own documentary. But UK rocker Ellie Rowsell was just surprised that hers happened so fast, last year when her quartet Wolf Alice had only a single […]

Stage Buzz: [Updated with Gallery] Doyle at The Forge of Joliet

Brassneck | November 8, 2017 | 1 Comment

Under the eponymous Doyle banner, the dominating ex-Misfits axeman has conjured up 13 metallic horror-punk tracks on his sophomore solo effort that was released this past summer, Doyle II: As We Die. Currently on his As We Die World Tour, Doyle (real name Paul Caiafa) and his band – vocalist Alex “Wolfman” Story, bassist […]

IE Rewind: New Order comes to Riot Fest

ilentertainer | September 14, 2017 | 0 Comments

When New Order keyboardist Gillian Gilbert stopped touring with the band in 1998, then quit altogether during the recording of its 2001 album Get Ready, she did it graciously, almost secretly, without any official departure announcement in the press. “And I wanted it that way,” she admits of her decision to stay home and take […]

Cover Story: Scorpions

ilentertainer | September 1, 2017 | 0 Comments

They say you should always err on the side of caution. And Scorpions bandleader Klaus Meine wholeheartedly agrees. So he isn’t taking anything for granted as his band celebrates its 50th anniversary with its umpteenth world juggernaut, backing its recent Return to Forever album, a compendium of mostly unearthed, unfinished demos from the Blackout and […]

Cover Story: Depeche Mode

ilentertainer | July 31, 2017 | 0 Comments

At 56, Depeche Mode bandleader Martin Gore no longer feels the need to pull any lyrical punches. So he gets right to the prickly, political point on the band’s latest Spirit set, starting with its clickety-clacking rhetorical question of a lead single “Where’s the Revolution,” with a grim societal accusation intoned in unusually ominous fashion […]