Columns
Sweet Home: October 2011
Blues Passages The last two months have packed powerful blows to the blues community, with the passing of David “Honeyboy” Edwards and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Both enjoyed significant careers that helped preserve the soaring legacy of the Delta blues. As elder statesmen who represented crucial decades of living blues history, they will both be […]
Around Hear: September 2011
Local Band Reviews Music-wise, Clara May‘s debut CD, Hush, is a bit all over the place – which is perhaps a reflection of its chief singer/songwriters being first and foremost a filmmaker/corporate executive/grad student and religious/equal-rights activist/author, respectively.
Caught In A Mosh: September 2011
Nouveau Sheet Music Remember last month when I conducted an interview with myself? Pretty awesome, yeah? To defend myself against accusations of narcissism, though, my reasoning for that column needs clarification: The originally planned feature with Swedish band Ghost never materialized.
Hello, My Name Is Susan
Q&A with Human League’s Susan Ann Sulley IE: What’s been going on during the decade between Human League albums? Susan Ann Sulley: The last album, Secrets, didn’t do so well because the record company [Papillon] went bankrupt when it came out, and we had to pick ourselves up from that.
File: September 2011
Festival Tragedies The way they’re marketed – like vacations – it’s easy to forget that music festivals are as prone to fate’s whim as anything. While flash-mob gate-crashing at Lollapalooza didn’t become a national epidemic like the England riots, Cheap Trick‘s experience at the Ottawa (Canada) Bluesfest in July shockingly repeated itself twice more in […]
Gear: September 2011
More Love From Nashville Last month we previewed a slew of new guitars from NAMM’s Nashville music trade show, where guitars seemed to be making a comeback as the instrument of choice. On the electronics side, accessories for the home-recording crowd – including iPad users – also took a majority of floor space. This month, […]
Media: September 2011
Dahl’s Basement Tapes Radio legend Steve Dahl started charging for his podcast last month. He was dumped from “free” radio in December of 2008, when CBS Radio bought out his WJMK-FM (105.9) contract (and continued to pay him). Two years ago, Dahl launched his podcast, joining a growing number of local media figures who have […]
Studiophile: September 2011
Recording In Hi-Style With a voice that channels the spirit of Little Richard and James Brown, JD McPherson recorded his debut album, Signs & Signifiers, for Hi-Style Records, in the local label’s hometown studio.
Sweet Home: September 2011
Race, Rage, & The Blues Nobody expected a brief Alligator Records tribute to become a catalyst for examining blues-industry race relations. When the Chicago Reader ran a profile of founder Bruce Iglauer commemorating the 40th anniversary of the label, buried within the May 19th piece was a quote that inflamed the blues community:
Hello, My Name Is Rik
Q&A with Triumph’s Rik Emmett IE: What did your life look like throughout the ’80s during the Triumph whirlwind? Rik Emmett: I remember it being an exciting time and a pressure-filled time. We were a unique entity in managing ourselves and we had our own office, studio, and a pretty intense relationship with the record […]
File: August 2011
Timlollarpalooza In keeping with last month’s baseball-themed Pitchfork Festival preview, we’ve dedicated our Lollapalooza snippet to the playing days of former San Diego Padres pitcher Tim Lollar, who did his damnedest to help the Cubs win in ’84 (4 IP, 2 HR, 4 BB). Lollar also wears the distinction of having been traded to the […]
Around Hear: August 2011
Local Band Reviews Lyrical, if edgy note-phrasing binds the originals and covers on blues-rocker Joe Becker‘s Hot As Love. The instrumental, stripped-band recording vacilates from open-nerve rawness (“Nightshift”) to a demo quality that could stand some polish (“Who Do You Think You Are?”), which poses a lot of questions about the intention of this release. […]
Caught In A Mosh: August 2011
Four!!! I forgot, and I’m sorry. June was this column’s four-year anniversary, but like a horrible, drunk, stoned lazy, fatfuck of a father, I forgot my own child’s birthday and didn’t even realize it until two months later.
Digital Divide: August 2011
Deja Vu All Over Again D’ja ever find yourself watching the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day and think, “This is cute and all, but I wonder what the military applications of living the same day over and over again would be”?
Gear: August 2011
From Nashville With Love NAMM’s Nashville music trade show seemed to get back to a “guitars are king” theme not seen in 10 years at the summer event, leaving the button pushers and their iPhones and iPads to last year’s devices. Gear happily takes a look at some of the convention’s new introductions.
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