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Queen & Paul Rodgers
Queen Is Dead, Long Live Queen The idea of a legendary band continuing without its original lead singer is by no means new. It’s been adapted by everyone from stadium rockers INXS, Journey, and Chicago’s own Styx to the slightly modified monikers of psychedelic superstars The Doors Of The 21st Century and The Dead. On […]
Shelley Short
Shelley Short O Captain My Captain Coming here was a very intense time,” Shelley Short says about uprooting her life from Portland to Chicago in September 2004. “I moved here with a friend and another close friend lives here that I’ve known since high school, so I wasn’t all alone, but I left a lot […]
Q&A: Blackie Lawless
Hello, My Name Is Blackie IE: If you were to release “Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)” today, would it be met with more or less controversy? Blackie Lawless: That’s difficult to say because the first impression has obviously already been established. That’s impossible for me to say, but I don’t think things have changed that […]
SXSW, T. Rex, Juvenile
MR. FORSTNEGER GOES TO AUSTIN If you get bored from the 15th through the 19th, head on down to Austin, TX, for South By Southwest. You won’t be lonely, all of the following Chicago bands will be there: Office, The M’s, Owen, Puerto Muerto, Chris Mills, a Flameshovel Records showcase featuring Bound Stems, Lying In […]
March DVDs!
The Constant Gardener Universal There’s no denying the price of prescription drugs is out of this world. What is often overlooked is the cost to bring those drugs to the market. Sure, it may cost the pharmaceutical company pennies to make the pills it offers, but it costs upwards of half a billion to bring […]
Stop, Thief!
Lost Delta Found: Rediscovering The Fisk University-Library Of Congress Coahoma County Study, 1941-1942 is an important book. Edited by writers Robert Gordon and Bruce Nemerov, it introduces an unpublished manuscript by Fisk University professor, composer, and musicologist John Wesley Work III, sociologist Lewis Wade Jones, and graduate student Samuel Adams. The three Fisk scholars had […]
Who, What, When, Why, Where
At ARS STUDIO in Alsip, Larry Schara mastered the latest project for Tee & Company, Live From Joliet 2, and continued tracking with #Jock Hardy# for his latest Disney project . . . Schara also tracked choir vocals for Vishawn Mitchell‘s upcoming CD . . . Jennifer Highland tracked, mixed, and mastered for the Charles […]
At Least Joan Cusack Hasn’t Ditched Us (Yet)
Like “Soul Train,” the band Chicago, and the writers of the Broadway hit “Urinetown,” Ira Glass and his innovative public radio show “This American Life” are packing up and leaving town for greener pastures.
Pick Like Satriani
M-AUDIO Sputnik Microphone Home studio boffins looking for boutique-quality sound on a project/studio budget (who isn’t?), should find M-Audio‘s Sputnik ($899) an exceptional value. Sputnik is M-Audio’s flagship mic — a true large diaphragm vacuum tube condenser mic, with a sound the company claims “rivals the best microphones on the planet.” In this price range, […]
Local CD Reviews
Typical of countless other bluesy-rock bar bands, Analog Theory play conventional, straight-up rock that lacks originality or interest. Their sound is tired — chunky riffs, generic rhythms, and trite lyrics. This doesn’t mean they lack passion or spirit, as their musicianship exhibits cohesiveness and the performances are sharp. It’s too bad they put such a […]
Origi-Kong on DVD
King Kong: Collectors Edition Warner Brothers If you happened to take a peek at last month’s Best Of 2005 list in this very magazine, you’ll remember I ranked this as the best DVD release of the year. (Pay attention, kids. You never know when there’ll be a quiz.) Sure, it’s been out a couple of […]
File For Feb!
TEN THOUSAND FISTS . . . IN YOUR FACE! Congratulations to local boys Disturbed who recently earned a platinum award from the Recording Industry Association Of America for their latest release, Ten Thousand Fists (Reprise). That certification means all three of the band’s major label albums have gone platinum (shipments in excess of one million […]
A Change Is Gonna Come
“Sam Cooke was a golden child around whom a family mythology was constructed long before he achieved fame or added the e to his last name.” — Peter Guralnick, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke.
And The Winner Is . . . ?
After years of flying under the radar and often being ignored altogether, Chicago hip-hop finally busted the mainstream seal during the last two years with the help of high-profile releases by Common, Twista, and Kanye West. And while it’s easy to credit those artists with lighting the spark, the truth is producer/rapper The Legendary Traxster […]
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