Features
Allá interview
Allá (Pet) Sonidos De Los Animales Favoritos (Sounds) “My goal,” says Jorge Ledezma, “is that we get a Latin Grammy nomination.” The “we” to whom Ledezma refers is Allá (pronounced “ah-yah”), a Chicago-based band that, in addition to Ledezma, includes drummer Angel Ledezma (Jorge’s older brother) and singer Lupe Martinez. The album for which he […]
RZA feature
RZA Self Taught Robert Diggs isn’t one to wait around to be directed and shown how to achieve something. If this producer/MC/composer best known as RZA is curious about picking up a craft, he is often his own teacher. Appearing: Tuesday, July 1st at House Of Blues in Chicago.
Wolf Parade interview
Wolf Parade Cannibalized Thank goodness the primary season concluded when it did. Wolf Parade drummer Arlen Thompson was on the brink of U.S.-politics overload by the time Barack Obama clinched the presumptive nominee slot, and he’s not even American. Appearing: Tuesday, July 8th at House Of Blues in Chicago.
Cover Story: Local H
Local H Time Marches On It was fairly early on the fifth night of Local H’s seven-night stand at Beat Kitchen when it became apparent why the two-man outfit are so beloved locally, somewhere around when gruff but affable frontman Scott Lucas spit out “Fall Out Boy’s on the radio,” in the middle of fan […]
Local Indie Label Special
It’s A Woman’s Woman’s Woman’s Woman’s (& Man’s) World Bloodshot’s Nan Warshaw and Southport’s Joanie Pallatto might not agree on every talmudic aspect of running an independent record label, though neither would say being female has made any difference.
R.E.M. Interview
R.E.M. Old Tricks Every iconic act is entitled to a dud or two, and Athens, Georgia’s elite R.E.M. are no exception. The jangle-pop purveyors-turned-alternative rock icons were generally consistent their first 20 years, though 2004’s sleeper Around The Sun was a black cloud. Beyond the project’s sluggish sales and critical lashing, frontman Michael Stipe, guitarist […]
Los Campesinos interview
The Internet Startups Of Los Campesinos A funny thing happened to seven university students in Wales who were well on their way to graduation a year ago: Their fledgling side-project (Los Campesinos) dropped a debut single (“You! Me! Dancing!”) that not only became an overnight Internet sensation, but also the biggest next big thing to […]
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club interview
Slim Cessna’s Auto Club It’s Only Rock And Roll? Not to complain about a job many people consider pretty damn sweet — talking to famous musicians and writing a story about it — but doing a piece on Slim Cessna’s Auto Club is tough. Appearing: Friday, June 6th at Reggie’s in Chicago.
Cover Story: Ministry’s Farewell
Ministry Jour Gonna Miss Me On a sultry August 18th, 1995, Chicagoans and pilgrims stuffed the Riviera Theatre for a last chance to catch the Ramones live. Opening act Gren, a grunge-era also-ran, had the word “ignored” redefined for them while all anyone wanted to hear was that iconic “One! Two! Three! Four!” 30 more […]
Counting Crows interview
Counting Crows Two Days A Week “As far as I can tell — and I can’t guarantee this — I am real. It has often seemed to me like this was all a part of my imagination. Which is largely the problem. The fact that my life has seemed like a figment of my imagination […]
Panic At The Disco interview
Panic At The Disco No Exclamation Reqired For the particularly ghoulish among you, the British video is still floating around on You Tube, as creepy as it was when it was first filmed in the summer of ’06. It’s a particularly chilling clip from that year’s Reading Festival, showing ebony-garbed, eyelinered Panic At The Disco […]
Dimmu Borgir interview
Dimmu Borgir Lords Of Commercial Chaos For their first band photos in 1993, Dimmu Borgir wore foot-long spikes on their arms and posed with medieval swords and homemade clubs at night in the woods near Oslo, Norway. In the tradition of one-time Mayhem vocalist Dead, who committed suicide two years earlier, they smeared their faces […]
Hot Chip interview
Hot Chip Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Foppery In a reserved, studious manner, Alexis Taylor most resembles Napoleon Dynamite‘s Internet-dating lothario Kip, sans moustache. Diminutive and soft-spoken, it’s slightly hard to believe in a mere five hours — seersucker clad — he will muster the exuberance to perform in front of a sold-out, undulating […]
Ministry continued
back next “It was really important to us that we didn’t go out just Bush-bashing. So we started jamming with a bunch of different people who live around us [in Texas]: Burton [C. Bell] from Fear Factory, Wayne [Static] from Static-X. Just had a bunch of people dropping in and out. It wasn’t like we […]
Ministry end
home last One super-conscious model that remains in place is how Jourgensen’s career will play out over the next three years.










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