Features
Cover Story: Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters The Captain & The Kids And How Life Became A Cabaret, Old Chum The temptation to draw corollaries between Scissor Sisters and stand-up comedians is tantalizing. Comics, they say, are the most insecure people on earth. The desire to make people laugh is a cry for help, a juvenile flaw that could send […]
Sondre Lerche interview
Sondre Lerche On Elvis Costello, Burt Bacharach, And A Decent New York Apartment The somewhat serene, expansive surroundings of Norway — Sondre Lerche’s homeland — are in quite significant contrast to his location during this particular conversation (his recently acquired New York City apartment). For starters, it’s apparent there’s plenty of hustle and bustle in […]
Otep interview
Otep Freedom From Pain Los Angeles artist Otep Shamaya bristles at the subject of women in heavy metal. As the female vocalist for a band that has toured with Ozzfest three times, she’s somewhat of an expert on the subject, but today it’s a bit of a sore one.
Explosions In The Sky interview
Explosions In The Sky How Strange, Success From a certain perspective, Explosions In The Sky are a collection of contradictions. Their grand, monumental music, made by quiet, unassuming men, tells stories without words. They deflect any claim to rock stardom, even as their popularity and exposure steadily increases. Drummer Chris Hrasky, a Rockford native, even […]
Clutch interview
Clutch Jibber Jabber Depending on whom you talk to or which Clutch record review you read, frontman Neil Fallon is either A) the most clever wordsmith in rock ‘n’ roll or B) a bullshitter. Appearing: March 14th at Metro in Chicago.
Vega 4 interview
Vega 4 Paradise By The Dashboard Light It’s an incredibly awkward night for brash young alt-pop hopeful Vega 4. The London quartet — led by charismatic Celt Johnny McDaid — is playing its first show in America at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, but it’s opening for teen heartthrobs Augustana. To top it off, the sudden […]
Isis feature
Isis Speaking Volumes In the final chapter of Isis’ live DVD, there’s a glitch that is quite visible to the home viewer. The crowd couldn’t see it, though they surely felt what caused it. And despite the professional gear involved, there was no way to conceal it. The glitch will forever be graffiti on Clearing […]
Cover Story: Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd Lights, Camera, Blues “It’s one thing to hear the music, you know, but I think it’s something completely different to actually see the people who are making the music doing it as it’s going down.”
Richard Buckner interview
Richard Buckner Visually Stunned For as relatively anonymous as he is in the rock landscape, Richard Buckner’s life has been filled with feature-story tumult. He has moved all over the country, been divorced twice (once soon after recording an album with one of his wives), based work on a century-old Faulkner-esque manuscript, and dropped from […]
The Frames interview
The Frames Tragicomedy In an unusually reflective mood, Glen Hansard, frontman of The Frames — one of Ireland’s biggest acts — oozes charisma as he sits in a cushy brown leather love seat, which pleasantly contrasts with his maroon sweater and mop of ginger ringlets. Sporting a cropped full beard, a cluster of white hairs […]
Apples In Stereo interview
Apples In Stereo Mansions Of Sound Apples In Stereo mastermind Robert Schneider has just gotten copies of his veteran indie pop band’s hot-off-the-presses New Magnetic Wonder and he can barely contain himself. Appearing: February 23rd at Subterranean in Chicago.
Eleni Mandell Interview
Eleni Mandell 30 Love No one just picks up tennis 10 years into one’s career; there must be some ulterior motive. Perhaps the quiet life needs a jarring sport of starts and stops, lobs and rifled shots. It’s also an obvious outlet for someone who’s singularly competitive — le tenis is probably the most physically […]
Hip-Hop In The Studio
Hip-Hop And The Studio: Forget What You’ve Heard To many, the idea of hip-hop artists in the recording studio evokes a threatening image. Most common is the hostile rapper whose sole mission is to give engineers a headache. Now if you ask just about any engineer, they’ll probably tell you rowdy clients do exist. What […]
Cover Story: Essential Local Albums ’96-’06
The 25 Essential Local Albums Of The Last 10 Years The January 2001 Illinois Entertainer cover story was “25 Essential Local Albums,” a difficult task if there ever was. Prone to being picked apart. No Little Walter? Elmore James? Technically, Donny Hathaway was born here. Herbie Hancock completely changed jazz in his own way, but […]
Headlights interview
Headlights And Then There Were Three Somewhere along the path less traveled most people get turned around, detoured, or just get off altogether. For Erin Fein, 24, of indie pop group Headlights, after the breakup of the band’s prior incarnation, she almost became one of those people. “The last year before Absinthe Blind broke up […]
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