Monthly
Profile: Rainbow Foundation Music Inc.
With The Help Of My Friends For the past 20 years, the Rainbow Foundation Music Inc. has staged a series of benefit concerts, rock ‘n’ roll auctions, and toy drives to help Chicago-area children and families in crisis. Along the way, the organization has staged shows with a who’s-who of local and national classic rockers, […]
Caught In A Mosh: January 2011
Johnny, 5 Is Barely Alive What a strange year for picking a top-five list. This is the first time I’ve ever had so much trouble choosing my number one, for starters. Usually there is a hands-down favorite and the real fight is duked out for the fifth and final spot.
Sweet Home: January 2010
A New Kind Of Kinds James Kinds‘ voice cackles with the sweat of the Mississippi delta and the grit of Chicago’s West Side. It’s the kind of voice that can translate heady emotion with a quick shift of tone.
Around Hear: January 2011
Local Band Reviews Where some faith-based acts shroud their lyrics in metaphor to broaden their appeal, DeKalb’s Fue instead blanket their brooding alt-pop in mystery.
Media: January 2011
Blast From The Past: Triad Magazine I recently scoured local record stores for 7-inch vinyl with Grinderman drummer Jim Sclavunos — who found plenty of records to play at the band’s L.A. after-party.
Digital Divide: January 2011
Inception Fox Home Video According to the literary and Tinsel-town adage, there are only seven plot lines with which to work. If you take this logic as absolute, then once you’ve seen a film with one of these individual stories, you’ve seen them all.
Studiophile: January 2011
AVM Meets Joe South When AVM co-founder and vocalist Robert Mackey decided he wanted to add a remade version of “Hush” to the band’s new CD, A Matter Of Time, he decided on whim to contact the original songwriter of the Deep Purple ’60s classic, Joe South, to ask permission.
Gear: January 2011
Rock Lock Company The Rock Lock If you constantly worry about your guitar getting stolen from the stage, then entrepreneur Chris Goulet thinks a lot like you. While in college, he had a pretty good idea when he sketched out a drawing for a way to lock up his guitar after his roommate “borrowed” it […]
Chuck Berry’s aborted New Year’s show
Photographer Tim Hiatt was shooting Chuck Berry’s rare, local appearance on New Year’s Day, a gig that was cut short when the rock legend slumped over his keyboard and couldn’t continue. Click for photos.
Digital Divide: November 2010
The Killer Inside Me IFC Films In the literary world of the ’40s and ’50s, there are writers of mystery and crime novels with standard whodunit plots that involve characters and situations to be neatly resolved at the end of act three.
Cover Story: Umphrey’s McGee
The Taming Of The Stew This year won’t be the first time Umphrey’s McGee end a year playing sold-out shows in Chicago. In fact, it will be the fifth consecutive. The venues differ (Vic, Riviera, Auditorium, Aragon) yet each time that Jam Productions announces the on-sale, it’s a surprise. Like, “These guys are headlining the […]
Interview: The Bad Examples
Put The Kids To Bed This article is an accident. It was spawned by a chance encounter with the FitzGerald’s Web site, where the words “The Bad Examples (Record Release)” were spied on the December schedule. IE’s instinct was to sneer, “Hasn’t anyone in Berwyn ever heard of updating a Web site?” and navigate away.
Interview: The 1900s
The Dawn Of A Century Don’t call The 1900s deserters. The band might have wasted a bundle of positive media buzz and eager fans gained from its promising 2007 debut, Cold & Kind, on two years of near-seclusion (the group did grace a handful of Chicago summer festivals and lent its talents to a benefit […]
Interview: Lee DeWyze
Roughing It Long before he won “American Idol,” Lee DeWyze was slugging it out in Chicago with an eponymous band, having released a pair of albums on WuLi Records, drawing some WXRT airplay, and getting cameos on a sports show called “The Chicago Huddle.” Though that path could’ve maybe/possibly/eventually led the 24-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist to major-label […]
Caught In A Mosh: December 2010
But The Metal Is So Delightful It’s that time of year. The days are shorter. The weather is colder (it’s actually, like, 60 degrees out as I write this, so . . . ). And your neighbors have that really goddamn obnoxious wreath on their door.
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