Weekly
Love In October preview
Love In October Reggie’s Rock, Chicago Saturday, February 2, 2008 How do you know when a rock group take themselves way too seriously? How about when they proclaim it bothers them to be called a band because it “limits [them] to a scope of music” and “[we] want . . . to be known as […]
Wild Sweet Orange preview
Wild Sweet Orange Schubas, Chicago Monday, February 4, 2008 Birmingham, Alabama-based Wild Sweet Orange offer the self-reflection and sensitive yearning we’ve come to expect from alumnus of that great jukebox known as “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s easy to reason why the folks behind the ABC hit show chose “Land Of No Return,” from the band’s Whale […]
Daniel Johnston preview
Daniel Johnston Metro, Chicago Wednesday, February 6, 2008 As the ’70s became the ’80s, Daniel Johnston became a fixture of the Austin, Texas music scene, peddling homemade cassettes of his songs to passersby. Even a cursory listen to this material (available today on Songs Of Pain 1980-83: The Early Recordings Volume 1) reveals something amiss […]
Mini Britney!
On The Down Low Normally we would be ashamed of ourselves for using a title like “On The Down Low” for a news piece about a 4-foot-2-inch woman. But since Terra Jolé, or “Mini Britney Spears,” doesn’t mind the attention given to her height, we don’t mind pointing it out.
William Elliott Whitmore live!
William Elliott Whitmore Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago Friday, January 18, 2008 It has become tradition when William Elliott Whitmore plays Chicago for audience members to continuously feed him booze. Couple that with the fact each time Whitmore comes to town he plays a bigger venue, which means even more fans, which means even more whiskey […]
Exile In Old Town School
Tribute To Exile On Main St. Old Town School Of Folk Music, Chicago Friday, January 18, 2008 Having an ensemble recreate a classic album is hardly a novel concept, but there was something diabolically reverent and iconoclastic going on with Exile On Main St. on Friday. As performed by Old Town School faculty, alumni, and […]
Eve 6 preview
Eve 6 Chicago City Limits, Schaumburg Friday, January 25, 2008 Eve 6 are an all-too familiar music industry horror story: They scored a big hit on each of their first two albums, but were abandoned by their label nonetheless when their third was a dud. Now, after a three-year hiatus, the pop punk band return.
Supersuckers preview
Supersuckers Brauerhouse, Hillside Thursday, January 24, 2008 Friday, January 25, 2008 Supersuckers will never lack for identity. Even when they made a “country” album, their whiskey-drenched, biker-punk rock had a habit of baring its teeth. And though for a while it seemed they wrote songs simply to go with new song titles, their intensity never […]
State Of The City Address
How does Chicago rank as a music town compared to industry havens New York and Los Angeles and smaller, yet powerful centers of the biz like Austin and Nashville? Find out at a panel discussion sponsored by the nonprofit Chicago Music Commission on Thursday, January 24th at 6 p.m. in the Harris Theater For Music […]
Rhymefest reviewed
Rhymefest Man In The Mirror mixtape (self-released free download) Who knows what kind of megalomaniacal festivities we’re in for with the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller this year (there’s already a masturbatorial video tribute on his homepage) — maybe Neverland Ranch will transform into a spaceship and finally take Jacko home. Chicago rapper Rhymefest, […]
T. Duggins preview
T. Duggins, Nate Van Allen Beat Kitchen, Chicago Friday, January 18, 2008 The Tossers will officially celebrate St. Patty’s Day with a hometown blowout at Metro on March 14th, but fans should consider frontman Tony Duggins’ solo gig Friday night for a sampling of the band’s past and present.
A Verse Unsung preview
A Verse Unsung DePaul University, Chicago Sunday, January 20, 2008 Some kids spend their senior year of high school applying to colleges and the following summer gearing up for the big move/life change that inevitably comes with heading off to a university setting. The fellas in A Verse Unsung did, in fact, experience some life-changing […]
Wu-Tang reviewed
Wu-Tang Clan 8 Diagrams (Wu Music/Universal Motown) Fourteen years removed from their debut, Wu-Tang Clan’s fifth album was undercut upon release by protestations within the band about 8 Diagrams‘ direction and the false-alarm announcement it contained a cleared sample of The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Thomas Ian Nicholas reviewed
Thomas Ian Nicholas Without Warning (self-released) The fact Thomas Ian Nicholas played “Kevin Myers” in the American Pie movies shouldn’t lead you to disparage his music. (He was also in Radio Flyer, Halloween: Resurrection, and some “Party Of Five” episodes if you think you need extra help forming your opinion.) The songs themselves are ammo […]
The Dresden Dolls live!
The Dresden Dolls Vic Theatre, Chicago Saturday, January 5, 2008 When you describe your music as “Brechtian punk cabaret,” like The Dresden Dolls do, you very well might be relegating yourself to underground, or cult status, for the length of your career. But something weird is happening with The Dolls: More and more people are […]
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