Weekly
Freezepop preview
Freezepop Subterranean, Chicago Wednesday, February 13, 2008 You’ve probably heard about a video game called “Guitar Hero” by now. If not, it’s kinda popular: The newest version, “Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock,” made more than $100 million in its first week alone. “Rock Band,” a similar game that lets users sing and “play” drums […]
Sam Amidon reviewed
Sam Amidon All Is Well (Bedroom Community) It can’t be cheap to fly from New York to Iceland, much less record there. Maybe that’s why Sam Amidon (“Samidon” from here out) sounds so blue on All Is Well.
Intodown reviewed
Intodown Brave New World (self-released) Guitarist Michael Clark attempts to stuff instrumental progressive rock into his guitar’s gig bag, mixing all sorts of fusion, surf, alt-rock, and acid influences.
The Teenagers live!
The Teenagers Dark Wave Disco At Sonoteque, Chicago Saturday, January 26, 2008 There’s a good chance a group whose most notorious song is a document of the narrator sleeping with his step-cousin shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Perhaps that should’ve been the first indication of what was to come.
Lenny Kravitz live!
Lenny Kravitz Riviera Theatre, Chicago Saturday, January 26, 2008 These days Lenny Kravitz is more likely to play an arena than an intimate setting, making a pre-release warm up tour at the Riviera Theatre a somewhat unusual occurrence. The retro rocker likened it to being “just like the old days,” but with longevity under his […]
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, […]
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