Stage Buzz
Clean the wall when you’re done
Accept fans quietly rage when they run into people who only know the band for their biggest hit, “Balls To The Wall.” The German band did release two earlier albums that were more in line with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal — speedy, aggressive — and never intended to become the teutonic AC/DC. […]
Dawn bringing
Almost as if they’re New York and Los Angeles, the Chicagoland’s suburban and city metal scenes have more differences than simple geography.
The hardest Parts
Within the first couple minutes of Parts & Labor‘s Constant Future (Jagjaguwar), a surge of electronic and other malfunctioning noises conspire to produce
Sunday’s best
Zion I, the forward-thinking hip-hop duo from Oakland, hits a particularly marvelous groove on three consecutive tracks halfway through the 13-track Atomic Clock
A Waxy salute
Some people plan to purchase a record when they turn 33 1/3rd, a quaint self-acknowledgement combined with retro consumerism. If you’re Wax Trax, however, you throw a party.
Record Store Day is Saturday!
Three years ago, Record Store Day seemed like a quaint, underdog rebellion in the face of foregone extinction. What music that was selling put change in Steve Jobs’ pocket or served as a tax loss for Walmart and Best Buy. Now it’s an event bound to outlast the stores themselves.
International Pop Overthrow returns!
International Pop Overthrow is about to make its 10th anniversary swing through Chicago, with a two-week run that will present more than 75 power pop and indie rock bands at The Abbey Pub and Red Line Tap.
Diddy? O diddn’t he?
With the name changes, crude samples, talent shows, and complicity in pillaging the B.I.G. archives, Sean Combs makes it easy to hate on him.
Hot time in the old town tonight . . .
Hot Club Of Cowtown have one of those names that send anti-alt-country militants into fits. Roots in San Diego, calling Austin home . . . the tourist element is too much for some people.
And the Grammy/Oscar goes to . . .
It’s a phrase repeated often by the friends of Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, each of which took home their respective top prize. John Paul White & Joy Williams hope to add to that.
But seriously, folks . . .
If we told you we were managing a band called Over The Rhine, and needed you to print some T-shirts without first hearing any music, with what sort of design would you go? All this and more in our weekend roundup.
Trash rock all-stars
For a second our stomach dropped: are Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears and Those Darlins in town the same night at separate clubs?
Pedal-hopping like a Dinosaur . . .
It only took 20 years, but the Dinosaur Jr. frontman finally followed Lou Barlow to Sub Pop for some sad-sack acoustipop.
The boys are back in town
It’s been a tough year for Thin Lizzy, having lost guitarist Gary Moore and hitting the 25th anniversary of frontman Phil Lynott’s death. Two albums have been reissued by UME, however, and a packed lineup hits Chicago.
Thursday: Everest or Zomes?
Instead of falling into the trap of the wretched sophomore slump, Los Angeles-based quintet Everest surpasses its debut (2008’s Ghost Notes) completely.
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