Tag: featured
Spins: Tears for Fears • Songs from the Big Chair 40th Anniversary 2xLP
Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair 40th Anniversary 2xLP (Mercury/EMI/UMe) Tears for Fears emerged with a milestone debut album in 1983’s The Hurting, but the band’s rapid creative evolution soon exceeded that success. 1985 sophomore effort Songs from the Big Chair would become one of the decade’s best-loved albums and cement Tears for […]
Stage Buzz: State Champs, Mavis Staples, Bill Murray
Pop punk staples State Champs are celebrating ten years of their 2015 album, Around the World and Back, with a series of special headlining shows in select cities. And lucky for us, Chicago is one of the stops. Rock out to classics like “Losing Myself,” “Shape Up,” and “Back and Forth” when the band plays […]
Cover Story: Kenny Wayne Shepherd • 30 Years of Ledbetter Heights
Growing up, blues-rock guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd was privy to a wealth of musical knowledge, as his father, Ken, was a local radio personality, a part-time concert promoter, and an avid music collector. These behind-the-scenes experiences led the youngster on the path to a future in the music business. “I would say yes, although I […]
Media: January 2026 • In Remembrance
2025 was an especially cruel year for this media writer because I lost two personal friends, Harry Teinowitz and Tony Fitzpatrick. Harry passed away in July, and Tony died in October. If the crowd you draw at your memorial is any indication, both men had a significant impact on the people who knew them. Harry’s […]
Spins: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats •. Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats 10th anniversary expanded 2xLP
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats Self-titled debut 10th anniversary expanded 2xLP (Stax) Following Nathaniel Rateliff’s restless career has been a rewarding journey. Clued-in fans from Rateliff’s earliest days have witnessed the Denver-based artist’s growth as a captivating songwriter and his transition from intimate folk to the technicolor variety of soulful R&B now featured […]
Gear: Gift Guide: D’Addario Tour-Grade String Change Kit
Gear: Gift Guide Tour-Grade String Change Kit (D’Addario) Here’s a practical, high-quality, and reasonably affordable gift for the musician or instrument tech in your life. D’Addario’s Tour-Grade String Change Kit offers a premium upgrade to three everyday tools. A tuning peg winder with smooth ball-bearing action speeds the process for bringing new strings to concert […]
Spins: The Rolling Stones • Black and Blue Super Deluxe LP box
The Rolling Stones Black and Blue Super Deluxe LP box (Interscope/UMe) Featuring Billboard Hot 100 #10 ballad “Fool to Cry,” 1976 album Black and Blue found the World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band continuing a transition away from its reliable foundation of blues and roots rock that it undertook with 1974’s It’s Only Rock ‘n’ […]
Feature: FYC at 40 – Roland Gift’s Holiday Look Back…
For most revelers, the Holiday Season automatically triggers warm, comforting feelings, filled with sensory delights like the fragrance of pine trees, the taste of cocoa, eggnog, or mulled wine, or the orange glow of a winter hearthside fire. But Roland Gift is not so easily moved by surface aesthetics. At 64, the former Fine Young […]
Rock of Pages: Gift Guide 2025 • Tom Petty: The Life & Music • Bruce Springsteen & Born to Run: 50 Years
Tom Petty: The Life & Music by Gillian Gaar Bruce Springsteen & Born to Run: 50 Years by Sean Egan (Quarto) Finding the perfect gift to impress and delight the obsessive music fans in your life can be tricky. Chances are that these folks already have every album or single released by their favorite artists. […]
Feature: Limahl • So This is Christmas
For many, one of the main comforts of Christmas is tradition, reliable rites, rituals, and touchstones that kick in annually and give form and function to said season. There’s a tangible hearthside warmth to it all — you just instinctually know that it’s upon us once again, as you buy your tree, spice up the […]
Cover Story: Cheap Trick • Won’t Slow Down
It’s not a cautionary tale exactly, nor is it an Abandon-All-Hope-Ye-Who-Enter-Here warning. But for any bright-eyed, optimistic young artists out there currently considering a career in music, Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson has a few wise words to offer that might, at the very least, give you pause. Or, at worst, stagger you as senseless […]
Media: December 2025 • The Museum of Broadcast Communications Pop-up Exhibit
Many of us worried it might never return after shuttering its previous location, but in October, the Museum of Broadcast Communications made a triumphant comeback in a new location, with an assortment of new exhibits. The date wasn’t chosen randomly. It was the 100th anniversary of Johnny Carson’s birth, and Johnny Carson is the big […]
Live Review & Photo Gallery: Paul McCartney at United Center • Chicago
Paul McCartney United Center Chicago, IL November 25, 2025 Review by Jeff Elbel. Photos by Ed Spinelli. Can it really have been eight years since the last time Sir Paul McCartney performed in Chicago? The still-fab former Beatle was a relatively regular presence during the 2010s in the town he first visited with his old […]
Stage Buzz: Smoking Popes, Billy Corgan, Better Lovers, Atreyu, Mickey Dolenz
This is the last week to experience the Smashing Pumpkins’ iconic album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in a new way. Billy Corgan closes out his “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness” anniversary shows with the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus (James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin are also contributing . Hear the […]
Live Review: Pixel Grip at Metro • Chicago
Pixel Grip Metro Chicago, IL November 14, 2025 Review by Ashley Perez-Hollingsworth It’s been a big year for Chicago industrial-pop trio Pixel Grip. Releasing a successful new album. Fighting with Travis Scott over uncredited samples. Hanging out with Trent Reznor. Opening for Peaches on her highly anticipated 2026 tour. To cap off the year, their […]
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