Tag: featured
Spins – The Outfit • “Viking”
The Outfit Viking (Pavement Entertainment) Chicago rockers The Outfit have done it again. On its second full-length album, Viking, the foursome — brothers Mark (drums) and Matt Nawara (guitar), Mike Gorman (bass) and Andy Mitchell (vocals/guitar) — seamlessly merge massive hooks, edgy riffs, soaring vocal harmonies and catchy choruses with pleasing results. Mixed by multi-platinum […]
Sweet Home – April 2020 • Blues Rona Playlist
A Blues Rona Playlist These are challenging times as the Covid-19 pandemic has touched all corners of the globe, all countries, and all societies. The quarantine forces us inside to piece together new routines around an uncertain situation. Music has always been a refuge in fearful circumstances, and blues literally evolved from pain, so there’s […]
Spins: Stephen Malkmus • “Traditional Techniques”
Stephen Malkmus Traditional Techniques (Matador Records) When Pavement first entered the rock scene nearly 30 years ago, they stood out like a sore thumb. While they were lo-fi, they weren’t punk, and while they had pop melodies, those were buried under tape hiss and inside jokes. Frontman Stephen Malkmus never went for a stylistic makeover, […]
Spins: Greg Dulli • “Random Desire”
Greg Dulli Random Desire (Royal Cream/BMG) Calling this “the first solo album” by The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli isn’t technically truthful – unless it’s a deliberate attempt to erase 2005’s Amber Headlights altogether. Whether first or second, it was time for another musical road less traveled for Dulli. Surviving way longer than most rock […]
Spins: Pearl Jam • “Gigaton”
Pearl Jam Gigaton (Monkeywrench/Republic) Pearl Jam’s timing for the end of the world record is impeccable. The Seattle-based quartet’s recorded output has been stalled for nearly seven years, and apparently, they have some shit they want to get off their chests. The band’s eleventh record, Gigaton, also finds its members looking for new ways to […]
File: Q&A with Mike Campbell
Discovering your own particular avenue of expression is not always easy for a young artist. Take the late Tom Petty, for example, who started out sounding a lot like his vocal idols, Bob Dylan and The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn. He just couldn’t help it — that was his creative jumping-off point, which quickly developed into […]
Cover Story – Best Coast
Best Coast anchor Bethany Cosentino admits that her duo’s chiming new Always Tomorrow set, it’s fourth, just might be the Feel-Good Album of the Year. But in retrospect, she only wishes that she at first didn’t have to feel so incredibly bad just to compose it. And she isn’t waxing poetic when she describes the […]
Hello My Name Is…Tim “Ripper” Owens of the Three Tremors
Although the Three Tremors concept was initially conceived in the early 2000s by Iron Maiden wailer Bruce Dickinson, Judas Priest screamer Rob Halford, and QueensrĂżche belter Geoff Tate, it never came to fruition. However, in 2018, Cage vocalist Sean “The Hell Destroyer” Peck began tossing the idea around with journeyman vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-Judas […]
Cover Story: Green Day
On the most instinctual gut level, Billie Joe Armstrong gets it. No question. A la cinematic director Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 visual masterpiece Koyaanisqatsi, life — nationally and around the world — has tipped completely, horribly, maybe irrevocably out of balance. On one recent day alone, the headlines said it all: Freakish, climate-change-spurred floods are swamping […]
Photo Gallery: Lamb of God at House of Vans
Acclaimed metal stalwarts Lamb of God performed a rare intimate show at House of Vans Friday night, commencing a promotional campaign for a new self-titled album and the single “Checkmate,” plus the band’s mega-tour that comes to Tinley Park later this summer. Lead vocalist Randy Blythe also treated fans to his personal photo and artwork […]
Live Review and Photo Gallery – Dirty Honey at Bottom Lounge
Dirty Honey Tuesday, February 11 Bottom Lounge, Chicago For the past year, some music industry folks have been working themselves into a piranha-like frenzy over L.A. blues-rock quartet Dirty Honey. Formed in 2017, the band features singer Marc Labelle, guitarist John Notto, bassist Justin Smolian, and drummer Corey Coverstone. The buzz surrounding the band is heightened in […]
Live Review: DeadMau5 at Navy Pier
Deadmau5 “Cube V3” Saturday, February 1 Navy Pier, Chicago From 2008 to 2015, Joel Zimmerman, aka Deadmau5, was the inescapable force in the world of electronic dance music, one of the most prominent and most easily recognizable names in the genre, putting out albums like Album Title Goes Here and While(1<2). To many people, he […]
![Hello My Name Is…Steve Harris from Iron Maiden and British Lion [with Photo Gallery from The Forge of Joliet]](http://illinoisentertainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/BL11-e1581299331927-150x150.jpg "Hello My Name Is…Steve Harris from Iron Maiden and British Lion [with Photo Gallery from The Forge of Joliet]")
Hello My Name Is…Steve Harris from Iron Maiden and British Lion [with Photo Gallery from The Forge of Joliet]
Liam Gallagher always said that there are only two ways for an English lad to break free from his grey, oppressive, working-class environment — become a professional footballer or start a rock and roll band. Growing up in the London suburb of Leytonstone, Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris clearly remembers doing both. Quite well, […]
Live Review and Photo Gallery: EOB at Lincoln Center
Ed O’Brien (EOB) Lincoln Hall Saturday, February 8, 2020 Following in the footsteps of bandmates Thom Yorke, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway, guitarist and vocalist Ed O’Brien is stepping outside his role as a founding member of Radiohead and occasional high-profile sideman for other artists including Neil Finn. Performing under the name EOB, O’Brien […]
![Stage Buzz: Hey Nonny’s Winter Blues Summit [with added Photo Gallery]](http://illinoisentertainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/13JimmyJohnson1-150x150.jpg "Stage Buzz: Hey Nonny’s Winter Blues Summit [with added Photo Gallery]")
Stage Buzz: Hey Nonny’s Winter Blues Summit [with added Photo Gallery]
Winter has traditionally been a slow season for music festivals in Chicagoland while folks recover from their holiday hangovers. Other than the TNK Festival in Chicago, a sturdy and dependable showcase of emerging talent, there’s not been the equivalent in the suburbs. The folks at Hey Nonny and Straight Arrow Productions are changing the […]
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