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Marianne Faithfull and Warren Ellis set poetry to music on She Walks in Beauty
In these dark days, when counterculture heroes of the 60s and 70s are dropping at an alarming rate, it’s important to take a break from mourning and assess who’s still standing—and who’s still...
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Veteran Chicago rockers Great Deceivers bid adieu with a somber but vital...
It’s difficult to describe the vastness of Chicago indie rock and punk without mentioning Great Deceivers, partly because of the four-piece’s pedigree. Guitarist Russell Harrison and bassist-vocalist...
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Chicago math-pop masters Paper Mice return with 1-800-MONDAYS
It’s been almost eight years since we’ve heard new music from local weirdos Paper Mice, but their brand-new 1-800-MONDAYS (Three One G) was worth the wait—it’s easily their best record yet. This time...
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Dinosaur Jr. kick out epic melodies, hooks, and noise on their best...
Dinosaur Jr.’s second act is a feel-good gift that keeps on giving. These unwavering indie-rock lifers seem to have access to a bottomless well of arena-ready solos and riffs, brain-sticking melodies,...
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Nez draws from house, hip-hop, and R&B for his invigorating Midnight Music EP
Chicago artist Nesbitt “Nez” Wesonga broke out in the early 2010s with hip-hop production crew Nez & Rio. By 2014, they’d helped make a bona fide hit album: Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron features three...
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Overflow can’t be contained
South Loop’s Overflow Coffee carries on the legacy of Vee-Jay Records. All of us have been witness to the slow erasure of a once legendary building. Often these structures appear to have been...
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Code of the Freaks highlights Hollywood’s ableism
The Chicago-made documentary tells stories of disability that aren’t shown on the silver screen."It's all the same movie," says writer Susan Nussbaum in the opening moments of the 2020 documentary...
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E. Faye Butler brings the Goods to Artemisia
Chicago musical theater star E. Faye Butler helms an online sci-fi feminist drama. Sometimes, we just don't give ourselves the space. That's something E. Faye Butler, in her new capacity as the board...
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Chicago postrock misfits Monobody smooth out their frenzied style on Comma
Instrumental five-piece Monobody have the tenacity and vision to add to Chicago’s storied postrock legacy, and they proved it with 2018’s Raytracing, which borrowed its frenzied energy from punk and...
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After a 16-year wait, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Matt Sweeney resurface as...
When wolves form a pack, they form bonds that last a lifetime. A similar feeling of familiarity and connection suffuses the duo project of Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and Matt Sweeney.…
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Berta Bigtoe multi-instrumentalist Astrachan flies his freak flag higher on...
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Ben Astrachan was born nearly two generations after 1967’s famous Summer of Love, but he understands the whimsy, grace, and joy of that era’s music so well you’d think he...
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Studio-born midwestern rockers Cumbie introduce their music to the world...
Cumbie front man Aaron O’Neill says his three-piece isn’t a “real band”—they’ve only ever performed publicly once—but on their new self-released debut, EP, they rock like road-tested veterans. O’Neill...
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Arc Mountain is the underground-label collaboration you’ve been waiting for
Like doesn’t necessarily breed like—just ask all the friends for whom I’ve tried (and failed) to play cupid. But similarity is bliss for underground labels Deathbomb Arc and Hausu Mountain, which...
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Chicago comp says we’re still in the same Situation, still caring for one...
Last July, local arts and music nonprofit Quiet Pterodactyl put together a sprawling compilation called Situation Chicago to support local music venues struggling during the pandemic. Almost a year...
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For Kyle Beachy, skateboarding is The Most Fun Thing
The author takes a deep dive into the culture of the lifestyle and his personal connection to it. What do you think of when you hear the word skateboarding? A kid with bleached hair hiding half his...
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Yautja perfect their maximalist metal on The Lurch
Nashville metal trio Yautja are a great example of how the old adage “less is more” doesn’t always apply. For ten years now, these three dudes—whose band name is also the species name of the fictional...
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Tuareg guitar group Les Filles de Illighadad lock into their groove as a...
Fatour Seidi Ghali is surely not the first person to become enamored of an older sibling’s guitar. When she was about ten, her older brother, Ahmoudou Madassane (who currently plays rhythm guitar for...
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Chicago rapper Smba rebuilds pop punk into uplifting rap
Chicago-via-Michigan rapper Smba plies pop-punk aesthetics to make hip-hop tracks soaked in melancholy. These songs could tentatively be described as Soundcloud rap, since that term (which took hold...
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Chicago rapper Sage, the 64th Wonder shows he’s still got gas in the tank...
When I interviewed Chicago rapper and SlumpGang member Receo Gibson a few years ago about changing his stage name from Sage, the 64th Wonder to Lunxch, he said he did it to help get out of a creative...
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CJFC brings indie Japanese films to the midwest
The Chicago Japan Film Collective highlights the country’s lesser-known cinematic works."This is a wish come true," says Yuki Sakamoto, cofounder of the Chicago Japan Film Collective (CJFC), the...
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