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Woods respond to last year’s presidential election with a message and vibe of...
Jammy New York band Woods aren’t any sort of a political combo, but that doesn’t mean the members don’t feel the overwhelming weight of last year’s election. In preparing to make their latest album,...
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Though no longer vanguardists, veteran Mexican rock band Café Tacuba still...
Now in their 27th year, Mexico City quartet Café Tacuba have arguably done more than anyone to give Mexican rock music a broad, serious platform worldwide. As key players in the ascent of rock en...
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Poptone revisit the work of Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets
Daniel Ash, former guitarist of Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love and Rockets, recently told Kansas City’s the Pitch that he was inspired to take to the road again following a half-asleep 4 AM...
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ESG’s stark blend of funk and postpunk influenced an army of dance-punk bands...
Listening to 1983’s Come Away With ESG—while never forgetting the cut-and-paste album art—it’s almost as though the Scroggins sisters (Renee, Valerie, Deborah, Marie) didn’t realize that their raw...
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Lifelong political antagonists in Northern Ireland find common ground in The...
Timothy Spall is Ian Paisley and Colm Meaney is Martin McGuinness in this fictional tale about the Troubles. Nick Hamm's historical fantasy The Journey is based on a real-life incident that took place...
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Clever Rabbit is a feeding frenzy for plant eaters
But will the West Town spot survive past the summer? As you probably know, rabbits are running wild all over Chicago right now. If you haven't seen them, then you must live in a high-rise facing the...
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Bluesman Carl Weathersby brings a soul singer’s vulnerability to the table
This show is part of what Carl Weathersby is calling his “I’m Back Again” tour. That said, the bluesman hasn’t really been absent—he’s recently been heard and seen as part of Pierre Lacocque’s...
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In its second year the Open Air Festival shows it’s got the heavy-rock market...
You should always take lists with a grain of salt, but when Rolling Stone tackles one focused on genre, it’s typically as engaging and thoughtful an overview of a sound as you’re likely to get from an...
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Chicago native Jonah Parzen-Johnson salutes the legacy and generosity of the...
Baritone saxophonist and Chicago native Jonah Parzen-Johnson uses his new album, I Try to Remember Where I Come From (Clean Feed), as a statement of thanks for his artistic roots. He grew up on the...
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Sweden’s Antichrist deliver a second riff-loaded record of 1980s post-Slayer...
It’s been six years since this stalwart Swedish thrash band’s last full-length, and the new Sinful Birth (released by Sweden’s I Hate Records), the long-awaited follow-up to 2011’s Forbidden World,...
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Pianist Angela Hewitt plays Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the heels of her...
In the liner notes for her dazzling new recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Hyperion), Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt details each of the 28 pieces with casual erudition, dispatching technical...
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Power-pop auteur Matthew Sweet returns with his first new album in six years
Last month veteran pop auteur Matthew Sweet dropped his first new album in six years with Tomorrow Forever (out on his own Honeycomb Hideout label), which was culled from sessions that produced more...
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Beijing postpunks Re-Tros ditch the chilly atmospherics for Krautrock and...
After releasing a couple of albums surveying the tundra of postpunk—full of wide-open spaces, instrumental lunges, and feral howls—Beijing three-piece Re-Tros are pivoting toward a minimalism that...
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Thurston Moore finds a comfort zone with his strong new quartet on Rock n...
Over time it’s become clear that Thurston Moore thrives on collaboration, and with the dissolution of Sonic Youth he’s managed to regain his footing as a bandleader with this lean quartet. While he’s...
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Unrivaled Harvey rapper Ty Money bounces back on Cinco De Money 3
Put Ty Money’s recent Cinco De Money 3 mixtape on shuffle and right away you’ll find out what makes the Harvey rapper one of the most exciting voices to recently emerge in the local scene. Following...
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With her 90s anthems Chanté Moore established herself as a defining voice in R&B
If you know Chanté Moore only from TV One’s R&B Divas LA, you’re seriously doing yourself an injustice. This chanteuse’s syrupy pipes gave black women everywhere a reason to love up on their man...
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Hir is Steppenwolf’s latest, funniest victim-impact statement
Oh dad, poor dad, Taylor Mac’s hung you up on meds . . ."Be kind to your parents / though they don't deserve it"—From the 1954 Broadway musical Fanny The hits just keep on coming—along with the jabs,...
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Seams from Scott McClanahan’s marriage
The Sarah Book, the author’s latest, is a “fictional” account of his personal experiences."There is only one thing I know about life. If you live long enough you start losing things.…
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Everyone in Chicago should see ‘Then They Came for Me’
A powerful art exhibit about Japanese-Americans and internment camps is also deeply relevant in the current historical moment. Then They Came for Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWII...
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The Mountain Movers balance a love for overdrive with a disciplined focus
Though they don’t do much to disguise their influences, this quartet from New Haven, Connecticut, kick up a deeply satisfying din by burrowing into their psychedelic comfort zone. On the recent...
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