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LA studio rat Chris Schlarb keeps evolving his lush Psychic Temple project
LA guitarist, singer, and songwriter Chris Schlarb earns his bread as a recording engineer, and over the years he’s turned his studio, Big Ego, into his personal laboratory, routinely bottling the...
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Time is of the essence in David Lowery’s A Ghost Story
Casey Affleck stars as a dead man watching and waiting for all eternity. It's all about time," reads the moody grayscale poster for David Lowery's supernatural drama A Ghost Story. Nothing on the...
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Split-Rail reimagines a lowbrow midwestern culinary heritage
A team of Ada Street alums led by chef Zoe Schor remake the McNugget and other edible icons. If Split-Rail opened for breakfast and lunch I could see hanging out there all day talking to myself about...
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Asperger’s Are Us don’t need to mine autism for comedy gold
The Boston troupe, who are the subject of a Netflix documentary, aren’t defined by their condition. Everyone in the four-man sketch comedy troupe Asperger's Are Us is on the autism spectrum, but the...
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How Amanda Williams draws attention to the valuation of black neighborhoods
The local artist is the subject of a new exhibit at the MCA. On the 5900 block of Stewart Avenue, a quiet, grassy lot in Englewood, there's a brick house painted from top to bottom in the teal hue of...
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Cdot Honcho races through his songs as quickly as he’s rising through...
South-side MC Cdot Honcho raps like a cartoon armadillo speedily rolling through patchy desert terrain. He blows through many of his tracks—at least the ones built with ballast percussion, nightmare...
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Veteran Chicago producer and rapper Tyree Cooper shows there’s more to him...
Even in retrospect, hip-house still seems like the cousin nobody wants to claim as their own. Born in the late 80s out of Fast Eddie’s desire to make hip-hop at DJ International, the historically...
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Khalid’s small-scale groundedness sets him apart from the contemporary R&B pack
R&B wunderkind Khalid trades on a sound and persona that can’t help but feel responsive to the Weeknd-influenced goth soul of his peers Bryson Tiller, Dvsn, and 6lack. On American Teen (RCA), he’s...
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Tenor saxophonists Artie Black and Hunter Diamond play sophisticated postbop...
The two young tenor saxophonists leading the newish quartet Black Diamond don’t indulge in the bravado and flash that so many green jazz musicians exhibit when they set out to make a recording. Artie...
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Argentine sound artist Andrea Pensado dispenses with classical composition to...
Having studied composition in Poland in the 1990s and written extensively for chamber groups, soloists, and orchestras, Argentine sound artist Andrea Pensado has moved over time toward a more...
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Aurelio Voltaire gives gothic cabaret the jolt of over-the-top silliness we...
To hell with the monstrous charlatan currently mucking up the White House—if you want a one-man lifestyle brand to meet all your needs, consider Aurelio Voltaire. The musician, artist, writer, actor,...
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Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones raise funds to introduce young women to...
Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones collaborate on two fronts. First, as musical partners: Thorpe, a founding member of Mercury Rev who’s performed with Pauline Oliveros, Nate Wooley, and J. Mascis, plays...
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Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour lights up Millennium Park with the most...
Of the dozens of shows I’ll see this summer, I’ve looked forward most to this outdoor concert by Senegalese national hero Youssou N’Dour. Born in 1959 to a griot mother and a car mechanic father, he...
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On Weddings & Funerals, Chicago indie rockers the Kickback make ugliness...
In May, Kickback front man Billy Yost told Billboard that he wrote part of “Will T,” the first single from the band’s recent Weddings & Funerals (Jullian), at age 18; Yost wound up completing the...
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Cellist Daniel Levin returns to Chicago with quartet music and an improvised...
New York-based cellist Daniel Levin is in the midst of another busy year, toggling between rigorous free improvisation and outward-bound ensemble-oriented projects. He’s at his most visceral on the...
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On Sevenfive, Chicago quintet Gaudete Brass explores the influence of...
In 2013, Chicago chamber quintet Gaudete Brass were invited to play in a celebration for the 75th birthday of the American classical composer John Corigliano. His writing for their particular...
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Chicago saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher steps into the spotlight with an...
Improvised solo saxophone performance isn’t the kind of thing you’d expect a 26-year-old newcomer to the scene to jump into with both feet. But Gerrit Hatcher makes a convincing case that he’s ready...
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Kentucky fingerstyle guitar master Mark Fosson stays connected to his...
More than four decades ago, a prodigiously talented Kentucky guitarist named Mark Fosson earned the praise of the great John Fahey, who signed Fosson to his Takoma label on the strength of a demo...
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At HaiSous, Thai Dang mounts the restaurant comeback of the year
The former Embeya chef leads a peasant revolt in Pilsen with homey, unfussy Vietnamese food. Only the most miserable cad would not wish good things to come to Thai and Danielle Dang. The chef and...
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Immigration: The next wave of craftivism for a Pussyhat Project cofounder
At the Smart Museum of Art, “Jayna Zweiman: Welcome Blanket” crowdsources handmade blankets for incoming migrants. For a while last winter, Jayna Zweiman was the most famous artist in America,...
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