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Chicago reedists Jason Stein and Greg Ward front a dynamic collective with...
Bass clarinetist Jason Stein spent a good chunk of last year and most of 2016 playing large theaters and basketball arenas with his scrappy trio Locksmith Isidore as the opening act for his...
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Tim Stine changes the complexion of his idiosyncratic improvisations in a...
Over the last couple of years one of my favorite working bands has been a knotty trio led by guitarist Tim Stine, with bassist Anton Hatwich and either Frank Rosaly or Adam Vida on drums. Both rhythm...
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Instrumental duo Space Blood aim to paint Ian’s Party all the colors of the...
Start a two-piece instrumental bass-and-drums rock duo with a penchant for mutant masks and sounds that might’ve been forged during the opening reception of a back-alley art gallery, and watch the...
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Sons of the Silent Age revive the music of David Bowie’s Berlin trilogy
After David Bowie decamped from Los Angeles to the then-divided city of Berlin in the mid-70s, he recorded Low, “Heroes,” and Lodger. The three albums, known as the Berlin Trilogy, contain some of the...
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Tonya Harding was a victim too
And you get her side of the story in I, Tonya. One of the most difficult moves in professional figure skating competitions is a triple axel, which requires the skater to leap forward from the outside...
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At Intuit, only a glimpse of the immersive art environment Pasaquan
“Outsider” artist Eddie Owens Martin’s seven-acre utopia in Georgia must be seen to be solved. What makes a person withdraw from the seen and known world most people live in in favor of an environment...
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A dynamic octet puts a propulsive spin on the music of the idiosyncratic...
Plenty of ensembles in jazz and new-music circles have put their spin on the idiosyncratic compositions of the blind New York composer Louis Hardin, aka Moondog, who died in Germany in 1999....
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Two improvised saxophone-drum duos show that age is nothing but a number on...
These two sax-percussion duos represent several generations in Chicago improvised music—saxophonist Gerrit Hatcher is 26, while drummer Steve Hunt is 63—but all the musicians share an exploratory...
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Saint Louis roots rocker Pokey LaFarge smoothes edges with anodyne R&B flavor...
With his recent Manic Revelations (Rounder), Saint Louis roots maven Pokey LaFarge hasn’t surrendered his love of a simpler musical era, but he seems to have decided that polishing up his sound might...
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Milwaukee harsh noise artist Peter J Woods confronts white priviledge in a...
Milwaukee’s loudest Renaissance man, Peter J Woods has spent the last decade and a half keeping his energy flowing through a variety of media—he’s an absurdist, avant-garde playwright, a performance...
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Jazz guitarist Dan Phillips caps off another return to Chicago with the...
While electric guitarist Dan Phillips spends most of his time in Bangkok, Thailand, where he teaches music at Silpakorn University, he heads back to Chicago every year to visit family and reconnect...
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Hardtrap producer Say My Name excels beyond the intensity and volume of his...
LA electronic producer Dayvid Lundie-Sherman, aka Say My Name, is the self-proclaimed pioneer of hardtrap, a combination of hardstyle and electronic trap. Lundie-Sherman blends the boisterous parts of...
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R&B singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko finds solace in herself on Trip
In July 2012, Miyagi Chilombo, older brother of LA singer-songwriter Jhené Aiko, died of a brain tumor at the age of 26, following a two-year struggle with cancer. Aiko’s recent trio of creative...
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Deep Dark Woods brings a haunting beauty to its reimagined array of murder...
On Yarrow (Six Shooter), the first studio album in four years by veteran Canadian folk-rock band Deep Dark Woods, the group continues to pursue singer Ryan Boldt’s harrowing end-time visions, putting...
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Rising musical wiz Gus Dapperton scours soft rock for his pop future
Although he’s only a hair’s breadth into his 20s, Gus Dapperton makes effervescent music that feels like it emerged from an early 80s time capsule that was discovered buried deep within a picturesque...
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St. Vincent steps away from her proggy roots and dives into electro-pop on...
Upon my first listen to St. Vincent’s newest album, October’s Masseducation, I experienced disappointment. Produced largely by hit machine Jack Antonoff, it’s a massive step away from the knotty,...
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Chicago reedist Ken Vandermark, Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, and...
It’s never been a secret that Chicago free-jazz reedist Ken Vandermark is inspired by punk rock; it’s obvious in the the raw directness of his performance and the pile-driver energy of his playing....
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Could the selfie smash the patriarchy?
In her book The Selfie Generation, Alicia Eler explores the impact of a cultural phenomenon. If you're an Instagram user, you've probably noticed a hashtag called #2017bestnine circulating in your...
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The madness to Jim Carrey’s method
Chris Smith’s documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond looks at Carrey’s immersive screen performance as Andy Kaufman. This week's most prominent new release is Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom...
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Black Veil Brides are back in black, but they never left
Fun game: make an 80s hard-rock/hair-metal/stadium-goth/early-thrash-metal playlist, sneak a track by LA’s contemporary Black Veil Brides onto it, and see if anyone notices. Bonus points if you pass...
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