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Dover Quartet digs deep into post-World War II Europe on its gripping second...
The impressive 2016 debut from this superb young string quartet suggested they might be paragons of orthodoxy: Tribute—Dover Quarter Plays Mozart (Cedille) not only focuses on the composer’s final two...
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Maryland R&B singer Brent Faiyaz spins gold all on his own on Sonder Son
Goldlink’s runaway 2017 hit “Crew” would be nothing without the buttery-smooth vocal hook from Brent Faiyaz. Raised in Columbia, a Maryland suburb that rests on an axis between Baltimore and D.C., the...
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Egyptian death-mask portraits bring their subjects back to life after 2,000...
At the Block Museum, mummies look as alive as you or me. T he impulse to render human likenesses of one kind or another has been with us for 40,000 years, since Paleolithic people first scratched...
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The pan-Asian S.K.Y. opens on Pilsen
Former Intro chef Stephen Gillanders’s vision alights on a gentrifying 18th Street. One of the most absurdly delicious things I've eaten this winter was a humongous lump of deep-fried chicken breast...
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All My Sons joins the pantheon of Court Theatre’s great tragedies
It’s time to place Arthur Miller at the forefront of American drama."We might be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”—Jimmy Gator, in Magnolia…
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Chicago electronic musician Brett Naucke achieves new sophistication by...
Chicago electronic artist Brett Naucke has been a scarce presence on the local scene in recent years, suggesting that his commitment has shifted toward forging new terrain in his home studio rather...
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H.C. McEntire of Mount Moriah steps out on her own with the gorgeous Lionheart
When Heather McEntire’s longtime collaborator in Mount Moriah, Jenks Miller, became busy with the demands of parenthood, she found herself piled up with songs without an outlet to release them....
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Merry punk prankster Chris Farren makes pop-inflected tunes that won’t die on...
Chris Farren is the best kind of punk prankster; he pokes fun at himself as much as anything else, but is also full of earnestness. Although the 31-year-old is a punk-scene veteran, he’s still...
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Chicagoland native K. Flay goes big by bridging the worlds of rap and rock
Wilmette native Kristine Flaherty, aka rapper K. Flay, had to leave home to find inspiration in another onetime local: Liz Phair. Last year Flaherty told Billboard that when she discovered Exile in...
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Indie rock, techno, and classical collide on Scottish classical composer Anna...
Scottish composer Anna Meredith has found a niche working with classical institutions in their efforts to engage new listeners. Her piece “Connect It,” which demonstrates a canon using body percussion...
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The ninth annual Chicago Psych Fest offers the best trips in town
One of the best bargains in the Chicago scene, this well-established festival—currently co-organized by Plastic Crimewave, aka Steve Krakow (a Reader contributor), and artist Matt Ginsberg (Dark Fog,...
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Marilyn Manson pushes for a return to form with Heaven Upside Down
A lot of Manson fans will tell you that Marilyn Manson’s ninth studio album, 2015’s The Pale Emperor, was a massive artistic sidestep for the shock rocker. Instead of his usual industrialized hard...
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The Radio Dept. play detachment off fleeting melodies to create engaging...
If not for the longing and deep-seated dread characteristic of many dream-pop songs, an artist like the Radio Dept. would float right out of our collective consciousness like a lost balloon—there’d be...
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Pianist Orrin Evans brings impressive continuity to the Bad Plus on his first...
Last year pianist Ethan Iverson announced he was leaving the Bad Plus, the singular piano trio he cofounded in 2000 with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. Together they forged a new jazz...
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New Minneapolis rap group Shredders keep the fun in the Doomtree family
Minneapolis rap collective cum label Doomtree have figured out a sustainable source of inspiration that could very well carry them through the decades: each other. Seven members strong (with five MCs...
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Tom Palazzolo’s Love It/Leave It lampoons the binary choice presented to 70s...
Logan Center screens the experimental classic as part of a retrospective on underground distributor Canyon Cinema. This winter the University of Chicago Film Studies Center presents a series of...
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In High-Risers, Ben Austen delivers a long-overdue requiem for Cabrini-Green
A new history of the notorious project reminds us why public housing mattered to the people who lived there—and why it matters still. S ince 1999, when the Chicago Housing Authority launched its $1.6...
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As Chinatown bleeds into Bridgeport, a new generation of young restaurateurs...
A Place by Damao is a Sichuan joint unlike any other. I've recently learned there's no more appropriate viewing when gnawing on a cold duck neck than the Syfy vampire gorefest Van Helsing, which can...
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Pianist Craig Taborn finds new ways to adapt while remaining true to his...
Last month at the Winter Jazzfest in New York I saw keyboardist Craig Taborn share his deep love of heavy metal as a member of drummer Dan Weiss’s new Starebaby project—laying down fierce drones and...
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