Clik here to view.
Jim Lauderdale’s range sparkles on two very different forthcoming albums
As if we needed another reminder of the catholic sensibilities of country auteur Jim Lauderdale, on August 3 he’ll drop a pair of disparate albums on Yep Roc that casually reveal his easygoing range...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Serpentwithfeet makes queer, vibrating R&B that sounds like nothing else on...
Serpentwithfeet’s recently released debut album, Soil (Secretly Canadian), is essentially one long, ecstatic warble. The R&B singer-songwriter genius also known as Josiah Wise sings with the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Houston proto-metal misfits Josefus make a rare trip to Chicago
I’ve never been to Houston, but I imagine it to be a place where the humidity is so omnipresent it can seep into your bones, cloud your vision, and permeate your art. Granted, my impression is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Zither maestro Laraaji continues exploring musical paths no one else can see
Born Edward Larry Gordon in 1943, composer, zither maestro, and experimental musician Laraaji has spent his life making music that captures humanity’s pulse and then some. He’s walked a colorful path...
View ArticleClik here to view.
British reedist Shabaka Hutchings brings his Caribbean-flavored jazz quartet...
Jazz-related music rarely gets any sort of mainstream hype these days, and it’s gratifying when one of the figures attracting wide attention outside of the jazz press actually deserves it. British...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sarah Shook and Kelly Willis essay different strains of disaffection with...
Sarah Shook and Kelly Willis are a generation apart in age, but listening to each songwriter’s new album in succession prove that breakups, kiss-offs, and immediate consolation are timeless themes in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Golden Hour Kacey Musgraves complements her inner happiness with a fizzy...
Since Kacey Musgraves released her 2015 album Pageant Material she’s gained popularity and also a husband, fellow singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly. On her third studio album, Golden Hour (MCA...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Emo granddaddy Jeremy Enigk revisits his orchestral-pop solo debut, Return of...
Seattle emo superheroes Sunny Day Real Estate were falling apart at the end of 1994, when they recorded LP2, an album that still feels like a comet entering earth’s atmosphere. Listening to it, I get...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Luke Winslow-King has left New Orleans for his native Michigan, but the sound...
On his latest album Blue Mesa (Bloodshot), suave roots-rock maven Luke Winslow-King has thankfully expunged the acrimony that dripped from his 2016 breakup album, I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Geof Bradfield takes inspiration from Chicago comedy culture and French...
In his typical fashion, reedist, composer, and bandleader Geof Bradfield deployed a veritable notebook of conceptual conceits when writing and formulating his new album Yes, and . . . Music for Nine...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rich Homie Quan shows he’s more than just the “Ooh Ooh Ooh” guy
Lyricism doesn’t immediately come to mind as rapper Rich Homie Quan’s standout quality. The Atlanta rapper’s breakout hits, including 2015’s “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” or 2013’s “Type of Way,” were heavy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Andersonville’s Passerotto is a tale of two peninsulas
One Off Hospitality vet Jennifer Kim’s unlikely union of Korean and Italian is seamless and inspired. I was once taken by well-meaning hosts to a large Italian chain restaurant in the midsize city of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Oak Park Festival Theatre uncovers hidden depths in You Can’t Take It With You
Director Jason Gerace focuses on character development, not punchlines. There are probably safer plays in the American theater canon than George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s Pulitzer Prize-winning...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago’s taco game is strong: these 3 spots prove the taqueria, if nothing...
A taco crawl for the end times: El Santo Taqueria, the Chicago Taco Authority, and Tomatillo Taco-Ville There's been a lot of freakishness forced down our throats by the idiocracy in recent times, but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A government official's child rape is swept under the rug in Angels Wear White
Vivian Qu directed this tense Chinese thriller about the powerful and the powerless. In the Chinese drama Angels Wear White, screening this week at Gene Siskel Film Center, writer-director Vivian Qu...
View ArticleClik here to view.
After 139 years, Pirates of Penzance is still a satisfying combination of...
Saltbox Theatre Collective's production hits Sullivan's notes and lands Gilbert's punchlines. The genius of this 139-year-old comic opera lies in how gracefully Gilbert and Sullivan are able to have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Music is the connecting tissue in the indie drama Hearts Beat Loud, starring...
Offerman stars as a record store owner dreading his daughter’s departure for college in Brett Haley's new film. A refreshing take on the coming-of-age story, Brett Haley's Hearts Beat Loud follows the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
British musician James Hunter makes a virtue of his consistent devotion to...
On James Hunter’s recent Whatever It Takes (Daptone) a brief liner note by pianist Sam Boncon delivers some straight talk that might seem like a dis in most contexts: “there’s nothing new here.”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Martha Redbone Roots Project transforms the words of William Blake into...
If you were looking for compelling source material for an album of 21st-century Americana, you might not start with poems written in England at the tail end of the 18th century. But the 2012 debut...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago singer and poet Marvin Tate forms a versatile group that measures up...
Poet, singer, and performer Marvin Tate has been a steady presence in Chicago’s artistic fringe for several decades, working with Leroy Bach’s art-funk band Uptighty back in the 90s while also...
View Article