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Northlight Theatre finds the radicalism in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park
Kate Hamill's "collaboration" adjusts the focus and heightens the drama. Kate Hamill describes her version of Jane Austen's 1814 novel about poor but amiable Fanny Price and her coming of age among...
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Folk rock pioneer Richard Thompson sings more about mortality and loss
Fifty years have passed since Fairport Convention released their self-titled first album, a charmingly eclectic mish-mosh of earnest pop tunes and American singer-songwriter covers enlivened by an...
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The Internet put a friendly foot forward on Hive Mind
The Internet emerged out of the Odd Future collective in 2011, and with their R&B sound and charisma, they’ve effectively stood out among more than a dozen projects associated with the volatile...
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Travis Scott has delivered a feat in hip-hop artistry with the long-awaited...
About a year ago, former President Barack Obama included “Butterfly Effect” by Travis Scott on his list of favorite songs of 2017. It’s crazy to think back to a time when we had a president who—along...
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Star-in-the-making Aaliyah Allah grows while keeping the feeling of her...
Chicago R&B singer-songwriter Aaliyah Allah’s publicly available catalog stretches back five years, to a song she recorded on GarageBand with just a USB mic; as she told Circus magazine in...
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Virginia native 93FeetofSmoke knows what's alluring about Soundcloud rap--and...
I’m not sure who, if anyone, will end up filling the Lil Peep-sized hole in rap, but there’s an awful lot of white rappers cribbing from third-wave emo’s salad days who seem like they’d love to do...
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Double Ferrari’s instrumental riff-rock cuts through thanks to their metal edge
Instrumental guitar rock does not need to brood. It does not need to swoosh, swirl, ache, or throb.…
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Baby Teeth are back, and this time they’re sticking around
It’s been more than five years since local indiepop band Baby Teeth broke up due to bassist Jim Cooper (formerly of the Detholz! and Frodus) relocating to Los Angeles.…
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Kranky partners with Ambient Church to celebrate its 25th birthday in the...
The drifting, beatless songs and subtly abraded electronic textures of Labradford’s 1993 LP Prazision was a shot across the bow of corporate grunge, indie rock, and pretty much everything else going...
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Forever Deaf Fest celebrates a mix of homegrown heavy sounds
Chicago is well-known as an incubator of house music, industrial, noise rock, emo, and drill, to name a few. But the city’s decades-strong legacy of groundbreaking metal has only just begun to get its...
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Mexican black metal progenitors Xibalba Itzaes explore indigenous traditions...
Mexico City black metal band Xibalba Itzaes started out in the early 90s. The word xibalba means “the place of fear,” or the underworld, in Mayan culture, and as with their contemporaries Brujeria,...
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Jessica Moss steps away from the complex arrangements of Thee Silver Mt. Zion...
Best known for her work as part of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra’s string section, Montreal-based violinist Jessica Moss stands beautifully on her own with her new solo LP Entanglement...
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More than a century after its Paris premiere, Cendrillon comes to the Lyric
The archly sophisticated production was worth the wait. Cendrillon, Jules Massenet's French opera version of "Cinderella," premiered in Paris in 1899 but is just now making its debut at Lyric Opera....
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Chicago jazz drummer Charles Rumback introduces a new quartet
At the core of the Chicago jazz and improv scene is the constant building of new groups fueled by distinct personnel, concepts, or instrumentation. Drummer-composer Charles Rumback has exemplified...
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Owen’s Mike Kinsella leads a lineup of local indie bandleaders for a good cause
Looking for a concert to tug on your heartstrings while helping those less fortunate than you? At the Beat Kitchen’s Holiday Toy Drive, a jam-packed lineup of local emo and indie-rock icons will play...
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Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe makes great music by sharing the many facets of...
In January 2017, Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe uploaded a YouTube video called “#getTWISTEDsundays {Chill Bill},” the first in a series of videos in which he freestyles while getting his hair twisted by...
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Golden hip-hop producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad make an opus...
Over the past five years, Adrian Younge has become an in-demand producer within veteran hip-hop circles; he’s received equal billing on full-length collaborations with Ghostface Killah (2013’s Twelve...
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Trumpeter Russ Johnson celebrates the release of his new album Headlands
Trumpeter Russ Johnson is a fleet, lyrical soloist and a shrewd, supportive accompanist with a satisfyingly broad tone—qualities that made him a prized sideman during his 23-year sojourn in New York...
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The electronic cumbia of Bomba Estéreo dances on
In the 90s, Bogotá bassist and producer Simón Mejia was strongly influenced by Sidestepper, a British and Colombian collective that combined electronic music with salsa and cumbia rhythms. He’s been...
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Innovative Norwegian quartet brings their unorthodox improv to Constellation
A rattling combination of jazz and unfettered freedom is set to be unleashed at Constellation when Norwegian reedist Frode Gjerstad arrives with a quartet, replete with a pair of bassists. It’s always...
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