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Drone titans Sunn O))) play two shows at Rockefeller Chapel and release the...
If you’ve ever heard the music of dark-hooded dronemeisters Sunn O))), you may have reached the conclusion that its core members, Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, have a different sense of time...
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Michigan posthardcore band La Dispute contemplate the forgotten dead on Panorama
A little more than 18 miles separate Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Lowell, a small manufacturing town to its east. Fulton Street is a patch of state highway M-21 that connects the two, and Jordan...
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Eclectic guitarist Steve Gunn delves into vivid storytelling on The Unseen In...
Steve Gunn’s new album, The Unseen In Between (Matador), contains the most assertively outgoing music of the Brooklyn-based guitarist’s career. It grabs the listener right out of the gate with the...
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Kinks guitarist Dave Davies continues to stake his claim as a rawk god at age 72
Whenever folks discuss the great guitarists of the British Invasion, names such as Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and Pete Townshend reliably come up, but one rocker always seems to get short shrift:...
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Chicago’s Pink Avalanche sound as moody and tense as ever with their newly...
Fronted by Chicago music-scene staple Che Arthur (former member of Atombombpocketknife, sometimes Bob Mould backup singer, and sound guy extraordinaire), Pink Avalanche have been cranking out wiry,...
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Composer and woodwind player Anna Webber gets down to the intricate essentials
Invoking the clock in a musical context raises certain expectations about timekeeping, but composer and woodwind player Anna Webber subverts them on her new Clockwise (Pi). She rarely has...
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Trop-pop siblings Wild Belle turn inward on Everybody One of a Kind
As Wild Belle, siblings and Chicagoland natives Natalie and Elliot Bergman construct a tropical pop sound that draws from rocksteady, reggae, dub, dancehall, West African music, and more. The eclectic...
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Chicago club-music provocateurs Mutant Beat Dance go big with their debut album
Local synth wizard Beau Wanzer formed outre club-music group Mutant Beat Dance a decade ago with house producer Melvin Oliphant III (aka Traxx), and in a recent interview with music site Strange...
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A kebab crawl from the lake and beyond
A handful of new restaurants offers Turkey's most recognizable culinary export and more."We like the sea and the lake," says Özkan Yilmaz, the owner of Turkitch, a new café in Lakeview just a...
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Chicago hip-hop series All Smiles signs off with a generation-spanning blowout
No other series has done as much to demonstrate the breadth and depth of contemporary Chicago hip-hop as All Smiles. Launched seven years ago by rapper-singer Rich Jones, the intergenerational monthly...
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Should-have-been British rock legend Terry Reid plays a rare Chicago show
“There are only three things happening in England,” Aretha Franklin was quoted as saying in 1968. “The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and Terry Reid.” Few have had careers as simultaneously high-flying...
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Brooklyn singer-songwriter Emily Reo goes big with her home-recorded sound
For 2013’s Olive Juice, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Emily Reo made detailed, intimate songs with what sounds like a small symphony of toy instruments powered by nine-volt batteries. She went even...
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Jazz drummer Makaya McCraven hones his skill at crafting compositions from...
By now, the distinctive methods with which jazz drummer Makaya McCraven composes albums are well-known. Many of us learned about his prowess as a producer from 2015’s In the Moment, an expansive...
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Gospel piano takes center stage at the Sirens showcase
Local label the Sirens has long upheld the tradition of Chicago blues piano, and in the past decade or so it’s begun exploring the neglected world of gospel piano as well. This show features three...
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DIY rockers Guerilla Toss blend whimsy and profundity on Twisted Crystal
Guerilla Toss are down with the Grateful Dead. In an impassioned Facebook post from July 2015, the New York-based band threw laurels upon a group they called “the first ‘DIY’ band,” noting that the...
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Reunited Swedish hardcore pioneers Crude S.S. make a rare stateside tour
History has been so indifferent to Swedish hardcore pioneers Crude S.S. (short for “Society System”) that when the trio’s own members get a little foggy on the details, it’s hard to find any evidence...
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Lefty troubadour Billy Bragg looks “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” in a...
With his instantly recognizable voice—stark, blustery, and heartfelt—Billy Bragg has always had a no-frills musical style. His innovativeness manifests mostly in his career path.…
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Saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi adapts the compositions of street musician...
Even by New York City standards, Louis “Moondog” Hardin (1916-1999) was a character. For a quarter century beginning in the late 1940s, his blind, hirsute form occupied a spot on Sixth Avenue.…
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On Mint, global citizen Alice Merton unpacks her nomadic lifestyle
Europe was way ahead of the United States with Alice Merton: Her 2016 single “No Roots” made it to number two on the German charts in 2017 and charted all over the continent—including in France,...
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The reunion of the original Misfits is pure punk-rock joy
Hands-down the funniest moment of 2016 happened at Riot Fest, during the insanely hyped reunion of Misfits members Glenn Danzig, Jerry Only, and Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. In the middle of an...
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