Music & Arts news from Chicago-based web media, featuring some of the city’s most insightful writers.
- City to Congress Theater: Clean up your act!
Though it can be admired for filling a void in the local music scene by booking underground sounds and hosting independent concerts that might not otherwise find a home in Chicago, the Congress Theater is notorious among…
- The Secret History of Chicago Music: Jody Williams
Lead guitar on Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love?”, Jody Williams is gigging again after 35 years.
by Plastic Crimewave[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] - Gossip Wolf: Disappears pops up all over
Disappears side projects, an Usher remix for Flosstradamus, a departure from Anatomy of Habit, and more
by Jessica Hopper and Leor Galil
Disappears kicked off A European tour this week to support Pre Language (Kranky) and will spend much of spring on the road, but they continue to maintain a slew of side projects. John Congleton (St. Vincent, Explosions in the Sky) recently mixed the band’s collaboration with drone duo White/Light, and drummer Steve Shelley will release it on his Vampire Blues label in the fall.…[ Read more][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] - Chicago music loses Michael Orlove
It’s official: After his job as this city’s best ever programmer of free live music was twice eliminated by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in the span of less than a year, Michael Orlove is moving on to greener–and hopefully more grateful–pastures. Here is the press… - Memories of Summer Camp
Defunct DIY venue Summer Camp immortalizes its final show with a live seven-inch and DVD
by Leor Galil
On May 14, 2011, I was one of 100 or so people who squeezed into the tiny basement performance space in the back of Logan Square DIY venue Summer Camp. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder, and condensation from the low-hanging pipes dripped on us—or onto the floor, where it mixed with sweat, rainwater tracked in from the downpour outside, and God knows what else to make treacherous slick spots.…[ Read more][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] - Artist on Artist: Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields talks to Kelly Hogan
Stephin Merritt talks to Kelly Hogan about White Castle, Hootie the Owl, and why he can’t do dragStephin Merritt has been the chief songwriter for plenty of bands over the years—the 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, the Gothic Archies—but he’s done his most enduring work, and earned his reputation as a modern-day Cole Porter, with the Magnetic Fields. The band has existed for more than two decades, and on the new Love at the Bottom of the Sea (Merge), Merritt returns to its electronic foundations—a shift away from the more conventional instrumentation on the band’s three previous albums (all for Nonesuch), though the songs do include elaborate acoustic overdubs.…[ Read more][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] - In Rotation: Little White Earbuds’ Steve Mizek on unreleased music
Steve Mizek on unreleased music, Tal Rosenberg on Fleetwood Mac, and Mica Alaniz on 90s R&BTal Rosenberg, Reader digital content editor, is obsessed with. 70s Fleetwood Mac performances on YouTube Chuck Eddy calls a 1976 performance of “World Turning” “Zeppelin disco.”…[ Read more][ Subscribe to the comments on this story ] - Covering SXSW with Jim DeRogatis
South by SouthWest turns the city of Austin, Texas into one of the world’s largest and most chaotic music festivals for a week each March. It’s a daunting event to tackle as a concertgoer, but it’s near impossible to give it its due as a…
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