Our (fairly) regular roundup of Music & Arts related news from Chicago-based web media, featuring thoughts and insight from some of the city’s most dedicated writers.
- Cool Chicago Sounds: Cold Country
“As I know that you are always on the lookout for good, undiscovered psych/psych-inspired music, check out Cold Country’s new EP Missing the Muse,” local publicist August Forte recently emailed. Indeed I am and indeed I did, and the formerly one-man band also known as Phoenix-to-Chicago transplant Sean McConnell quickly made me a fan.
Recording under the name Cold Country—inspired by a comment his father made when informed that he was moving to Chicago from his native Arizona, according to an interview with Windy City Rock—McConnell released two full albums, Libra and To Providence, and the five-song Missing the Muse EP in, respectively, April, May, and June earlier this year. Unlike a lot of prolific home-recording auteurs, both the songs and the sounds are consistently strong, though Missing the Muse is the most impressive of these offerings, all of which are streaming for free or available for download at BandCamp.
The most recent disc benefits from an expansive ork-pop sound and the fact that it’s McConnell’s first recording with a full group, turning the intimate, late-night, Nick Drake folk-rock of his one-man-band releases into something much more lush and grand. Especially valuable is the addition of keyboardist Anna Holmquist, who does a gorgeous lead vocal turn on “Carried Away with the Wind” and adds fetching harmonies on other winners such as “Her Light” and the title track.
“What did I find?/Something divine/Something that’s yours/Nothing was mine,” McConnell sings on the latter. “But have I got nothing left to lose/Now that I am missing the muse?”
I don’t know if the singer and songwriter is pondering romantic loss in those lines. But as far as creativity goes, a muse is the last thing he needs to worry about.
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- Jay Z and Beyonce Aren’t Buying The New Regal Theater
The Internet nearly had a meltdown Wednesday morning with unsubstantiated reports music power couple Jay Z and Beyonce purchased the shuttered New Regal Theater on the city’s South side. [ more › ]
- Is The ‘Kick-Ass’ Film Franchise On The Road To Cult Classic Status?
When a movie flops at the box office it can only hope to reach cult classic status, but what makes a movie a cult classic is so difficult to define. [ more › ]
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