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.
- Rimshots: Powerful stuff from two alt-country hell-raisers
Lydia Loveless, Somewhere Else (Bloodshot Records)
What a better world we’d live in if America’s teenage girls admired this fearless Ohio cow punk instead of Taylor Swift. As impressive as Indestructible Machine was when she made her Bloodshot debut in 2011, Loveless’ third and latest is simply stunning, showing even more musical and lyrical maturity. That barn-burning voice! That hell-raising attitude! She’s no goody two-shoes—she’s got her unhealthy crushes and bad habits, to be sure—but neither is she ever anything less than a paradigm of fully empowered self-respect.
Rating on the four-star scale: 4 stars.
Click here for my review on Sound Opinions.
Angel Olsen, Burn Your Fire for No Witness (Jagjaguwar)
On her third album, this St. Louis to Chicago to North Carolina transplant summons not so much the Patsy Cline-meets-Leonard Cohen pastiche that many critics are hailing but rather a more rootsy, less pretentious early Liz Phair. The vocals are captivating when she’s in sing-speak mode, but the lyrics grab you even harder: “I heard my mother thinking me right back into my birth/I laughed so loud inside myself it all began to hurt,” she sings in “White Fire.” Potent stuff.
Rating on the four-star scale: 3.5 stars.
Click here for my review on Sound Opinions.
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@JimDeRogatis, join me on Facebook, and podcast Sound Opinions and Jim + Carmel’s TV + Dinner. - Flogging Molly Brings Drunken Lullabies to the Aragon Ballroom, 3/8
Can you believe that Irish punk outfit Flogging Molly has been playing music together for their Green 17 tour for a decade now, and has been recording music for 15 years? I sure couldn’t, yet as I look forward to St. Patrick’s Day solely as an excuse to listen to only Flogging Molly on repeat, it makes sense. It feels like they are constantly evolving, yet still maintaining a solid presence in the music world.
This year, they are gearing up for the epic 10th anniversary concert celebration of their Green 17 Tour, which will definitely prove to be just as head-banging, foot-stomping, and raucously energetic as ever before. Stopping in 27 major cities including Chicago on March 8th, Flogging Molly will grace us with their infectiously joyous presence and undoubtedly turn several concert halls into packed dance parties and lively mosh pits.
A gathering place for devoted Flogging Molly fans, Green 17 represents a sort of catch up each year, where the band can reconnect with fans who adore their music so dearly. The 10th anniversary will also mark its closing reign, as the group prepares to record a new album slated for release in early 2015. A four year hiatus from recorded material illuminates this new record, sure to bring new twists from the punch-laden anthems that are consistently revered by their fanbase.
Flogging Molly plays the Aragon Ballroom (1106 W. Lawrence Ave.) this Saturday, March 8. The show begins at 8pm with The Drowning Men and the Crombies opening. Tickets are $42.60.
- Around Town: Alien Surfaces
We slipped in some abstract photography into today’s gallery. [ more › ]
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