Music Top 5: May 2018
Liz Vice has the voice (and the bio) of a blues singer, but instead sings gospel-inflected R&B, creating a gorgeous, hair-raising fusion.
A Token of Their Extreme: A Preview of Project/Object at Martyr’s
Project/Object is notable for the faithful manner in which it performs dauntingly difficult material from Zappa’s catalog, but the musicians take full advantage of opportunities to improvise and color the work with their own personalities, and they exploit the potential for humor that’s baked into Zappa’s music (even the instrumental pieces).
The Hardest-Working Man in Rock: A Preview of Steven Wilson at The Vic Theatre
Despite his massive output and sterling reputation in the prog and rock world, today Steven Wilson still somehow remains just outside the view of the larger masses. Taking into consideration the fact that most everything Wilson sets out to do is an unqualified success, it’s advisable to see him now before that inevitable breakthrough happens.
Shock Value: A Preview of Last Fantastic Nasty at Quenchers
I get the sense that Last Fantastic Nasty are still in that “figuring who we are” phase, where you’ve realized you can get attention by shocking people, but you start thinking long and hard about whether or not you want to. And they do have the musical chops to do well: the songs are metallic and complicated and compelling, even if the lyrics feel like the last gasp of toxic masculinity in the #MeToo era.
Riding a Wave of Buzz: A Preview of U.S. Girls at Empty Bottle
This could be the last chance to catch indie contender Meghan Remy at a midsize club like the Bottle, as her growing buzz and sound will inevitably bring her to larger venues.
A Whole Wide World of Wisdom: A Preview of Wreckless Eric at The Burlington
The man born Eric Goulden continued to follow his singular musical muse, releasing albums of new material every few years. Early 2018 welcomed the latest Wreckless Eric album, “Construction Time & Demolition.” And while forty-plus years after his debut single, Eric hasn’t left his punk roots behind, his latest album remains true to the Class of 1977 DIY ethos
Music Top 5: April 2018
This ferociously gifted twenty-three-year-old British singer-songwriter-rapper King Krule has pulled, from the postmillennial media onslaught, a gorgeous sonic arsenal.
Defiantly Undefined: A New Music Festival Flouts Categorization
For Resonant Bodies, a fest of experimental vocal music that has done well in New York and now arrives in Chicago, singer and producer Lucy Dhegrae has chosen a handful of wildly creative vocalists and given them complete freedom. Creativity is baked into the model… which doesn’t happen as often as you might think.
Crosstown Classics: Previews of Steve Earle at Old Town School and Dessa at Subterranean
While Dessa and Steve Earle might be on flip sides of the musical and gender coins, they both translate the political to the personal and, to some extent, back again.
Giants of the Pop World: A Preview of They Might Be Giants at The Vic Theatre
It’s a challenging path to create music that’s rocking, funny and sophisticated. And it’s an even more daunting challenge to achieve any kind of commercial success when doing it. But Brooklyn-based They Might Be Giants has spent the better part of the last three decades being the exception to those rules.
