Ardor for Community: Last Word Quintet’s Album Release Gig Doubles as a Club Benefit
The similarity in vocalist Al Day and poet Marc Kelly Smith’s voices gives an illusion of hearing two competing strands of the same restless consciousness.
Heavy Meta: Daniel Knox Goes Beyond the Concept Album
Knox is charting an emotional and aesthetic landscape across his recorded output. He’s playing a very long game, one that—with this new album—has begun to pay off.
On the Virtual Road: Todd Rundgren Plays a Multi-City Tour—Entirely from Chicago
“We’re fooling ourselves as much as we’re fooling the audience,” Rundgren says with a smile. “We’re self-hypnotizing that we’re in that town… Buffalo or Indianapolis or San Diego.”
The Idea of the Blues: It’s Time for Chicago to Capitalize on the Heritage that Changed the Course of Music
No city has better music stories to tell than Chicago.
Music Top 5: February 2021
Outstanding new album releases by stellar Chicago artists, available now.
Psychedelicacy: A Review of Reality Anonymous’ “The Ghost Host, Vol. 1”
Lyn Vaus’ vocals, the rich layers of instrumentation and throwback sounds transport us to a groovy sixties cellar, with an off-kilter Jim Morrison (pre-leather trousers) at the mic.
Eclectic Charge: A Review of Origin of Animal’s “Confined to Infinite Space”
The title of the band’s new studio album, “Confined to Infinite Space,” is an apt description of how it views the lockdown: as more opportunity than handicap.
Legacy and Loss: Looking Back On, And Forward with, Emily Blue
Blue’s solo purview for the past three years has been synthetic electropop, danceable at its core, with lyrics that perfectly exhibit her sense of humor, sensuality and intelligence.
Barbed Wire and Silk: A Review of Audrey Foxx’s “Stone Cold Woman”
Behind Foxx’s control and high gloss there are snatches of the searing, ecstatic anarchy of the blues. The ironic twist is that she’s absolutely red hot in declaring herself stone cold.
Ghosts of Gigs Past: A Life In Chicago Music, Pre-2020
In the early 2000s, if you could play, write or produce, you had a pretty good shot at doing something with the city and getting paid for it.
