Meet the music fans behind two increasingly popular podcasts.
Author Archives: Bob Mehr
Posted inArts & Culture
Six Organs of Admittance, Singleman Affair
The arc of most psych-rock careers bends in one of two ways. Usually it curves toward the slick, soft, and eventually the ignominiously drab (aka “mature”). But savvier and more committed musicians in the genre, the ones who are in it for the long haul, dig deeper, and with each album he makes as SIX […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
Friday 14 CAKE When these novelty rockers released their Caucasoid flattening of “I Will Survive” ten years ago, sobersides dismissed them as a one-joke wonder. Turns out the joke was on the naysayers. Cake is a gag that not only survives but thrives. They’re still recording for Columbia and have a live disc due this […]
Posted inMusic
Ambulette Hits a Speed Bump; A Fresh Coat for the Redwalls
A gear theft sets the local Capitol signees back nearly $20,000 as they head into the studio.
Posted inArts & Culture
John Hiatt
After the guitar-heavy rock of 2003’s Beneath This Gruff Exterior, John Hiatt decamped to Memphis’s Ardent Studios with producer Jim Dickinson, where he made last year’s more song-oriented Master of Disaster (New West). Recorded with the help of Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood and Dickinson’s sons Cody and Luther–two-thirds of roots rockers the North Mississippi […]
Posted inMusic
Prodigal Soul; A Little Set by Big Black
After breaking their old-school R & B overseas, the south-side duo Brown’s Bag are bringing it back home.
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Country Music Festival
The only themed programming among Taste of Chicago’s music offerings, the Country Music Festival returns with good news and bad. The bad news is that many of the top-billed acts are contemporary country radio staples–Sunday’s headliners in particular will likely deliver hours of overcooked, rock-driven ballads and stompers. But the fest’s organizers have shown some […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
Friday 30 GO-GO’S What’s most remarkable about the Go-Go’s touring on the 25th anniversary of Beauty and the Beat isn’t that they’re still around 25 years later (if mostly confined to the casino/Six Flags circuit), but that in that time only one other group of women who actually played instruments–the Bangles–have achieved anything like their […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Intonation Music Festival
Last year’s inaugural Intonation Music Festival was a collaboration between indie-rock Web site Pitchfork, concert promoter and musician Mike Reed, and event-planning company Skyline Chicago, but despite the festival’s spectacular success its organizers split up before the start of planning for the 2006 installment. Pitchfork and Reed have launched the Pitchfork Music Festival, which debuts […]
Posted inMusic
Billy Bounces Back
After seven years on the coasts, Five Style front man Bill Dolan is back in the neighborhood.
Posted inMusic
The Godfather of Blue-Eyed Soul
A new documentary attempts to unravel the mysteries of Eddie Hinton’s life and career.
Posted inMusic
The Empire Builder
Rudy Acosta, the would-be castle dweller who runs the hip-hop label the Legion, has a new major-label deal and a raft of releases ready to go.
Posted inArts & Culture
Pink Mountaintops, Black Angels
Axis of Evol (Jagjaguwar), the latest album from the PINK MOUNTAINTOPS, leans hard into the question of redemption, going so far as to suggest that the answer lies in getting down with God’s son (and I don’t mean Nas). It’s a funny fixation–funny ha-ha and funny strange–because the previous PMs record was a nonstop freakathon […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
Friday 2 BE YOUR OWN PET This Nashville quartet seems determined to make punk rock sound fun again, without sacrificing a sense of musical adventurousness. The short, raucous, and playful tunes on their latest EP, Summer Sensation (Ecstatic Peace), are hardcore without the grim political machismo, garage rock without the self-righteous authenticity fetish, and emo […]