The Gold Web @TheGoldWeb Plenty of local bands can work up a groove, but few give you as much to look at as the Gold Web. The glam-rock quartet put out their self-titled debut album at the end of 2014, though the studio takes of their songs seem to be largely a formality—the Gold Web […]
Category: Music & Nightlife 2015 Critics’ Picks
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best 4 AM bar for live music
The Owl The Owl is more than just another 4 AM bar filled with already-drunks pining to extend the night further into the wee hours. While the Logan Square hideaway has several features that pair well with fun mistakes—dim lighting, mirrored walls, a decadent waterfall flowing behind the long, curved bar—it also books obscure acts […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best cross between the Breeders and Lightning Bolt
Melkbelly Melkbelly wrangle the tidal-size tension and release of noise rock with expert hands, pushing its blown-out frenzy inch by inch toward endearing indie pop. On last year’s Pennsylvania (Automatic) the four-piece contort cinder-block bass, scraggly guitars, and brash, crackling art-punk drumming into all sorts of different shapes; the album’s longest song, closer “Scrupulous,” has […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best group making music with the contents of a thrift-store basement
Partial It’s always sad when somebody robs a tour vehicle, and it’s happened to acts as big as Sonic Youth and Leon Russell—to avoid simply throwing in the towel and going home, the musicians are forced to play borrowed equipment or buy an entire new stage rig, while sending increasingly desperate pleas to fans asking […]
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Best career reboot by a septuagenarian harmonica player
Charles “Organaire” Cameron Before moving to Chicago in 1976, Charles Cameron was an important part of the ska and reggae scenes thriving in Jamaica: as Charley Organaire, he played harmonica in the studio for the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Toots & the Maytals, and Bob Marley. After he moved to Chicago, he formed a new band […]
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Best feminist rock ‘n’ roll exorcism
She Speaks in Tongues Kate McCandless samples music as hungrily as Girl Talk, but she doesn’t use a computer. With her band She Speaks in Tongues, the singer and guitarist repurposes well-worn rock and blues classics into new narratives. For the group’s debut, 2014’s Gloria, Guitar, they recorded original arrangements that consist entirely of pieces […]
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Best band primed to break out this year
Ne-Hi @nehi_band OK, maybe not so much “primed” as “teetering on the edge of.” Indie-rock four-piece Ne-Hi dropped their raw self-titled debut a little over a year ago via local label Manic Static (which has since issued a second pressing), so by now its wistful, reverb-washed melodies, perfectly simple guitar leads, and swooshing, all-for-one choruses […]
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Best hot dice
Crown Tap Room 2821 N. Milwaukee 773-252-9741 There are hundreds of ways to get fall-over hammered at a local drinking establishment. And so many of them involve a fiery-eyed yahoo—someone you likely met that same night—demanding “Shots!” A staggered line of shot glasses on top of a well-worn bar isn’t as much a slippery slope […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best new music blogger
Lorena Cupcake at storebrandsoda.com @lorenacupcake Lorena Cupcake, 28, founded Store Brand Soda with the even more pseudonymous Hotdish Ramone in August 2014, inspired by the combo of music calendar and blog at garage-rock clearinghouse Victim of Time. Friendly, playful, and no-bullshit, Cupcake’s posts use a dirt-under-the-fingernails familiarity with Chicago underground rock to convey unpretentious, all-aboard […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best new south-side nightlife spot
The Promontory 5311 S. Lake Park 312-801-2100 promontorychicago.com Whatever your feelings are about the food and drink at Hyde Park’s the Promontory, you’d be hard-pressed to find much wrong with the venue’s performance space, a gorgeous room with atom-shaped chandeliers, a great bar, and clean acoustics. But what distinguishes the Promontory are the acts it […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best musical anniversary
The 50th year of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians With the exception of the anniversary of my marriage, I tend to be pretty ambivalent about such celebrations—they happen every year, after all. But the achievements of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since its foundation in 1965 are so […]
Posted inBest of Chicago
Best punk-rock LGBTQ night
Glitter Creeps “I would have killed for a rock ‘n’ roll-themed gay night when I was 21!” says Donnie Moore, front man of local punk band Absolutely Not and founder of Glitter Creeps, a monthly LGBTQ night at the Empty Bottle that hosts some of Chicago’s best underground acts. Taking place on the third Wednesday […]
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Best honorary member of Chicago’s footwork scene with a day job at a steel mill in Gary
Jlin Its Chicago roots notwithstanding, footwork is a global phenomenon now, with vital communities popping up as far afield as Japan and Poland. So it was no leap at all for this adventurous, fast-paced dance music to reach Gary, Indiana, home to footwork producer Jlin, aka Jerilynn Patton. Her steel-mill job keeps her grounded in […]
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Best reason to hang out at an arcade bar after midnight on a school night
Killer Queen at Logan Arcade 2410 W. Fullerton 872-206-2859 loganarcade.com Even drinking the beer with the highest alcohol content at one of Chicago’s ever-growing roster of arcade bars can’t mask how poorly 1980s arcade games have aged. Asteroids is dreadfully boring, and Donkey Kong now feels more like a Sisyphean exercise in frustration than a […]
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Best consequence of a broken HVAC system
The new Elastic Arts space @elasticarts Last summer the Elastic Arts Foundation suffered many stifling nights thanks to windows that didn’t open and a failed HVAC system that left its space with no air-conditioning. In November the 13-year-old nonprofit pulled the plug on its lease at 2830 N. Milwaukee, its home since 2006, and in […]