An audiologist’s study of over-the-counter hearing aids, a guide to radiator noises, an investigation of ShotSpotter, and much more
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Category: Music Feature
Posted inMusic
Ele Matelan tells stories with sound effects
Ele Matelan didn’t plan on making a career out of sound effects. Like a lot of Chicago theater artists, she moved here after college (at Southern Methodist University) to pursue acting. She also did some stage management for her SMU pals who had formed the House Theatre of Chicago in 2001. But one winter night […]
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What if hearing aids were as easy to get as reading glasses?
When the average person develops vision trouble, they might just pick up a pair of reasonably priced reading glasses at a neighborhood pharmacy. If they require a more customized solution, they could stop by an eyewear retailer to book a professional eye exam and walk away with prescription glasses that same day. But what if […]
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It’s quiet around here until it’s not
“It’s always quiet around here until it’s not,” said my neighbor from down the street, petting her big dog’s head. Her dog was sitting contentedly in the grass near the lagoon in Sherman Park, near my house in Back of the Yards. It’s often silent there, unless there’s a flock of geese fighting—or unless a […]
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A guide to midwestern radiators and their calls
In the 2015 horror film The Blackcoat’s Daughter, there’s a midnight scene where a teenager named Kat slips out of her room and into her boarding school’s dorm basement. An older girl named Rose, apparently the only other student left at the school over winter break, grows curious and follows. Old pipes creak and whine […]
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Dropping beats and seeds
Englewood rapper Heavy Crownz blends art and community organizing.
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Forty-two Reader-recommended releases for your Bandcamp Friday
Friday, May 6, is the 22nd Bandcamp Friday—a 24-hour period where the retailer passes its usual cut of sales revenue along to the independent labels and artists who sell their music and merchandise through the site. Bandcamp typically announces forthcoming Bandcamp Fridays in three-month chunks, and this Friday is the last one that’s been made […]
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Cynthia Plaster Caster broke the mold
Kind. Funny. Genuine. A sweetheart, an artist, a legend. If the true sign of a life well lived is a tidal wave of emotional tributes when you die, then Cynthia Albritton—better known to the whole wide world as Cynthia Plaster Caster—lived a very good life. So much so that writing about her after her passing—she […]
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Judas Christ Superstar: Easter thoughts on being just
When I was growing up in the early 90s, Lent marked the transition to spring, and spring meant my family’s annual pilgrimage to the town library to check out Jesus Christ Superstar on VHS. Ecstatic, my siblings and I would dance in the living room for the rock opera’s full hour and 48 minutes, half […]
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Beau O’Reilly keeps the folk cabaret alive
The email Paul Finkelman received last month from Beau O’Reilly read simply, “Can your car fit a piano? . . . Please advise.” The answer was obviously no. Finkelman owned a small hatchback—and besides, there was no way a piano would make it up the narrow stairs at Jimmy Beans Coffee, where he works as […]
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J Wade and Cloud Boy build a Creative Mansion
Jaylin Wade remembers a night in 2019 when he’d just gotten into bed, shortly after 1 AM, and a FaceTime call yanked him awake. His friend Jordan Patterson had just finished a track and knew he had to send it to Jaylin. Jordan produces loose-limbed hip-hop under the name Cloud Boy, and Jaylin raps as […]
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A new retrospective brings Barbie Army back to the front lines
If it weren’t for YouTube algorithms, the music of Barbie Army might’ve vanished like dust in the wind. Like so many underground garage-rock bands, this Chicago group played live constantly but didn’t pay as much attention to releasing recordings—during their lifetime, from 1986 till 1991, they put out one self-titled, self-released seven-inch and a few […]
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Bandcamp Fridays enter their third year
I still can’t do anything but guess about the long-term significance of last month’s news that Bandcamp has been acquired by Epic Games. Or maybe I should say “worry,” not “guess.” I cherish Bandcamp because it caters to artists who have little to no interest in the mainstream music business, and I don’t want that […]
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Rescuing the legacy of Dancin’ Man
On December 13, I took a long drive to Des Plaines to pick up relatives of my friend Perry Kanlan, a showbiz-adjacent eccentric known as Dancin’ Man. The time on the road gave me the chance to reflect on the circumstances of my relationship with him. I formally met Perry in 2011, when my friend […]
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Hemlock wants us to stay in touch
Carolina Chauffe doesn’t like to stay in one place for very long. Some of the most dramatic turns on her life’s path have been unplanned—she’s driven by what she calls “Coincidence with a capital C.” She thrives in uncharted territory, lured by a stretch of road, a door held open six states away, or the […]