Vivian Carter and James Bracken formed Vee-Jay Records in 1953 to produce the “good music” that listeners of Vivian’s radio broadcasts and customers of her record store in Gary, Indiana, wanted to hear. By “good music,” her audience—largely southern-born African American migrants to the Chicago region—didn’t mean classical or pop. They hungered for electric blues, […]
Tag: Beatles
Posted inTheater Review
All you need is As You Like It
If England is famous worldwide for two things, it’s the Beatles and Shakespeare. Weaving these two very different artists together in a play may make you cry “zounds!” but methinks there is more in common betwixt these British poets than one may expect. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is ready to welcome audiences to live shows […]
Posted inMusic
Summoning the ghosts of Record Row
For two decades, a short stretch of Michigan Avenue hosted a concentration of creative entrepreneurship whose influence on Black popular music is still felt today.
Posted inMusic
John Cage’s treasures are hiding in plain sight
The largest single archive devoted to influential experimental composer John Cage lives in a library at Northwestern—and it goes a lot deeper than its famous Beatles lyric sheets.
Posted inBlogs
How Logan Arcade got its Misfits-playing robot dogs
The Biscuits began life as decrepit Chuck E. Cheese animatronics in the collection of Logan Arcade proprietor James Zespy—and now they’re lean, mean horror-punk machines.
Posted inMusic
Sixties garage rockers the Riptides won their only studio session at a talent show
The B side of this high school band’s lone single got a second life on a 2006 compilation.
Posted inBlogs
How are these seders different from all other seders?
A Beatles-themed Haggadah and other atypical ways to celebrate Passover
Posted inMusic
Cheer-Accident mastermind Thymme Jones on the upside of Herb Alpert’s nervous breakdown
Current musical obsessions of Cheer-Accident mastermind Thymme Jones, human Top 40 encyclopedia Tony Young, and Reader music editor Philip Montoro
Posted inBlogs
This ‘Beatles PhD’ schooled kids who believed John, Paul, George, and Ringo were from Florida
Jack Murphy’s students “couldn’t believe we were going to spend a whole year on this one band that they’d either never heard of or only knew from a Target commercial.”
Posted inBlogs
My way or the Hemingway, plus more new reviews and notable screenings
New reviews and notable screenings in this week’s issue
Posted inBlogs
The Reader’s guide to the Chicago Jewish Film Festival, which starts this weekend
The second editon of the annual festival opens Saturday at Century 12/CineArts 6 in Evanston.
Posted inBlogs
Joan of Arc get crazy with “Helter Skelter” for their record release
Joan of Arc celebrate the release of their new LP with two half-hour long covers of a Beatles classic.
Posted inMusic
Lincoln Square + roots music = the Square Roots festival
The roots music at this year’s Square Roots festival includes Fatoumata Diawara, Glenn Jones, and more.
Posted inBlogs
12 O’Clock Track: Yoko Ono, “Why”
“Why,” a brilliant slice of experimental rock from Yoko Ono