Rapper-producer Frank Leone grew up in the town of Monticello, just southwest of Champaign, and began taking music seriously after a chance meeting with Vic Mensa at a downstate Lupe Fiasco show in 2011. Since dropping his debut mixtape in 2015, he’s reworked his sound, moved to Los Angeles, and scrubbed the Web of large […]
Tag: Champaign
Posted inMusic
Peter Berkow has spent five decades traversing at least that many genres
Chicago native Peter Berkow has been a producer and a professor, and moved from folk to funk to fusion to prog and back.
Posted inMusic
Musical and literary polymath Thom Bishop has a second career as Junior Burke
For 50 years Thom Bishop has been writing songs, lyrics, plays, movies, and more—and his new novel (as Junior Burke) starts with James Dean shooting Ronald Reagan on live TV.
Posted inBlogs
Illinois senate overrides Rauner’s amendatory veto of the school funding bill, and other news
Also, hundreds of Chicagoans gathered Sunday to denounce racism and bigotry after the violence at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville.
Posted inBlogs
A Central Illinois game developer gambles on Agents of Mayhem
Unlikely Champaign, Illinois-based developer Volition veers from its Saints Row series with a profane 80s cartoon of an action game.
Posted inMusic
Eighties synth-pop duo the Arms of Someone New just played their first show ever
Inspired by the likes of New Order, the Cure, and the Teardrop Explodes, Steve Jones and Mel Eberle founded the Arms of Someone New as a recording project in 1983.
Posted inBlogs
Illinois pot policies are inconsistent and unjust, report concludes
Researchers at Roosevelt University find that marijuana enforcement depends on geography and race more than justice.
Posted inFilm
Armed to the teeth and led by Arnold Schwarzenegger
Renegade DEA agents begin mysteriously dying off in David Ayer’s brutal actioner Sabotage.
Posted inBlogs
Destihl brings its beers upstate to Chicago—including the medal-winning Strawberry Blonde
Destihl Brewery finally hits the Chicago market, and it’s bringing a lot more than its festival-favorite Saint Dekkera sours.
Posted inBlogs
First Flush of youth
The charms of knocking down those face-card tiles in the pinball game Royal Flush
Posted inColumns & Opinion
The Atheist Mother’s Tale
As the Supreme Court weakens church-state separation, a new documentary tells the story of the Champaign housewife who got religion out of the public schools.
Posted inBlogs
Former Rocker Don Gerard Elected Mayor of Champaign
Veteran rocker Don Gerard has been elected mayor of Champaign, Illinois.
Posted inReader
I Think About You During Commercials
You have dance moves like Hammer but those are about the only moves your have.
Posted inBlogs
The Pygmalion Music Festival: Worth the Trip?
Now in its fifth year, the Pygmalion Music Festival in Champaign-Urbana is a smorgasbord for lovers of indie rock.
Posted inBlogs
Fun with city ratings
Forget “best.” Break it down. Where in the Midwest are the places with the cheapest houses, skinniest people, and cleanest air?