On their debut album, All of Them, local pop ensemble Glad Rags explore how interpersonal transgressions can ripple through creative communities, and even as they grapple with anger and grief, they never lose the sense of joyful discovery that underground scenes can provide. Led by vocalist-keyboardist and Sex No Babies member Mable Gladly, Glad Rags […]
Tag: DIY
Posted inMusic
DIY versus development, international edition
Chicago cultural space La Casa del Inmigrante and Mexico City anarchist library Biblioteca Social Reconstruir bond against a common enemy.
Posted inCity Life
Lending a hand
Chicago Tool Library has proven to be a much-needed lifeline for locals sprucing up spaces while quarantining.
Posted inMusic
The life and death of Rancho Huevos
Bridgeport DIY house Rancho Huevos nurtured an antiauthoritarian community for nearly two decades. Now it stands vacant and slated for demolition.
Posted inMusic
Beloved DIY space Situations signs off with a Halloween livestream
Beloved DIY space Situations signs off with a Halloween livestream, and Angel Marcloid drops an album of fizzy jazz fusion as Nonlocal Forecast.
Posted inMusic
Godzilla can’t stop the music on the (fantasy) gig poster of the week
This week’s featured gig poster was created by Chicago artist Jon Natzke.
Posted inMusic
Nnamdï grows up on Brat
Prolific musical polymath Nnamdï uses his new solo album to teach himself something about work-life balance.
Posted inCity Life
Take your self-isolation to the sewing machine
Here’s how DIY face masks can help our local hospitals
Posted inArts & Culture
Vaginal Davis steps into the mainstream spotlight
Nearly five decades after her career began, the pioneer performance artist, musician, and activist is now a permanent fixture at the Art Institute.
Posted inMusic
Beach Bunny jump straight to the championship round
Lili Trifilio and her indie-punk band have climbed from Chicago’s DIY scene to stages most musicians never reach, and their first studio album, Honeymoon, comes out just this week.
Posted inArts & Culture
Taking heartbreak seriously
A journalist turns her breakup into art and politics with a breakup zine.
Posted inMusic
Experienced punks reintroduce themselves as Canal Irreal
Last May, Chicago band Canal Irreal announced their existence by releasing their first single, “Si Somos,” an explosive mix of postpunk and hardcore that combines jagged riffs and propulsive guitar lines with narrative lyrics about society’s rejection of and refusal to deal with the very issues it creates. Sung in Spanish from a first-person perspective, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Blood, ink, and tears
Tattooing is still dominated by white men, but women, nonbinary people, and people of color are making their mark.
Posted inMusic
Rap that asks the right questions
The fledgling Why? Records crew—Davis, Malci, Joshua Virtue, and Ruby Watson—are already making some of the city’s most compelling and idiosyncratic hip-hop.
Posted inArts & Culture
Time Being Tattoo brings its founders’ DIY spirit to a professional setting
“We want people to feel like their existence is respected.”