Some aging rock legends make music that feels like a shadow of the early work that cemented their fame. Not Nina Hagen, though. On Unity (Grönland), her first album since 2011, the German pop-punk icon unleashes a blast of feral camp that sounds if anything more Hagen than ever. Her distinctive theatrical voice has roughened […]
Tag: George Clinton
Posted inMusic
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 […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Looking ahead
I think we can all agree the next year has got to be better.
Posted inMusic
Out of SPACE returns in June with George Clinton, Neko Case, Big Boi, and Drive-By Truckers
Summer outdoor concert series Out of SPACE announces its June shows, with the August dates coming later this month.
Posted inMusic
Pedro Bell made art to embody Funkadelic’s revolutionary grooves
The underappreciated genius behind many of Funkadelic’s most famous album covers died last month after nine years in a nursing and rehab center.
Posted inBlogs
George Clinton and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
Chicago Shakespeare’s Peter Pan and more goings-on 7/13-7/15
Posted inMusic
Before retiring from the road, George Clinton brings the funk to Chicago one more time
I considered myself quite lucky when in 1996 I caught two legendary flash and funk showmen, James Brown and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, at the Petrillo Music Shell. Recently George Clinton, who possesses the best aspects of both of these wild bandleading performers and who’s slated to play the same venue as part of Taste of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘In Their Own Form’ takes a long look at Afrofuturism beyond Black Panther
The movement—really more a wide-ranging cultural and aesthetic philosophy—has roots deep in the 19th century.
Posted inBlogs
Guess who’s coming to play at Taste of Chicago this year?
The Flaming Lips, Black Star, and George Clinton are among the big names at the Grant Park festival in July.
Posted inBlogs
Forty years on, the Feelies still cast the same irresistible spell
Veteran New Jersey rock combo the Feelies manipulated time and space at the Pitchfork Music Festival on Saturday.
Posted inBlogs
The Pitchfork Music Festival announces its complete 2017 lineup
PJ Harvey, the Avalanches, George Clinton, and Priests (among dozens of others) join previously announced Pitchfork headliners LCD Soundsystem, A Tribe Called Quest, and Solange.
Posted inBlogs
Listen to a track featuring Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Shabazz Palaces, and George Clinton
The first single from supergroup Woke is today’s 12 O’Clock Track.
Posted inBlogs
Here’s all 15 minutes of Funkadelic’s delirious and brilliant ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’
George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic play the Venue at Horseshoe Casino Saturday.
Posted inBlogs
What would Mayor Rahm do without Detroit?
Leave it to one of the mayor’s Republican backers—Senator Mark Kirk—to use the Detroit analogy to try to scare white Chicagoans into voting for Rahm.
Posted inFilm
John Akomfrah’s collage of the humanities
Black Cinema House revisits John Akomfrah, radical chronicler of the African diaspora.