In summer 1979, Suzanne Shelton hatched a dream to open a punk dance club. She had two priorities: it had to play lots of new wave, and it needed clean bathrooms. Shelton had been DJing at a failing Lincoln Park disco called Hoots, but she spent all her free nights at O’Banion’s, a run-down gay […]
Tag: Jim Nash
Posted inMusic
Thirty years ago, a Black queer zine captured the scene that birthed house
Robert Ford and Trent Adkins shaped the bold, subversive, gossipy, funny, deeply engaged voice of Thing, which was felled by the AIDS pandemic in 1993.
Posted inMusic
Dave ‘Medusa’ Shelton was a fairy godmother to Chicago’s club scene
Dave Shelton didn’t just found the legendary Medusa’s—he also helped everyone in his orbit shine like a star.
Posted inMusic
Thirty-five moments that brought Chicago music to the world
The Year of Chicago Music has had less music in it than anybody anticipated, but we still have plenty to celebrate.
Posted inMusic
The saga of Punkin’ Donuts
How a doughnut-shop parking lot became a confluence of Chicago youth subcultures—and what killed it off
Posted inFilm
Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records portrayed as a romance etched in vinyl in new documentary
Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records chronicles the love relationship that sustained Chicago’s legendary record store and label.
Posted inMusic
Footwork crew the Era teaches dance workshops in Pilsen
Footwork crew the Era teaches dance workshops in Pilsen, a Wax Trax! Records documentary hits its Kickstarter goal, and more.