David Skidmore couldn’t even begin to count the number of instruments he’s played. As a member of Grammy Award favorites Third Coast Percussion (most recently nominated for Perspectives, released earlier this year), Skidmore could plausibly play instruments from all six habitable continents for any given performance—plus the odd metal scrap, surgical tube, or squeaky toy. […]
Tag: John Cage
Posted inMusic
Remembering Triad Radio, where the usual was unusual
Triad Radio, Chicago’s pioneering experiment in commercial free-form radio, left the airwaves in 1977. Now longtime program director Saul Smaizys is moving its archives online.
Posted inMusic
Subversive art-punks Möc Artsy existed mostly on cassette tapes
This stubbornly strange duo gigged only in their apartment, and only one song survives from their hours of bizarre recordings.
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 inMusic
Spoils of War pioneered the fusion of experimental electronics and psychedelic rock
The late-60s band founded by unheralded composer Jim Cuomo only released one EP during its lifetime.
Posted inMusic
The world catches up to iconoclastic composer Julius Eastman
Iconoclastic composer Julius Eastman died homeless almost three decades ago, and his work was nearly lost. But classical music finally has room for a queer black voice in the minimalist pantheon.
Posted inArts & Culture
The MCA’s Merce Cunningham retrospective spotlights the art of collaboration
“Merce Cunninghman: Common Time” considers one of the 20th century’s most significant choreographers.
Posted inArts & Culture
Avant-gardist Charlotte Moorman finally gets the recognition she’s due
The performance artist, festival curator, and “topless cellist” is the subject of a new Block Museum retrospective.
Posted inBlogs
This year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival salutes veteran documentarian Dick Fontaine
Three of Fontaine’s musician profiles screen at Black Cinema House this Saturday afternoon.
Posted inFilm
Artist on Artist: Andrew Bird talks to Brett and Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family
Andrew Bird talks to Brett and Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family.
Posted inMusic
David Grubbs on the meaning of records
David Grubbs on why the experimental music of the 1960s was so rarely recorded at the time—and what changes when we listen to it today.
Posted inMusic
Alvin Lucier is sitting in a room (at the MCA)
Composer Alvin Lucier comes to Chicago for a three-day retrospective.
Posted inBlogs
Reader’s Agenda Fri 2/21: More bopping, bike art, and Third Coast Percussion
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Friday, February 21
Posted inArts & Culture
V-Day Issue: A duo that met on the dance floor
V-Day Issue: Aay Preston-Myint and Colin Dickson’s first date “didn’t just have a third wheel, it had 20.”
Posted inBlogs
12 O’Clock Track: Phyllis Chen transcends the toyness of her instruments on “The Little Things”
A dreamy composition by Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón