House music never went out of style, but not everybody knows about its culture, its history, or even its existence—and a legion of those newbies fell for house this year, thanks to new dance-oriented albums from superstars Drake and Beyoncé. The latter recruited figures from across house history for Renaissance, including Chicago native Honey Redmond, […]
Tag: Mike Dunn
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Reading house’s history from its used records
Chicagoans don’t need an excuse to talk about house music, but when the biggest pop star in the world drops a record indebted to house, you can expect more than just a conversation. Beyoncé’s Renaissance has effectively evangelized for this Chicago-born sound since the album came out in July, not least because she shaped it […]
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After two years online, historic Chicago house collective the Chosen Few return to Jackson Park for a 30th-anniversary picnic and festival
I can’t imagine summer in Chicago without the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival, and that’s not just because this grassroots house-music gathering is celebrating its 30th annual installment (plus two years online during the pandemic). It’s also because house music—and Chicago—would be very different if it weren’t for the Chosen Few DJ collective. Chicago’s gay […]
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Farewell to unsung house-music architect Rodney Bakerr
Rodney Bakerr led early Wax Trax! group Strange Circuits, ran underground label Rockin’ House, and wrote ubiquitous house-music rhythm patterns for Roland.
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The Chosen Few Picnic & Festival comes to everybody’s backyards
For its 30th anniversary, one of the world’s largest house-music parties has been pushed online by the pandemic—but it might reach even more people that way.
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Forest Management drops an ambient record made from Debussy vinyl
Forest Management drops an ambient record made from Debussy vinyl, the Chosen Few celebrate the legacy of Sauer’s with a Thanksgiving house and disco party, and more.
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Grün Wasser diversify their apocalyptic EBM on the new Not OK With Things
Grün Wasser diversify their apocalyptic EBM on the new Not OK With Things, the Chicago South Side Film Festival celebrates house music with a documentary by Jesse Saunders, and more.
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The Chosen Few Picnic is the homegrown festival every Chicagoan should attend
If you’ve ever wished that more music festivals were like family picnics, then you need to go to this Jackson Park house-music blowout. In the late 80s, DJs and brothers Tony and Andre Hatchett and their families began hosting an annual Fourth of July reunion barbecue behind the Museum of Science and Industry. For the […]
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Plugging into Chicago’s forgotten house venues
A tour and oral history of the long-gone spaces that birthed one of the foundational sounds in modern pop
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Industrial supergroup Pigface celebrates 25 years of revolving-door lineups
Industrial supergroup Pigface celebrates 25 years of revolving-door lineups, the Chosen Few DJs honor a bygone house-music club, and more.
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Gossip Wolf premieres Soft Candy’s new garage-psych single
Gossip Wolf premieres Soft Candy’s new garage-psych single, the 3 Yards Bangin’ House Fest returns to the southeast side, and more.
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An oral history of the Chosen Few Picnic, the ‘Woodstock of house music’
How a family Fourth of July party grew into an annual event that attracts more than 40,000 fans
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Noisy indie rockers Geronimo! take their last leap
Noisy indie rockers Geronimo! take their last leap, Boiler Room Chicago honors Frankie Knuckles, and more.
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African Festival of the Arts 2012
George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, the Chosen Few DJs, and more at the African Festival of the Arts