Some concert options for tonight, if you’re looking to listen to something other than your digestion: Even though the midterm results earlier this month offered a few bright spots for pro-choice advocates, there’s no denying that the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision earlier this year fits a pattern of attacks on […]
Tag: rock
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Ganser find the freedom beyond despair on Nothing You Do Matters
Dread can be suffocating, but Ganser make it work like a spark. On their new EP, Nothing You Do Matters (Felte), the Chicago postpunk four-piece take cues from dance punk for their end-of-the-world party music—they’re trying to build something worth living for in a hellscape that constantly finds boring new ways to make everyone feel […]
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Seven more doors into Chicago in Tune
Chicago in Tune is a difficult festival to describe, since it includes basically all live music happening in the city from August 19 till September 19. How that looks to you depends heavily on which shows are on your radar. The Reader has provided you with a number of assists: a show calendar spanning the […]
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Goons be Gone is the most fleshed-out and lush No Age release yet
No Age have always been great at making very little sound like a whole lot. Since they began blending influences from hardcore punk and noise rock with indie-rock catchiness 15 years ago, the Los Angeles-based duo have been on the cutting edge of cool—they’ve always seemed a step ahead of their peers in the guitar-rock […]
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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.
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Countrified rockers Possum River emerged from the breakup of the Cryan’ Shames
They didn’t enjoy the success of the garage-pop band that gave them two members, but after 48 years one of their songs turned up on Stranger Things.
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Why haven’t the Isley Brothers conquered the rock market?
The legendary R&B band can rock hard too, but they’ve never crossed over like Sly Stone or Prince.
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Photos from Ruido Fest’s dazzling opening day
Last weekend this ambitious festival brought together several generations and even more genres of Latinx music.
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Chicago punks Absolutely Not release a morbid, hilarious video for the brand-new ‘Bottom of the Pit’
“Bottom of the Pit” is the debut single from Absolutely Not’s first album as a four-piece, the forthcoming Problematic—they’ve added Chris Sutter from Meat Wave on second guitar.
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If you don’t know Megon McDonough, blame the maleness of Chicago’s 70s folk scene
Folk singer Megon McDonough made her 1972 debut LP while still in high school and in 1990 joined Christine Lavin’s Four Bitchin’ Babes.
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Stories from Chicago’s favorite rock ’n’ roll clusterfuck
Underground rock festival Ian’s Party is run mostly by volunteers, which helps it feel like a community instead of a branding exercise.
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Let’s put it in writing: Melkbelly are Chicago’s most exciting rock band
On the new Nothing Valley, Pilsen four-piece Melkbelly have found a tense balance between delicate melody and frantic noise.
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Decades after Stumpwater put out their only single, the Aurora folk-pop group ride again
Dan Berg, Dan Haligas, and Joe Gloor released two songs in 1975 and split up in ’80, but now they’re back to writing, recording, and gigging.
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Seventies wizard rockers Bad Axe made their posthumous recorded debut in 2014
Bad Axe got a regular gig thanks to Rahm Emanuel’s mom and a belated vinyl release thanks to Permanent Records.
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Cook County doubles down: Rap, rock, country, and DJ sets are not ‘fine arts,’ not exempt from amusement tax
At Cook County’s latest hearing on its small-venue amusement-tax exemption, the government dealt several businesses a blow that could eventually cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.