Legendary artist and writer (and onetime Chicago mayoral candidate) Cynthia Plaster Caster passed away in April after a lengthy illness, but Gossip Wolf isn’t done mourning. Future generations of local musicians and fans won’t get to bask in the splendor of her warm, glowing personality—thankfully her famous plaster casts of the private parts of musicians […]
Tag: Sally Timms
Posted inMusic
The Devil Bell Hippies: Chicago’s greatest avant-garde band that only kind of exists
When I finished college downstate and moved to the Windy City in 1995, the Chicago no-wave scene was breaking apart. While still in school, I’d often driven three hours to catch gigs here, and after my move I caught the last shows by local no-wave stars the Scissor Girls and Lake of Dracula. The original […]
Posted inMusic
Freakwater and the Mekons unite to sing about coal’s dark, transatlantic legacy
In the early days of the COVID pandemic, retail clerks, day-care staff, public-transportation employees, and many other workers learned what coal miners have known for a very long time: that the authorities who deem their labor essential don’t necessarily feel the same way about their lives. Freakwater and the Mekons have each sung folk ballads […]
Posted inMusic
The Maypole Folk Festival builds a big tent
The Maypole Folk Festival builds a big tent, the Goldstars lead a crowded tribute to R&B icon Andre Williams, and more.
Posted inMusic
Chicago rapper the Boy Illinois headlines his first show since dropping the triumphant Windy EP
Chicago rapper the Boy Illinois headlines his first show since dropping the triumphant Windy EP, three current and former Chicagoans set a piece of Finnegans Wake to music, and more.
Posted inMusic
Danielle Sines of Impulsive Hearts on a 16-year-old who cowrote a doo-wop hit
Current musical obsessions of Impulsive Hearts front woman Danielle Sines, CHIRP codirector of features Amelia Hruby, and Reader music editor Philip Montoro
Posted inMusic
Pilsen welcomes another new record shop
Plus: The Golden Horse Ranch Band hosts Haunted Honky Tonk Karaoke, and Gel Set scores “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
Posted inBlogs
Performer-choreographer-poet Ian Spencer Bell brings his ‘talking dances’ to the Poetry Foundation tonight
Dancer-poet Ian Spencer Bell comes to the Poetry Foundation to perform his Geography Solos, a suite of “talking dances” and a new autobiographical piece, Holler.
Posted inFilm
Kim Gordon: ‘Nobody says, “What’s it like being a man in music?”‘
The Sonic Youth cofounder talks with the Mekons’ Sally Timms about her recent divorce, her rejuvenated art career, and her new memoir, Girl in a Band.
Posted inBlogs
Reader’s Agenda Tue 12/17: Kanye West, DKV Trio, and The Second City That Never Sleeps
What’s on the Reader‘s Agenda for Tuesday, December 17
Posted inMusic
Gossip Wolf: People-watching at Pitchfork
Gossip Wolf: People-watching at Pitchfork, new material from Pezband, and a farewell to Cross Record.
Posted inBlogs
This week on the B Side
A middle finger to pop sexism, a blasphemous metal fest, Pitchfork rumors, and more
Posted inMusic
Three Beats: Deiphago play their first U.S. show at a Chicago metal fest
An unprecedented U.S. show for Deiphago, an odd Sally Timms reissue, and another dose of Johnny Love
Posted inArts & Culture
Burly ingenues and animal hybrids like whale-ducks
It’s time for The Fifth Annual Hideout Christmas Egyptian/Cosmic Panto
Posted inBlogs
Ancient & Modern: Last night’s Mekons show at Lincoln Hall
Set list and a few notes on the Mekons show at Lincoln Hall.