The fourth annual Afrofuturist Weekend comes to Elastic Arts from Friday, October 22, through Sunday, October 24, with evening programs on Friday and Saturday and daytime programs on Saturday and Sunday. The festival’s organizers describe it as a “celebration of Black artists making forward-looking work that envisions radically positive futures for Black people,” and in […]
Tag: Serengeti
Posted inMusic
Time to jump on the Bandcamp stuff you’ve been waiting to buy
Once again, it’s “Bandcamp day”—when almost all your money goes to the artists and labels you want to support.
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Johari Noelle addresses 2020’s overlapping crises with a socially distanced new video
Johari Noelle addresses 2020’s overlapping crises with a socially distanced new video, Serengeti drops a non-Kenny Dennis acoustic album, and more.
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Why do indie musicians put up with penny payouts?
Streaming your favorite artists’ music is the least helpful way to support them. But they can’t abandon those platforms, because we won’t.
Posted inMusic
Let the Reader help with your Bandcamp shopping list
In the past few weeks, the Reader has recommended three dozen Bandcamp releases—and this Friday, the service will again pass its share of revenue along to artists.
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Serengeti brings Kenny Dennis back for a trip through the world of hypebeasts on Ajai
In the mid-2000s, local rapper Serengeti imagined rapping as a character named Kenny Dennis, a 50-something with a thick mustache and an even thicker Chicago accent. Ever since Kenny made his debut on the 2006 single “Dennehy,” he’s become the protagonist of a sprawling universe spread out among a panoply of albums, some credited to […]
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The best Chicago albums of the 2010s: the critics’ ballots
Here’s where to see who voted for what and how the points got divvied up.
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The best Chicago albums of the 2010s
The Reader polled dozens of critics to arrive at an absolutely indisputable ranked list of several hundred records that will definitely not start any arguments.
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Gloriously idiosyncratic label Mississippi Records moves to Chicago
Gloriously idiosyncratic label Mississippi Records moves to Chicago, Smashed Plastic throws a free grand-opening party packed with local talent, and more.
Posted inBlogs
Caroline, or Change and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week
SOB X RBE and Quando Rondo and other goings on 10/8-10/11
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Serengeti says farewell to his colorful, unforgettable fictional character, Kenny Dennis
Serengeti’s “Dennehy” is a thing of wonder, not only because it’s a love letter to Chicago but also because it’s where Serengeti (born David Cohn) becomes the character Kenny Dennis, a middle-aged, mustachioed everyman who raps about playing softball with the boys, running errands on Western Avenue, and his favorite local teams—which serves as a […]
Posted inBlogs
Serengeti and Workaholics’s Anders Holm enrich an alternate universe as Perfecto
The pair further the story of Serengeti’s alter ego, Kenny Dennis, a 50-something blue collar rapper with an increasingly absurd, detailed history.
Posted inMusic
Advance Base drops the Casiotone, is no longer painfully alone
Owen Ashworth named his latest indie-pop project after an isolated Antarctic weather station, but its MO takes his whole family into account.
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Our guide to the Chicago International Movies & Music Festival 2014 (the music part)
Music headliners at CIMMfest 2014 include Yo La Tengo and Goblin soundtracking Suspiria.
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Gossip Wolf: A White Mystery album announcement? Spring must be coming.
New music from White Mystery and Verbal Kent, a new menswear shop co-owned by Tony Trimm, and more