Led by Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Waco Brothers, Chicago alt-country band the Pine Valley Cosmonauts have covered plenty of ground in their quarter century or so of existence: they’ve made tribute albums for icons such as Bob Wills and Johnny Cash, spearheaded a series of death-themed covers compilations called The Executioner’s Last […]
Tag: Tom Waits
Posted inArts & Culture
The Times Are Racing has urgency, but lacks vision
Electric performances heat up a Joffrey program that could use more coherence.
Posted inBlogs
Moonlight, Major Lazer, and midwestern Devo heads: music stories making the rounds on the Web
The Reader‘s weekly look at music stories we didn’t publish ourselves
Posted inArts & Culture
Steppenwolf’s The Flick, BoHo Theatre’s Fugitive Songs, and 13 more new stage shows
Fifteen new reviews of stage shows including limited runs of Cabaret and the one-man show Sancho: An Act of Remembrance.
Posted inFood & Drink
A requiem for the Midwestern Diner’s long-form food coverage
Vincent Labriola attempted to apply the Grantland and Dissolve model to interviewing Chicago chefs and bartenders.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Tempest works some real magic
Chicago Shakespeare’s star-powered production is even more than its celebrated parts.
Posted inArts & Culture
The silent half of Penn & Teller adds some magic to Shakespeare’s Tempest
Commonly interpreted as Shakespeare’s farewell to theater, The Tempest is the tale of a magician performing his final and greatest feat. Prospero plans to use skills acquired over a lifetime to put his wrecked world back together. When that’s accomplished, he promises, “I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper […]
Posted inMusic
In Rotation: Bad Mashadi front man Ehsan Ghoreishi on the loudest saxophonist in Chicago
Current musical obsessions of Lamajamal bassist Joey Spilberg and Bad Mashadi front man Ehsan Ghoreishi
Posted inArts & Culture
Cal Schenkel doesn’t need to name-drop Waits or Zappa
Cal Schenkel doesn’t need to name-drop Waits or Zappa.
Posted inNews & Politics
This week’s Chicagoan: David Allen, tattoo artist
Tattoo artist David Allen isn’t your therapist, but he’ll talk to you if he must
Posted inFilm
Artist on Artist: Charlie Musselwhite talks to Rockin’ Johnny Burgin
Blues harmonica great Charlie Musselwhite talks to local guitar hero Rockin’ Johnny Burgin
Posted inBlogs
My favorite albums of 2011, numbers 40 through 31
Counting down my favorite albums from 2011, starting from 40
Posted inMusic
In Rotation: Permanent Records’ Lance Barresi digs the scenes in Australia and Chile
Plus: Kevin Warwick on Rip Off Records’ great comp, and Moniker’s Robert Cole Manis plugs crowdsourced review mag Dusted