Reggaeton is an expression of movement, release, sexuality, storytelling, connection, and fashion. It’s taken over the world of pop music, despite the Puerto Rican government’s many attempts to erase it during the 1990s and 2000s. And Chicago now has a chance to experience this forbidden and infectious sound on an unprecedented scale: brought to you […]
Tag: underground
Posted inMusic
Remembering Benji Espinoza, champion of Chicago house music
Benji Espinoza’s work for Quantum Distributors and the D.J. International label helped boost house into its exalted place in the global pop pantheon.
Posted inMusic
Eccentric Chicago musician Zango the Third warps soul, pop, and lounge into strangely magnetic songs
Chicagoan Frank Zango possesses something like magic: under the name Zango the Third, he’s able to create oddly soothing, stylistically scrambled outsider-soul songs fast enough to fill several full-lengths a year. In early April, he self-released his second album of 2020, Aunt Ida’s Asteroid Mixtape, where he continues to stretch to the outer edges of […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago’s best overlooked hip-hop of 2019
The shrinking of music media requires a new definition of “overlooked,” but even the strictest criteria admit a vast unexplored trove of riches.
Posted inMusic
From basement shows to Pitchfork stages
Several veterans of Chicago’s multifaceted DIY scene have leveled up to play the Pitchfork Music Festival.
Posted inBlogs
Chicago Underground Film Festival at 25: A look back
As the 25th Chicago Underground Film Festival approaches, here are ten stand-out features from festivals past.
Posted inMusic
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.
Posted inBlogs
Hxlt’s hip-hop past lingers on his punk debut
This Friday, GOOD Music drops the first album the former Hollywood Holt is releasing in his postpunk incarnation Hxlt.
Posted inBlogs
Former Chicagoan John Yingling completes the first episode of his World Underground webseries
He traveled to China for the first episode in his international underground music series.
Posted inBlogs
The farcical food truck ordinance and other food news bites
Local makgeolli, tamale perfume, a lawsuit for Billy Dec, and more
Posted inFood & Drink
Sneer at the dragon
Dragon Ranch’s Asian-American barbecue (and assorted other stuff) exceeds low expectations
Posted inMusic
Alan Licht
David Bowie sleepwalking his way through The Man Who Fell to Earth, William S. Burroughs scamming his buckshot-splattered paintings into galleries–plenty of artists skilled in one medium misguidedly think they can step right into another. But Alan Licht–whose first book, An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn, was published last year by Drag City–is no dilettante. […]
Posted inMusic
Active Ingredients
Before he split for New York last year, Chad Taylor, the drummer who anchors the various Chicago Underground groups, was one of the most elegant and open-minded percussionists in town. In every context, from one-off gigs with Dutch reedist Sean Bergin to playing pop behind the Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop to his regular work […]
Posted inMusic
Aceyalone, Masterminds
As a founding member of LA’s short-lived Freestyle Fellowship, one of hip-hop’s most original and intelligent groups, Aceyalone helped lay the groundwork for today’s anything-goes underground scene. His free-form rap slops over tight beat schemes like runny oatmeal, much in the style of Kool Keith; but unlike Kool Keith’s sci-fi fantasies, Aceyalone’s thoughts are rooted […]