Challenged to create a dish with Rose Pork Brains in Milk Gravy, Bill Walker of the Kennison deals with their “strange” texture by dredging and deep-frying them.
Tag: Vol. 46 No. 50
Issue of Sep. 21 – 27, 2017
Posted inBlogs
The mysterious case of the Chicago Reader ‘time machine’
A newspaper box stocked with decades-old Reader issues recently turned up on the north side. Who’s behind this phantasmagorical contraption?
Posted inBlogs
Susana Mendoza might have just won her next election
The state comptroller is no one’s “mini-me.”
Posted inBlogs
Shen Wei Dance Arts makes an otherworldly Chicago debut
The Chinese-born American choreographer and visual artist brings two works, Rite of Spring and Folding to the Auditorium Theatre.
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Clarinetist Ben Goldberg and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt highlight this weekend’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival
The 11th annual installment of the south-side jazz summit is typically packed with strong bookings.
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Hideout Block Party, Splatter Theater, and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
Shen Wei at the Auditorium Theater, Dia de los Muertos celebration at the National Museum of Mexican Art, and more happenings from September 22-24
Posted inBlogs
Banned Books Week gets entertaining
City Lit Theater’s Books on the Chopping Block pop-up and other local events draw attention to the year’s most challenged works.
Posted inBlogs
Drew Peterson murder conviction upheld by Illinois Supreme Court, and other Chicago news
Also, the son of the Chicago Housing Authority’s CEO was arrested in connection with an alleged murder.
Posted inMusic
Armed with a new singer, tech-metal titans Gigan return with an evocative new album
Giant monster name, giant monster band. It’s been four years since Chicago transplants Gigan released their mind-melting Multi-Dimensional Fractal Sorcery and Super Science—a title that accurately describes the album’s apocalyptic technical-death and space-rock-on-steroids sounds. With their brand-new Undulating Waves of Rainbotic Iridescence (Willowtip), they hone their whirling sonic blades until they cut through bone. Like […]
Posted inMusic
New York rapper Cardi B has found musical success through transparency
Bronx-bred hip-hop artist Belcalis Almanzar, best known as Cardi B, built a career off her big personality, first as a stripper of local lore, then as an Instagram celebrity with a giant following (current stats: 9.7 million followers), before blossoming as a cast member on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: New York in late 2015. […]
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The hard-hitting Norwegian freebop quartet evokes the full range of jazz history in their music, but their vital energy and enthusiasm is all about the present
The fiery Norwegian quartet Cortex pull no punches with their new album, barreling through eight new tunes without a wasted gesture—although its title, Avant-Garde Party Music (Clean Feed), suggests they’re not above laughing at themselves a bit. With five albums to their credit, trumpeter Thomas Johansson—who composed all of the typically pithy material on the […]
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Japanese Breakfast get expansive on Soft Sounds From Another Planet
Michelle Zauner launched Japanese Breakfast as a solo project amid massive life changes. In 2014, while fronting her Philly emo band Little Big League, her mother was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, and Zauner eventually moved back home to Oregon to be with her family. Her mother passed away just months before Zauner wrote Japanese […]
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Ka Baird of Spires wrangles sonic spirit shapes on her new solo album
Ka (née Kathleen) Baird is half of Spires That in the Sunset Rise. While the ensemble has been based in Decatur, Chicago, and Madison, and its recent LP title Illinois Glossolalia (Feeding Tube) attests to their enduring midwestern connection, Baird now lives in New York. Since moving there she’s performed and recorded as a solo […]
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New York reedist and sound artist Lea Bertucci explores the acoustic properties of physical spaces
I first encountered Lea Bertucci’s music when she was playing bass clarinet on the 2014 album L’Onde Souterraine (Telegraph Harp), a series of visceral yet meditative duet improvisations with cellist Leila Bordreuil. The music she’s released since then has revealed a broad and fascinating artistic practice often focused on the acoustics of specific spaces. “Cepheid […]
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On its first album in six years Fleet Foxes reclaim the grandeur of their harmony singing if not the perfection of Robin Pecknold’s songwriting
In the six years between this summer, when Fleet Foxes dropped its third studio album, Crack-Up (Nonesuch), and its 2011 predecessor, Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop), the band seems to have been blamed for the trend of countless lamentable rock bands that present monochromatic gang shouting as some kind of campfire-grade profundity (does anyone even remember […]