Dan Savage advises a man whose boyfriend, a self-proclaimed gold-star gay, has developed strange new interests, and more.
Tag: Vol. 47 No. 34
Issue of May. 31 – Jun. 6, 2018
Posted inBlogs
Move over, T. rex: Field Museum shows off the diversity of dinos from outside America
The new Máximo installation and “Antarctic Dinosaurs” exhibit feature dinosaurs from around the world that aren’t yet household names, at least in the States.
Posted inMusic
Prog paragons Cheer-Accident drop an album that contains multitudes
Prog paragons Cheer-Accident drop an album that contains multitudes, Owen Ashworth’s Orindal Records hosts a showcase at the Landland print shop, and more.
Posted inBlogs
‘Those People’ use art to share their stories at Weinberg/Newton Gallery
Residents of Mercy Housing Lakefront find that art therapy’s a useful way to deal with life traumas.
Posted inNews & Politics
Groups fight huge expansion of police drone monitoring of protests
The Illinois legislature could vote again this week on whether to allow drones equipped with controversial facial recognition software to monitor large public events.
Posted inBlogs
When craft beer went corporate: Barrel-Aged Stout and Selling Out tells how Goose Island’s sale transformed an industry
The first craft brewery to sell out to Anheuser-Busch triggered a landslide of similar sales across the country.
Posted inBlogs
Photos celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in Chicago
And other Asian celebrations in Chicago.
Posted inBlogs
McDonald’s new West Loop HQ is ‘perfect’ location for protesters to get their messages out
On Thursday, animal rights groups and the Fight for $15 made a colorful stand timed to coincide with the corporate behemoth’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
Posted inMusic
Chicago’s Shy Technology impart new life into outmoded forms of indie rock
Shy Technology call Chicago home, but their music is spiritually in sync with a type of melancholic and massive indie rock I’ve come to associate with Scotland; if front man David Coulson sang with a brogue I might have taken the band for Edinburgh four-piece We Were Promised Jetpacks. On their recent single “Crazy Kind” […]
Posted inMusic
Everyone is doomed at Chicago Doomed & Stoned Festival
Founded in 2013, blog and Web network Doomed & Stoned has blossomed into a worldwide endeavor with a podcast, a quarterly Bandcamp compilation, and an emphasis on using local reporting to help build up individual scenes. Its laser-sharp focus has helped: the Doomed & Stoned musical aesthetic follows the post-Sabbath school of doom, drone, heavy […]
Posted inMusic
Wonder Years traveled the world to get closer to you on Sister Cities
As Wonder Years front man Dan “Soupy” Campbell spoke to the press while his band prepared to drop their sixth album, April’s Sister Cities (Hopeless), he avidly described the new material as a means to seek out and create connectivity. The six-piece group have always wanted to touch people with their music—their catalog emanates empathy, […]
Posted inMusic
Percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies uses minimal sounds to explore the marginalization of trans people
New York percussionist and composer Sarah Hennies digs deep into the music she writes, developing minimal sound worlds she inhabits for extended durations. On her new album, Embedded Environments (Blume), she pushes what seem like simple ideas to extremes. “Foragers,” a piece for four percussionists, was recorded in a vacant grain silo in Buffalo, and […]
Posted inMusic
The stylistic range of Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar runs as deep as the communal roots of his music
Mdou Moctar’s albums bring to mind the parable of the blind men and the elephant; taken individually, each one gives a misleading impression of the Nigerien artist’s full measure. His first recording, Anar (Sahel Sounds), is a cheap digital production with galloping drum loops and liberally auto-tuned vocals that would be the perfect soundtrack for […]
Posted inMusic
Ric Wilson’s BANBA lifts his community as it takes his hip-hop career higher
Online menswear giant Bonobos recently put together an ad campaign with a video that features a rotating panoply of men wearing its clothes. The people behind the clip began it with a shot of effortless cool: a close-up of Chicago activist and rapper Ric Wilson (the ad also closes with images of two other key […]
Posted inMusic
Portland’s Wooden Shjips challenge a turbulent world with hypnotic, inward grooves
Ripley Johnson has said his Portland quartet Wooden Shjips made its latest album, V. (Thrill Jockey), under a cloud—figuratively and literally. His band was still grappling with the initial implications of the Trump presidency while ash from forest fires that engulfed much of the countryside surrounding his hometown rained down and cast a fog over […]