A report by the state’s auditor general criticized the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for failing to address the needs of LGBTQ+ youth in its care.
Tag: Vol. 50 No. 17
Issue of May. 13 – 26, 2021
Posted inMusic
Pitchfork announces the lineup for its delayed 2021 music festival
Plenty of COVID-related uncertainty still surrounds the Pitchfork fest, as it does any large-scale event—but we can be reasonably sure about who’s scheduled to play.
Posted inMusic
A Chicagoland emo obscurity resurfaces to influence the genre’s fifth wave
Ten years ago, Heccra collided emo, metalcore, and electronics—and today his music is finding a legacy.
Posted inMusic
Arc Mountain is the underground-label collaboration you’ve been waiting for
Like doesn’t necessarily breed like—just ask all the friends for whom I’ve tried (and failed) to play cupid. But similarity is bliss for underground labels Deathbomb Arc and Hausu Mountain, which collaborated to release the compilation Arc Mountain on May 7. Based respectively in Los Angeles and Chicago, these eclectic, irreverent labels might be separated […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago music venues lean on grassroots fundraisers as they wait for federal aid
COVID relief grants are taking their time arriving, but the compilation Situation Chicago 2 benefits CIVL’s SAVE Emergency Relief Fund right now.
Posted inReader
The Reader rakes in the accolades
Our fearless leader Karen Hawkins was honored with Public Narrative’s Studs Terkel Award—meanwhile the entire team earned bragging rights at the Local Media Association and Peter Lisagor Awards.
Posted inNews & Politics
A DIY music space transforms into a home for asylum seekers
At Casa Al-Fatiha in Logan Square, two local musicians built a sanctuary for LGBTQ asylum seekers.
Posted inMusic
Studio-born midwestern rockers Cumbie introduce their music to the world with their debut EP
Cumbie front man Aaron O’Neill says his three-piece isn’t a “real band”—they’ve only ever performed publicly once—but on their new self-released debut, EP, they rock like road-tested veterans. O’Neill started writing the record’s sleek, rowdy songs a couple years ago, when he lived in Saint Louis (he played in several bands there, including Shady Bug, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
First Folio debuts new play by a late, great comedic playwright
Kristine Thatcher and the late Larry Shue’s Waiting for Tina Meyer celebrates barfly connections.
Posted inMusic
Beau O’Reilly, cofounder of Maestro Subgum & the Whole and Curious Theatre Branch
“I’ve always written more than people can keep up with. I write a lot of plays and I write a lot of lyrics. I just write all the time.”
Posted inMusic
Berta Bigtoe multi-instrumentalist Astrachan flies his freak flag higher on his solo debut
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Ben Astrachan was born nearly two generations after 1967’s famous Summer of Love, but he understands the whimsy, grace, and joy of that era’s music so well you’d think he helped make it happen. He impressed me with his contributions to a rough-around-the-edges 2020 album by freak-folk duo Berta Bigtoe (where he plays […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The TikTokers shaping Chicago’s restaurant scene
How going viral became the industry’s most crucial ingredient