Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Sam Thousand moved to Chicago from Texas in 2009, and within a year he’d joined hip-hop fusion outfit Sidewalk Chalk. He’s since become deeply embedded in several overlapping arts communities, gaining increased visibility under his previous stage name, Sam Trump—I first saw him perform solo in 2018, during a cross-genre Steppenwolf […]
Tag: Vol. 51 No. 20
Issue of July 7, 2022
Welcome to the skate park
OnWord Skate Collective embraces skaters of all ages and abilities, prioritizing women, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people.
by Taryn Allen
On the cover: Photo by DuWayne Padilla
Find a print copy of the Reader.
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Posted inFilm
Welcome to the skate park
“When we go to a skate park, we take up space, and then all of a sudden you don’t see a bunch of guys trying to tell you to move out the way, ’cause we’re the majority now,” says Lid Madrid. “And we’re taking up space, and just changing the way that skate parks traditionally […]
Posted inMusic
Moor Mother’s Jazz Codes needs little decoding
Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother, has always been one to cite her sources. In addition to performing as a member of Philly-based free-jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements, the contralto wordsmith has frequently paid homage to the jazz, blues, and gospel canons in her solo work, beginning with her 2016 debut, Fetish Bones, and continuing through last […]
Posted inTheater Review
Choice debates
Natalie Y. Moore’s play The Billboard, now in a world premiere with 16th Street Theater, is subtitled “A Play About Abortion.” In the spirit of Chicago improv, allow me to say: Yes, and. The setup is as simple as it is powerful: a neighborhood gadfly puts up a billboard near the [fictional] Black Women’s Health […]
Posted inOn Culture
A bloody Independence Day in Highland Park
Nothing was said about it on the July 4 television interviews I saw, but among the security experts interviewed during coverage of the Highland Park parade shooting, one face and name had resonance. Crisis management expert and former FBI agent Phil Andrew survived another mass shooting in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs, more than three decades […]
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Fame, Creativity, and Mental Health
Alex Ebert may be best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Grammy Award-winning indie-rock band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the frontman of art-rock group Ima Robot, and a composer who won a Golden Globe for his score for the 2013 film All is Lost but his interests and creative endeavors extend […]
Posted inMusic
Adam Elliott of Times New Viking returns to cranking out damaged noise-pop with Long Odds
Of all the bands to emerge from the mid- to late-aughts “shitgaze” explosion in Columbus, Ohio, I loved Times New Viking the best. Despite breaking up a decade ago, they still get plenty of rotation on my home stereo. This lo-fi, no-frills trio’s records are hyperactive, sloppy, and noisy as hell—at times they’re unintelligible, but […]
Posted inMusic
Weirdo rippers Lollygagger make their vinyl debut with Total Party Kill
Gossip Wolf has been on the record as a fan of Lollygagger since the local glam-punk goofballs dropped their debut EP, Life on Terminus, in 2018. The band followed it in 2020 with the hilarious sketch-comedy-style video album The Lollygagger Family Fun Variety Hour, but lately this wolf has hungered for something to slap on […]
Posted inMusic
The Square Roots festival offers a diverse mix of music to replenish your soul
If you’re as allergic to crowds as I am, Chicago’s many neighborhood music festivals can be a mixed bag. But one event I unequivocally associate with a certain kind of chill is the Square Roots festival in Lincoln Square. And that low-stress atmosphere seems likely to be by design. Launched in 1998, the weekend-long festival, […]
Posted inMusic
Mister Goblin beefs up his heart-on-sleeve indie rock with Chicago collaborators
After D.C.-area rock group Two Inch Astronaut went on hiatus in 2018, Sam Goblin decamped for the midwest and began making music as Mister Goblin. He’s settled in Indiana, but to assemble his backing band he’s drawn from the deep well of talent in Chicago: the three-piece lineup on the April album Bunny (Exploding in […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
A flexible position on free speech
In the category of things that I didn’t see coming . . . My preliminary favorite for this year’s biggest “do as I say, not as I do” hypocrite is Elon Musk. Yes, the world’s richest man and self-proclaimed champion of free speech. It turns out the dude with the “I don’t give a shit, […]