Tribune Publishing just changed its name! The company will now be known as tronc, Inc. (That’s lowercase t though uppercase I.) Nothing apparently says innovation like a lowercase name. If we see it repeatedly these days it’s because of its unfailing originality. Vice president Michael Dickerson said afterward that Gannett “is reviewing whether to proceed with its acquisition offer.”
ARTIST: Tim Curley SHOW: Pinebender, Parlour, Poison Arrows, and William Covert at the Co-Prosperity Sphere on Sat 2/2 MORE INFO: timothycurley.info
The Wrecking Crew In this week’s long review, Ben Sachs looks at Welcome to New York, the latest from Bronx bad boy Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, King of New York); it’s a fictionalized take on the rape case that toppled IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Elsewhere in the new issue, I review The Wrecking Crew, Denny Tedesco’s long-gestating documentary about his father, legendary session guitarist Tommy Tedesco, and the other studio players who defined the West Coast rock sound....
Though he’s collaborated with Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, reedist Colin Stetson is best known for his remarkable solo work. He’s developed a mind-warping practice in which he deploys extended techniques used most often in free improvisation—circular breathing, extreme tonguing effects, et cetera—to create a kind of richly atmospheric art-pop using only his breath and a horn (most often a tenor or bass saxophone, but only one at a time). By positioning an army of microphones on and around his instrument (as well as one on his neck to pick up the humming sounds he makes in his throat), tapping the horn’s various pads and keys, and using circular breathing, he’s able to create beats and simultaneous lines....
courtesy the candidates Scott Davis and Mark Thomas are Tom Tunney’s first opposition in 12 years. It’s been 12 years since Alderman Tom Tunney faced an opponent in the 44th Ward, and there was a chance that streak would continue this election cycle—challenges were filed against all three of Tunney’s potential opponents. But signatures were reviewed, arguments were made to election officials, and two longtime Lakeview residents are left standing to take on Tunney in February: Scott Davis and Mark Thomas....
It’s been almost a month since footwork collective Teklife and hip-hop posse Treated Crew released Live From Your Mama’s House, a collaborative EP helmed by Treated Crew coleader Mic Terror, and this weekend you’ve got two chances to bust a move to its lovingly crafted dance tracks live and in person. At 6:30 PM on Saturday, both crews perform at the Pilsen Food Truck Social, on 18th Street between Racine and Throop ($5 donation to enter)....
If you can brave the thunderstorms, there’s plenty of happenings to fill the three-day holiday weekend. Here’s what we recommend: Sat 5/28: Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the launch of their monthly stand-up showcase, South Asian comedy collective Simmer Brown presents Simmer Brown Turns One at the Bughouse Theater (1910 W. Irving Park). 8 PM Mon 5/30: Celebrating Civil War General John A. Logan’s pledge of remembrance on the first Memorial Day in 1868, and commemorating the 1996 rededication of the monument to him in Grant Park (Columbus and Jackson), the Chicago Cultural Mile Association hosts the annual ceremony and dedication of the Logan Monument....
Q: My boyfriend and I live in San Francisco where we’ve been sheltering in place. We are unfortunately unable to shelter together, which means that we cannot have physical contact, especially since he lives with a parent who’s at heightened risk. (It’s not an option for him to stay with me for the duration.) We’re as frustrated about having to abruptly end the physical aspect of our relationship as you might expect....
At 5 PM Saturday, March 21, Governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 Executive Order No. 8, aka the Stay at Home order, took effect. Here’s a daily-ish journal of how Reader staff, our friends, family—and our pets—are spending our time. Day 24: April 13 What we’re listening to: Carmen G.’s “Es ist kalt um mich herum” Alice Elysée “Lolita” Karen Clark’s Finally Karen (blasted it from my windows on Easter Sunday) What we’re watching:...
Toronzo Cannon is an internationally recognized Chicago bluesman. For more than 25 years, he’s also been a bus driver for the CTA. In September 2019, he released his second album for Alligator Records, The Preacher, the Politician or the Pimp. Millennium Park at Home: Blues Music featuring Ivy Ford, Toronzo Cannon & the Chicago Way, and host Tom Marker Night three of the livestreamed festival Blues Music in the Key of Chicago, presented by DCASE and WXRT....
It’s not hard to see why Alan Janes’s 1989 jukebox musical charting the rapid rise and early death of seminal rock and roller Buddy Holly ran in London’s West End for 14 years or why it has been produced all over the world. The show really rocks. Holly’s high-spirited tunes are featured front and center, and if the band is even half good, it sells the show. The cast of talented actor-musicians assembled for American Blues Theater’s current revival is sharp and energetic....
The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival runs Thursday, October 12, through Thursday, October 26, offering itself up to the city with the slogan “Because Life Is a Movie.” I must admit, I don’t get the logic of this—if life is a movie, why not stay home from the fest and save yourself 15 bucks? Moreover, why would anyone want to encourage such a mind-set? People’s inability to distinguish life from a movie might explain how we wound up with a Chief Executive who spends every free moment following his own story on TV....
In spring 2013, Reader music critic Peter Margasak launched the Frequency Series at north-side venue Constellation, opened earlier that year by drummer, composer, and impresario Mike Reed. His intent was to bring experimental and new classical music together on a stage that also hosted jazz and improvised music, reasoning that audiences would find commonalities between them. A track from Oren Ambarchi’s 2019 album Simian Angel Sand/Layna by crys cole Charles Curtis plays Eliane Radigue...
When news broke in May that the California Clipper was permanently closing, people began to talk. Not just about the circumstances of the bar’s closure—which owner and boutique restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff claimed was due to the financial strain of the pandemic—but about the bar’s history, too. But then Foss-Ralston started to have experiences: things like hearing phantom knocking and footsteps, even one night losing her garage door opener only to find it placed on her driver seat in the morning....
At 5 PM Saturday, March 21, Governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 Executive Order No. 8, aka the Stay at Home order, took effect. Here’s a daily-ish journal of how Reader staff, our friends, family—and our pets—are spending our time. Joaquin Phoenix Burton Cherry Dio What online livestream events we’re looking forward to:
In the season opener of Abby McEnany’s new Showtime series, Work in Progress, McEnany runs into Julia Sweeney in a bar and recalls how Sweeney’s gender-ambiguous Pat character on Saturday Night Live made her life hell. Watching The Santaland Diaries—the stage show created by Joe Mantello out of David Sedaris’s autobiographical essay that first aired on NPR in 1992—also reminds us that not all comedy from that decade ages equally well....
Virginia Beach’s Turnover and Baltimore’s Turnstile have similar-sounding names, but their approaches to punk are vastly different. On Turnover’s latest full-length, 2017’s Good Nature (Run for Cover), the foursome lay out 11 tracks of intricate but breezy emo-influenced dream-pop with stirring verses that play into big, swing-for-the-cheap-seats choruses. The band’s roots skew toward pop-punk, and over the years it’s been great to hear them cool out and breathe—their latest music showcases their knack for beautiful melody and lush instrumentation....
Over the past decade, Missouri singer-songwriter and guitarist Samantha Fish has become one of the country’s leading young electric blues performers. Her 2017 album, Belle of the West (Ruf), produced by Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, leavens her blues sound with country and roots rock—an exciting departure from her usual mix of urban blues styles, and one of the best albums of her career. This year’s Kill or Be Kind (Rounder) is a bit of a retrenchment, sticking to Fish’s bread and butter: hard electric blues and bluesy retro soul....
Steve Walters, 57, is a Chicago artist and screen printer. In 1991 he founded Screwball Press, which he still runs today; it’s come to be recognized as a pioneering and influential local institution in the business of screen-printed rock posters. He creates original art for bands and venues and does production printing for other artists’ projects. This past fall he opened Burgoo, a shop and gallery space in Rogers Park....
When I went to see The Breadwinner at the AMC River East a couple months ago, I was the only one in the theater; when I planned to write about it a few days later, the film had already left town. I’m glad to see that the Gene Siskel Film Center has brought it back for a weeklong engagement, so that more Chicagoans can catch up with this inventive and informative film....
