Spin Control: Krautrock Distilled
After digitally dissecting jazz in 2001 on his “Loop-Finding-Jazz” release last year, Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Jan Jelinek decided to revisit his influences once again. This time taking on a...
View ArticleSpin Control: Fujiya & Miyagi
The U.S. countryside is starting to look pretty familiar to the guys from Fujiya & Miyagi. “I’ve come to the States more than I’ve visited my mum,” jokes singer/guitarist David Best. But he and...
View ArticlePreview: Hallogallo 2010/Lincoln Hall
RECOMMENDED The last few years have seen an abundance of never-commercially-successful-but-musically-significant acts come out of the past generation’s woodwork to organize reunion tours whereby young...
View ArticleFar Out: Chicago Psych Fest celebrates the diversity of our cosmic krautrock...
By David Wicik When the average person hears the phrase “psychedelic music,” their mind most likely wanders back to the sixties of Timothy Leary, when Brian Wilson began writing his LSD trips into the...
View ArticlePreview: MusicNOW featuring Mouse on Mars/Harris Theater for Music and Dance
RECOMMENDED The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series features performances from the CSO collaborating with guest composers, with the last edition featuring avant-jazz, electronic flourishes and...
View ArticlePreview: Kid Koala/The Abbey Pub
RECOMMENDED Having worked in collaborative terms for his last release with the Slew, Kid Koala jettisons his accompaniment for a trip to Chicago. Not sporting a new release to tour on doesn’t leave the...
View ArticlePreview: Cave/Hideout
RECOMMENDED The term motorik gets tossed around with relative abandon in reference to the handful of ensembles that use German psychedelia dating from the mid-sixties through the latter portion of the...
View ArticlePreview: Beak>/Ultra Lounge
RECOMMENDED What the eponymous Beak> album issued in 2009 seemed to be advocating was that finding a groove within a rock context can mean just about anything. The trio, made up of members tied to...
View ArticleKnowing Me, Knowing Who? The Mysterious Goat of Sweden
By Dave Cantor The greatest myths are good stories. And tales behind the discovery of any band are just decent fiction—or at least realities tweaked well enough to conjure up towering imagery. Sweden’s...
View ArticlePreview: Thee Oh Sees/Empty Bottle
RECOMMENDED Tireless San Francisco rockers Thee Oh Sees took a leisurely approach to touring on their latest album. Released back in April, “Floating Coffin” marks visionary John Dwyer’s twelfth album...
View ArticleCelestial Celebration: Ken Camden on Kranky’s Twentieth
By Kenneth Preski Kranky is the most high-profile, under the radar record label that calls Chicago home. For the past twenty years, founder Joel Leoschke has fostered a stable of uncompromising,...
View ArticlePreview: Loop/Bottom Lounge
RECOMMENDED It’s a nice treat that Loop has reunited to tour for the first time in twenty-three years. That the British band is making an appearance in Chicago is the cherry on top. The crew were...
View ArticleRaw Material: Never Mind CMJ, Get Your Buzz Right Here
Every year from late October to early November I suffer from a condition I call “CMJ Envy.” I spend all my time reading blogs and articles about the burgeoning bands and rising artists taking the stage...
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