Volition had a sequel problem. The result is the Saints Row spin-off Agents of Mayhem, which launches August 15 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It’s still a chaotic shooting game, but it’s set in a futuristic version of Seoul in another universe—one best described as a violent 1980s Saturday morning cartoon designed for a more sophisticated Adult Swim audience. Imagine if the A-Team gave Mr. T the license to tell everyone to fuck off and shoot everyone dead with a rocket launcher and you’re getting the picture....

ARTIST: Bill Connors SHOW: Glyders, Flamingo Rodeo, Ruins, and Dehd Hed DJz at the Empty Bottle on Mon 8/27 MORE INFO: instagram.com/billconnors

Owen Keehnen remembers the Belmont Rocks like he was there yesterday. On summer afternoons in the mid-1980s, he would stroll up the lakefront from Diversey Harbor. As he approached Belmont Avenue, he’d see a large grassy expanse punctuated on one side by a series of tiered limestone blocks that separated the city from Lake Michigan. Sprawled out along the grass and rocks, men cruised and canoodled. Some were clad in Speedos....

WXRT wxrt.cbslocal.com @93XRT Runner-Up Vocalo

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, April 27, 2017. City treasurer Kurt Summers decides against running for governor Chicago city treasurer Kurt Summers won’t run for governor in 2018 and is instead endorsing billionaire businessman J.B. Pritzker in the crowded Democratic primary, he announced Wednesday. Summers would have taken some African-American votes away from Chris Kennedy, the son of former attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, and by endorsing Pritzker he’s “doing the next best thing for the billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune,” according to the Sun-Times....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, August 11, 2017. Have a great weekend! Hobos gang leader sentenced to 40 years in prison Gregory “Bowlegs” Chester, the alleged head of the Hobos street gang, was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday. Chester and five other alleged leaders of the gang were convicted on “racketeering conspiracy charges alleging the gang carried out eight murders over a decade,” the Tribune reports....

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Hayao Miyazaki enters the third dimension Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • About Trainwreck and the postfeminist dystopia (which is almost as oppressive as old-fashioned 50s sexism)? —Aimee Levitt

In 1943, the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! stirred audiences with its youthful optimism, glorifying a hero who was willing to fight for the woman and the land he loved. “Oh, what a beautiful morning,” the singing cowboy crooned—just what Americans needed to hear at the peak of World War II. In Goodman Theatre’s excellent new version of Brigadoon, for which Lerner’s original script has been revised by Brian Hill, the witch metaphor is discarded entirely....

There are two versions of the story of how Britt, Iowa, became the Hobo Capital of America. The official version, as told by Bill Eckels, a volunteer guide at Britt’s Hobo Museum who also answers to the nom de hobo Boxcar Billy, goes something like this: Still, Britt takes its hobo heritage seriously. The first thing you see when you drive into town is a big sign that says national hobo convention topped with a picture of a hobo carrying a bindle and a can of stew....

chicagoafrobeatproject.com Runner-Up Funkadesi

Ex Hex Lorde’s Aragon Ballroom performance is all sold out, but fortunately there are plenty of other concerts to see during the next few days. Tonight there’s Islands at SPACE and MT Coast at Empty Bottle. Tomorrow night you can see California X at Township or Psalm Zero at Cobra Lounge. Wednesday night there’s Jason Adasiewicz at the Hideout. Tue 3/18: Ex Hex at Schubas

“SSRI,” the first song on the self-titled EP from local punk four-piece Fitness, offers the one thing I want from an opening salvo: a shot of adrenaline. There’s no “right way” to deliver that shot, but I can’t argue with Fitness’s methods. The band burns through a meaty, forward-charging rock melody with the help of two guitars shooting off bottle-rocket riffs and some seriously gnarly, melodic scream-singing that occasionally gives way to some uplifting vocal harmonies....

Mohsen Makhmalbaf (in mirror) filming the title subject Taken at face value, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Gardener, which opens at the Gene Siskel Film Center this Friday, is lightweight stuff. It shows the Iranian filmmaker and his son Maysam visiting the Baha’i gardens in Haifa, where they learn about the Baha’i faith (which was founded in Iran in the early 19th century) and discuss the value of organized religion in modern society....

courtesy of Time No Place Records Fay Fay Davis-Jeffers, the former singer, keyboardist, and guitarist in the quirky Chicago art-rock band Pit Er Pat, recently dropped Deathwatch (Time No Place), the second album under her solo guise Fay. It’s another beguiling effort of minimalist grooves, terse melodic fragments, and spooky vibes, and once again it doesn’t sound like much else out there today. Davis-Jeffers pieces together looped samples and licks played on guitar, keyboards, and percussion—the track “One Last Thing” seems to borrow beats from an Arabic pop record—as well as her own largely wordless vocal snippets into claustrophobic, tightly coiled constellations of sound that, depending on the track, twitch and throb and sometimes billow into murky clouds of dubbed-out refraction....

Earlier this week Baltimore Sun critic Wesley Case wrote a story on DC punk stalwart J. Robbins and his work as a producer and influence on emo—and I was lucky enough to serve as an outside expert for the piece. One of my favorite albums Robbins has produced in recent years is The Distance Is So Big by Buffalo outfit Lemuria, a group that’s clearly influenced by a defunct band Robbins fronted in the 90s, Jawbox....

ARTIST: Frank Okay SHOW: Meat Wave, ShowYouSuck, Bleach Party, Vaya, and Yawn at Young Camelot on Sat 8/22 MORE INFO: frankokay.com

ARTIST: Chris Williams SHOW: Knife the Symphony, Fake Limbs, and Ampline at Quenchers on Sat 11/7 MORE INFO: plasticflame.com

Paulina Market 3501 N. Lincoln Runner-Up Gene’s Sausage Shop and Delicatessen

5024 N. Sheridan 773-728-5511 bigchicks.com Runner-Up Parlour on Clark