AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese Rob Ford: Still got it Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • About the Beekmanites, a religious cult that existed in the 1880s near Rockford? —Aimee Levitt
Camera Shy Two bands that I’ve been listening to nonstop recently have been Whirr and Nothing, a couple of massively loud shoegaze revival acts. Nick Bassett, who is Whirr’s guitar player and primary songwriter (and a former member of Deafheaven) also plays bass in Nothing, so it makes sense that the sonic similarites—crushing layers of high-volume guitars, slow-moving tempos, dark moods, drawn-out song structures—are so blatant. A couple of weeks ago Bassett debuted a track from his new project, Camera Shy, a duo with Whirr vocalist Alexandra Morte that has almost nothing in common with his other bands....
The very first thing I did after finally purchasing Twilley Don’t Mind (1977) this past Saturday at the CHIRP Record Fair was come home, joyously crack my windows—it was a balmy 70 degrees, if you’ve already forgotten—and blast today’s 12 O’Clock Track, the album’s hard-strutting title track. Twilley, who visited town last year as a part of HoZac’s Blackout fest—tying in with the label’s release of the single “Shark”—famously never garnered the fame he was owed for being a power-pop trailblazer....
A friend who didn’t like that Kristen McQueary op-ed any more than anyone else did (myself excluded) has just introduced me to the idea of “disaster capitalism,” which is what we get when societies are shocked into disarray and submission and right-wing economic and political forces seize the moment. Here’s a video of the author Naomi Klein explaining disaster capitalism, which it appears she coined. And here’s AlterNet’s Adam Johnson arguing that its “dark heart” was just exposed by Kristen McQueary in the Tribune....
Midsize jazz ensembles have been around for as long as jazz has existed, and they’re especially versatile: Louis Armstrong’s Hot Seven provided a supportive, uncluttered framework for soloists; Charles Mingus obtained an orchestral array of moods and colors from an octet on Mingus Ah Um; and Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Octet (later Tentet) combined titanic massed blasts with breakout subgroups that yielded unpredictable free improvisations. The
chicagosinglesclub.com Runner-Up Fake Shore Drive
Earlier this year Highland Park’s Once Upon a Bagel bakery and deli—source of the quintessential egg bagel, the chocolate-chip bagel ball, and a mish-mosh soup that’ll cure just about anything—ventured into something a whole lot less kosher. A mile or so to the north, in the same Highwood strip mall that houses its hot dog outpost, the Mean Weiner, Once Upon opened a seafood diner, Lucky Fish Deli. The two small dining rooms, furnished with wood and Formica kitchen tables and comfy vinyl chairs, are separated from an open kitchen by a glass case that shows off scrupulously fresh denizens of the deep blue: oysters, lobster, shrimp, mussels, and clams, along with less trayf offerings like delicate lake perch (by the pound or half pound), which you can order fried, though I recommend it lightly blackened from the grill; either way, get it with the warm kettle chips or crunchy broccoli slaw....
More than a year ago smooth-as-hell Chicago R&B singer Jeremih collaborated with LA beatmaker Shlohmo on an excellent psych jam called “Bo Peep (Do U Right).” The pair hit it off and promised more music to come, and last week they delivered No More. Today’s 12 O’Clock Track is an early favorite of mine from the free six-song EP, “Let It Go.” Jeremih’s panty-dropping falsetto snakes through the tune, which has a twilight sensuality and cinematic feel that’s vaguely reminiscent of the Drive soundtrack....
Courtesy of the band’s Facebook page The Pentaject Corporation Combing through the latest e-mail blast from Permanent Records I came across a listing for Blackmail Stretch, an EP from a defunct local postpunk outfit called the Pentaject Corporation. The group made 200 copies of the seven-inch back in 1982, but Permanent’s got some in stock—it’s another example of how the Permanent team is great at finding out-of-print records. You’ll have to fork up some cash for the originals—they’re listed at $99 apiece....
Sunday, December 20th11am – 5pm Chicago Plumbers Hall 1340 W Washington Blvd, Chicago, IL 60607 The Made in Chicago Market is back! Come shop local and support fellow Chicagoans as they showcase some of the best apparel, housewares, food and drink that Chicago has to offer! Free to the public Parking available #MadeinChicago Brought to you by Participating Local Vendors Drug Factory Press Kiku Handmade Sue Rosengard Jewelry Design Urban Art Chicago...
In 2007, an accident while shooting in Seattle severely damaged the Wilmette native’s right leg and eye, and cost him thousands of dollars in hospital bills. He won’t get too specific about the details—there’s a lawsuit pending—but he says it happened when he was up in a crane, photographing on a golf course. The crane shifted and toppled, slamming him onto the ground. His leg was shattered. Doctors managed to save it, but years later an infection forced them to amputate below the knee....
3149 W. Logan 773-395-2770 fleurchicago.com Runner-Up A New Leaf
California Dreamin’ (Endless) Each Friday, we recommend seven Old Movies to Watch Now, all of which come recommended by one of our critics and can currently be screened online. Read the review, watch the movie, feel accomplished. • Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, in honor of the recently deceased comic.
A couple years ago, Reverend Pervis Thomas of Englewood’s New Canaan Land Missionary Baptist Church was on the verge of ending the neighborhood’s annual Battle of the Blocks basketball tournament. Also known as the Englewood Peace Tournament, it gathers together young men from the area, many of whom Thomas says are members of rival gang factions, for a weeklong series of games. But eight years of organizing the tourney on his own had begun to wear on Thomas, and he wasn’t sure at the time whether the initiative was truly fostering peace in the community....
Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Ai Weiwei can officially rejoin the jet set. • How artist Ai Weiwei just had his passport returned after more than four years? —Sue Kwong
Jessica Koscielniak/Sun-Times Bruce Rauner Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • Paul Krugman on the war over poverty? —Tal Rosenberg • About the crogel, a cross between a croissant and a bagel? —Aimee Levitt
On March 25, Nonesuch Records will release Abraço, the final album in the remarkable trilogy that Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso cut with a young, guitar-driven trio. That began in 2007 with Cê. On that record and the ones since, Veloso has been fusing his deep, inherent facility in samba and bossa nova with raw-edged indie rock, an unexpected turn that represents merely one of many stylistic detours he’s taken in his five-decade career....
meatwavechicago.bandcamp.com Runner-Up One Night Band
The album art for the deluxe version of Nobody’s Smiling Common wants you to know his brand-new Nobody’s Smiling is all about Chicago. Specifically it’s about the violence that casts a shadow over the city, but it’s also about Chicago’s hip-hop scene and Common’s relationship with the entire town. In the months leading up to the release of his tenth album the MC has addressed the city’s struggle with gun violence in interviews....
