Deanna Isaacs Wrigley Field, September 1, 2013 Today, with a new shroud of snow topping the remains of a winter that refuses to let us out of its grip, the late-summer day last year when I met Bill Cahill seems like a dream. He remembered that she was a star reporter at the Chicago Journal of Commerce when he was first hired there, a few years before it was purchased by the Wall Street Journal....
Amber Liu’s tomboy fashion and tattoos have made her stand out among her peers in the crowded K-pop market, but they pale in comparison to the force of her personality. Liu is most known for being a member of f(x), an inventive girl group that’s had some success among Western audiences. In 2013, they became the first K-pop band to play SXSW (though in a post-BTS world, being the first K-pop group to play an American festival seems more like a relic of wildly different times, not something that took place just a few short years ago)....
In 2015 Ben Chasny, sole constant member of the long-running Six Organs of Admittance, created what he calls the hexadic system in an attempt to break familiar patterns and habits in his playing and writing. The rules, which revolve around the dealing of a deck of cards in relation to notes on the guitar, injected a jarring, unstable quality into his music, first in an electric configuration on Hexadic and then, with even greater displacement, in a solo acoustic singer-songwriter mode on Hexadic II....
Various locations 866-279-6269 marianos.com Runner-Up Dill Pickle Co-op
1564 N. Milwaukee 773-862-4882 myopicbookstore.com Runner-Up Book Cellar
Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University 50 E. Congress Runner-Up Harris Theater
The songs on Gia Margaret’s new debut album, There’s Always Glimmer (Orindal), glow with the warmth of a flashlight hidden in a blanket fort. She understands how to use music to portray the complexities of intimacy, and her wispy vocals, delicate guitar strumming, gentle piano melodies, and pitter-pattering electronic percussion suggest she’s the kind of bedroom artist who’s at her creative best within the cozy confines of her home. Indeed, at the beginning of her career six years ago, it seemed like her material might well remain locked in her bedroom—Soundcloud was the only public repository for her lo-fi self-recorded demos....
All About Eve 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. • Orgasm Inc., Liz Canner’s documentary about the pharmaceutical company Vivus.
2548 N. Halsted 773-477-4646 kingstonmines.com Runner-Up Buddy Guy’s Legends
Various locations thebongoroom.com Runner-Up Over Easy Cafe
The Hoyle Brothers wind up the after-work crowds with an old-school honky-tonk throwdown at the Empty Bottle every Friday at 5:30 PM, and for the past ten years, nearly all their shows have included local dance instructor Jeffrey Cannon. A Texas native who studied ballet in college, he’s also a lifelong lover of country music. He met the Hoyles in 2001 after his favorite country bar, Whiskey River (now the PAWS adoption center), closed down; a friend suggested he get his fix at their Hideout residency instead, and he’s hung around them ever since....
At this point it’s clear that the Internet has become at least as important to a pop song’s success as old-school terrestrial radio. When Billboard began including digital streams in its formula for determining placement on the Hot 100 in late 2012 it radically altered the chart’s makeup, and since then songs that haven’t been promoted by their labels as singles (including meme-connected songs like Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” and Ylvis’s “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?...
Every so often I’ll fall for a song because of a short, inexplicable moment that’s not written into the fabric of the tune—it could be a mistake or a genuine reaction to what’s going on that’s been caught on tape, and for one reason or another it stays in and catches my ear. In the case of “Block the Sun,” the opening tune from the recent self-titled debut EP by local punk band Harebrain, that unexpected moment happens at the end of the song when the sound of an aluminum can popping open rings out above a bit of fading guitar distortion....
6318 N. Clark 773-743-7665 pressurebilliards.com Runner-Up Chris’s Billiards
Megan Baker Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito Chicago expats Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher both got their start as open mikers here in the city and have since moved to LA where they cohost the podcast Wham Bam Pow, coproduce the stand-up showcase Put Your Hands Together, and maintain separate stand-up careers, all as an engaged couple. They’re currently on tour together to promote Esposito’s new album, Same Sex Symbol, which just surpassed albums from Sarah Silverman, Jim Gaffigan, and Patton Oswalt on the comedy charts....
Za’atar can refer to several varieties of wild herbs that grow in the Middle East, or to a popular, centuries-old Middle Eastern spice blend that was originally made with the oregano cousin wild za’atar. Recipes for the mixture vary, but most call for dried oregano, thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt. While My Za’atar Gently Weeps Evans has challenged Hanna Mutsch of Kuma’s Corner to create a cocktail using miso, a Japanese fermented soybean paste....
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images What a difference a week makes. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • About Jose Lopez, the Puerto Rican community activist who wants to stop the gentrification of Humboldt Park? —Aimee Levitt • The local history of the hat worn by the New York Knicks’ Iman Shumpert? —Leor Galil
