The entertainment industry is at the beginning of its award season… and already I’m disgusted. Go figure. The Screen Actors Guild Awards were last Sunday and the next couple months will feature a different award show every 87 seconds – on more than a dozen different channels at a time. But I’m fine with that. […]
I don’t care if Radiohead plays Chicago or not. Whew, that felt good. I’ve been thinking it since last week, when Chicago’s Cultural Affairs Department denied the band a chance to play a pair of shows in late June at Millennium Park. I just haven’t been able to say it out loud; it feels like […]
Let’s play a game of name association. What’s the first name to pop into your head? (1) Grunge Did you think of Kurt Cobain or Nirvana? Or the entire Seattle music scene. Maybe you have visions of Sub Pop, or Pearl Jam, or flannel. (2) Punk Was it Johnny Rotten? Joey Ramone? Joe Strummer? (3) […]
This is the second of two articles regarding Kurt Cobain’s suicide. “Don’t expect me to cry/ Don’t expect me to lie/ Don’t expect me to die for me” – Kurt Cobain (MTV Unplugged – 1994) The unanswered questions surrounding the death of Nirvana front man, and rock revolutionary, Kurt Cobain are legendary. The “Suicide VS. […]
This is the first of two articles regarding Kurt Cobain’s suicide. April 5, marks the ten-year anniversary of The Day The Alternative World Stood Still. It has been a decade since Kurt Cobain was found dead in his Washington home. Though the story is well documented: “Cobain, leader of Nirvana, was found dead of an […]
Rock’n’roll is fickle and has never been pegged as a stable or reliable industry. Since Bill Haley first rocked around the clock with the likes of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, music and music lovers have never been the same. Careers get started with brashly calculated strategies and equal strokes of luck. Yet, […]
Must avoid The Beatles reference…must avoid the cliche way to flashback … fighting … struggling … must avoid the obvious … It was 25 years ago today … Updated Sgt.. Pepper’s references aside, it was 25 years ago this week that Elvis Costello released his third, and most prolific record, “Armed Forces.” On the heals […]
Liz Phair, the former Wicker Park resident whose debut album “Exile On Guyville” won her national acclaim and a stockpile of cred, now writes songs with the men responsible for Avril Lavigne. Kill Hannah, local legends for over half a decade and Chicago’s great-glam-hope, has sold less than 50,000 copies of their major-label debut. Billy […]
People are born knowing Beatles’ lyrics, at least according to Nick Hornby’s book “About A Boy.” This may be true. But for anyone born after 1967, the quote might as well read, “People are born knowing Michael Jackson.” Since first breaking onto the national scene after winning an amateur night at The Apollo Theater as […]
“Absent a historical musical context or a functioning b.s. detector, it is possible to mistake (Ryan) Adams for being as talented and clever as he thinks he is. But then there are plenty of people who can’t tell the difference between plastic flowers and real ones, until they bend over to take a whiff.” Those […]