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Cover Story: What’s That Sound?
01/17/2012

As a number of enthusiasts have pointed out, there are currently more pop-music genres than there are artists to occupy them. Whether such a sneering jab is true, the slotting of acts into ready-made categories has always been a vice of critics and fans. The practice of labeling often gets dismissed as laziness, but the [...]

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Tomorrow Never Knows preview!
01/17/2012

Winter is always the hardest season for music lovers in Chicago because so few bands hit the road. And who can blame them? After all, the below-freezing temperatures, blustery snow, and icy roads are enough to make even the proudest native wish they were somewhere south, while tourist traffic is slim, especially since cash is [...]

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Interview: No I.D.
01/17/2012

Grab your torches, we found the person responsible for Kanye West. Actually, while most of local hip-hop history goes relatively unsung, people far and wide shout No I.D.’s praises – probably without knowing it. The South Sider, born Dion Wilson (his moniker is the reverse spelling of his first name), has made several unremovable marks [...]

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File: Year-End Top 10s
01/17/2012

The IE staff picks its favorite albums, reissues, live shows, and local bands of 2011. Curt Baran: Albums 1. Wild Flag Wild Flag (Merge) 2. PJ Harvey Let England Shake (Island) 3. Le Butcherettes Sin Sin Sin (Rodriguez-Lopez) 4. Tune-Yards whokill (4AD) 5. Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop) 6. Fucked Up David Comes To Life (Matador) 7. Radiohead The King Of Limbs [...]

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Best Songs Of 2011
01/17/2012

Is that a giant list of songs, or are we just happy to see ya? For all the discussion surrounding the deaths of various recording styles and formats, 2011 was a fantastic year for songs. IE found very little overlap when our writers submitted their votes, which is astounding. If you can find 10 new [...]

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Around Hear: January 2012
01/17/2012

Richard Anthony is much more gifted as a songwriter than he is as a singer throughout Connected Part One, an odd but occasionally endearing synth-pop project where 100-percent of the proceeds go to foster-children’s charities. Clearly he’s a noble guy capable of spinning several socially conscious tales, but a limited a range and hit-or-miss vocal [...]

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Classic Spins: John Lennon Collection
01/17/2012

The John Lennon canon is now at the tipping point: with the release of the new 38-song Working Class Hero (Capitol) collection, there are now more posthumous album releases by the ex-Beatle than there are actual solo albums he recorded while still alive. So do we need another repackaged collection of the same old Lennon [...]

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Feminism—and the trivial women who take it seriously
01/12/2012

The Wednesday Tribune Perspective page has me wondering about the duties of an op-ed editor. Is the bigger part of the job lining up a rotating roster of regulars—columnists you can count on to tell us today what they told us last week and will tell us next week?…

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A winter mix from Molly Soda
01/12/2012

The same qualities of midwestern winters that tend to drive people insane—the isolation that comes with it being highly unpleasant to go outside and do anything, the melancholy that foreshortened days tend to inflict—make it ideal for making mix tapes. In fact a number of my favorite iTunes playlists came from friends sometime around January or February.…

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Talking weather, Robyn, and child porn
01/12/2012

A Q&A with Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac by Asher Klein The Reader-sponsored Tomorrow Never Knows music festival is expanding into comedy for the first time this year, and Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac is one of the headliners along with Todd Barry and Chicago's own Hannibal Buress. (Three other local funnypeople will be opening for Cenac at his two sold-out shows: Cameron Esposito, Tony Mendoza, and Gabe Wallace.)…

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Fiction Issue 2012: "Teen Jeopardy"
01/12/2012

Pure Fiction: "Teen Jeopardy" by Jessie Morrison Robbie Guajardo had never worn makeup before. It felt wet and thick, but strangely soothing, as the makeup lady brushed it across his cheeks and forehead.…

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Fiction Issue 2012: "The Gentle Grift"
01/12/2012

Pure Fiction: "The Gentle Grift" by Tim Chapman Jack Dunphy drove his 16-year-old fist into the face of the kid who was sitting on him and felt the nose give way under his knuckles. Hot red drops freckled his face and then the weight was gone from his chest.…

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In honor of the approaching 84th Academy Awards
01/12/2012

With Academy Award nominations a mere two weeks away, I figured it was apropos to revisit one of my favorite bits from Patton Oswalt's 2007 album, Werewolves and Lollipops. Buried deep in his set, "Death Bed" waxes poetic about the production and plot of the 1977 horror mess, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats, written and directed by George Barry—Oswalt actually refers to the movie as "Death Bed: The Bed That Eats People," which, really, would have been a better title.…

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The fringe comes to the fore
01/12/2012

Highlights of the 23rd annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival by Drew Hunt and Sharon Lurye Positively venerable at the ripe old age of 23, Rhinofest continues its run as one of Chicago's annual go-to events for local fringe theater and performance art. Here are a few likely highlights of the monthlong dramaturgical smorgasbord curated by Curious Theatre Branch:…

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Fiction Issue 2012: "Moving on at the Hipster Gym"
01/12/2012

Pure Fiction: "Moving on at the Hipster Gym" by Tova Burstein We've joined a hipster gym. We didn't need to buy new workout clothes like before, when we belonged to the YMCA or that posh spot on Lincoln Avenue where everyone wore the same brand of Lycra racerback and neon sweats or, sometimes, no shirt at all.…

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The cryptic clarity of "Flight Patterns"
01/12/2012

RE|Dance offers two Chicago premieres in "Flight Patterns." by Laura Molzahn RE|Dance creates a clear sense of place with objects and environments permeated by mystery. One of two Chicago premieres on the company's new program, "Flight Patterns," Michael Estanich's 45-minute sextet The Attic Room features 500 tiny flying origami cranes, books used as stepping stones and building blocks, owl masks, and a large rug that can be a magic carpet or a prison cell, a haven or a shroud.…

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Dan Savage sticks it to Rick Santorum
01/12/2012

Dan Savage revisits "Santorum" by Dan Savage Q I'm writing to thank you. I remember reading your definition of santorum—"the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex"—when it first appeared.…

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Editor's pick: "Red Velvet"
01/12/2012

Editor's pick: "Red Velvet" by Chris L. Terry After Uncle Paul's fifth gin and tonic of the night, he began to sense a buzzing around him, like an old neon light. He looked up to see that Winnie's Grill had got crowded with men, a knot of whom stood behind Paul, swaying in unison and singing along with the hopeful piano of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love," which played on the house stereo.…

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China present and China past in "China Revisited"
01/12/2012

Headlong change is a focus of "China Revisited" at Schneider Gallery by Sam Worley Two of the loveliest photographs in "China Revisited" are by Gao Yuan, who places nude Chinese women before striking landscapes—a hazy, industrial-apocalyptic construction scene, an ocean beneath roiling clouds. The women recline before the camera as if posing for a portrait.…

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Pure Fiction
01/12/2012

The 2012 Fiction Issue Here's how it works: each year since, well, last year, Reader editors have asked a Chicago writer we admire to judge the submissions to our annual fiction contest. There's no reason at all to think that the ability to pen a good novel automatically makes someone an expert at appraising other people's art, but it's worked pretty well so far.…

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Sun, smog, and black metal
01/12/2012

Nachmystium front man Blake Judd heads to LA, drone-pop group Names Divine cleans up nice, and more by Jessica Hopper and J.R. Nelson Nachtmystium front man Blake Judd is moving to LA soon, and though the rumor mill is churning up lots of speculation about why, the official word from reps at the band's label, Century Media, is that Judd wants a "change of scenery." The rest of the band will stay put in Chicago, and they're adamant that Judd's move won't interfere with their tour and release schedule.…

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Never mind the noodles
01/12/2012

Takashi Yagihashi shows how it?s done at Slurping Turtle by Mike Sula "We got pegged as a noodle shop initially, but we're actually an izakaya." That was the hedge a server offered on a recent visit to Takashi Yagihashi's Slurping Turtle, a bit off-message, since the chef himself disavowed a direct connection to the traditional Japanese pub in the pre-opening hype of his River North . . .…

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In Rotation: Big Star manager Ben Fasman on contemporary country that doesn't suck
01/12/2012

Big Star manager Ben Fasman on contemporary country that doesn't suck Miles Raymer, Reader music critic iMaschine for iPhone Maschine is a hardware-software sampler-sequencer setup from Native Instruments, and iMaschine is its standalone companion app for the iPhone—one that's far more powerful than the $4.99 price tag might suggest.…

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Fiction Issue 2012: "Sky Boys"
01/12/2012

Pure Fiction: "Sky Boys" by Steve Trumpeter Your first day on the job, the only thing they tell you is, "Don't look down." I haven't met a sky boy yet who took that advice.…

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The Secret History of Chicago Music: Graced Lightning
01/12/2012

The Secret History of Chicago Music: the "futuristic rock" of early-70s Deerfield band Graced Lightning by Plastic Crimewave

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