Music
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Band Life Music Tape it or leave it: Considering the cassette release
Posted by Andrea Bauer on 01.19.13 at 09:00 AM
Friday, January 18, 2013
Do This Music Deep into disco with a Tom Moulton mix
Posted by Miles Raymer on 01.18.13 at 04:36 PM
Jazz Music Post No Bills The blustery blowouts of saxophonists Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson
Posted by Peter Margasak on 01.18.13 at 02:30 PM
Broken Arts Music Muti will miss Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Asian tour
Posted by Deanna Isaacs on 01.18.13 at 01:47 PM
Muti, suffering from what looked like the flu, returned to his home in Italy earlier this month after spending a single night in Chicago. He'll remain there for this procedure and a recovery period, which means he'll have missed the entire winter season.
Lorin Maazel, director of the Munich Philharmonic, who has a 40-year history with the CSO, will fill in for part of the tour; the rest TBA.
12 O'Clock Track Music 12 O'Clock Track: Electronic synth-pop from Candian hardcore vets Yacht Club, "A Little Messed Up"
Posted by Luca Cimarusti on 01.18.13 at 12:00 PM
Year in Review Music Post No Bills My favorite albums of 2012, numbers ten through one
Posted by Peter Margasak on 01.18.13 at 08:32 AM
The final installment of the year-end countdown of my favorite albums from 2012.
10. Duane Pitre, Feel Free (Important) New Orleans composer Duane Pitre created a system/composition using a computer algorithm. At root, the computer holds various recordings of harmonic patterns played on guitars tuned in just intonation; the program randomly plays back various little snatches, which overlap and resonate in ever-changing combinations. The piece can function in that sparse mode, but it becomes more interesting when other players join in, as on this lovely recording with violinist Jim Altieri, hammer dulcimer player Shannon Fields, bassist James Ilgenfritz, cellist Jessie Marino, and harpist Jesse Sparhawk. Participants are free to play what they want, although Pitre established rules to prevent performances from veering into chaos or overload. These collaborators nail it, making it the most beautiful, gently accruing piece of strings vibrations I've heard all year.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Whoa Music News Chief Keef's sentencing: The view from the courtroom
Posted by Leor Galil on 01.17.13 at 05:49 PM
And yet the scene inside the Cook County Juvenile Court Building was fairly modest; a group mostly made up of journalists, legal professionals, and Keef's family filled three wooden benches in a small, off-white courtroom. The room's sparse decor—a clock on one wall, a calendar on the other, and a droopy American flag behind Judge Carl Anthony Walker's seat—was hardly reminiscent of the lavish lifestyle Keef enjoys rapping about. The rapper himself walked in wearing a navy-blue sweatshirt and sweatpants that bore the letters JTDC ("Juvenile Temporary Detention Center") instead of his usual Louis Vuitton and Salvatore Ferragamo gear.
Outside the courtroom he has an outsize, violent persona, but inside he was a 17-year-old who goes by Keith Cozart. Lately the online conversation about Keef has focused on white cultural tourism via violent music by African-Americans, but it didn't come up in the conversations among cops and court officers that I overhead in the courtroom prior to Judge Walker's entrance—I heard more about young Chicagoans who are grappling with real violence. In the courtroom Cozart's rap career was almost of no consequence—except for the fact that it was used as evidence to keep him behind bars (and a reason to let him go).
Do This Music Best shows to see: Magic Trick, Meek Mill, Underoath, Tomorrow Never Knows
Posted by Philip Montoro on 01.17.13 at 02:09 PM
Reader writers also weighed in on Hundred Waters (opening for Freelance Whales on Sat 1/19 at Lincoln Hall) and the Black Madonna (who plays Sat 1/19 at the Hideout, after a non-TNK show at Smart Bar), and they've only scratched the surface of the fest: just for starters, Ssion's set opening for Niki & the Dove (Fri 1/18 at Lincoln Hall) is sure to be ridiculously fabulous and fabulously ridiculous, and King Dude (opening for Chelsea Wolfe at Schubas on Sat 1/19) turns up in In Rotation this week as one of the picks by Alma Negra guitarist and front woman Erin Page.
Of course, even in January one festival can't monopolize all the good concerts happening in Chicago, and as always we've got more for you on our Soundboard page. Highlights after the jump:
Do This Music A chill Portishead remix and a very unchill Skrillex incident
Posted by Miles Raymer on 01.17.13 at 01:23 PM
But it's entirely possible that you aren't all the way there yet, which would be perfectly understandable. Today's kind of just a regular old Thursday in January, which after the frantic pace of the holidays (and the couple of weeks of socially accepted goldbricking that follows it) can seem even less exciting than a typical almost-end-of-the-week.
In that case I suggest hitting the jump to check out two videos that I think might help you get there, wherever the there is you need to go. One is a remix from 1996 of Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Only Knew," based around a sample of Portishead's "Numb" and featuring a guest verse by Missy "Still Not Giving Us That Comeback She Promised" Elliott that bumps nicely even if you're not a big 90s nostalgic type. The other video is of Skrillex accidentally lighting his hair on fire. Thursday just got a whole lot more inspiring.
12 O'Clock Track Music 12 O'Clock Track: D.C. postpunk band Imperial China, "Creative License"
Posted by Leor Galil on 01.17.13 at 12:00 PM
Today's 12 O'Clock Track is the fourth song off How We Connect, "Creative License."
