Peter Margasak
Bio:
I’ve been a staff writer at the Chicago Reader since 1996, which is when I started writing the Post No Bills column. It ran until 2004 and was reborn a few years ago as my Reader blog. I've written about all kind of styles and music-related topics over the years, from proto-punkers to rabid record collectors to jazz drummers. My work has also appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, DownBeat, and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. I also appear on the third Friday of each month as a guest on WBEZ’s Radio M program.
I’ve been a staff writer at the Chicago Reader since 1996, which is when I started writing the Post No Bills column. It ran until 2004 and was reborn a few years ago as my Reader blog. I've written about all kind of styles and music-related topics over the years, from proto-punkers to rabid record collectors to jazz drummers. My work has also appeared in the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, DownBeat, and on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. I also appear on the third Friday of each month as a guest on WBEZ’s Radio M program.
- Music, Music Feature, Jan 7, 2013
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Music of the hemispheres
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Katinka Kleijn premieres a duet for cello and brain waves
- Music, Music Feature, Dec 26, 2012
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The Year in Review: Music
Reader writers tackle the past 12 months from six different directions
- Music, Music Feature, Dec 5, 2012
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Gifts for hungry ears
The cream of the year-end crop of box sets and reissues: Coleman Hawkins, Bessie Smith, Tunji Oyelana, Bill Withers, and more
- Music, Music Feature, Nov 6, 2012
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The Reader's guide to the 2012 Umbrella Music Festival
Chicago's bravest jazz fest features Sven-Ake Johansson, William Parker, Fred Van Hove, Joe Morris, and many more
- Music, Music Feature, Oct 16, 2012
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Caroline Davis, a saxophonist 20 years in the making
And now that she's playing full-time, it's spectacular
- Music, Music Feature, Sep 18, 2012
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The World Music Festival: Down but not out
Bureaucratic fumbling has diminished its lineup, but some greatness remains—including Fatoumata Diawara, Slavic Soul Party!, and Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 29, 2012
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The Reader's guide to Jazz Fest: Thursday and Friday
Unscathed by the cuts that hit so many city fests this year, it's got
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 29, 2012
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The Reader's guide to Jazz Festival: Saturday
Unscathed by the cuts that hit so many city fests this year, it's got Billy Hart, Dianne Reeves, and more
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 29, 2012
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The Reader's guide to the Jazz Fest: Sunday
Unscathed by the cuts that hit so many city fests this year, it's got Allen Toussaint, Steve Coleman, and more
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 29, 2012
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The jazz doesn't stop when the festival does
Aftershows and more, including Inner Ear, Jerry Gonzalez, Dee Alexander, and Ira Sullivan and Stu Katz hosting the traditional Jazz Showcase jams
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 29, 2012
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The Reader's guide to the 2012 Chicago Jazz Festival
Unscathed by the cuts that hit so many city fests this year, it's got Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Steve Coleman, Allen Toussaint, Billy Hart, Ken Vandermark's Resonance Ensemble, and more
- Music, Music Feature, Aug 1, 2012
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How to make it through Lollapalooza
Grant Park is going to look like a hypercapitalist refugee camp all weekend, but our hour-by-hour itinerary will lead you to so much great music that you'll hardly mind
- Music, Music Feature, Jun 6, 2012
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The Reader's guide to the Chicago Blues Festival
There's more than Mavis: Other must-see acts include Texas Johnny Brown, Floyd Taylor, Joe Louis Walker, and the Rising Star Fife and Drum Band
- Music, Music Feature, Apr 18, 2012
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Pop-up shops: pros and cons
This year's RSD pop-ups include Numero Group and Hot Jams
- Music, Music Feature, Mar 13, 2012
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Short takes on recent reissues
A collection of blunt instruments from Feedtime, Alex Chilton's first solo recordings, and the debut of Tav Falco's Panther Burns
- Music, Music Feature, Feb 9, 2012
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Anna Clyne scores big
Symphonies still prefer dead composers, but Clyne beat the odds to land a plum job with the CSO at the tender age of 30
- Music, Music Feature, Nov 1, 2011
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Our guide to the Umbrella Music Festival
Five nights of the finest avant-garde jazz in the world: Tim Berne, Ab Baars, John Butcher, Odean Pope, Mary Halvorson, and many more
- Music, Music Feature, Oct 6, 2011
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Cave's unstoppable Neverendless
Airless funk, blammo guitar riffs, and soundburst synth patterns from the local Krautrockers
- Music, Music Feature, Sep 29, 2011
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Norwegian weird
Nils Okland and Sigbjorn Apeland record a quietly odd, genre-bending tribute to eccentric 19th-century violinist and composer Ole Bull
- Music, Music Feature, Sep 15, 2011
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Our guide to the World Music Festival
Eight days, 22 venues, 52 shows—and music from more than 30 countries
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