Events Search – Agenda
Johnny Young, Michael Vallera, MT Coast, Double Morris
Tue., Jan. 22, 9:30 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
In the duo Cleared, multi-instrumentalist Michael Vallera launches surges of jagged guitar chords and looming electronic fog banks against Steven Hess’s unyielding drumbeats. In solo settings Vallera sticks to an electric guitar and pedals, but his music hardly sounds limited; without another player to establish a rhythm or set boundaries, he stirs up masses of sound that feel as big as weather systems. Tone and texture can vary drastically from one set to the next; I’ve heard him drone like a squadron of WW II bombers and swirl like he was auditioning for the Cocteau Twins, and on the upcoming EP Dead Suns (Nihilist) he lets fly with some shredding that sounds like someone fed steel girders into a lumber mill. —Bill Meyer Johnny Young headlines; Michael Vallera, MT Coast, and Double Morris open.
$8, free with RSVP at rsvp@emptybottle.com
773-276-3600Beer Brain
Tue., Jan. 22, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.Other Stuff
Clear some space in your makeshift beer cellar (aka coat closet), because the Beer Temple in Avondale is now open, and it's stocking the kind of craft brews that belong in goblets and chalices and other fancy-pants stemware. Co-owner Margaret Quinn told the Reader's Julia Thiel that the beer-dork haven carries beer from more than a dozen countries and will likely specialize in sours, mainly of the Belgian variety. Everyone has a record collection, am I right? Why not impress (or confound) friends with a sour-beer collection instead?
Eat This! Stories for the Love of Food
Wed., Jan. 23, 8 p.m.Spoken Word/Poetry Slams/Open Mikes
Seven local food enthusiasts are participating in a spoken-word series titled Eat This! Stories for the Love of Food. Monte LaMonte, the self-described "King of All Foodies," hosts a lineup that includes television personality Ted Brunson, Lula Café sous chef Michael Simmons, and urban forager Dave Odd, each sharing personal stories based on their culinary experiences. If that's not enough to whet your appetite, the featured chefs are bringing free samples of their favorite dishes.
$10
MAKE: A Literary Magazine Release Party
Thu., Jan. 24, 7 p.m.Literary Events
To celebrate the release of MAKE's latest issue, which centers on the theme of "architectural" and features new work from Chris Wiewiora and Paul Pedroza, local comedian Adam Burke hosts a Q and A session with the City of Chicago’s Official Cultural Historian, Tim Samuelson. Also slated to appear is poet Ted Mathys and Reader contributor Tovah Burstein.
$8-$10
Cross Record, Great Life, Nat Brooke
Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m.Rock, Pop, Etc
As Cross Record, Chicagoan Emily Cross tiptoes along the line between experimental ambient drone and soft-spoken acoustic indie folk—assuming there’s a line there in the first place. Though the south Florida transplant has a delicate, soulful voice that most singer-songwriters would sell their Martin guitars for, her ambition makes her much more than just another ignorable cafe strummer: she often contorts and layers her singing to create a dark, tense atmosphere that’s more likely to elicit a chill down the spine than a gentle sway of the hips. On last year’s Be Good (Lay Flat), she seamlessly shifts from the fluttering, mostly acoustic “Maybe I’m Crazy” to the gloomy, trudging “Dirt Nap,” a goth-touched epic that would turn Michael Gira’s head. The album’s nine haunting songs are more expansive than much of her earlier work, perhaps because she recruited a host of other players to help build her labyrinths of hard-to-identify creaks and galunks. Whatever comes next is going to be good, I promise. Cross performs with a backing band tonight. —Kevin Warwick Great Life and Nat Brooke open.
$6
Battle for Method Man
Thu., Jan. 24, 8 p.m.Miscellaneous
Local rappers duke it out for a spot to open for the venerable Wu-Tang member at during his headlining show at the Double Door.
$10-$17
Cross Record
Thu., Jan. 24, 9 p.m.Experimental
According to Kevin Warwick, if a line exists between experimental ambient drone and soft-spoken acoustic indie folk, Emily Cross (aka Cross Record) walks it. He writes that the local singer-songwriter "seamlessly shifts from the fluttering, mostly acoustic 'Maybe I'm Crazy' to the gloomy, trudging 'Dirt Nap,' a goth-touched epic that would turn Michael Gira's head." Check out Soundboard for more on Cross's 2012 album, Be Good.
Brooklyn Rider
Fri., Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m.Classical
It’s no longer unusual for a classical group to have a name that doesn’t include a word like “quartet” or “ensemble,” or for it to focus on new compositions or on music that draws on pop, jazz, electronica, and the like. All of which means New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider isn’t an oddity these days—but it’s one of the best of this new generation. Violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Eric Jacobsen (Colin’s brother) formed the quartet in 2006, while playing together in Yo-Yo Ma’s expansive Silk Road Project. In Ma’s group they adapt music from all over Asia, and in Brooklyn Rider they’ve done likewise—for the excellent 2008 album Silent City (World Village), they collaborated with Iranian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor. That’s not to say Brooklyn Rider restricts itself to Asian music: last year they released a double CD collecting the complete string quartets of Philip Glass, plus an album called Seven Steps (In a Circle) that collides a dramatic rendering of Beethoven’s meticulous String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor (with heavy use of glissando and less vibrato than is traditional) with the dense 2008 work Together Into This Unknowable Night by New York composer Christopher Tignor (who leads the rock-flavored new-music group Slow Six). The real oddity on the album, though, is the title track, a response to the Beethoven quartet composed collectively by all four members of Brooklyn Rider, who write in the liner notes that they were “guided by a spirit of free play rather than the heavy hand of the auteur’s pen.” It’s just 12 minutes long, in contrast with the 40-minute Beethoven quartet, but its scratchy textures, extended techniques, and rapid-fire movement make up for in impact what’s missing in duration and exposition. For tonight’s concert the group will play Seven Steps, but the centerpiece of the program isn’t the Beethoven but rather another classical warhorse, Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat. Also included are John Zorn’s The Alchemist, Colin Jacobsen’s “Three Persian Miniatures,” and works by Christina Courtin, Dana Lyn, and Vijay Iyer, all from a series of commissions called the Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which the group asks composers to use any artist from the past 50 years as an inspiration. —Peter Margasak
$35, $5 students
William S. Burroughs: Movie Star
Fri., Jan. 25, 7:30 & 10:30 p.m.Other Stuff
William S. Burroughs: Movie Star is an evening dedicated to the screen presence of the noted Beat Generation writer. Film writer and Burroughs expert Graham Rae joins the Psychotronic Film Society for an evening that will feature two rarely screened films: Towers Open Fire, which Burroughs made in collaboration with English director Anthony Balch, and Burroughs: the Movie, a documentary directed by poet John Giorno.
$10
Polka Ride!
Fri., Jan. 25, 8:30 p.m.Other Stuff
Take a ride with Polkaholics, as they bike from the Daley Plaza to Habetler Bowl for an evening of 10-pin and commiseration.
Winter Block Party for Hip Hop Arts
Sat., Jan. 26, 12 p.m.Miscellaneous
This city has a long, pretty romantic history with hip-hop. Celebrate the genre's past and future in Chicago at the fifth annual Winter Block Party for Hip Hop Arts, a day of dance battles, poetry slams, and a screening of Benji, the heart-wrenching documentary about Simeon basketball star Ben Wilson's 1984 murder. And there's music, naturally. In the evening, an 18-and-up show features eight-piece hip-hop band Sidewalk Chalk, emcee Psalm One, and rappers ADD-2 and Saba.
free from noon til 6 PM, $15 beginning at 7 PM
Odd Obsession Foreign Film Series
Sat., Jan. 26, 7 p.m.Other Stuff
The inimitable movie rental store hosts this monthly film screening. January's edition features the 1973 Senegalese drama film, Touki Bouki.
True Lies: Stories of Deception
Sat., Jan. 26, 7 p.m.Literary Events
A storytelling series featuring tales that are just too crazy, they must be true. Scheduled to appear are Rebecca Anderson, Parker Stockman, and Cyn Vargas.
$15-$20
Arteque
Sat., Jan. 26, 8:30 p.m.Galleries: Openings & Receptions
Music and art go together like a wink and a smile, but actually even better because winking at people is creepy. Latin culture guide Remezcla presents Arteque, a night of visual and audible art at Simone's. Notable alterna-Latin DJs Toy Selectah (Control Machete), Gil Cerezo (Kinky), and Tito Fuentes (Molotov) spin, and street artist Ruben Aguirre provides the visuals.
Music-About-Film & Film-About-Music Show
Sun., Jan. 27, 7 p.m.Other Stuff
Cinephiles and audiophiles alike ought to check out the Music-About-Film & Film-About-Music Show, an event hosted by Hopscotch Cinema in which film artist and cellist Tatsu Aoki and professor Lori Felker illustrate the unique properties the two disciplines share. Additionally, four 16mm short films directed by art-rock band the Residents will screen, while our own Ben Sachs teams up with Edward Crouse to form what's likely the world's first film-critic band—the two will perform "pop songs about films and film directors" under the name Farewell Scarlet.
$10
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