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The RIAA's most wanted

Did the feds shut down Megaupload at big content's bidding—to keep the site from launching an iTunes competitor?
Miles Raymer - 02/02/2012
Drummer Tim Daisy writes for dance troupe the Seldoms

Plus: New releases from young MCs Rockie Fresh and Calez, and a benefit celebrating the late Mat Arluck of Sweet Cobra
Peter Margasak, Leor Galil and Kevin Warwick - 02/02/2012
Gossip Wolf: Must be the burritos

Lindsay Powell of Fielded and Rand Sevilla of Sich Mang join the exodus to LA. Plus: Eternals front man Damon Locks launches an interstellar tribute to Sun Ra
Jessica Hopper and J.R. Nelson - 02/02/2012

More …

In Rotation

In Rotation: Jail Flanagan of Forced Into Femininity on pissed-off diva Xina Xurner

Plus: Reader music editor Philip Montoro on Finnish black-metal psychonauts Oranssi Pazuzu and composer Charles Joseph Smith on Rockford piano prodigy Emily Bear

Bleader: Music

Music Minnie Riperton's "Reasons"

Posted by Miles Raymer on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 8:00 AM

The story of Minnie Riperton's life is all kinds of frustrating. Although she possessed one of the most shockingly beautiful voices in the history of pop music—a tender and supple thing that somehow spanned a physically impressive five-octave range—there were only a few years where she was alive and the world at large cared much at all. The Chicago-based psych-pop-rock-soul outfit Rotary Connection that she fronted early in her career wasn't the commercial A-bomb that Marshall Chess presumably was hoping for when he put it together, and her 1970 solo debut, Come to My Garden, was, upon its release, a straight-up flop. (Both Garden and the Rotary Connection catalog have since found a loving audience in the record geek community.) Despite those setbacks fate, Stevie Wonder, and an Epic Records intern managed to conspire to produce 1974's Perfect Angel—its breakout single "Lovin' You" brought Riperton to the level of fame that she deserved, which she enjoyed until her death from cancer just five years later.

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Music This week's featured gig poster

Posted by Luca Cimarusti on Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 3:43 PM

ARTIST: Dan Grzeca
SHOW: Tortoise and Dent-de-Lion at Empty Bottle on 1/24

MORE ONLINE: dangrzeca.com

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Crickets / Music 12 O'Clock Track: Beauty Pill, "Afrikaner Barista"

Posted by Leor Galil on Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Chad Clark

For most folks, Dischord will always be synonymous with the style of punk known as the "D.C. sound." In the 80s that meant hardcore, in the 90s it meant postpunk, and in the aughts things started getting weird—a lot of material Dischord put out challenged every notion of a local sound. Take Beauty Pill, an excellent experimental postrock act fronted by Chad Clark (formerly of Smart Went Crazy) that fuses punk, jazz, hip-hop, funk, and anything else that pops into an irresistible whole.

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Free

Netherfriends (DJ set) @ The Whistler

Early Warnings

Madonna @ United Center
Joe Louis Walker @ SPACE
Parlotones @ Schubas
I Break Horses @ Lincoln Hall
Anders Osborne @ SPACE
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Soundboard

Donald Harrison Quartet Alto saxophonist Donald Harrison is the quintessential New Orleans musician—he's adept at playing anything with a nice groove, regardless of genre, and …

Scale the Summit, Elitist, Centaurus, Burn the Remains Scale the Summit got it right when they decided to forgo vocals. Lots of instrumental metal or postrock bands eventually experiment with …