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- Music, Gossip Wolf Apr 28, 2020
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Rest in power to hip-hop activist Jamie ‘J. Milla’ Sevier
Plus: Well Yells drops a new darkwave album that trafficks in the sonics of isolation.
- Music, Music Feature Apr 16, 2020
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Remembering Chicago music champion Christen Thomas
She booked shows for a decade with the Empty Bottle and Metro teams, but that work was just the beginning of the love, joy, and support she showered on the local scene.
- Music, Music Feature Apr 8, 2020
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Did John Prine die for Donald Trump’s sins?
The cruelty, ignorance, and incompetence of the federal pandemic response have cost the life of a beloved singer-songwriter who stood against all those things.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Dec 23, 2019
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Rest in peace to Chloe the punk-scene pug
Plus: Online ecology publication Mid Magazine launches with an Ariel Zetina mix, and Thalia Hall hosts a benefit for pediatric brain tumor research.
- Music, Music Feature Dec 9, 2019
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Chicago rapper Juice Wrld died just as his career was beginning
The MC born Jarad Higgins became a commercial juggernaut in less than two years, and passed away just days after turning 21.
- Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Sep 10, 2019
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Pedro Bell made art to embody Funkadelic’s revolutionary grooves
The underappreciated genius behind many of Funkadelic's most famous album covers died last month after nine years in a nursing and rehab center.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Jun 17, 2019
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Local producers Tensei create an electronic canvas of astral soul
Plus: Chicago house producer Derrick “Sleezy D” Harris passes away, and Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire plays two shows behind his new solo album.
- Blogs, Bleader Dec 11, 2018
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Buzzcocks front man Pete Shelley grappled with metaphysical questions as eloquently as he wrote about physical desire
He most perfectly captured this dichotomy between the carnal and the philosophical on the 1979 B side "Why Can't I Touch It?"
- Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Oct 9, 2018
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Otis Rush and his searing guitar immortalized the west-side Chicago blues sound
Rush is hardly obscure, but the Secret History of Chicago Music couldn't let the death of such a powerful and influential artist pass in silence.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Jul 31, 2018
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First-wave drill producer LeekeLeek dies at 27
Plus: Veteran Chicago rapper Longshot celebrates his collaboration with Lazerbeak, and Drum Corps International hosts a world championship in Michigan City.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Jul 17, 2018
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RIP to beloved Chicago house DJ and producer Sean Haley
Plus: Punk Rock and Donuts throws a Pilsen Reads! benefit, local pop-rock band Bike Cops celebrate their debut full-length, and more.
- Music, Music Feature Apr 19, 2018
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Entertainment lawyer Jay B. Ross fought for the people who made the music he loved
An expert negotiator, he went to bat for stars as big as James Brown and Muddy Waters, but he also clawed back royalties for countless forgotten artists who’d never gotten their due.
- Blogs, Bleader Jan 24, 2018
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Mark E. Smith, the acerbic voice of influential Manchester postpunks the Fall, dead at 60
Mark E. Smith's inimitable sneer was a lacerating antidote to mediocrity for more than four decades.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Sep 19, 2017
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RIP Trey Gruber of promising young Chicago band Parent
Plus: New recordings on the way from the Father Costume—and a new album already here from Dan Whitaker & the Shinebenders
- Music, Gossip Wolf Aug 1, 2017
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Beloved underground rapper Mic One passes on too soon
Plus: Donnie Biggins of Harmonica Dunn takes over as booker at FitzGerald’s, and Pilsen’s Dvorak Park hosts the We Are Hip-Hop Youth Festival.
- Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Jul 18, 2017
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Phil Cohran shaped the Black Arts Movement with his vision and discipline
Secret History pays tribute to its first subject, the late Phil Cohran, who cofounded the AACM, formed the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, and launched the Affro-Arts Theater.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Mar 1, 2017
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West-side music-business institution Willie Barney dies at 89
Plus: Music Frozen Dancing returns to the Empty Bottle with a “kool” surprise guest, and Immortal Bird crowdfund to replace stolen gear.
- Music, Music Feature Dec 22, 2016
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The best live metal of 2016
Metal shows remain a great way to drive hostile occupiers out of your head—whether you prefer the bitter catharsis of False or the galloping rush of Tengger Cavalry.
- Blogs, Bleader Nov 11, 2016
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So long, Leonard Cohen
We mourn him, even though he told us this was coming.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Nov 1, 2016
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Eat chili to help the Arts of Life Band release their first album
Plus: Postpunks Ganser continue a busy 2016 with a new EP, Konstantin Jace of Moritat spins 78s all month at the Peninsula, and more.
- Blogs, Bleader Oct 25, 2016
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Saying good-bye to Herb Kent, radio’s greatest of all time
Herb Kent helped shaped Chicago's musical tastes for more than 70 years, and his on-air persona was history's purest example of radio magic.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Oct 11, 2016
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Chicago label Deep Space Objects compiles a constellation of diverse electronic tracks
Plus: Argot releases the serenely funky 90s house of Shifty Science, Lord Mantis drummer Bill Bumgardner dies at 35, and more.
- Blogs, Bleader Apr 6, 2016
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Country giant Merle Haggard dead at 79
The last living genius of honky-tonk passes away on his birthday.
- Blogs, Bleader Nov 24, 2014
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Goose Island's 2014 Bourbon County beers, reviewed by six increasingly drunk people
Chicago's most hyped beers of the year arrive on Black Friday, and the Reader is ready.
- Blogs, Bleader Oct 10, 2014
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RIP Fletcher Weatherspoon, longtime pillar of Chicago's African-American social-club scene
Jake Austen profiled Weatherspoon for the Reader in the 2012 feature story "Spoon's last dance."