AltWeeklies Wire
Our guide to the Pitchfork Music Festivalnew
In the past few years Pitchfork has started booking a stage at Primavera Sound in Spain and collaborated with All Tomorrow's Parties for a festival in the UK, and this fall it launches a festival in Paris. But Chicago is still the influential online music magazine's home base, and the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival is the seventh large-scale event it's hosted here.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer, Peter Margasak, Kevin Warwick, Bill Meyer and Leor Galil and Mara Shalhoup |
07-14-2011 |
Music
For Gucci Mane, the Quantity is the Qualitynew
He's not the best MC and he's not the worst, but Gucci Mane is crazy enough to put out four albums' worth of free material in seven days and that's good enough for me.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
11-09-2009 |
Music
In Search of the iTunes Killernew
There's something about Apple -- probably its nearly monopolistic control of certain markets or its disproportionate influence on the zeitgeist -- that brings out the bloodlust in new-media commentators and gadget bloggers.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-03-2009 |
Music
Advertisers Go from Licensing Songs to Releasing Themnew
The synergy of marketing and indie music has evolved so swiftly that selling a tune for use in a commercial or video game seems almost quaint. Marketers aren't just horning in on the territory of record labels' promo departments -- they're starting to act like labels.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
04-13-2009 |
Music
Together, Live Nation and Ticketmaster Could Exert a Dangerous Amount of Powernew
When news of the proposed Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger flashed across the internet, it was accompanied by the same mix of panic and dread you'd expect in response to an announcement that great white sharks were carrying the Ebola virus and could now fly.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
02-23-2009 |
Music
Whither the Album?new
Chuck Klosterman says Chinese Democracy is the format's last hurrah. Kanye proves him wrong.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
12-08-2008 |
Music
New Federal IP Act Will Criminalize Culturenew
The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 promises to do for music what Homeland Security did for air travel.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
10-27-2008 |
Music
How the Web is Changing Black Youth Culture, and Vice Versanew
Wayne Marshall, a writer, DJ, ethnomusicologist, and probably the only person on staff at Brandeis University who's been written up by the Fader talks Web 2.0 and black youth culture.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
10-20-2008 |
Music
Scott and Cara Flaster Release Punishing Music in Beautiful Packagesnew
Seventh Rule has become something of a sanctuary for Chicago bands whose music falls outside the sometimes rigid genre boundaries of mainstream metal, from Indian’s thunderous psychedelic doom to Plague Bringer’s industrial-tinged, drum machine-powered grind.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
10-06-2008 |
Music
How Kid Rock's Rejection of iTunes Let Others Beat Him on the Charts with His Own Songnew
The Hit Masters' version of "All Summer Long" reached number five on the iTunes single-song sales chart. By the end of the week it had outstripped Kid Rock's version on Billboard's Hot 100, peaking at number 19 while the original was at number 25.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
09-22-2008 |
Music
How Technology is Turning the Tables on the Westernization of Popnew
The exchange of musical ideas between the West and the rest of the world is evolving into a genuine conversation, and that can only be an improvement. The internet may be giving the music industry all kinds of fits, but it's pretty great for the health of music itself.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
07-28-2008 |
Music
Running Out of Retronew
Enjoy the '90s revival while you can--the space-time continuum is about to collapse.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
07-14-2008 |
Music
Major Labels Could Learn a Thing or Two About File-Sharing from Lil Waynenew
Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, which came out June 10 on Universal subsidiary Cash Money, was one of the most anticipated albums of 2008, even though the sheer amount of material Wayne has already released in the past year -- including dozens of web-only tracks and several album-length mix tapes -- threatened to try his fans' patience as well as overload their hard drives.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
06-24-2008 |
Music
Chicago's 'Hipster Rap' Scene Attracts the Inevitable Backlashnew
Most criticism of hipster rap only goes clothes deep, and even for relatively philosophical haters like Unkut.com's Robbie Ettelson, the sight of a rapper in anything but baggy jeans and a hoodie seems to trigger homosexual panic.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
06-10-2008 |
Music
Columbia College's Student-Run Record Label is Actually Run by Studentsnew
The music industry has changed a lot since 1982, when Polygram chairman Irwin Steinberg and Down Beat publisher Chuck Suber started AEMMP Records, a student-run label at Columbia College that doubles as a music-business prep course.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
05-19-2008 |
Music
