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
Bang! Bang!'s Former Frontpeople Leap into Uncharted Waters as My Gold Masknew
Late last year Bang! Bang! just sort of fizzled out; after nearly a year of inactivity, they got together for one final show this past August. In the interim, Gretta Rochelle and Jack Armondo had formed a new band by the name of My Gold Mask. They released an album this past spring, and then got married in June.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
11-09-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Bang! Bang!, My Gold Mask
Electronic Duo Gatekeeper Looks to the Classic Slasher Film Soundtrack for Inspirationnew
All the flavors of synthesizer on Optimus Maximus evoke the heyday of the slasher flick in the late 70s and early 80s, when masked maniacs roamed shadowy streets, Ouija boards not only worked but inevitably summoned nameless evils, and vividly red fake blood was spilled by the gallon.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
10-19-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Chrissy Murderbot Has Dance Music in His DNAnew
Under that plaid blazer is one of the midwest's sharpest dance-music vectors.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-24-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Chrissy Murderbot, dance music
The New Art Book 'The Art of Touring' Moves Past the Mythology of the Roadnew
A multimedia tribute to the road life, the book includes photographs, essays, journal entries, comics, paintings, collages -- and, on the accompanying DVD, plenty of footage by and of touring bands, onstage and off.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
08-10-2009 |
Nonfiction
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
Elijah Wald Explains How the Uncool Music of Yesteryear Shapes Today's Tunesnew
No one makes music in a vacuum, completely detached from the pop mainstream and his or her potential audience. Wald argues that nobody should be trying to, since how many people music appeals to in its own time is at least as important as how many rock writers it appeals to in 30 years.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
06-15-2009 |
Nonfiction
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
Pop White People Like: Andrew Bird's 'Noble Beast'new
Precious anachronisms, whistling, the approval of both NPR and the Gray Lady — what’s not to like about Andrew Bird?
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
01-26-2009 |
Reviews
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
MC Zulu's Space Dancehallnew
Zulu works on Planet Lazer Bass, but he lives right here in Chicago.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
11-24-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
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
