AltWeeklies Wire
Hack Attack: Taxi vs. Ubernew
In Taxi vs. Uber, the drivers are sidelined says an ex-cabbie.
Chicago Newcity |
Dmitry Samarov |
06-04-2014 |
Transportation
On the Road, Molinanew
“I met him in Bloomington, right around 1997, when his first record came out,” Jason Evans Groth says. “I worked at the student radio station [at Indiana University] and I remember playing that record a lot. It seemed like otherworldly music to me. … So, when I found out it was him—I think a lot of people’s reaction when they saw Jason the first time was, ‘Jesus, it’s that guy?’ And the second thing is, he talks a lot.”
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
01-09-2014 |
Profiles & Interviews
Alone, together: Dosh expands his experiment in a vaccumnew
Like the majority of “Milk Money,” its longest track stubbornly develops a recognizable theme and rhythm. Listeners need patience to get there. The album’s cover might be a bit more concretely rooted in the world we all inhabit, but musically? It’s greatly transcendental moments of manipulated keys and surprising, dropped in edits.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
12-02-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Jacco Gardner’s Age of Discoverynew
“I had a quite clear visual image when I made that song,” Jacco Gardner says of “Cabinet of Curiosities.” “It’s from a time when dreams and reality came together in a way … like the first [explorers] who saw an elephant, and they made a drawing of it. It looked like a monster."
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
10-21-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Jacco Gardner
Hawkwind's Persistent Visionnew
The current incarnation of Hawkwind, including dancers and a light crew, counts about ten people, all dedicated to crafting a stage show to extol the psychedelic virtues of the ensemble’s 1975 work. Brock refers to the album as “the last part of the jigsaw puzzle from the seventies.” And while it was the final album featuring Lemmy on bass, Hawkwind issued several additional long-players during that decade.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
10-10-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Hawkwind
Guttural Rhythms: The Science of Ted Sirota’s Heavyweight Dubnew
Honing in on sounds drawn from Jamaica invariably abut America’s jazz tradition. Drummer Ted Sirota’s more than vaguely familiar with both. But his estrangement from reggae and dub didn’t occur because of lacking fealty. The drummer just found himself more easily insinuated into jazz ensembles.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
09-20-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Ted Sirota
Just A Rambler: Nick Garrie Reclaims His Masterful “Nightmare”new
He says the album’s recording wasn’t hijacked back in 1968. But if Nick Garrie didn’t think “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” existed in bastardized form, he likely wouldn’t be traversing the Atlantic Ocean to set it all right.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
09-03-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Spiritual Revolutionary: The Musical Meander of Saxophonist Charles Lloydnew
Charles Lloyd’s "Forest Flower" followed him to New York, a city he describes as jazz’s mecca in its heyday. It followed him to Europe and the U.S.S.R., an unheard of occurrence amid the Cold War. It insinuated itself into hippie culture, Lloyd counting the Grateful Dead, John Densmore and David Crosby as ardent disciples.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
09-03-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Consciously Unconscious: Pianist Matthew Shipp Paws at Improvisationnew
Matthew Shipp’s time in David Ware’s company wasn’t all supplication. The pianist recorded incessantly during the decade, and today counts upwards of thirty dates under his own name. The pace of recording and relentless thought put into Shipp’s work is evident. But practicing to play spontaneously seems like a contradiction—one the pianist quickly clears up.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
06-24-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Ecstatic Improvisation: “The Source Family” Documents the Strange Days of Father Yod and Ya Ho Wha 13new
The Source Family, helmed by a war-vet-turned-restaurateur with the given name Jim Baker, could be lumped into the miasma of 1960s social experiments. But there’s something else going on. Smoking weed was a ritual, but drugs weren’t a focus. They weren’t totally freed from monetary concerns—Baker’s Sunset Strip health-food eatery sustained them. It’s all curious—the reams of music they recorded as Ya Ho Wha 13 are, too.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
06-12-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Down in the basement: Mike Rep's dank and creative lifenew
As suburban sprawl began its duplicitous creep, a kid named Mike Hummel and his family took up residence in Timberlake, a region southwest of Ohio's capital. It was the 1960s.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
05-14-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Sweden's Mysterious Goatnew
The greatest myths are good stories. And tales behind the discovery of any band are just decent fiction—or at least realities tweaked well enough to conjure up towering imagery.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
04-25-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Goat
Family Dawg: David Grisman, Andy Statman Strung Together By Roots and Culturenew
The kinship Andy Statman and David Grisman share sprouts from music and culture and hinges on the merger of ancient melodies and America’s musical history. But there’s a familial vibe to much of the latter’s canon. Flipping through his recordings, the same names pop up repeatedly, sometimes at intervals of a decade, sometimes more—Jerry Garcia’s among them.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
04-15-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Not Dead: Akron/Family Defies the Pigeonholenew
Akron/Family drummer Dana Janssen may or may not be aware that Paul Williams is no longer spinning vinyl and opining, but the Portland-dwelling percussionist says he hopes journalists can eventually write uniquely on his band.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
04-11-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Akron/Family
Pat Martino has a coldnew
Guitarist Pat Martino’s made a concerted effort to traipse through life in the most healthy way he can. In part, it’s to combat the effects of an aneurysm, which swiped a huge chunk of his memory toward the tail end of the 1970s.
Chicago Newcity |
Dave Cantor |
02-25-2013 |
Profiles & Interviews
