Popular indie music site Pitchfork announced it will launch Altered Zones, a sister site dedicated to DIY sounds so obscure not even those on staff at Pitchfork have heard of some of the bands or dreamt up cool new tags for the zany new tunes. Pitchfork has some lofty goals for the site, which will … [Read more…]
Back in May, “Best Worst Movie” director Michael Paul Stephenson wrote an editorial about loving bad movies. It was titled: Bad Books Are Bad, and Bad Food Is Bad. But Bad Movies Are Not Always Bad What’s missing from the title? Music. Specifically bad music. Perhaps Stephenson left bad music out of the conversation for … [Read more…]
Matt Harmon has a lot on his plate. The 25-year-old DIY musician and concert organizer is the bassist in mathy screamo quintet Suffix and plays guitar and sings for a punk trio called Cloud Mouth, which is about to drop a new six-song 12-inch, That Ghost Is Always With Me (Ice Age), and on July … [Read more…]
Musicians, critics and crazy people alike have claimed the end is near for the music industry. But perhaps the clearest sign of its impending demise is when Jim Urie, president and CEO of Universal Music Group Distribution, mass e-mails a desperate plea to anyone and everyone somehow connected to the music world, including yours truly. … [Read more…]
Scott Pilgrim is like my Harry Potter, Twilight or any other popular book series today. I realize I’m hardly alone in that sentiment: There’s something powerful about Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series that’s irresistible. Though I’ve seen some negative chatter about the first “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” trailer, mostly relating to its glorified … [Read more…]
This week, Newcity published an article I wrote on Chicago’s bad movie scene. “So-bad-it’s-good” movies have been getting a lot of press lately. There’s “Birdemic: Shock and Terror,” “The Room” and “Troll 2,” which is finding even more approval due to the recent documentary on the B-movie,”Best Worst Movie,” making the rounds on the critical … [Read more…]
A riot broke out at New York’s South Street Seaport during a free concert Tuesday. And what nefarious musician inspired such a disastrous public event? The newest shock rocker to hit the scene? Some “evil” death metal band? An anarchist cult yelling at the crowds to fight the government conspiracy? Nope. It was Drake, hip-hop and … [Read more…]
In the trailer for the new movie “Birdemic: Shock and Terror,†the film’s hero celebrates a million-dollar deal with a high-five from a co-worker. That money is an achievement, a goal people think about endlessly. It’s something recent DePaul University graduate Patrick Dowell ponders from time to time. And Dowell knows just what he’ll do … [Read more…]
The word minimalism is used a lot to describe Disappears, the mezmerizing Chicago quartet that dropped its new album, Lux (Kranky), in April. via Tonight: Disappears at Black Cat – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper. I first saw Disappears at the Joan of Arc Variety Show in January. They kicked off their 15-minutes-or-less set … [Read more…]
I’m an unabashed fan of Kickstarter, a site where creative types pitch projects for friends, family and complete strangers to help fund. I’ve helped fund a few projects here and there, and the platform Kickstarter has on its hands manifests the same kind of inquisitive state that can lead to spending hours on the site. … [Read more…]