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 [...]
Archive for June, 2010
June 29th, 2010 - 2:13 am § in True/Slant
Giving 'bad music' another chance
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 lef[...]
June 25th, 2010 - 6:48 pm § in Freelance Work
Making Friends and Losing Money | Music Feature | Chicago Reader
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 [...[...]
June 25th, 2010 - 1:27 am § in True/Slant
The last nail in the music industry's coffin
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 th[...]
June 18th, 2010 - 2:01 am § in True/Slant
Bad movies that are hard to resist
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 mor[...]
June 16th, 2010 - 12:42 pm § in Freelance Work
Horrid Shows: What, and who, is behind our bad-movie obsession? | Newcity Film
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 t[...]
June 16th, 2010 - 12:09 pm § in Freelance Work
Tonight: Disappears at Black Cat – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper
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 [...]