27 Sep 2000

Intensity Rescues Progressive Rock From Itself

By Jeff Ignatius
Progressive rock has never been cool. It has sometimes been respected, but those periods have been fleeting and hastily apologized for. The genre had many practitioners in the early 1970s, bands unafraid of releasing 30-minute pieces (they can’t properly be called songs) rife with self-indulgence and pomposity.
21 Sep 2000

Live, Odd Rage on the Way

By John James
Rage Against the Machine is currently putting the final touches on a new live album, recorded recently at Los Angeles' Grand Olympic Auditorium and dominated by an unusual selection of cover tracks like Devo's " Beautiful World" and MC5's "Kick Out the Jams.
13 Sep 2000

A Beautiful Late Summer Snow

By Jeff Ignatius
There’s nothing fancy-pants about Kelly Pardekooper’s music. It’s as unassuming, familiar, comfortable, and rugged as denim. That’s not to say it’s pedestrian. Far from it. Pardekooper’s new album, Johnson County Snow (on the well-regarded Trailer Records label), is simply spectacular, with 10 beautifully crafted pieces of corn-fed rock from Iowa City.
13 Sep 2000

Morrison Comes Back From the Dead

By John James
Look for the upcoming Fatboy Slim album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, to include the track - and first single - "Sunset (Bird of Prey)," which is built upon a vocal sample of the Doors' Jim Morrison reading some of his poetry.
13 Sep 2000

Symphony Offers Sultry Sounds

By Zach Carstensen
There are times when I’m out and about that I feel the Quad Cities are a great place to catch a symphony, listen to some jazz, or ponder art, and the most recent Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) pops concert left me in a state of cultural bliss.
13 Sep 2000

Rhino Set to Release Rarities from The Doors

By John James
Rhino Records' Handmade imprint has announced that on September 25 it will start distributing the first in a series of CDs of rare and previously unreleased music from The Doors. The recordings will mark the debut of the Bright Midnight label, owned and operated by the surviving members of the band.
13 Sep 2000

Strange Bedfellows Take the Stage at Peabody's

By Jeff Ignatius
We’ve all heard confessional lyrics, but how does one go about writing soul-baring music? Listening to Shannon Wright’s striking Maps of Tactic (her second album on Chicago’s Quarterstick Records) feels like looking at somebody’s innards.
29 Aug 2000

Project Features All-Star Roster of Singers

By John James
This Tuesday brings the new album, Hyacinths and Thistles, from The 6ths - the new project of Stephen Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. The Merge Records release is an unusual collaborative effort with different guest vocalists on each track performing in the European "chanson" cabaret style.
22 Aug 2000

Love Us -- Please

By Jeff Ignatius
The Nixons sound needy. I don't want to make too much of it, but if you go to see them at the Pig Pen in Clinton on August 24, please give the guys a hug and tell 'em you love 'em. Listen to Scott Bush, the brand spanking new guitarist for the Dallas-based band, after fumbling around looking for a description of his band's sound: "They can call it whatever they want, as long as they like it.
17 Aug 2000

Veruca Salt Won't Stand Still

By Jeff Ignatius
Say this for Veruca Salt: Static it ain’t. The Chicago-based band, which makes good on a canceled show at RIBCO this Thursday at 10 p.m. with Ophur, is hardly the same outfit that made a minor splash in 1994 with American Thighs and the single “Seether.

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