Frank Underwood will not accept such leaks. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • The latest evidence that locking more people up has not been responsible for the nationwide drop in crime? —Mick Dumke • That Facebook is now allowing you to make provisions for your account, like designating a friend to manage it after you die? —Aimee Levitt
Electric Hawk: guitarist Michael Burns, drummer Noah Leger, and bassist Graham McLachlan Tonight at the Hideout, local math-metal instrumentalists Electric Hawk play a headlining set that features material from Electric Hawk II, their forthcoming second album. They expect to see copies of the LP back from the pressing plant in March; the album officially drops April 14, and there ought to be a release party sometime that month. Opening tonight’s show are RLYR (Trevor de Brauw of Pelican, Steven Hess of Locrian, and Colin DeKuiper of Bloodiest) and Exit Verse (a newish power trio led by Geoff Farina of Karate)....
A grassroots campaign is underway to have Eve Ewing, the poet and sociologist who tweets as Wikipedia Brown, hired as the new writer of Marvel’s Invincible Iron Man comic after longtime creator Brian Michael Bendis left the publisher earlier this week for archrival DC. Also Riri Williams has my haircut and general mode of dress pic.twitter.com/1jebqRbBUi — wikipedia brown (@eveewing) November 7, 2017 A change.org petition started by music writer Tirhakah Love has already gotten nearly 1,500 signatures since it was launched on Wednesday....
You can grow your own medicine Do you have a green thumb? Are you interested in growing your own cannabis as medicine? As of January 2020, Illinois medical cannabis patients by law are allowed to grow up to five plants. There are great benefits to growing your own medicinal cannabis. Patients can grow their favorite strains and learn more about cannabis growing cycles. With cannabis shortages and dispensary prices potentially increasing, most patients find that growing their own cannabis helps save money on their medicine....
Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.
On Friday, March 1, local creepy-punk outfit Absolutely Not will add more music to the pile they started building in 2013: they’ll drop their third album, Problematic, via local label No Trend. The band’s seventh release overall, Problematic is also their first as a four-piece—the core trio of singer-guitarist Donnie Moore, keyboardist Madison Moore, and drummer Santiago Guerrero have recruited Meat Wave’s Chris Sutter as member number four, adding another layer of atonal guitar....
Thomas Comerford is a devoted student of rock music who takes his own contributions to the form as seriously as its rich history. He operates with meticulous detail and patience, which might explain why it’s been four years since his last release, the 2014 album II. Since then, he’s expanded his pool of collaborators, and through extensive studio sessions and live performances leading up to his new Blood Moon, he’s developed more sophisticated arrangements than ever....
Courtesy the artist Derek Sheen The most important thing a comedian can be is honest. When a comic exudes anything less than the real McCoy, discerning audiences are quick to detect bullshit. Luckily, Seattle native Derrick Sheen doesn’t have that problem—if anything, he has the opposite problem. On his debut album Holy Drivel (Rooftop Comedy Productions), Sheen overshares on some truly private subjects, and you can feel the audience sort of hold its breath whenever he starts a new bit, anticipating another highly personal confession or emotionally transparent diatribe....
Black metal has long been contaminated with bands that embrace fascist politics, but the genre has a left-wing tradition as well, which includes the antiwar themes of 2001’s The Haunted House by South Korea’s Pyha, the pro-union slant of Panopticon’s bluegrass-laced 2012 album Kentucky, and the radical environmentalism of Botanist. To that list you can add anarchist, anti-fascist UK trio Dawn Ray’d. On their 2017 album, The Unlawful Assembly (Prosthetic), the band imagine revolution in the first track, “Fire Sermon,” and spit bile at those who seek control through scapegoating and fearmongering (which implicitly includes Trump and Brexit proponents) in the wonderfully named “A Litany to Cowards....
Scott Olson/Getty Images Jeb Bush is kinda screwed. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • That Corey Crawford made 60 saves to lead the Blackhawks over the Ducks in triple-overtime last night/this morning? (“It was a pretty good hockey game,” Crawford said.) —Steve Bogira • How British BuzzFeed employees react to photos of quintessential pieces of American culture? —Aimee Levitt
Correction: This article has been amended to correctly reflect the date of the Stonewall uprising. It took place June 28, 1969, not July 28. Behind the pageantry and the appletinis, drag has always been a radical act. History tends to credit white activists for the gay liberation movement, but people of color in cha-cha heels were among those who took the first stand. In the early morning of June 28, 1969, police raided Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, but quickly lost the upper hand when the bar’s queer patrons began to fight back....
Dam-Funk on the cover of the STFU EP Dam-Funk hasn’t been inactive since he dropped his double-disc debut Toeachizown (Stones Throw) in 2009—there’s been a collection of rarities (2010’s Adolescent Funk), a collaboration with Slave drummer Steve Arringon (2013’s Higher), and a famous collaboration with Snoop Dogg (last year’s 7 Days of Funk, and I cannot call him Snoopzilla). But he has yet to release a follow-up to Toeachizown, which is a two-hour monorail ride of retrofuturistic funk that bridges George Clinton, boogie, DJ Quik, and the LA beat scene....
Chicagoland singer-songwriter and composer Daniel Knox has been busy this year, even without the outlet of touring. He hasn’t played an in-person concert since a date at Union Hall in Brooklyn in early March—a subsequent spring tour supporting formerly Chicagoan duo the Handsome Family in Scandinavia and the UK was postponed due to COVID-19 (and has been rescheduled for spring 2021, fingers crossed). In February Knox released the tribute album Half Heart: Songs From Twin Peaks through his own H....
The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. To ensure clients get what they pay for, Weinberg tells Ford, he pores over each piece, searching for signs of forgery:
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons Rick Perry is looking ahead to 2016. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • That right-wing paranoia is reaching new heights in Texas? (“Skeptical messages popped up on Facebook, and people began approaching community leaders at church gatherings. They were worried about the government coming to take their guns. There was a sense that President Obama would be willing to do anything to crush dissent....
Aimee Levitt The long wait is almost over. At last, there is finally some good news for the dogs of Chicago, who have spent much of this spring in quarantine, far from their beloved dog parks and day cares and even the not-so-beloved groomers, because of the terrible and deadly canine flu that has swept the city: She recommends that before returning the dogs to the groomer or day care, humans should call to make sure there haven’t been any recent cases of the flu on the premises....
Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Monday, January 25, 2016. Former Bears head to the Super Bowl with Carolina Panthers The Bears didn’t even come close to qualifying for the NFL playoffs this season, but cornerback Charles Tillman and tight end Greg Olsen will be in Super Bowl 50 with the powerhouse Carolina Panthers, who are led by coach (and 1985 Bear) Ron Rivera. [Sun-Times]
Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar opened in early August, the week of the Sturgeon Moon, which is when the Algonquins believed the Great Lakes teemed with gravid fish. That’s not only auspicious, it’s audacious, because this intimate space that once housed the late, lamented Bar Marta stocks up to 16 varieties of fish eggs iced behind glass on the bar. Other varieties of caviar are offered a la carte at different weights, generally lower prices, and significantly more noticeable salt levels, at least in the case of the wild rainbow trout roe ($15 for 15 grams)....
