Music | Thursday, May 11,2006

Vinyl Static

The Smoking Popes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Black Angels

SHOWS-A-GO-GO! Is a party ever really over? The Smoking Popes certainly thought so when they recorded their final guitar-fueled romp, Party’s Over, in 1998, much to the disappointment

Music | Thursday, May 4,2006

No reinvention, no imitation

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs offer familiar favorites, brilliant obscurities

By René Spencer Saller

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory) When it comes to covers, there are two schools of thought. Adherents of the first try to re-

Music | Thursday, May 4,2006

Vinyl Static

Neil Young for president – and Chicago jams this summer

By Marissa Monson

CD exchange: Neil Young for president. What’s that, you say? Neil Young is Canadian! So Neil Young couldn’t be the leader of our fair democracy, but at least, we can muse, “

Music | Thursday, April 27,2006

Case of the missing heart

Sure, Fox Confessor is a tour de force — but that’s not enough

By René Spencer Saller

Much has been made of Neko Case’s peerless pipes, and rightly so. Her voice, a resonant contralto, is as loud as a marching band, as bright as church bells, as delicate

Music | Thursday, April 27,2006

Vinyl Static

Ice-T, the end of Grandaddy, Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse, and hip-hoppers on manhood

By Marissa Monson

Shows-a-Go-Go! Before Law and Order: SVU slapped a badge on Ice-T’s chest, the rapper had Tipper Gore hyperventilating. An original of gang-sta rap and former member of heavy-metal outfit B

Music | Wednesday, April 19,2006

Vinyl Static

Ice-T tears up Club 217 on Saturday; also Abstract Giants and Josh Ritter’s latest

By Marissa Monson

SHOWS-A-GO-GO! The band is big, and the sound is bigger — if only the Abstract Giants could get a break. The eight-member Chicago-based hip-hop band is well known around Chicago&#

Music | Wednesday, April 19,2006

This dog Van Hunt

He’s black and he wears funny hats — what are we supposed to call him?

By René Spencer Saller

Van Hunt is the protégé of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, but try to keep an open mind. (Yeah, I know — it’s hard not to declare a pox on all th

Music | Thursday, April 13,2006

Experiment with pleasure

Of all of Brazil's wonderfully weird cultural exports, Tom Zé may be the weirdest

By René Spencer Saller

They grow ’em weird in Brazil, and of all Brazil’s wonderfully weird cultural exports, Tom Zé may be the weirdest and most wonderful. Zé

Music | Thursday, April 13,2006

Vinyl Static

Sufjan Stevens is back with more Illinoise — and this time Springfield doesn't get the shaft

By Marissa Monson

CD EXCHANGE: You weren’t the only disgruntled Springfield inhabitant who tore the shrink wrap off Illinois, Sufjan Stevens’ ode to the Land of Lincoln, only to find that the sole

Music | Thursday, April 6,2006

The song’s the thing

You may think you don’t know Jules Shear, but you’d be wrong

By René Spencer Saller

You might not think you know who Jules Shear is, but you’ve probably heard at least one of his songs. Although the 54-year-old Pittsburgh native has been p