Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards, Tom Waits’ three-disc, 54-track tour de force, is more than a cleverly titled collection of outtakes, rarities, and oddball covers. It’s more than a grab bag of crap that didn’t make it into the official canon, more than a curated tour through the swollen archives of a three-decade career. Whereas […]
Music
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The continuing chronicles of Marina V
The name Marina V should be familiar to regular readers of this column. We’ve been checking in with her periodically, watching as her career develops. It’s been an interesting ride for the Russian-born singer/songwriter, who arrived in our area about a decade ago as a student at Illinois College in Jacksonville. To recap: Marina Verenikina […]
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With friends like these…
In the booklet accompanying Swan Lake’s debut is the following epigraph: “Beast Moans is a testament to friendship, eternal and otherwise.” The sentiment is sweet but more than a little scary. Sure, friends can inspire one another to new heights of creativity, but they can also goad one another to new depths of idiocy. Friends […]
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The current Situation of Andon T. Davis
Guitarist Andon T. Davis left Springfield for the big city, accomplished much, and still comes back a couple of times a year to visit and perform. Davis, affectionately known around these parts as “Ted” for most of his career, worked his way through the ranks of area bands before joining up with Cats on Holiday, […]
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Stories of sadness and strength
The cover art for Joanna Newsom’s sophomore album, Ys (pronounced ees) depicts the folk chanteuse as a Renaissance peasant with a sickle in one hand and a portrait of a butterfly in the other. The juxtaposition of strength and fragility is a perfect visual metaphor for Newsom’s music, which manages to incorporate both cold grandeur […]
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On her own, untethered
Hot on the heels of Ballad of the Broken Seas, Isobel Campbell’s album of duets with Mark Lanegan, Milkwhite Sheets finds the Glaswegian cellist/chanteuse all by her lonesome again, with mixed results. Anchored by Lanegan’s saturnine growl, Campbell’s little-girl coo seemed uncharacteristically womanly; the dichotomy served both singers well, evoking the archetypal pairings of Nancy […]
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Dad, please pass the torch
Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of Chicago blues great Lonnie Brooks, recently released his third CD, aptly titled The Torch. The younger Brooks, a staple in his own right on the Chicago-blues scene, spent years playing in his father’s band before heading out to conquer other worlds. He is quite proud of his musical heritage and […]
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A less-than-spirited return for Jay-Z
It’s difficult to muster up the nerve to throw stones at a guy like Jay-Z. Ever running the rap game, he released a chain of hits, rarely missing a link and never staying off the charts for long. From his rocketing start with Reasonable Doubt to his graceful bow-out on The Black Album, the Brooklyn-born […]
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A comparitive study of visiting bands
This week, we will study the similarities and differences between two bands playing in Springfield on Saturday night, Dec. 2. First, both bands are based in large metropolitan areas of Missouri: The Stone Cat Band (playing Marly’s Pub, 9 W. Old State Capitol Plaza, 217-522-2280) is from St. Louis; Rex Hobart and the Misery Boys […]
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Cour’s pop star 101 course
Ever wonder where our popular-music stars come from? Are they professionally manufactured, created by some behind-the-scenes Svengali, and systematically groomed for stardom, or are they innately gifted with an intrinsic ability to charm the masses, utterly incapable of being anything but celebrated icons? The real story is more likely combination of natural talent and careful […]
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Duo breathes life into death
Death, unlike taxes, is the great equalizer. From the mewling preemie in the neonate ward to former President Gerald Ford, from the lowly fruit fly to the august giant tortoise, from the pope to the Dalai Lama to the highest-ranking officiant in the Church of Satan, we can all look forward to that long dirt […]
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Congratulations all around
Untitled Document While shooting the breeze with fellow Easy Street band members, after just another bar date, drummer Gene Acree began adding up his lifetime gig total. To his surprise, the calculations came to the astounding number of 5,000 (with a slight possibility of a lost night here and there) on Friday, Nov. 17, 2006. […]
