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 track representing the capital city is a measly 47-second interlude titled “A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane for Very Good Reasons.” Not […]
Music
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Women rule
Friday, April 14, is hereby proclaimed “Cool Gal Singer/Songwriter Night” in the city of Springfield. By whose order? By order of the great architect of the universe, the all-seeing I, and the hair on your great grandmother’s chinny-chin-chin, that’s who. Erika Luckett kicks off Friday’s estrogen extravaganza at 8 p.m. at Robbie’s (after the Craig […]
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Experiment with pleasure
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, who turns 70 this year, is one of the founders of Tropicalia, a musical, intellectual, and political movement that swept São Paolo by storm in the late ’60s and early ’70s […]
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Music notes
SHOWS A-GO-GO! You will like the Boss Martians, because Steven Van Zandt likes the Boss Martians. The Seattle foursome won the coveted “Coolest Song of the Year” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage, Van Zandt’s Internet-broadcast radio show, in 2003. The Martians play garage rock, but if they’ve learned anything from the school of Little Steven, […]
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The song’s the thing
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 performing for almost 30 years now, his songs are much more famous than he is, thanks to several high-profile cover versions. Cyndi Lauper and the Bangles scored chart […]
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Hear the best bad country
Somehow Brian Henneman, head honcho of the Bottle Rockets, got it in his head that crappy country songs of the 1970s should not die alone and forgotten. He’s revived the best of the worst from their moribund state for presentation to an unsuspecting public, and Diesel Island, Henneman’s chosen band vehicle for this adventure, takes […]
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True to form, brilliantly
Will Johnson, Centro-matic’s singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter, is more than a frontman; he’s a frickin’ franchise. Besides cranking out eight Centro-matic CDs, Johnson has managed to write and record a couple of solo albums and releases by Centro-matic’s slightly weirder and more downtempo alter ego, South San Gabriel. Meanwhile, he and his loyal cohorts […]
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Honking on the harmonica
Thirty-year-old Jason Ricci is one busy musician. With his group New Blood, the harmonica-playing blues-rocker has logged about 300 dates a year for the last several years. That, my friends, is a good sign. You don’t play that many gigs unless you are getting asked back for more. Ricci began his professional career at age […]
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Blues Club birthday bash
“Let’s Keep the Blues Alive!” — the earnest wish at the bottom of the hand-drawn fliers advertising the coming of the Central Illinois Blues Club in February 1986 — signifies all that the organization has stood for since its inception more than two decades ago. Credit for instigating the club goes to Vicki Biddle Chmura […]
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Contemporary antiquaries
Christian Kiefer and Sharron Kraus The Black Dove (Tompkins Square) On their first collaboration, songwriter/brainiacs Christian Kiefer (a Ph.D. candidate in American literature) and Sharron Kraus (a former Oxford tutor in philosophy) deliver 15 moody, mostly acoustic tracks that have one foot in the art house and the other in the moors. Kraus, who sings […]
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Take the last train home
As I speak with Eric Brace, founding member and driving force behind alt-country standard-bearers Last Train Home, he is celebrating his 46th birthday by relaxing in the St. Thomas Islands. The guitar-playing singer and former music journalist is on a working vacation: He and the rest of the band are making their annual February tour […]
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Our wild American
Rhodes scholar. Army pilot. Janitor. Singer/songwriter. Drunkard. Movie star. Kris Kristofferson, who turns 70 this year, has lived enough for 20 men, and he’s not done yet. This Old Road, his first album in 11 years, finds the grizzled troubadour taking stock of a life led well, if not always wisely, and paying tribute to the […]
