Music

Various Artists Future Soundtrack for America (Barsuk) Pity the young Republican who aspires to hipness. The nation might be evenly polarized, but the rock community, particularly the indie faction, is pretty much unanimously disgusted with W. The Bush twins claim to love Modest Mouse, the Strokes, and the Postal Service, but the likelihood that any […]

• Good golly, Miss Molly, it’s the ol’ Tutti-Frutti king himself, whooping it up at Millikin University’s Kirkland Fine Arts Center in Decatur at 2 p.m. Sunday. Yes, it’s Little Richard still out proving to the world that he invented the musical art form all by his lonesome. Don’t believe him? He will convert you. […]

Ricky FantéRewind (Virgin) Ricky Fanté makes soul music, nothing “neo” about it: just sweet, buttery, Stax-sounding soul that’s wholesome as a plate of hotcakes. No hip-hop flourishes, no Pro-Tools preening, no freaky dancehall textures, no pottymouth innuendoes for this 26-year-old ex-Marine. Rewind is truth in advertising, a trip back in time to when nice girls […]

• A hearty congratulations to Sharon Graf, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Illinois at Springfield, on capturing first prize at the Illinois State Old-Time Fiddle Championship, held Sept. 5 at Rockome Gardens near Arcola. In an old-fashioned fiddle-off, Graf defeated her 2003 nemesis, David Smith of Aurora, and about 30 other participants […]

• PENNY LANE, Springfield’s only surviving store that was once called a headshop, sponsors a free outdoor concert on Sunday, Sept. 12, at Douglas Park. The concert, which began as a tribute to Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, has become a mid-September tradition, celebrating Garcia’s life near the date of his death. Perfunctory This […]

Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty Brian Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (DBK Works) Thirty years after Brian Eno released his second solo album, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), multi-instrumentalist Doug Hilsinger and vocalist Caroleen Beatty, both of the San Francisco indie-rock outfit Waycross, pay it a peculiar homage, performing all of the Maoist opera’s […]

This weekend, 16 bands and more than 1,000 people are expected to travel to a field outside the small town of Beecher City to enjoy some of the area’s finest rock music. It’s the sixth year for Barnfest, a Taylorville-area tradition. John Hicks, frontman for Pana-area rockers Hot Iron Skillet, was there at the beginning. […]

Various Artists Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo (Or) Tribute compilations are tricky bastards. Given the regrettably narrow and highly specialized tastes of most music fans, a successful various-artists comp tends to have a narrow scope: The compilers choose songs written by one person and performed by members of his or […]

The Naysayer Kitten Time (Red Panda Records) As anyone who has ever sobbed into soft, forgiving feline fur can tell you, there’s nothing like a cat when it comes to free therapy. Take it from Anna Padgett, the Naysayer’s singer, songwriter, and only permanent member: “Kitten time, kitten time/How do you know when it’s kitten […]

Jolie Holland Escondida (Anti) With her languid drawl, her vintage guitars, and her penchant for ancient parlor tunes, Jolie Holland traffics in what rock scribe Greil Marcus once called “the old, weird America.” But don’t think for a minute that she’s some dusty period piece. On Escondida, her second album and her first for Anti, […]

Perhaps he is best known by the masses as half of the beauty-and-the-beast story that played weekly in the tabloids during his brief marriage to actress Julia Roberts. Fortunately, Texas-based Lyle Lovett is also justifiably recognized as the author of some of the finest songs penned in the last 20 years. Flirting with traditional country […]

The Roots are, among other things, exhibit A when earnest white National Public Radio members try to argue that not all contemporary rap is crass consumerist crap: “They rail against the system! They make with the uplifting messages! They’ve got a real live drummer and everything!” But, unfortunately for the Roots — six records in […]