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Allison Stewart

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Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

The legendary War, and some very strange beginnings

The fabled group War began life as a Los Angeles-based backing band called Nightshift. It was supporting football star-turned-R&B artist Deacon Jones during a 1969 club date when the group...
The Australian guitarist was just beginning to see her music make inroads in America when she rips through this galvanizing mid-afternoon set.

Kiiara’s origin story is too good to be true

According to her origin story, Kiara Saulters was 20 years old and working in a downstate hardware store when her single "Gold" became an unexpected hit last summer. It's a...
Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

Dan Auerbach on bands old and new

Singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach's main band, the Ohio-born duo Black Keys, are on a hiatus of indefinite duration. This freed him up to form the Arcs, a sprawling, nostalgic garage-soul band...
Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

LeAnn Rimes’ scandal magnet days are over

Before she was a tabloid jezebel straight out of central casting, LeAnn Rimes was a pint-sized country star. The Mississippi-born Rimes had a handful of huge hits ("Blue," "How Do...
Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

Fantastic Negrito, his tunes and ‘The Claw’

One of Fantastic Negrito's hands was mangled in a car accident that almost killed him. He refers to it, not unaffectionately, as "The Claw." All budding rock stars, like superheroes,...
Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

Julianna Barwick does it all for the joy

Julianna Barwick albums are hushed, ethereal, inexpressibly weird things. Minimally instrumented, they're built around largely wordless loops of her voice, often erected on top of each other to dizzying effect,...
Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

These bands are at their best being another band

In the world of tribute bands, there's a hierarchy: Local bar cover bands and non-Vegas Elvis impersonators at the bottom, semi-pro classic rock tribute acts in the middle, and, at...