Odesza gives EDM a different kind of energy
Seattle electro-pop duo Odesza has only been together for three years, but already Harrison Mills and Clay Knight have demonstrated that they can command a big stage in front of...
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Review: ‘Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll’ by Peter Guralnick
In his latest book, "Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll," veteran music journalist Peter Guralnick spends a good portion of 600-plus pages backing up the claim made...
10 essential recordings by Allen Toussaint
"Java," Tousan (1958): A teenage Toussaint was already a major player on the New Orleans session scene in the '50s, and this piano-driven instrumental appeared on the album "The Wild...
Allen Toussaint, a hidden genius, dies at age 77
Allen Toussaint, 77, who died Tuesday, was a hidden genius. The songwriter-producer-musician played a crucial behind-the-scenes role in countless classic songs popularized by other artists, from Glen Campbell's "Southern Nights"...
The Weeknd at the United Center: The rise and fall of R&B noir
Mom knows best. The Weeknd, for all his troubled and troubling narrators, at least acknowledges that much. He began his sold-out concert Friday at the United Center with words of...
ELO is back, minus the excess, with ‘Alone in the Universe’
Jeff Lynne's resurrected ELO shares plenty of similarities with the U.K. band that he led to '70s pop dominance with 19 top-40 hits. But there is one crucial difference. Back...
Staple Singers, the gospel and beyond
It is 1960 in Mississippi and Roebuck "Pops" Staples is singing the blues in church, a solo version of "Too Close" that opens up into an ecstatic Staple Singers performance....
Bruce Lamont’s Corrections House conjures Burroughs-worthy darkness
Yakuza's Bruce Lamont and Neurosis' Scott Kelly are two of the more respected voices in underground rock-metal-punk-aggro-experimental music, so what's this business about them launching their latest project, Corrections House,...
Janet Jackson at Chicago Theatre: She came to dance
Janet Jackson had places to go Tuesday in the first of three sold-out shows at the Chicago Theatre, and she needed to get there in a hurry. She set herself...
Billy Gibbons’ solo album ‘Perfectamundo’ takes a Latin turn
Thanks to a series of tongue-in-cheek MTV videos in the '80s, Billy Gibbons and his bandmates in ZZ Top rarely get mistaken for serious musicologists. But Gibbons' appreciation of blues,...