Hayes Carll happy to be a fan favorite for the right reasons
Hayes Carll, the country singer-songwriter known for wry ballads like "She Left Me for Jesus," went through a divorce and wrote a dark and quiet album about it. Then fans...
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The Jesus Lizard is back to make Chicago good and loud again
One time in Chapel Hill, N.C., singer David Yow, sweaty and stringy-haired as usual, was floating atop the audience and somebody grabbed him by the back of his pants and...
Everything Nnamdi Ogbonnaya does is about the music
Only one bad thing ever happened at Nnamdi's Pancake Haus, a Utopian do-it-yourself indie-rock club that Nnamdi Ogbonnaya and his brother ran out of their family home in Lansing. Ogbonnaya's...
Emily Haines is working to turn femininity into a sound
On the cover of her latest solo album, "Choir of the Mind," Emily Haines wears orange rubber kitchen gloves, stares into the distance and wields a large black baseball bat....
The Safes have been redeemed by the evil power of rock ‘n’ roll
From the time he was 3, Frankie O'Malley was always in trouble. "I did all kinds of bad things. I thought I could fly so I jumped on the chandelier....
Peter Himmelman still making a living off of odds and ends
The other week, singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman, who has spent his career ad-libbing about dogs' toenails click-click-clicking on linoleum floors and spontaneously leading audiences to the roofs of concert halls, found...
Macklemore getting used to life without Ryan Lewis
For the first time since 2010, Ben Haggerty walked into a recording studio to make an album without DJ, producer and sidekick Ryan Lewis. Surprisingly, this did not freak him...
Irma Thomas, rain are a lifelong match
As usual, Irma Thomas has rain on her mind. One of her first big hits was 1962's "It's Raining," she frequently performs the spiritual "Didn't It Rain" and her 2006...
New life for My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
Brace yourselves: The frontman for a long-standing punk band is about to say something kind about Chicago police officers. Franke Nardiello, also known as Groovie Mann of the industrial-turned-'90s-pop band...
The Flamin’ Groovies a hard-rocking blast from the past
One minute into Flamin' Groovies' new song "End of the World," something sounds familiar. Suddenly, the venerable garage-rock band is reproducing the backbone of its signature hit, 1976's "Shake Some...