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- Arts & Culture, Theater Review Dec 23, 2020
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Retail, resistance, and rebirth in Wally World and Kickback
Christmas Eve goes to 11 in Isaac Gómez's workplace comedy; About Face celebrates Black queer lives, past and present.
- Music, Music Feature Aug 14, 2020
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Dave ‘Medusa’ Shelton was a fairy godmother to Chicago’s club scene
He didn’t just found the legendary Medusa’s—he also helped everyone in his orbit shine like a star.
- Music, Music Feature Jul 23, 2020
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Thirty-five moments that brought Chicago music to the world
The Year of Chicago Music has had less music in it than anybody anticipated, but we still have plenty to celebrate.
- Music, Music Feature Apr 8, 2020
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The saga of Punkin’ Donuts
How a doughnut-shop parking lot became a confluence of Chicago youth subcultures—and what killed it off
- Music, Music Feature Nov 20, 2019
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Life was just a party: Prince’s 1999 and Chicago house music
The Purple One could hardly have avoided influencing a genre whose earliest, most ardent fans were queer Black and Brown kids.
- Music, Music Feature May 21, 2019
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Plugging into Chicago’s forgotten house venues
For decades, house music has shaped pop worldwide—but many of the spaces that birthed it here disappeared so quickly they barely left a trace.
- Music, Concert Preview May 17, 2019
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The 2019 Chicago House Music Conference and Festival goes deep on local dance culture
- Arts & Culture, Theater Review May 16, 2019
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The Undeniable Sound of Right Now enables an aging rockist with dying dreams
The nostalgic tones don't resonate quite as fully with the modern music scene as they could.
- Music, Music Feature Feb 28, 2019
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Marcus Mixx has lost his home, but he still has house
While his early records fetch hundreds of dollars apiece from a cult of collectors, he just wants a space of his own to make his new tracks.
- Music, Music Feature Jul 5, 2018
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Chicago label Still Music rescues decades of house history from a south-side storage locker
Jerome Derradji is restoring dozens of decaying reel-to-reel tapes and releasing their contents—including unissued tracks and DJ mixes from some of the genre’s early giants.
- Music, Music Feature Jan 24, 2018
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Mark Grusane has forgotten more about dance music than you’ll ever know
The cofounder of defunct south-side shop Mr. Peabody Records talks about the insanely rare and sought-after tracks he’s sharing on The Real Sound of Mark Grusane.
- Blogs, Bleader Jan 11, 2017
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The Black Madonna returns to Smart Bar behind her new single, ‘He Is the Voice I Hear’
Chicago dance-music phenom the Black Madonna is sure to play one of the best sets of this year's Tomorrow Never Knows festival.
- Arts & Culture, Festival Nov 9, 2016
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The Humanities Fest goes to Bronzeville
A series of events in the south-side neighborhood is rounded out by a panel and dance party devoted to house music.
- Blogs, Bleader Aug 25, 2016
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Cook County has become an 80s movie villain in its attempt to tax small music venues to death
Cook County's effort to bilk small music venues is like a plotline from Footloose.
- Blogs, Bleader Apr 26, 2016
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A Prince tribute mural has appeared over Logan Square
A mural of the Purple One, visible from the Blue Line, has gone up above Logan Square shop X-it European Clothing.
- Blogs, Bleader Nov 9, 2015
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Boiler Room celebrates Chicago and Detroit's electronic legacy
The notorious international pop-up party brings the two midwestern cities together with a four-show series beginning tomorrow night at Evil Olive.
- Arts & Culture, Feature Sep 30, 2015
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Theaster Gates's Stony Island Arts Bank opens for business
The 17,000-square-foot building is a laboratory to engage with the art and culture of the south side.
- Music, Music Feature Sep 22, 2015
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Frankie Knuckles's vinyl gets a permanent public home
Theaster Gates's Rebuild Foundation is about to open the Stony Island Arts Bank, whose collections will include 5,000 records the Godfather of House used in his world-changing mixes.
- Blogs, Bleader Jul 31, 2015
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Frankie Knuckles tribute wall in Logan Square is being buffed
The mural dedicated to the late Chicago DJ lasted 415 days in Logan Square.
- Music, Music Feature Jul 2, 2015
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An oral history of the Chosen Few Picnic, the 'Woodstock of house music'
How a family Fourth of July party grew into an annual event that attracts more than 40,000 fans
- Music, Music Feature Apr 29, 2015
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How the USA fell for EDM, chapter one
In these excerpts from his lively and meticulous new book, The Underground Is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America, longtime Reader contributor Michaelangelo Matos chronicles the three-decade ascent of EDM.
- Blogs, Bleader Mar 31, 2015
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Decades later, Steve Poindexter's raw house 12-inch Street Fighter is finally released
Recorded in the 90s with Johnny Key and Track Master Scott, Street Fighter showcases the raw underground Chicago sound in fine form.
- Music, Gossip Wolf Mar 25, 2015
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Noisy indie rockers Geronimo! take their last leap
Plus: The Silver Room moves to Hyde Park, Boiler Room Chicago honors Frankie Knuckles, and more.
- Blogs, Bleader Jan 16, 2015
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The Frankie Knuckles Foundation kicks off Sunday with a showcase of house-music royalty
David Morales, Louie Vega, Jamie Principle, and more play Smart Bar on Sunday night to celebrate what would have been the house-music legend's 60th birthday.
- Music, Music Feature Dec 23, 2014
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Our favorite music of 2014
Six Reader writers go deep with specialized year-end lists that do more than just put the same records in a different order.