Dreamcatcher evolved out of a chipper five-member Korean girl group called Minx that launched in 2014 and soldiered through a couple of unsuccessful years. In 2017 they started again, armed with a new name, two more members, and a gothic makeover. Their debut single as Dreamcatcher, “Chase Me”—indebted to 2000s alt-metal groups such as Evanescence—introduced their new sound, a seamless melding of pop music with rock pastiche. Their follow-up, “Good Night,” includes a rap verse, multiple guitar riffs, and a relatively upbeat chorus that all blend together beautifully....

G-funk pioneer DJ Quik made a career out of casting the low-boiling squeal of LA’s definitive gangsta-rap sound right in his backyard, Compton—and, importantly, right along Compton’s main drag, Rosecrans Avenue. “Every spot in Compton’s got something going on, but Rosecrans is the common denominator,” rapper-producer Problem told the LA Times for a story about the 27-mile stretch of pavement that provides the foundation for many of the city’s best rap songs....

Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) was a promising debut feature, with suggestive atmosphere, compelling performances, and (for a horror film) sensitive observations about the nature of grief. But on the basis of Aster’s second feature, Midsommar, I’m inclined to say that promise is all the writer-director has to offer. Midsommar recycles the memorable qualities of Hereditary, but to no meaningful end. Aster simply employs them to generate a sense of gravitas, which he dashes as soon as Midsommar transforms into a full-blown horror movie....

Omer Abbas Salem had over 5,000 new plays from the last 20 years at his fingertips, and zero reflected even a semblance of living as a gay Arab teen or young adult. It wasn’t until his Actors Theatre apprenticeship that Salem found his way back to the page. It was his first opportunity to write something he knew would be produced and he was instructed to turn to their play archive for inspiration....

We humbly submit our suggestions for surviving the most stressful first Tuesday following the first Monday in November any of us can remember. Put together a playlist of your favorite music. Stock up on some weed. Smoke it as needed. Don’t stay glued to your screens. Give yourself breaks. Meditate. Get your election night news from a reputable news outlet. Organize or clean: Tackle that cleaning project you’ve been putting off — pull your miniblinds down and clean each panel individually while listening to a narrative fiction podcast like “Steal the Stars....

Martin and Rebecca Cate, founders and owners of San Francisco’s iconic Smuggler’s Cove tiki bar, are coming to Chicago on Tuesday to sign their new book, Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. Their bar, which has been included on the World’s 50 Best Bars list nearly every year since its 2009 opening and was this year’s Spirited Awards winner for Best American Cocktail Bar, features 80 cocktails and hundreds of rums....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. LaSalle hooked Coday up with future legend Willie Mitchell, the producer and arranger who would become vice president of Hi Records in 1970 and lead it to its greatest success, adding his touch to albums by the likes of Al Green and Syl Johnson....

In a year of minimal mobility, migration is on the mind of Uruguayan choreographer and visual artist Tamara Cubas, who launched an international research process for Sculpting Silence/Womyn body (Esculpir el Silencio/Mujer cuerpo), her new work on women who cross borders alone, in Chicago. “What interests me is potential and desire,” says Cubas. “In February, I heard a testimony by a Dominican Republic woman on her journey to the US. That particular story was dramatic and completely overwhelmed by an absolute determination she had—determination, desire, and drive....

The 2017 Exhibit Columbus in Columbus, Indiana (a site of major modernist architecture in the United States), included a small, site-specific structure by Snarkitecture called Playhouse, a house-shaped pavilion that sat between two existing buildings and toyed with viewers’ perspectives, growing smaller as one entered the long, gabled-roof structure and proceeded toward the rear. The firm describes it as “designed to highlight the discrepancy between how adults and children experience and respond to scale and proportion....

For the last several days I’ve fallen into the nasty habit of sending horrible stories about Mike Bloomberg to my friends of the centrist persuasion. They’re ecstatic over Bloomberg’s entrance into the race because he’s spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on commercials bashing Trump. Both articles cite a booklet calledThe Portable Bloomberg: The Wit & Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg—which was assembled by a sycophant in Bloomberg’s company and given to the boss in 1990 on the occasion of his 48th birthday....

A 750-page doorstop of a book about the entertainment industry is not typically where one goes looking for insights about municipal politics. But so it was with Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency. A sidelong reading of the book offers a sort of back door into understanding Rahm Emanuel’s problematic public image during his time as Chicago mayor—through the figure of his hotshot talent agent brother, Ari....

The natural inclination for anyone writing about 2016 is to frame the year around Donald Trump and the presidential election. Yet even given a circus as noisy, unsettling, and dreadful as Trumpmania, my views on the year that was are relatively ambivalent, since I experienced so much else, materially and emotionally, particularly with regard to visual arts. It might sound like I’m being hard on Chicago’s most famous museums, but in fact both the Art Institute and the MCA this year hosted their most daring and superb shows in recent memory....

Jean Lachat/Sun-Times Good seats are available, but not for me. Amid the usual thrilling mail last week—a service reminder from a plumber, a solicitation from a needy credit card company, an offer of AAA membership—to my delight I received a jury summons. The work of a jury seems fascinating. A group of strangers of varied backgrounds and temperaments are asked to try to arrive at consensus without assaulting each other....

This summer UK dance-music singer-songwriter Aluna released her solo debut, Renaissance, whose lead track, “I’ve Been Starting to Love All the Things I Hate,” makes a case for pulling ourselves out of the collective malaise of 2020 to find our collective voice. In AlunaGeorge, her duo with producer George Reid, her soprano sometimes crosses into bubblegum-pop territory, but on “I’ve Been Starting” her determination and vigor set a different tone for the new album: “Sweet, sweet destiny / You’ll never be my enemy,” she sings....

When you think of the staggering levels of violence that members of the LGBTQIA+ community continue to endure (or, even more tragically, don’t survive), the title of Terry Guest’s 90-minute two-hander, produced by Story Theatre, feels like a blow. Guest explores the impact of trauma survived not just once or twice, but as a regular occurrence over decades, passed down through generations and carried in the very genetic makeup of African Americans....

Sikia Restaurant washburneculinary.com/facilities/sikia In an industrial part of Englewood populated largely by empty lots, factory buildings, and fast-food restaurants is the 77-year-old Washburne Culinary Institute—and inside of that is Sikia Restaurant, where Washburne students prepare and serve food in a room full of white tablecloths, tasteful artwork, and soothing music. Sadly, the $7 three-course meal that Sikia used to offer is no more (though the website still advertises it), but all the entrees are under $10, and most of the appetizers and desserts are $3....

Manual Cinema The local arts collective Manual Cinema creates inventive live performance pieces that suggest silent movies materializing out of thin air. Employing actors, musicians, a variety of puppets, and a combination of live-feed cameras and overhead projectors, the group stages elaborate shadow plays whose action transpires on multiple screens. Watching its shows can be dizzying, as your eyes dart constantly between the performers and the onscreen activity. In Mementos Mori, which premiered in January at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the group took audiences on a journey from contemporary San Francisco to the afterlife and back....

Mathew Klujian & Sons klujianrugs.com Of all my household furnishings, my rug has been with me the longest. We’ve been through a lot together, my rug and I. For years, it has faithfully protected my feet from cold floors and covered up depressing-looking stains. And yet I treat it so shabbily! I track mud and sand and dead leaves on it and sweep dust under it. It’s appalling. So last time I moved, I decided to reward it for its faithful service by giving it a spa treatment at Mathew Klujian & Sons....

In the bad bad not good year that was 2020, optimism often felt as plausible as a unicorn. That’s a big part of why the recent second album from Sonny Falls, All That Has Come Apart / Once Did Not Exist (Plastic Miracles), lands so heavily. Ryan “Hoagie Wesley” Ensley, main man of this rugged Chicago indie-rock band, delivers its lumbering anthems as though through clenched jaws, with the haggard, workmanlike demeanor of someone who’s seen pieces of his life disappear....

French cellist Leila Bordreuil is a rising figure on New York’s improvising scene. She casually accesses concepts from jazz, contemporary classical, noise, and experimental traditions, but adheres to none of them. If anything distinguishes the work by her that I’ve encountered so far, it’s her fierce interest in pure color and texture. Sometimes she manipulates her strident arco sounds with amplification; in her Chicago debut she’ll employ a multichannel setup using different kinds of microphones and amplifiers to create a series of altered manifestations of her playing, which is knuckle-bloodying in its tactile grit....