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Q: We’re a happily married couple from Europe, longtime readers, both in our 30s, and both interested in having sex sometimes with other people. Before the pandemic we were invited to a private sex party in a major European capital. It was an age- and face-controlled swingers night with background checks on every participant. It was our first experience and it was eye-opening, wonderful, and very sexy, even though we were too shy to fool around with anyone else....

Election years suck, especially if you’re undocumented. Unable to vote, undocumented immigrants have to watch from the sidelines as millions of citizens decide who will shape immigration policy (and their lives) for the next four years. But voting isn’t the only way to participate politically, and for decades, undocumented immigrants have found ways to have their voices heard and serve their communities. I moved out of the suburbs when I was 14, but I was curious as to how things have changed (or haven’t) for undocumented immigrants, especially in a post-Trump world....

Remember those long, lazy pandemic weekends when there was nowhere to go and nothing to do but get drunk on hand sanitizer and measure the growth of your fingernails against the claw marks in your padded walls? Those days are over. Back in March Thommy Padanilam of Thommy’s Toddy Shop was plotting his second Malayali pop-up at Superkhana International, promising portable pothi choru; toasted banana leaf packets stuffed with rice, chutney, seasonal vegetables, and some kind of protein (egg scrambles, fried fish, or chicken)....

LA electronic producer Dayvid Lundie-Sherman, aka Say My Name, is the self-proclaimed pioneer of hardtrap, a combination of hardstyle and electronic trap. Lundie-Sherman blends the boisterous parts of those genres so effectively that distinguishing between them can feel like trying to figure out the difference between being pummeled by a ten-pound sack of quarters or being pummeled by a ten-pound sack of dimes—even to those familiar with the differences between electronic trap and electronic hardcore it may sound like every other over-the-top, frenetic “EDM” track at first listen....

In recent years Jayhawks front man Gary Louris has found increasing success writing songs for other artists, both on his own and with a slew of collaborators. In 2006 he composed four tunes with members of the Dixie Chicks for their album Taking the Long Way Home, and he’s since penned songs for that group’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, as well as for country and folk performers such as Carrie Rodriguez and Ari Hest....

Jeff Tweedy’s new solo album is a family affair. He made Love Is the King with his two sons: his eldest, Spencer (already a longtime musical collaborator), plays drums and organ on most of the record, while his younger son, Sammy, sings harmony on five of its 11 tracks. They recorded the album in April at Wilco’s studio and storage facility the Loft, after the Illinois shelter-in-place order put their regular spring plans on hold....

While your attention may have been diverted by the circuslike governor’s primary, activists have been methodically working behind the scenes to deal with the biggest state issue of our time: fair taxes. I realize this isn’t half as interesting as, say, Governor Rauner’s curiously Nixonian aversion to legalizing recreational marijuana, as though it’s a demon weed driving our country crazy. Or we could search for progressive ways of raising taxes and implement a fair tax, as the responsible budget coalition would put it....

Remember the Lil Wayne of 2008 and 2009? He constantly boasted that he was the “greatest rapper alive,” and you know what? He actually was. The 2008 album Tha Carter III, released about ten years into his career, was a full-blown landmark. It gave the world a string of smash singles, including “Lollipop” and “Got Money,” which showed Wayne’s knack for infectious pop hooks. And on “La La,” “You Ain’t Got Nuthin,” and the legendary “A Milli,” he solidified his reputation as an unstoppable MC by hammering out some of the fastest, cleverest, most skull-rattling wordplay ever committed to tape....

In another time and place, Kristin Hayter might have been opera’s darkest diva, but in this universe opera companies shy away from harsh noise, guttural growling, and samples of interviews with convicted serial killers. Instead of making her art subservient to a formal institutional setting, Hayter draws from her classical training and background in church music, metal, and literature to create confrontational, borderline industrial soundscapes as Lingua Ignota. Extreme music has an unfortunate history of misogynist themes, and Hayter, a survivor of domestic abuse, flips the script to create what she’s called “survivor anthems....

David Corio/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Junior Murvin As many have already pointed out, Bandcamp has increasingly become a destination for seeking out new music. A cursory glance at the audio player’s homepage this morning led me to a gem: an early cut by the late, great reggae singer Junior Murvin. While he’s perhaps most famous for Police & Thieves, his album-length collaboration with Lee “Scratch” Perry that also produced the title track famously covered by the Clash, Murvin had a small-stakes music career for a few years before that....

I’ve been enjoying the virtual aspects of my art-viewing experience the past few months. People got a little experimental; they had to think outside of the box to get folks to view work. I, by no means, plan to attend opening receptions or risk my health to commute around the city to check out art on a wall, but now that physical spaces are reopening I will travel to a gallery or two to see a show if proper regulations are put into place (like I did with Western Exhibitions)....

Count Sidi Touré among the billions of people around the world who’ve had to revise their plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Malian singer-guitarist’s previous album, Toubalbero, was recorded live in Bamako’s best studio in order to best showcase his band’s vibrant combination of electric guitars and traditional regional instruments. But between the virus and the volatile political situation in Mali, which recently resulted in a military coup, Touré has had to scale things back: his only accompaniment on the new download-only release Afrik Toun Mé (“Africa Must Unite”) is a second acoustic guitar (played by Mamadou Kelly) and a gourd drum called a calabash (played by Boubou Diallo)....

Looking over Chicago magazine’s latest “Power 50“—the town’s top movers and shakers—it could be that only an old ink-stained wretch would notice what I did: Number seven is Rocky Wirtz. He’s the liquor distributor who owns the Blackhawks. “Winning the Big One with any sports franchise confers power—and produces big profits,” explains Chicago. Wirtz’s Hawks have won three. “The team has sold out every game since 2008 and has the fourth-highest local cable TV ratings....

John Corbett describes the artwork on display at “Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago”—an exhibit he cocurated that opens this weekend at the Smart Museum—as “a howling, terrified, introspective whorl of penetrating angst and disoriented subjectivity.” Elsewhere in his essay Corbett proposes Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” as the theme music for the show, and that song title is as apt a description as it gets. Most of the members of the Monster Roster studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and were profoundly influenced by Kathleen Blackshear, who told them to go to the Field Museum and draw Oceanic and Native American artifacts....

The first time I saw Bad Religion, I was a young teen and they were on their 2000 tour in support of their Todd Rundgren-produced 11th album, The New America. I remember marveling at how dudes so old were still ripping so hard, but I recently had a weird crisis when I did the math and realized that lead singer Greg Graffin was only in his mid-30s at the time, a mere two years older than I am now....

On the new double album Miss Universe (ATO), British singer Nilüfer Yanya straddles the line between indie rock and pop. It’s catchy, hip, and radio ready, with a perfect production sheen that helps the music’s disparate influences slide smoothly one into another. “In Your Hand” sounds like it came from the new wave era of the 80s, with crunchy guitars and Yanya singing with clipped robotic precision—and occasionally breaking into an equally robotic falsetto yodel....

Few Chicago jazz musicians operate with the erudition and rigor of saxophonist Geof Bradfield, a scholar of the music’s history, a thoughtful composer, and an artist who never reverts to autopilot. When he was approached about making a live release by British Columbia-based jazz label Cellar Live, he didn’t merely trot out an assortment of past accomplishments but crafted new pieces with the attention to detail and holistic construction one might expect on a meticulously assembled studio effort....

Seeking: men Occupation: lawyer What are you doing when you’re not working? His friend says: “He finds time to serve on the board of directors for Howard Brown Health Center and as deputy regional president for the Hispanic National Bar Association, among other advisory board positions. Runner, networking events, fund-raisers, volunteering. Smoker? No. Pets? Dietary restrictions? Children? Religion? N/A. What’s your idea of the perfect Chicago date? In the summer, check out a local street fest followed by an evening on a Chicago rooftop, like Celeste or Fountainhead....

Those iconic, boxy beauties known as Chicago bungalows were the starter homes for a generation of immigrants looking to begin a new life in the city. The brick houses were built in the early 1900s for a wood-wary Chicago still skittish of fire, and were designed to fit the city’s standard lots and challenging winters. As the population boomed, bungalows were replicated tenfold because of their smart design and affordability....

Most Americans felt the pinch of chronic financial instability even before COVID-19 aggravated the country’s catastrophic wealth inequality by helping shift billions more dollars into the pockets of a handful of billionaires. So even if you don’t recognize yourself in the lyrics of Thank You, I’m Sorry’s “Menthol Flavored Oatmeal”—which describes a twentysomething working ten-hour days at a minimum-wage service job that barely makes a dent in their college tuition—you can probably relate to the band’s front person, Colleen Dow, when they gloomily sing about enduring the pressure cooker of early adulthood (though they wrote the tune before anybody had to consider the dire health risk of attending in-person classes or working a service-industry job during a pandemic)....