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The band is already midflight as the sound fades up at the beginning of “You Are Free to Choose,” the opening track of the Junius Paul double LP Ism (International Anthem). Perhaps unintentionally, this parallels his career, which has also been in motion for some time. The Chicago-born-and-raised bassist first performed in 2002 at Fred Anderson’s legendary Velvet Lounge, and his early experiences in the club’s storied jam sessions led to an enduring relationship with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians....

It was about a week ago that I wrote a post ripping Joe Biden for disappearing when we needed to hear his voice of Democratic opposition the most: right in the middle of a pandemic in which President Trump’s negligence, indifference, and willful ignorance were risking lives. Half the time Donald Trump sounds like a doped-up lunatic—and his supporters are willing to die for him. At least, Jerry Falwell Jr. endangered hundreds of other people’s lives by refusing to close Liberty University, apparently because he wanted to demonstrate how much he didn’t believe the liberal hype about COVID-19....

On a hot Saturday in August, the parking lot of the Middle Eastern Immigrant and Refugee Alliance in West Ridge is filled with the sound of festivities. Kids jump in a bouncy house, Arabic pop music blares on the speakers, and a group of aunties chat as they watch over their charges. The organization, formerly known as the Iraqi Mutual Aid Society, hosts this yearly event as a way to connect the families they serve with the rest of the immigrant community....

The cocktails at Arbella, the new River North spot from the team behind Tanta, are all over the map—literally. The tagline for the bar is “drink the world,” and the menu is divided into five global regions. It’s heavy on the Americas, with Mexico, South America (and the Caribbean), and the U.S. constituting three sections; the other two are dedicated to Europe and Asia. The bar’s name comes from a ship that sailed from England to Salem in 1630, a six-week voyage on which the passengers and crew supposedly consumed nearly 10,000 gallons of wine....

It’s finally happening! High on Fire, the most beloved heavy-metal band of the modern era, are going on tour in support of their eighth studio album and best release yet, last year’s Electric Messiah. They’ve tried twice before, but both times they hit roadblocks. In January, the band canceled the second of two tours when singer and guitarist Matt Pike, who’s battling diabetes, had some of his toes surgically removed. A few weeks later, the group won the first Grammy of their two-decade career, and things seemed to be getting back on track....

Amid the gloom and the doom of the pandemic, it’s nice to know it’s sunny skies and daffodils at Chicago Public Schools—at least according to Mayor Lightfoot and her aides at CPS. While we wait, allow me to share a story or two to give you an idea of why not all staffers are assured by what the mayor or CEO Janice Jackson have to say. We’ve all been there. Fill out a form wrong, and they drop you down the cyber rabbit hole never to be heard from anyone again....

Chicago natives and lifelong hip-hop heads Ibrahem Hasan and Matthew Rivera met decades ago while crate digging at a flea market. Their new self-titled debut as Bless the Mad, released by their own Stay the Course label, exudes a collector’s care for music history and a producer’s ear for finding overlooked diamonds and giving them brilliant new settings. Even the album’s artwork contributes to the vibe, collaging together images steeped in the lore of Chicago architecture and music—it includes the logo for Phil Cohran’s jazz band the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, which looks like two Xes connected by a bold line, and a business card for infamous local music reseller Record Al....

Brian Jackson/Sun-Times Aldermen Pat Dowell (pictured second from left), Joe Moreno (pictured second from right), and Ameya Pawar (pictured far right) will help provide analysis on election night at the Hideout—but they’re not allowed to gloat, no matter what happens. As a sign of my unshakable confidence that a change is gonna come to Chicago politics, I’ll be spending election night at the Hideout with—count ’em—three aldermanic supporters of Mayor Rahm....

Two years ago former Chicagoan Bill Salas, aka DJ-producer Brenmar, told Miles Raymer, “I just wanted to go into the club and have people dance.” That wasn’t always Salas’s prerogative—he cut his teeth in the local noise and punk scenes, and in 2007 he moved to Brooklyn to join wild art-rock outfit These Are Powers. But Salas gravitated toward kaleidoscopic, hard-to-categorize dance music, and today he releases his debut EP for Fool’s Gold, Award....

I take great pleasure in finally writing a preview blurb for Chicago’s great, all-woman (or mostly all-woman, depending on the lineup) garage strutters the Dishes. I could never do it back in their 90s-00s heyday, because guitarist Kiki Yablon was also the Reader’s music editor. The group released a handful of indelible, high-energy records and went out on a high note; their last show was in 2004 at the Shellac-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in the UK....

Country artist Junior Brown has a droll baritone reminiscent of Johnny Cash that works well in funny songs, including “Highway Patrol” and “My Wife Thinks You’re Dead.” But as great as his voice is, what keeps drawing the fans in is his thundering ax work. His live sets are designed to show off his proficiency on his custom-made guit-steel—a visually compelling double-necked instrument that joins a guitar and a lap steel....

I’ve never been to Houston, but I imagine it to be a place where the humidity is so omnipresent it can seep into your bones, cloud your vision, and permeate your art. Granted, my impression is informed by the languid thump of DJ Screw’s productions, the soupy drawl of the city’s prewar blues recordings, and the broiled, psych-soaked melodies of Josefus. Formed in 1968, Josefus foreshadowed heavy metal with the turgid riffs, brutal-but-sparse rhythms, and wild-man vocals across their 1970 debut, Dead Man....

Managers’ Special is a collective of Chicago music managers who strive to support emerging artists and music industry executives through community building and strategic collaboration. The board members of the organization believe in investing in local talent and infrastructure so that artists can develop thriving careers without leaving their hometowns. For more information, visit www.managersspecial.org or e-mail info@managersspecial.org. Chris Classick: Managers’ Special came together because we realized there were so many managers in Chicago working with amazing talent, but they weren’t really connecting with each other....

Shimer College is on track to be acquired by North Central College, a change that’ll move the tiny, 163-year-old school from its current quarters on the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago campus to suburban Naperville. The Shimer board announced last week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding that will set the acquisition in motion. If it goes through, Shimer will be operating its “Great Books” liberal arts college on North Central’s Naperville campus by the fall term of 2017....

For the first few years after reedist Aram Shelton left Chicago for the Bay Area in 2005, he returned often enough that you might not have realized he was gone. He maintained close ties with musicians here, and for a while those older partnerships were more fruitful than his efforts in California. But as Shelton developed solid working bands in his new home, his visits to Chicago tapered off—and since moving to Copenhagen in 2016, he hasn’t made it back here at all....

Saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón is a MacArthur “genius grant” recipient who creates jazz that moves seamlessly between the experimental and the folkloric in an ongoing exploration of his Puerto Rican identity. Many of his 12 studio albums as a bandleader reference and highlight diverse arrays of the island’s genres and musical figures without ever mimicking them directly. The most recent, Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera, honors legendary Puerto Rican composer and salsa singer Ismael “Maelo” Rivera....

Is a monster still a monster if it knows it’s a monster? Stand-up comedian Sam Tallent has fashioned a golem-like creature called Billy Ray Shafer and set him on an anti-hero’s odyssey into a hell entirely of his own making in Running the Light (independently published), a book that is sometimes so funny it hurts. Along the way I cringed every time Billy Ray blew yet another opportunity to save himself, but I never gave up on the man, no matter how low he sank....

I’ve said it before, but few instruments get less respect than the tuba—not only is it unwieldy to play, but most folks associate it strictly with oompah music or marching bands. Obviously the tuba also has a long history in symphonies, and over the decades a few exemplary explorers have played it in improvised and avant-garde contexts, among them jazz artists Ray Draper, Bob Stewart, and Jose Davila and less categorizable experimenters Robin Hayward and Martin Taxt....

No matter how bizarre things got in the presidential campaign we’ve just lived through, American voters—alarmed and agog—could take comfort in this: both candidates promised that the economy will get better. It was the one thing they agreed on. I put that question to someone who should know—economist and Northwestern University professor Robert J. Gordon. Earlier this year, Gordon published a much-discussed book on this very subject, The Rise and Fall of American Growth....

Comedian Sarah Albritton was 15 when she learned she had narcolepsy. One day in geometry class, she was headed to the front of the room to grab her Texas Instruments calculator when a classmate said something that surprised her (she can’t remember the exact words now) and she collapsed into a cataplexy—a narcoleptic state during which patients lose control of their muscles for a few minutes. Sarah, what kind of pressure do you feel to share with others the fact that you have narcolepsy?...