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Without putting words in anyone’s mouth, I think I can say pretty confidently that the women of the Reader believe that we should celebrate International Women’s Day every day; that’s why we strive to write about bad ass women as often as we can. But since the patriarchy says there can only be one, official International Women’s Day, we might as well take the time to look back on some Reader stories, past and present, that celebrate some of the best ladies around....

Courtesy of Sewingneedle’s Facebook/Jillian Tackaberry Sewingneedle Chicago outfit Sewingneedle play glum, weathered postpunk. The group weds emo and slowcore, infusing the latter’s plodding melodies with a sense of foreboding. Sewningneedle’s music might be a lot more depressing if it didn’t have much of a grasp on songwriting—while the band plays like its got a perpetual gray cloud hanging overhead its songs are direct and forceful, and sometimes contain nuggets of sweetness beneath the layers of gloom....

It wouldn’t be a Bongripper album if the Chicago doom squad didn’t give it some sort of crass title that parodies metal’s predilection for the vehemently vile and violent. Their new Terminal (Great Barrier) follows the great tradition they established on previous releases such as 2007’s Hippie Killer, 2008’s Hate Ashbury, 2010’s Satan Worshipping Doom, and 2011’s delicately named “Sex Tape” b/w “Snuff Film” seven-inch. Which is to say, it offers more of the same Bongripper: gargantuan sounds that treats doom like an obelisk that’s heavy and imposing in all the ways you can hope in this corner of the music spectrum....

Chicago rapper D2x has poured all 23 years of his life so far into his debut album, The Color Blue. Across its 13 tracks, he delivers lines about his childhood in the south suburbs, his time playing basketball as a student at Western Illinois University, his struggles with depression, his faith in God, his recent marriage—and his desire to make a classic album that sums it all up. D2x began releasing music in 2017, and since then he’s stood out with a cohesive combination of soulful beats and focused verses....

In a self-aggrandizing public announcement last month about the return of Lollapalooza, Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted a cringey promotional video where she played music for Department of Public Health commissioner Allison Arwady onstage at the Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park. Early in the clip, Lightfoot changes the soundtrack from a Foo Fighters tune to Polo G’s “Rapstar,” which had debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 in April. But I don’t believe that this mayor, who violently upholds the status quo, has ever considered Polo G’s lyrics or even listened to the songs that have propelled him to international fame....

This story was originally published by City Bureau on October 16, 2020. With Mayor Lori Lightfoot set to unveil her 2021 budget on October 21 along with her plan to fill a $1.2 billion deficit, City Bureau presents a guide to what’s going on with the budget process this year and how residents can participate in the conversation. In the past, Chicago has raised property taxes to generate revenue, upsetting homeowners and property managers....

Dutch avant-garde metal band Dodecahedron released two spectacular albums, 2012’s self-titled debut and 2017’s Kwintessens, that promised a bright future for the band with their use of disturbing dissonance, bleak synthesizer textures, and gnashing industrial rhythms. But tragedy struck before they could live up to their potential: front man Michiel Eikenaar (also of black-metal group Nihill) was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in April 2019 at age 42. That same year, cofounding Dodecahedron vocalist and guitarist Michel Nienhuis moved forward with Autarkh, which sticks with some of Dodecahedron’s tricks and expands into new arenas....

Music can instantly transport us to another time and place, but some artists sidestep the space-time continuum entirely—their work builds new worlds that straddle reality and imagination. On her third album, May’s Medieval Femme (Hyperdub), electronic artist Fatima Al Qadiri synthesizes music and poetry from a millennium apart into something immediately alluring and immersive. Born in Senegal and based in Los Angeles, the Kuwaiti composer is known for conceptual art that challenges corrupt political power structures and norms surrounding sexuality and gender as well as drawing attention to our tendency to perceive one another—and sometimes ourselves—through warped lenses....

Courtesy of Wichita Recordings Girlpool Waxahatchee played a sold-out show at the Empty Bottle last night, and this evening they play another at Beat Kitchen, this time with openers Girlpool. The stripped-down, superminimal guitar-and-bass LA duo of Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad play simple pop numbers run through a fractured, grungy filter. On today’s 12 O’Clock Track, “This Place” (off of Girlpool’s split tape with Slutever), they channel plenty of 90s sounds and cram them into the song’s brief two minutes....

I’ve written quite a bit about New York-based pianist Kris Davis in recent years, taking note of the versatility that enables her to not just blend in naturally in disparate contexts but make them better. She recently released a stunning collection of duets with fellow pianist Craig Taborn called Octopus (Pyroclastic), which blends rhapsodic reveries, driving rhythmic journeys, and harmonic explorations. Last year at the Green Mill, Davis provided simpatico contributions to an equally agile and shape-shifting quartet led by bassist Eric Revis, often binding hurtling tempos and convoluted structures with quiet authority....

Update: The award presentation and free screening of Finding Vivian Maier has been moved from the Patio to the Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee, on Sunday, February 8, at 7:30 PM. It has already shut down the second-largest owner and presenter of her work, Jeffrey Goldstein, a Rogers Park artist and collector. Last month Goldstein announced the sale of the bulk of his Maier collection—17,500 black-and-white negatives—to Toronto’s Stephen Bulger Gallery for an undisclosed sum....

The latest EP by Cut Worms, Alien Sunset (Jagjaguwar), opens with “Don’t Want to Say Goodbye,” which sounds like a lost Merseybeat classic dubbed onto a beat-up old cassette. But it’s more than just a crafty imitation of a naive early-60s Brit rocker in love with the Everly Brothers—its irresistible melody would sound great in any era. Max Clarke began making music as Cut Worms before leaving Chicago for New York in October 2015, and he recorded the six ditties on Alien Sunset with an eight-track tape machine—side A here, side B there....

When you write about music for a living, your personal and professional lives often blur, forcing you to draw some difficult lines when it comes to which projects you cover and how. It’s not just a matter of journalistic ethics; it’s also a practical concern. The gig is to be as objective as possible, and you can’t be completely objective about an album made by, say, a close pal with whom you’ve collaborated on musical and media endeavors, who’s charmed the hell out of your mom, and who’s trusted you to babysit his kid....

Michael Gebert Joseph Heppe of Oak + Char Food media loves stories of prodigies who always knew what they were meant to do—young Rick Bayless grinding masa for his PB&J tortillas, young Grant Achatz spherifying his Froot Loops. But few of us are really like that—we start out pretty clueless, we learn something here or there, we get to be pretty good at it, and we put our experiences and influences together to make something of our own....

Oslo six-piece Okkultokrati cast a net into rock’s grittiest, dankest seas and dredge up an electrifying hybrid sound: they twist influences from heathen black metal and thrash together with hedonistic rock ’n’ roll and furious crust punk. Much of the band’s music seems designed for underground shows, drag races, and various more questionable activities, but in the 12 years since Okkultokrati’s first demo, their songwriting has grown steadily more complex. By 2016’s Raspberry Dawn they’d expanded into their most Technicolor palette to date, incorporating synth-laden postpunk, psychedelic weirdness, and even hints of glam rock....

Midnight are pretty much the nightmare that heartland parents feared during the satanic panic of the 1980s, when metal bands’ imagined lyrical (and moral) transgressions meant they were considered about as family friendly as murderers. Midnight’s music is nihilism with a beat, rudderless and apolitical; they’re as likely to cover 70s midwest punks the Pagans as black-metal innovators Venom. Athenar, the band’s founder and sloganeer, launched the culty Cleveland act in 2003 with a short demo often referred to by the title of its first track, “Funeral Bell....

In 2001, Raws Schlesinger, a metal and punk drummer in Lincoln, Nebraska, embraced his leather-clad dance-music heart and founded Plack Blague—an industrial electronica project intended to unleash the rowdy gay headbanger inside every hard rocker. The project was initially something of a goof, but the audience for loud sexy gay disco proved to be bigger than anticipated. Nearly two decades later, Schlesinger continues to sweat and hump his way through albums and live shows with a never-failing barrage of floor-shaking single entendres....

With ambitious productions that push the boundaries of subject matter, Red Tape Theatre continues to evolve, and its latest, Queen of Sock Pairing by Sophie Weisskoff, directed by Zach Weinberg, is one of the company’s best yet. The story opens with Celia navigating relationships with her boss, Joan, mother of Walden, the boy she cares for, as well as Cai, her older boyfriend. Joan, Cai, and Walden speak for themselves, but a Narrator communicates Celia’s first lines and feelings....

As soon as I read about Bill Daley’s call for a referendum on reducing the city council from 50 to 15 aldermen, I had three questions: Would it pass? Would I vote for it? And what does this have to do with ratgate? In short, the answers are: yes, not sure and…don’t get me started! How else to explain how we bitch and moan about every dumb, rubber-stamping thing the council does, and then turn right around and re-elect the folks who voted for the dumb, rubber-stamping things....

Q: My grandfather was a pillar of the community and beloved by his family. He was also sexually abusive. He died when I was a child. I remember only one incident happening to me—during a cuddle session, he encouraged me to put my mouth on his penis, and then told me to let it be our little secret. I heard rumors as an adult that he molested other kids in the neighborhood....