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Update: Sleigh Bells have canceled due to illness. After building a reputation as the world’s first great shred-pop standard-bearers—bolstered by hardcore-breakdown guitar riffs that sonically resemble something close to a New Year’s Eve glitter bomb—the duo of vocalist Alexis Krauss and guitarist Derek Miller went outside their element for their fourth full-length record, 2016’s Jessica Rabbit. The results were mixed. While Sleigh Bells’ early party songs were fun, simple, and complemented a great deal by Krauss and Miller’s leather-jacket-and-black-sunglasses cool, with Jessica Rabbit they struggled to find a middle ground between the allure of their first few albums and their desire to mature past their candy-coated sound; it often feels too stilted, and sometimes too meandering....

Why are there four T-shirt shops within a block of each other in Andersonville? Strolling north on Clark from Foster Avenue one soon understands the absurdity of that question because “T-shirt shops” have about as much in common with one another as “restaurants.” Strange Cargo (est. 1983) moved here from Wrigleyville in 2018 and specializes in pop culture graphic tees at $20 to $25 a pop. Across the street at Raygun (est....

Dear Heron, Are you one or several? You stand still as a statue or stride through the water, limbs sliding through liquid with scarce a ripple. You stalk through the limpid pond, aloof as a reptile, then strike with switchblade speed to emerge, beak snapping and eyes impassive, a living lump wriggling down your throat. I have stood breathless in the thrall of your strut, marveled at your shadowy reflection, observed you stirring less than the blades of grass ruffling in the breeze....

The Shape of Water, the latest fantasy from director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth), is essentially a children’s movie for adults, inspiring a sense of wonder but also of passivity. It looks marvelous—one can easily get caught up in the lavish production design and inventive special effects, and the graceful camera movements carry one through the meticulously designed environments. The storytelling is fantastic and straightforward, like that of a fairy tale....

There’s something perfectly peak Wicker Park about a rigorously executed old-world Italian pastificio that offers zoodles in meat sauce along with casarecce, chiusoni, and lumache. I’ve lurked outside the Division Street storefront window of Tortello long enough to see those rare pasta shapes hand-formed by humans, but it seems the zucchini noodles are prepped in back, far away from the authenticity police but no more than a meatball’s throw from a hundred keto-crazed stroller moms....

When the entire run of Gilmore Girls was added to the Netflix roster back in September 2014, comedians Kevin T. Porter and Demi Adejuyigbe were just a couple of nobodies in a crowd at LA’s UCB Theatre. They met there during a taping of the movie-trivia podcast Doug Loves Movies and, looking for a project of their own, turned to the WB dramedy about a mother-daughter pair for inspiration. On the podcast Gilmore Guys, Porter, already a superfan of the show, became Adejuyigbe’s guide as he experienced the series for the first time....

The price of music has been in flux since it was first commodified on wax cylinders. Artists have rarely had much say in that price, though, or in how much of the money reaches them—and in some ways recorded music has never been worth less. As long as you have a stable Internet connection, you can hear anything from several vast, overlapping catalogs at any time. Streaming services have made countless hours of music available for monthly subscription fees that average around $10, and if you’re willing to listen to ads, it can all be free....

There’s a lot not to like about the art market, including its long-standing propensity for making collectors rich while leaving “starving artists” in the financial dust. John “Jay” Jordan II is a founder of the Jordan Company, a private equity firm with offices in Chicago and New York, and of Jordan Industries, a Deerfield-based holding company. A philanthropist, he has signed Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge,” promising at least 50 percent of his fortune to charitable causes, and has already donated $150 million to his alma mater, Notre Dame....

Alison Chesley is a cellist and composer who makes music under the name Helen Money. She released her latest album, Atomic (the follow-up to 2016’s Become Zero), just as Chicago went into lockdown in March 2020. She plays a three-night residency at the Empty Bottle from June 17 through 19. Atomic by Helen Money I’m really excited for these shows at the Empty Bottle, because I get to play with three of my favorite musicians: Sam Wagster, who I’ve known a long time and is going to be playing pedal steel; Nora Barton, who is also a cellist; and Billie Howard, who’s on piano and violin....

Over the past few years, trumpeter Will Miller has beavered away on a bedroom jazz project called Resavoir while juggling other gigs, most notably in popular country-soul group Whitney. About a year ago Miller finally brought Resavoir to life, tapping into his network of talented Chicago friends to form a full-fledged band: saxophonist Irvin Pierce, bassist Lane Beckstrom, drummers Peter Manheim and Jeremy Cunningham, and keyboardist-vocalist Akenya Seymour. Some of these collaborators have, like Miller, made their names outside jazz; Beckstrom played in genre-splicing indie band Kids These Days, and Seymour served as bandleader for rapper Noname (that doesn’t even get into guests such as indie-pop wizard Knox Fortune and rapper, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Sen Morimoto)....

“For me hardcore has always been more of an adjective than a noun. Doing something to the utmost extreme.” Whether Rivera boasts about his label or not, it’s developed significant reach and influence, evident in its catalog of progressive underground-hardcore releases—including the demo from trans trailblazers G.L.O.S.S. and a Minutemen-influenced funk-punk LP from Seattle band Big Crux. Joining that catalog soon will be a behemoth two-tape compilation that features 90 minutes of music from 45 bands and a pair of zines, each with its own centerfold....

Songs From the North Tonight at 6 PM South Korean-born, Massachusetts-based filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo will introduce her documentary feature Songs From the North at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The movie represents an attempt to understand North Korean society on human terms, which alone makes it a must-see. In the West our understanding of the subject is informed primarily by North Korean propaganda and reports from outside news organizations, neither of which presents a clear picture of everyday life in that country....

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. In 1969 the Lovelites enjoyed their first hit with “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad (That I’ve Been Bad).” Written by Patti Hamilton with producer and former Chi-Lites member Clarence Johnson, this downer ditty came out on Lock Records, cofounded by Johnson....

On Halloween a few years back, a train ride killed my vibe before I could even get to the party. To be clear, this isn’t about so-called political correctness. Rather, it’s about understanding how some costume choices promote harmful stereotypes, belittle the traditions of marginalized ethnic groups, or send the message that it’s fine to accessorize with other cultures “for fun” when the originators face everyday discrimination for just being themselves....

The Upside (2019) is, at times shot for shot, a remake of the wildly successful French film Intouchables (2011), itself a remake of the French documentary À la vie, à la mort (2003), about the quadriplegic Corsican businessman Philippe Pozzo di Borgo and his Algerian caregiver, Abdel Sellou. Not only did Intouchables become the second-highest-grossing film of all time in France, 52 percent of voters in an Fnac poll deemed it the cultural event of the year....

Gossip Wolf is a longtime fan of local weirdo bubblegum punks Swimsuit Addition because their jams are so damn tight, but lead singer and guitarist Jen Dot has also branched out into the visual arts. In January, Dot fired up a comics—centric virtual zine called Disappearing Media that includes work from Razorcake columnist Ben Snakepit as well as tarot expert and self-described “500 year old witch” Erica Walker Adams, plus three of Dot’s own comic strips, including The Political Class, Glass Rooms, and our total favorite, Emo Grrrls, whose protagonists she describes as “emotional teenagers who navigate their lives in a numb world by making friends, enemies, and genre-defying art....

Luke Haughwout Tristan Shone Author & Punisher is the industrial-metal solo project of San Diego’s Tristan Shone, a metalhead mechanical engineer who built a huge collection of steel chains, levers, pistons, slides, masks, and knobs that control blown-out synthesizer frequencies and transform his movements and voice into earth-rattling, terrifyingly evil sounds. Shone’s Author & Punisher setup is constantly evolving, and now sees him using hand-built metal collars with contact mikes that turn sounds of his throat muscles into ghastly growls, and barrel-size turbines that create swooping, swelling bass pulses—and as his machines evolve, his music becomes more extreme....

Last week the Supreme Court issued a landmark unanimous decision that the Eighth Amendment’s protections against excessive fines apply to the states, not just to the federal government. The decision was hailed by many as a major blow to the practice of civil asset forfeiture—when law enforcement agencies permanently seize property or money tied to criminal activity. However, despite the importance of the decision, experts familiar with civil asset forfeiture in Illinois caution that it won’t necessarily change much about the unfairness of the practice....

Inspired by this unusually snowy Chicago winter, I recently set out to cross-country ski the entire 18.5 mile Lakefront Trail from north to south, unclipping and hiking where necessary, and stopping to check out public art and other sights along the way whenever I felt like it. After skirting Montrose Beach and heading west past the harbor, I turn south to take the snow-covered gravel road that leads along the shore towards the Waveland Clock Tower....

Last year I watched two childhood friends have a series of online debates over police brutality. One of my friends is a black police officer. The other, also black, has been very outspoken on the subject. For instance, that friend accused our police officer friend of having been “brainwashed,” and of doing “the white man’s work,” as he put it. Foley: As a kid my friends and I met a black juvenile officer that came and talked to us one day while we were playing basketball....