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Gossip Wolf wasn’t there when dazzlingly fleet-fingered guitarist and singer Charlie Baran cofounded “punta rock” group Banda Blanca in Honduras in the early 70s, so it’s hard to say if he’s even better today. Baran now lives in Chicago (he used to play in Casolando), and in 2011 his talent inspired Dan Abu-Absi from JT & the Clouds to form a band around him: Radio Free Honduras perform Baran’s tunes and well-chosen covers with a revolving-door cast of younger musicians....

Last August, Emily Blue dropped *69, a glossy, idea-packed EP whose five tunes burst with pulsing electro beats and walloping synth-pop choruses—a small surprise to Gossip Wolf, since she’s best known as the effervescent-voiced singer of catchy local indie-rock band Tara Terra. But a few listens to Blue’s radio-ready solo jams, such as “Microscope” and “Falling in Love,” make it clear that she can translate her razor-sharp hooks into any musical language!...

There’s no other music as unapologetically Mexican as mariachi music. Designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2011, the genre has succeeded through the centuries and across borders—a shining example of its power, particularly in times of conflict. In the United States, mariachi’s history as a sign of resistance and cultural pride stretches back at least to the dawn of the Chicano movement in the 1960s. In Chicago and other U....

Q: I’m wondering if you can help me with some dream interpretation. If it helps for context, I’m a single 29-year-old gay man. For just about as long as I can remember, I’ve been having mildly unsatisfying sex dreams in that the dreams never seem to lead to sex itself. My dream partners range from people I work with to people from high school to celebrities I’ll never get the chance to meet....