It’s one thing to understand the sound of rock ‘n roll, but it’s another thing to understand the look of rock ‘n roll. Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz manages to capture both. more ›

, Chicago has long been home to one of Steve Earle's strongest fan bases. He's such a gifted songwriter that fans often overlook the fact that he's essentially made the same record since 1996, right down to the obligatory duet with a female singer, "state of my life" liner notes and beautiful artwork by his good friend, the local artist and noted unemployed film-goer Tony Fitzpatrick. more ›

Way back before she became Avrilized, Chicago musician Liz Phair wowed the indie music scene with her stunning full-length debut, Exile in Guyville, an alleged song-for-song response to the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street. Fifteen years after Exile on Guyville's release, Phair finds herself listed as one of the greatest female guitarists by Venus Zine. The Chicago-based "leading source for coverage of women in music, art, film, fashion, and DIY culture" recently released a list of their top female guitarists of all time, itself a response to Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the top 100 guitarists of all time, a list that only included two females (Joni Mitchell and Joan Jett). more ›

Lace up your skates and fast. The Park District skating rinks close Feb 29. more ›

At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother. more ›

Jazz legend Herbie Hancock has been stretching the boundaries of modern music composition for the past 50+ years, but he’s not content to rest on his past accomplishments. He’s currently touring to support River: The Joni Letters, a collection of vocal and instrumental arrangements either composed or influential on the venerable Joni Mitchell. Guest vocalists on the album include most of the right-now voices in modern jazz-pop, like Corinne Bailey Rae, Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, Luciana Souza, Tina Turner, and Mitchell herself. It’s an interesting project to tackle for the nearly 70-year-old Chicago native, who made his mark with jazzbos and casual consumers of free form music alike as a member of Miles Davis’ “second great quintet” in the 1960’s, but Hancock has never shied away from pushing the envelop of composed music. more ›

Roger Ebert posted his first review today since he began recovery four months ago after undergoing surgery for salivary cancer. And we couldn’t be happier. Maybe that makes us “boosterish,” but we are. True to the honesty that’s been a hallmark of his reviews for the past 40 years, Ebert posted a lengthy description of his recent illness and rehabilitation. He notes that he doesn’t remember much more than “fragmentary episodes” from July and August... more ›

Call it a case of Joni Mitchell’s Disease. Imagine you’re a folkie singer-songwriter from the 60s. In your genre, Bob Dylan is the standard-bearer and is the first name spoken when discussing those who’ve left their mark on it. But you’ve made great contributions too and can hear the influence of your work even today. After 30 years of waiting to be recognized and lauded for your contributions, what do you do? You do it... more ›

No sooner had Chicagoist read this article in NewCity on the art of the celebrity musical side project than we found ourselves at a party on Saturday night arguing the merits of both William Shatner’s cover of Pulp’s “Common People” and Leonard Nimoy’s treatment of “Both Sides Now.” Shatner's ditty was one of our favorite tracks from last year (and revived the spoken-words-as-singing technique popularized by Jack Nicholson in the movie version of Tommy) and it’s hard not to get a little choked up imagining Spock warbling Joni Mitchell’s lament of lost love at the end of that one Trek episode where he gets a girlfriend. (Well, it’s not hard if you’re a raving geek like Chicagoist). more ›

Is there a bigger double-edged sword in any live music scene than the cover band and its fraternal twin, the tribute band? You could decide to form Safety Dancers: A Tribute To Men Without Hats and though you’d still have a built-in audience most clubs (at least the ones that don’t feature a “quarter draft night”) would be reluctant to book you because no matter how hard you work you’ll still be derisively referred to as “just a cover band.” With live band karaoke now the rage, most bands are finding that they have to bring a unique spin to the artists they cover in order to separate themselves from the pack. more ›