Chicago Music as Viewed From a New York Music Magazine

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on May 22, 2006 4:37PM

When Chicagoist thinks of the bands that make define our local music scene, we usually think of The M’s, The Ponys, Healthy White Baby, Lying In States, Detholz!, and Chin Up Chin Up, (and Suffrajett, of course). But when you’re looking at something from close-up, you forget that it often looks different from far away. So if you page through Blender's 5th Anniversary issue this month, you’ll see a much different crowd representing Chicago.

Fall Out Boy: We’ve taken our share of pot shots at FOB, but after reading this article, we might ease up on the boys from Wilmette. It seems Pete Wentz (a.k.a. Hunky McBassist) is quite sensitive. When shots of Mini Wentz ended up on the Internets, he threatened to break up the band and spent two days in seclusion (we saw it and are confident enough in our masculinity to say the dude has nothing to be ashamed of). Also, mean comments on your LiveJournal make him sad. (p. 75)

Kanye West: West makes Blender’s list of “The Incredibles,” five individuals who had the most influence on music over the last five years. It’s a heady distinction, but tempered by the inclusion of Conor Oberst and Mariah Carey. (p. 92)

FirstJason: We always knew Ari Lehman as the answer to an obscure movie trivia question (“Who played Jason Voohrees in the first Friday the 13th movie?”). But now he’s also the answer to the question “Who fronts a Chicago-based horror metal band that plays songs based around the serial killer from the Friday the 13th movies”) (p. 32)

And in a brief post-script where he discusses his thoughts on gaming, Chicago hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco’s confesses to a desire to be Ryu from Street Fighter because “he throws fireballs and … he’ll beat you to death” (p.163).

So there's Chicago music in a nutshell: pop-punk emo, horror metal and mad flow.

Or maybe not.