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PHOTOS: Hinsdale home with golf simulator: $2.1Mon March 18, 2020 at 1:32 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

PHOTOS: Hinsdale home with golf simulator: $2.1M

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PHOTOS: Hinsdale home with golf simulator: $2.1Mon March 18, 2020 at 1:32 pm Read More »

Biden and Sanders Serenadeon March 18, 2020 at 12:43 pm

Getting More From Les

Biden and Sanders Serenade

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Biden and Sanders Serenadeon March 18, 2020 at 12:43 pm Read More »

Covid-19 Diary — March 18, 2020 — Blood Pressure Medicine & Covid-19on March 18, 2020 at 8:27 pm

Life is a TV Dinner

Covid-19 Diary — March 18, 2020 — Blood Pressure Medicine & Covid-19

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Covid-19 Diary — March 18, 2020 — Blood Pressure Medicine & Covid-19on March 18, 2020 at 8:27 pm Read More »

Chicago puts temporary hold on ticketing, towing and debt collectionon March 18, 2020 at 8:05 pm

Show Me Chicago

Chicago puts temporary hold on ticketing, towing and debt collection

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Chicago puts temporary hold on ticketing, towing and debt collectionon March 18, 2020 at 8:05 pm Read More »

PLAN FOR THE DAY, SELF-ISOLATION, 1.on March 18, 2020 at 6:55 pm

DocRambo

PLAN FOR THE DAY, SELF-ISOLATION, 1.

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PLAN FOR THE DAY, SELF-ISOLATION, 1.on March 18, 2020 at 6:55 pm Read More »

Selective Pandemic Cautions/ None for Epidemic Cautions/ Both Evils are Real/ But NOT for Voters or Violence Victims/ The Governor of Illinois even Offered the National Guard For One?on March 18, 2020 at 6:38 pm

JUST SAYIN

Selective Pandemic Cautions/ None for Epidemic Cautions/ Both Evils are Real/ But NOT for Voters or Violence Victims/ The Governor of Illinois even Offered the National Guard For One?

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Selective Pandemic Cautions/ None for Epidemic Cautions/ Both Evils are Real/ But NOT for Voters or Violence Victims/ The Governor of Illinois even Offered the National Guard For One?on March 18, 2020 at 6:38 pm Read More »

Have you thought to disinfect all these things?on March 18, 2020 at 9:42 pm

Windy City Legal Geek

Have you thought to disinfect all these things?

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Have you thought to disinfect all these things?on March 18, 2020 at 9:42 pm Read More »

Chicago dog owners show off their pups while social distancing at homeon March 18, 2020 at 9:10 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

Chicago dog owners show off their pups while social distancing at home

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Chicago dog owners show off their pups while social distancing at homeon March 18, 2020 at 9:10 pm Read More »

Broadway in Chicago updates cancellations due to COVID-19on March 18, 2020 at 8:40 pm

Show Me Chicago

Broadway in Chicago updates cancellations due to COVID-19

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Broadway in Chicago updates cancellations due to COVID-19on March 18, 2020 at 8:40 pm Read More »

Bobby Conn’s new album confronts the cruel delusion of ‘self-help’on March 17, 2020 at 10:10 pm

click to enlarge
Bobby Conn on the cover of his new album, Recovery

With his whip-smart glam-soul jams, Bobby Conn has been blowtorching advertising triplespeak, blind money lust, and corporate fascism for nearly three decades. At this point, he’s undisputedly Chicago’s most subversive rock star! Conn’s new album, Recovery, which drops Friday, March 20, feels awash in brain-fogging wellness-industry detritus–when the plonky new-wave keyboards and robocall narration of “Disposable Future” slide into greasy funk dominated by Monica Boubou’s violin, self-reflection seems like a grand delusion. In the video for lead single “Disaster,” a deranged businessman–one of several characters played by Conn–paints himself as a hero by imagining horrifying hordes waiting outside the doors to tear him apart.

Gossip Wolf has long appreciated locals Matt Jencik and Whitney Johnson for their multitude of projects. Their music is usually engrossingly ruminative and ambient–but both also play in Haley Fohr’s Circuit des Yeux live band, which isn’t ambient at all. On Spacetones, Jencik and Johnson’s debut as Deep Space Duo, they use Ace Tone organs to drift around each other in swirling washes that bring to mind kosmische juggernaut Cluster and early American minimalism a la La Monte Young. To make these spacious songs, says Jencik, “We got together and just jammed to four-track tape. There wasn’t any writing beforehand.”

Last month, arty veteran Chicago hip-hop producer Spectacular Diagnostics dropped the album Raw Unknown, which features verses from some of the best independent MCs in the game, including Quelle Chris, Vic Spencer, and Billy Woods. He’ll also release loosies over the next few weeks to help people wait out the pandemic–he started this past weekend with “Ridin’ (Remix),” a glossier version of the first song he released as Spectacular Diagnostics (both mixes feature Chicago producer-rapper Jeremiah Jae). v

Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail [email protected].

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Bobby Conn’s new album confronts the cruel delusion of ‘self-help’on March 17, 2020 at 10:10 pm Read More »