THE CIVILIZATION OF PATIENCE + THE SPINES OF PERCEPTION AND ALL THINGSIMPROV CLASS FOR THE SOULon June 20, 2020 at 12:55 am

Improv Class For The Soul

THE CIVILIZATION OF PATIENCE + THE SPINES OF PERCEPTION AND ALL THINGS

THE CIVILIZATION OF PATIENCE + THE SPINES OF PERCEPTION AND ALL THINGSIMPROV CLASS FOR THE SOULon June 20, 2020 at 12:55 am Read More »

Release Radar 6/19/20: Doves vs Lewis Del Marradstarron June 20, 2020 at 5:15 am

Cut Out Kid

Release Radar 6/19/20: Doves vs Lewis Del Mar

Release Radar 6/19/20: Doves vs Lewis Del Marradstarron June 20, 2020 at 5:15 am Read More »

Indian death-metal band Heathen Beast tell fascists to fuck offNoah Berlatskyon June 19, 2020 at 4:01 pm

Kolkata blackened death-metal band Heathen Beast are atheist, antifascist, and pointedly anonymous, and their self-released album The Revolution Will Not Be Televised but It Will Be Heard is 35 minutes of vitriol aimed at the anti-Muslim bigotry of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the Indian government’s turn toward authoritarianism and hate. The song titles are direct, pithy, and profane: “Fuck Modi-Shah,” “Fuck Your Police Brutality,” “Fuck the Economy (Modi Already Has),” and “Fuck the B.J.P.,” which takes aim at India’s current ruling faction, the Bharatiya Janata Party. For those not familiar with current Indian political issues, clips of news announcements provide brief context about anti-Muslim citizenship laws and sexual-assault allegations against religious gurus. Carvaka (vocals, guitars), Samkhya (bass), and Mimamsa (drums) don’t write complex or varied tunes, and their lyrics can come across as a bit schematically dry, when they’re intelligible at all (“Humanity suffers for your hate / Religious disharmony you create / Exploit the poor for your gains / Your powerful friends have their way”). But Heathen Beast have a gift for channeling rage into pounding, anthemic assaults that beg for headbanging–they scrape away layers of flesh, viscera, and bone to reveal a pulsing mass of adrenaline and righteous anger. The revolution can definitely be heard, and even from a couple of continents away, it will make your ears bleed for justice. v

Indian death-metal band Heathen Beast tell fascists to fuck offNoah Berlatskyon June 19, 2020 at 4:01 pm Read More »

Improvising trio Icepick renew jazz’s love affair with the El on their third LP, HellraiserBill Meyeron June 19, 2020 at 4:05 pm

Sun Ra may have told everyone he was from Saturn, but the Afrofuturistic avant-gardist spent the 1950s in Chicago. While he was here, he recorded “El Is a Sound of Joy,” jazz’s greatest tribute to the city’s public transport system. No one in improvising trio Icepick–bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and drummer Chris Corsano–now lives in Chicago (Haker Flaten spent a few years here in the aughts), but in 2018 the group came to town to play a benefit for Experimental Sound Studio’s Option Series, a weekly concert and salon launched in 2015 that served as a beacon for improvisers around the world until COVID-19 closed everything down. Hellraiser, the trio’s splendid third album, was recorded at that gig, which took place at Fulton Street Collective, a near-west-side loft space where it’s possible to hear the Green Line trains when the music goes quiet. So it’s only fitting that two of the LP’s three tracks (“El-Bound” and “Blueline”) are titled in homage to the CTA’s elevated train system. The collective experience of Icepick’s members encompasses a myriad of improvisational possibilities, and their technical acumen allows them to tackle tradition-steeped swing as easily as post-everything noise, but they keep their focus on evolving sonic narratives that resolve each knotty exchange or coarse textural exploration with a nakedly emotional tune. v

Improvising trio Icepick renew jazz’s love affair with the El on their third LP, HellraiserBill Meyeron June 19, 2020 at 4:05 pm Read More »

Minneapolis-via-Chicago rapper Longshot takes his protests against police brutality to the mikeLeor Galilon June 19, 2020 at 4:09 pm

In a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio host Andrea Swensson, rapper Chad Heslup (aka Longshot) talked about his history of involvement in protest movements since moving from Chicago to Minneapolis 11 years ago. He was inspired to join his first march after Minneapolis police shot and killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark in November 2015, and he returned to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. “My energy felt like I wanted to be up front with this,” Heslup told Swensson. The spirit that got him marching also drives his efforts on the mike throughout the new I’m Saying (SureShot Productions). Floyd’s death catalyzed Heslup’s ruminations about police brutality, the racial stratification of society, and Black life and death in the U.S., and he’s pledged to donate proceeds from Bandcamp sales of I’m Saying to Chicago and Minneapolis organizations dedicated to ending police brutality and social injustice. Heslup hates being forced to live in a country that prioritizes financial rewards over the lives of its Black citizens, and on the grimy, dramatic “P.O.P. (Profit Over People)”, that grief and anger are palpable even in his quietest bars. v

Minneapolis-via-Chicago rapper Longshot takes his protests against police brutality to the mikeLeor Galilon June 19, 2020 at 4:09 pm Read More »

Run the Jewels reflect 2020’s unrest with the sociopolitical Molotov cocktail of RTJ4Scott Morrowon June 19, 2020 at 5:34 pm

The fourth Run the Jewels full-length, RTJ4, is the hardcore rap duo’s first since Donald Trump’s inauguration. Not at all by coincidence, it’s also the most sociopolitically outspoken album they’ve released to date. On their third, released at the end of 2016, rapper-activist Killer Mike and rapper-producer El-P let poignant, sober lyrics about war, religion, love, and redemption shine through the cracks in their armor of car-bombing braggadocio. Their fuck-the-power attitude and rap-battle instincts also inform RTJ4, which features plenty of the group’s characteristic mix of John Carpenter-esque synth sounds, boom-bap beats, and trap rhythms. The album unflinchingly addresses the societal ills dominating the zeitgeist of 2020, and it feels especially prescient given the nationwide protests against racist police brutality that had started by the time of its release. “Walking in the Snow” begins by addressing the Trump administration’s child-separation policy: “Pseudo-Christians, y’all indifferent?” raps El-P. “Kids in prisons ain’t a sin? Shit / If even one scrap o’ what Jesus taught connected / You’d feel different.” Killer Mike then references the tragic killing of Eric Garner and similar cases of police brutality, and sadly foreshadows the murder of George Floyd by law enforcement: “And everyday on the evening news, they feed you fear for free / And you so numb you watch the cops choke out a man like me / Until my voice goes from a shriek to a whisper, ‘I can’t breathe.'” On “JU$T,” the most trap-inspired track on the album, guests Pharrell Williams and Zack de la Rocha take turns telling us to “look at all these slave masters posin’ on your dollar” before El-P makes his own allusion to Garner: “The X on the map where the pain keep hitting / Just us ducks here sitting / Where murderous choke-hold cops still earnin’ a living.” Other tracks talk about murdered oligarchs, unions for sex workers, and media-manufactured propaganda. Even the video for “Ooh La La,” one of the biggest bangers on RTJ4, depicts the end of capitalism, with people dancing and burning money in the streets. What began as two new friends making fun, cocky rap tracks that bridged El-P’s old-school east-coast roots and Killer Mike’s southern style has grown and matured over four albums. The duo still drops lines about being “cool as penguin pussy on the polar-cap peninsula,” but these days even their most violent fantasies and most boastful we’re-the-shit swagger reflect a deeper understanding of the human condition. RTJ4 also touches on issues of the heart and soul, with recurring themes of gratitude, personal growth, self-medication, and being broken down by the world’s evils. On “Pulling the Pin,” special guest Mavis Staples sings the most heart-wrenching refrain on the album: “There’s a grenade in my heart / And the pin is in their palm.” The album is an unflinching criticism of the world, packaged in hilarious chest-thumping bombast, dystopian synth sounds, and head-banging beats. Run the Jewels might not be soothsayers, but RTJ4 will go down as a defining soundtrack of 2020. v

Run the Jewels reflect 2020’s unrest with the sociopolitical Molotov cocktail of RTJ4Scott Morrowon June 19, 2020 at 5:34 pm Read More »

Nearly 50 years after they formed, Wire are still doing it rightLuca Cimarustion June 19, 2020 at 5:38 pm

Before I first press play on an “aging punks still at it” record, I try to prepare myself for the worst.
Whether the band in question have retained only one original member in a completely retooled lineup (like present-day Gang of Four), or replaced their figurehead (like the Misfits did in the 90s), or awkwardly embraced current musical trends (remember Iggy Pop’s 2003 collaboration with Sum 41?), or pivoted to whatever the fuck “Black Flag” were doing on 2013’s aptly titled What The . . . , the odds of disappointment are high. But I guess I should’ve given experimental postpunk pioneers Wire more credit: their recent 17th album, Mind Hive, can easily sit alongside their best. The London band formed in 1976 and initially split in 1980, but they’ve operated on and off since they first came back together in 1985. Today, their lineup still features three of the four original members. Perhaps it’s due to the amount of genuine Wire DNA at work that Mind Hive has everything you’d want in a Wire record: terse rhythms, robotic vocals, alien melodies, and angular guitar interplay from the band that invented it. “Cactused” sounds like it was pulled off Chairs Missing, while “Off the Beach,” the new record’s poppiest song, would be right at home on 154. This month Wire dropped their second record of the year, an odds ‘n’ sods collection called 10:20. This delayed Record Store Day release consists of previously unissued material they’ve accumulated over the past decade–half its tracks are outtakes from 2010’s Red Barked Tree, while the other half are from the Mind Hive sessions. With songs built on motorik Krautrock as well as the band’s signature dreamy postpunk, 10:20 demonstrates how modern-era Wire have managed to stay fresh while honoring their roots. Talk about aging gracefully–they’re doing it right, and really, none of us should be surprised. v

Nearly 50 years after they formed, Wire are still doing it rightLuca Cimarustion June 19, 2020 at 5:38 pm Read More »

70 Black-Owned Restaurants Offer Juneteenth Specialson June 19, 2020 at 2:54 pm

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70 Black-Owned Restaurants Offer Juneteenth Specialson June 19, 2020 at 2:54 pm Read More »

11 Black-Owned Restaurants With Patios Offering Juneteenth Specials This WeekendKali Crameron June 19, 2020 at 2:45 pm

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It goes without saying that Juneteenth should be more widely recognized as a national holiday. Instead, it’s known as a Texas state holiday, commemorating the day a Union general rode into Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to declare that all slaves were now free. Nevertheless, Black people around America have reclaimed this holiday as their independence day; this year feels especially important in light of the continued Black Lives Matter protests. When we saw that Black People Eats® put together this list on Instagram of Black-owned restaurants with patios that are offering Juneteeth specials, we wanted to give these businesses some more attention. So, what are you waiting for? You can get a meal for just $6.19 in Chicago all weekend long!

black-owned restaurants patios — Photo Credit: Lizzy J

Lizzy J Cafe

2205 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60618

An adorable breakfast cafe that caters a balanced blend of healthy food and guilty pleasures, Lizzy J Cafe can meet all of your needs this Juneteenth. Enjoy outdoor seating in this divine oasis.

Juneteenth Special: French Toast Side Any Flavor ($6.19)

black-owned restaurants with patios — Photo Credit: Mae’s Que House

Mae’s Que House

17093 S Jodave Ave, Hazel Crest, IL 60429

Smoked meats are the name of the game at Mae’s Que House, a Hazel Crest restaurant just past the tip of South Side Chicago. With a few tables outside, Mae’s Que House is allowing patrons to dine in again.

Juneteenth Special: Pork, Turkey, or Chicken Mini Tips with Fries ($6.19)

The Woodlawn

1200 E 79th St, Chicago, IL 60619

Featuring an eclectic menu that highlights dishes from varying cultures, The Woodlawn is offering a flatbread special on Juneteenth that includes the Gyro, Italian Beef, Buffalo Chicken, and Jambalaya.

Juneteenth Special: Flatbread Special ($6.19)

Frontier

1072 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60642

Frontier’s outdoor space is a breezy haven away from the streets of Chicago, and though their Juneteenth special is a $6.19 martini, you’d be remiss not to also order some delicious meats served right off their patio grill.

Juneteenth Special: Martinis ($6.19)

Ina Mae Tavern & Packaged Goods

1415 N Wood St, Chicago, IL 60622

A New Orleans-inspired outpost in the heart of Wicker Park, Ina Mae embraces their funky, Southern-style roots with a delicious Juneteenth special.

Juneteenth Special: Nola Hot Sausage Sliders ($6.19)

Lexington Betty Smoke House

756 E 111th St, Chicago, IL 60628

A quintessential Chicago food truck that roams where it may, Lexington Betty Smoke House will be located in Pullman all weekend, serving up their Juneteenth special.

Juneteenth Special: Mini Rib Tips with Fries or Smoked Chicken with Fries ($6.19)

Majani Restaurant

756 E 111th St, Chicago, IL 60628

Soul food, meet vegan. Unbelievably good eats await you at Matani Restaurant, even if you’re not a plant-based diner.

Juneteenth Special: BBQ Cauliflower ($6.19)

Phlavz Bar & Grill

717 W Maxwell St, Chicago, IL 60607

One of the coolest, underground Chicago handouts, Phlavz has more than enough spacious outdoor seating, awash in violet neon lights.

Juneteenth Special: Jerk Chicken Sammich ($6.19)

Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat

1368 E 53rd St, Chicago, IL 60615

Don’t believe you won’t believe it? Try Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat for yourself and let us know.

Juneteenth Special: Hotdog & Fries ($6.19)

Litehouse WholeFoodGrill

1660 E 55th St, Chicago, IL 60615

This straightforward restaurant has been giving back to the neighborhood since they opened. Having gifted over 150,000 free meals to people in the community, Litehouse is a shining beacon of hope in Hyde Park.

Juneteenth Special: Fire Glazed Salmon Bowl ($6.19)

South Shore Brew

7101 S Yates Blvd, Chicago, IL 60649

This neighborhood breakfast cafe is the perfect place for some peace and quiet. Slow down and grab a coffee and a panini here.

Juneteenth Special: Breakfast Panini or Turkey Bacon Avocado with a 16 oz Black Iced Coffee ($6.19)

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11 Black-Owned Restaurants With Patios Offering Juneteenth Specials This WeekendKali Crameron June 19, 2020 at 2:45 pm Read More »

16 Globally Inspired Restaurants Where Eat Your Way Around the World Without Leaving ChicagoAudrey Snyderon June 19, 2020 at 6:14 pm

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If you’ve been locked down in Chicago and feeling some wanderlust, you might be able to sate your appetite for travel (at least for a little while) with the help of your own tastebuds! Check out some of these local restaurants specializing in the cuisines of a number of different countries around the world.

rainbow cone chicago — Photo Credit; Original Rainbow Cone via Facebook

View the Best Desserts in Chicago

Sweettooth ringing? View our list of the best dessert spots in the city.

View the Best Desserts in Chicago

Photo Credit: Momotaro Facebook Page
Momotaro

820 W Lake St, Chicago, IL 60607

Located in the Fulton Market District and offering a menu of modern Japanese food and beverages, Momotaro will fill you up with sushi, robata, and more.

global eats — Photo Credit: Bar Roma Facebook Page

Bar Roma

5101 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640

If you’re craving the kind of carbs and meaty sauces that only traditional Italian food can deliver, look no further than Andersonville’s Bar Roma, where you can pair your beloved carbs with craft cocktails and great wines.

Artango Bar & Steakhouse

4767 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625

According to Artango’s website, an evening at their restaurant “feels as if you’ve traveled to Buenos Aires,” which is probably as close as you’re going to get for a while to real international travel — why not enjoy some grass-fed Argentinean beef and pretend you’ve flown thousands of miles to taste it?

ROOH Chicago

736 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60661

This chic spot near Fulton River District is serving up makhani, curry, and more to satisfy your cravings for modern Indian flavors. Choose from a variety of chutney, naan, or even some wine to go with your large plate items.

Avli Taverna

1335 W Wrightwood Ave, Chicago, IL 60614

According to their website, Avli’s “core philosophies” include “Philoxenia (hospitality), Kefi (joy), and Meraki (passion).” If you have a passion for experiencing joy through Greek food, then this is a good spot for you. Get your mitts on some gyros, shish kabobs, or even a pork souvlakia plate (it comes with garlic aioli).

Pho Viet

4941 N Broadway St, Chicago, IL 60640

Whether you’re in the mood for noodle soup or you’re feeling more like a banh mi sandwich, this no-frills Vietnamese restaurant has what you need to fill the void in your heart left by lack of travel (and also human contact).

Peking Mandarin Restaurant

3459 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL 60625

The soups at this Albany Park Chinese restaurant are supposedly for two, but in these wild times, we’re pretty sure you can stuff as much egg drop soup into your face as you want. If you’re looking for some protein or veggies to go with it, the menu is chock full of options.