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What will you miss?Susan Schulhofon May 1, 2020 at 11:36 pm

Looking for the Good

What will you miss?

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What will you miss?Susan Schulhofon May 1, 2020 at 11:36 pm Read More »

Baseball: Past, Present, And PastMike Pilbeanon May 2, 2020 at 2:40 am

Cubs Den

Baseball: Past, Present, And Past

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Baseball: Past, Present, And PastMike Pilbeanon May 2, 2020 at 2:40 am Read More »

Women’s soccer claim of unequal pay tossed by federal judgeAnne M. Peterson | APon May 2, 2020 at 3:55 am

A federal judge threw out the unequal pay claim by players on the U.S. women’s national soccer team in a surprising loss for the defending World Cup champions but allowed their allegation of discriminatory working conditions to go to trial.

Players led by Alex Morgan sued in March 2019, claiming they have not been paid equally under their collective bargaining agreement to what the men’s national team receives under its labor deal. They asked for more than $66 million in damages under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In a 32-page decision Friday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted in part a motion for partial summary judgment by the U.S. Soccer Federation. He threw out the Equal Pay Act allegations but left intact the Civil Rights Act claims.

“The history of negotiations between the parties demonstrates that the WNT rejected an offer to be paid under the same pay-to-play structure as the MNT, and the WNT was willing to forgo higher bonuses for benefits, such as greater base compensation and the guarantee of a higher number of contracted players,” Klausner wrote.

“Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot now retroactively deem their CBA worse than the MNT CBA by reference to what they would have made had they been paid under the MNT’s pay-to-play terms structure when they themselves rejected such a structure,” he said.

Klausner left intact claims the USSF discriminated in the money it spent on commercial airfare, hotel accommodations, and medical and training support services.

A trial is scheduled for June 16 in federal court in Los Angeles.

“We are shocked and disappointed with today’s decision, but we will not give up our hard work for equal pay,” Molly Levinson, spokeswoman for the women’s players, said in a statement. “We are confident in our case and steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that girls and women who play this sport will not be valued as lesser just because of their gender.”

Players intend to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Klausner’s decision, a move that could delay the trial into 2021 or later.

“If you know this team at all you know we have a lot of fight left in us. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, change never is,” defender Becky Sauerbrunn wrote on Twitter.

While the Americans are the most successful women’s team, with four World Cup titles including the last two, the U.S. men did not even qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The USSF argued the women actually made more than the men both overall and by game average, and the women claimed they should have the same bonus structure as the men.

“Merely comparing what WNT players received under their own CBA with what they would have received under the MNT CBA discounts the value that the team placed on guaranteed benefits they receive under their agreement, which they opted for at the expense of higher performance-based bonuses,” Klausner wrote.

“This issue is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact for trial,” he added.

Klausner also said the women could not go forward with their claim that the USSF discriminated against them by scheduling more games on artificial turf than the men had. He said there was not sufficient evidence to show that decisions on field surface were made for discriminatory reasons.

He rejected the USSF’s argument that the men had a competitive need for charter flights that the women lacked, allowing that part of the suit to go forward. The federation has argued that the men, who have struggled in World Cup qualifying, have more need for charters than the women in order to arrive more rested for their qualifiers.

“This rationale does not fully explain the gross disparity on money spent on airfare and hotels for the teams,” Klausner wrote.

In addition, the USSF has said spending in these areas has been equal since the women’s union agreed to a new labor deal in 2017.

Klausner allowed other claims of discriminatory travel accommodations, such as money spent on hotels and commercial flights, to go to trial along with claims on support services such as medical and training staff. He said the USSF’s lawyers waited until reply briefs to ask for those claims to be thrown out, which meant he did not have to consider them.

Seyfarth Shaw’s summary judgment motion for the USSF included arguments critical of American women’s players. That filing caused an uproar and led to the resignation of USSF president Carlos Cordeiro, who was replaced by Cindy Parlow Cone, a former national team player. Latham & Watkins took over as counsel and filed the reply brief.

Parlow Cone has said she hopes the suit can settle before a trial.

“We look forward to working with the women’s national team to chart a positive path forward to grow the game,” the USSF said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing that work to ensure our women’s national team remains the best in the world.”

Earlier Friday, the women asked that Parlow Cone be included as a trial witness. Their lawyers said although the federation backed off earlier arguments saying women were inferior to their male counterparts in skill and effort, it still planned to contest differences in responsibility.

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Women’s soccer claim of unequal pay tossed by federal judgeAnne M. Peterson | APon May 2, 2020 at 3:55 am Read More »

Women’s soccer claim of unequal pay tossed, can argue travelAssociated Presson May 2, 2020 at 5:14 am

A federal judge threw out the unequal pay claim by players on the U.S. women’s national soccer team in a surprising loss for the defending World Cup champions but allowed their allegation of discriminatory working conditions to go to trial.

Players led by Alex Morgan sued in March 2019, claiming they have not been paid equally under their collective bargaining agreement to what the men’s national team receives under its labor deal. They asked for more than $66 million in damages under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In a 32-page decision Friday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted in part a motion for partial summary judgment by the U.S. Soccer Federation. He threw out the Equal Pay Act allegations but left intact the Civil Rights Act claims.

“The history of negotiations between the parties demonstrates that the WNT rejected an offer to be paid under the same pay-to-play structure as the MNT, and the WNT was willing to forgo higher bonuses for benefits, such as greater base compensation and the guarantee of a higher number of contracted players,” Klausner wrote.

“Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot now retroactively deem their CBA worse than the MNT CBA by reference to what they would have made had they been paid under the MNT’s pay-to-play terms structure when they themselves rejected such a structure,” he said.

Klausner left intact claims the USSF discriminated in the money it spent on commercial airfare, hotel accommodations, and medical and training support services.

A trial is scheduled for June 16 in federal court in Los Angeles.

“We are shocked and disappointed with today’s decision, but we will not give up our hard work for equal pay,” Molly Levinson, spokeswoman for the women’s players, said in a statement. “We are confident in our case and steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that girls and women who play this sport will not be valued as lesser just because of their gender.”

Players intend to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Klausner’s decision, a move that could delay the trial into 2021 or later.

“If you know this team at all you know we have a lot of fight left in us. We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, change never is,” defender Becky Sauerbrunn wrote on Twitter.

While the Americans are the most successful women’s team, with four World Cup titles including the last two, the U.S. men did not even qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The USSF argued the women actually made more than the men both overall and by game average, and the women claimed they should have the same bonus structure as the men.

“Merely comparing what WNT players received under their own CBA with what they would have received under the MNT CBA discounts the value that the team placed on guaranteed benefits they receive under their agreement, which they opted for at the expense of higher performance-based bonuses,” Klausner wrote.

“This issue is insufficient to create a genuine issue of material fact for trial,” he added.

Klausner also said the women could not go forward with their claim that the USSF discriminated against them by scheduling more games on artificial turf than the men had. He said there was not sufficient evidence to show that decisions on field surface were made for discriminatory reasons.

He rejected the USSF’s argument that the men had a competitive need for charter flights that the women lacked, allowing that part of the suit to go forward. The federation has argued that the men, who have struggled in World Cup qualifying, have more need for charters than the women in order to arrive more rested for their qualifiers.

“This rationale does not fully explain the gross disparity on money spent on airfare and hotels for the teams,” Klausner wrote.

In addition, the USSF has said spending in these areas has been equal since the women’s union agreed to a new labor deal in 2017.

Klausner allowed other claims of discriminatory travel accommodations, such as money spent on hotels and commercial flights, to go to trial along with claims on support services such as medical and training staff. He said the USSF’s lawyers waited until reply briefs to ask for those claims to be thrown out, which meant he did not have to consider them.

Seyfarth Shaw’s summary judgment motion for the USSF included arguments critical of American women’s players. That filing caused an uproar and led to the resignation of USSF president Carlos Cordeiro, who was replaced by Cindy Parlow Cone, a former national team player. Latham & Watkins took over as counsel and filed the reply brief.

Parlow Cone has said she hopes the suit can settle before a trial.

“We look forward to working with the women’s national team to chart a positive path forward to grow the game,” the USSF said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing that work to ensure our women’s national team remains the best in the world.”

Earlier Friday, the women asked that Parlow Cone be included as a trial witness. Their lawyers said although the federation backed off earlier arguments saying women were inferior to their male counterparts in skill and effort, it still planned to contest differences in responsibility.

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Women’s soccer claim of unequal pay tossed, can argue travelAssociated Presson May 2, 2020 at 5:14 am Read More »

Chicago indie rockers Cafe Racer meld psych, shoegaze, and Krautrock to summon hypnotic blissLeor Galilon May 1, 2020 at 6:42 pm

Psychedelic Chicago indie rockers Cafe Racer emerged from a young north-side scene obsessed with garage; in fact, guitarist-vocalist Michael Santana previously played rugged, bratty garage pop in the three-piece Grosse Pointe. When he burned out on that band’s sound in 2015, he started working with guitarist-vocalist Adam Schubert–a prolific musician with a lo-fi solo project called Ruins–on sketches of what would become sprawling, enchanting songs. By the time they made their live debut as Cafe Racer in 2016, they’d expanded into a five-piece, and since then they’ve tinkered with hypnotic combinations of nimble Krautrock rhythms, melodic shoegaze riffs, and effervescent psychedelic melodies. A subtle touch of new-wave glamour enlivens Cafe Racer’s new third full-length, Shadow Talk (Born Yesterday), and hints of 80s pop glitz sparkle in the dusty western guitars that course through “Breathing.” Santana, Schubert, and third guitarist Andrew Harper shade their colorful psychedelic riffs as a unit, subtly criss-crossing their parts to create deep, expansive soundscapes. Drummer Elise Poirier and bassist Rob McWilliams make sure everything goes where it belongs, invigorating a relaxed melody with a light touch or detonating a crescendo with a bombastic blast. The rhythm section’s incendiary throb on the lean, fierce “Zenith” burns enough rubber that Cafe Racer sound like they could go airborne. v

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Chicago indie rockers Cafe Racer meld psych, shoegaze, and Krautrock to summon hypnotic blissLeor Galilon May 1, 2020 at 6:42 pm Read More »

Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn bring China and Appalachia togetherNoah Berlatskyon May 1, 2020 at 7:04 pm

Trump hates China in order to better hate the United States; by blaming the Chinese for the virus, he can pretend he’s not at fault for our own dead and our own misery. In that poisoned atmosphere, the new self-titled album by Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn isn’t just a relief but a call to solidarity. Born in Beijing and based in Nashville, Fei plays the guzheng, a traditional Chinese zither, while Washburn plays clawhammer-style banjo. Their songs are amalgamations and/or medleys of traditional tunes from Appalachia and China, with vocals sung in English and Chinese. Though the high-lonesome traditions they draw from were established continents apart, the duo’s keening voices and the sustained plucked notes of their instruments weave around each other in such a way that the synthesis seems effortless. On album closer “Pretty Bird,” Fei’s guzheng glistens like sunlight off feathers while Washburn sings in a harsh Appalachian falsetto: “Fly beyond the dark mountains / To where you’ll be free ever more.” It’s one of several tunes on the album, including “Water Is Wide/Wusuli Boat Song” and “The Roving Cowboy/Avarguli,” that are about travel and freedom; while people throughout the world are nailed down in their own boxes of anger and fear, Fei and Washburn have made an album that can cross borders. In doing so, they’ve declared their love not only for these musical traditions but also for themselves, for others, and for a world where people can thrive together despite those who seek to divide them. v

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Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn bring China and Appalachia togetherNoah Berlatskyon May 1, 2020 at 7:04 pm Read More »

Kris Esfandiari of King Woman and producer Darcy Baylis combine forces in Sugar HighMadeline Happoldon May 1, 2020 at 7:31 pm

Kris Esfandiari is no stranger to side projects. Since cofounding doom-metal band King Woman in 2009, she’s released solo material under the names Miserable, Kris, Dalmatian, and Nghtcrwler. Her latest project, Sugar High, is a collaboration with Berlin-based songwriter and producer Darcy Baylis, whose credits include recordings by Wicca Phase Springs Eternal and Camp Cope singer-guitarist Georgia Maq. The two met and forged a creative connection over Instagram, and in summer 2018 they spent a week together recording in Esfandiari’s Los Angeles practice space. The result is Sugar High’s debut, Love Addict, which actualizes the inner world of someone pining for genuine connection–it transforms the most solitary feelings of love into something that can be shared. Opening track “Vein” pulls listeners into a trance by pairing a twinkling, descending guitar with swelling synths that softly glow like twilight. From there, in the soporific stupor of night, thoughts of longing start to run amok. On “Alone,” Baylis breathily sings about intrusive, lingering emotions over reverberating guitar lines and Esfandiari’s wordless, sirenlike backing vocals. “Asleep,” which includes vocals from LA ambient artist Mirsy, chronicles the agony of waiting for a late-night call that never comes. Sometimes Sugar High seem lost in their own heads, but “Ugly,” the duo’s second single, anchors the album to reality: Esfandiari drops her voice into a deep murmur as she sing-speaks about the dreaded vulnerability of love atop steel-heavy synth drones and staccato beats. It’s a sobering comedown after the love-drunk haze of the five previous tracks. Though Love Addict clocks in at just 20 minutes, its ethereal songs feel as expansive as the night sky. v

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Kris Esfandiari of King Woman and producer Darcy Baylis combine forces in Sugar HighMadeline Happoldon May 1, 2020 at 7:31 pm Read More »

Country mainstay Pam Tillis hits her stride on Looking for a FeelingSalem Collo-Julinon May 1, 2020 at 8:00 pm

If you’re going to put out your first solo album in 13 years, you’ll probably want to make sure it includes a few songs that will appeal to your longtime fans. What country audiences want is obviously a moving target–country has been shifting toward including independently minded crossover pop artists such as Kacey Musgraves, so that it’s harder to define what a “true” country star should sound like–but Pam Tillis has a long history of gently pushing the envelope without alienating mainstream listeners. As a second-generation member of the Grand Ole Opry (her father is country legend Mel Tillis) with two CMAs under her belt, Tillis has unimpeachable country cred, but her music career hasn’t been confined to one genre. She got her start in the 70s as a songwriter working mainly with jazz, rock, and R&B groups, and her album debut, 1983’s Above and Beyond the Doll of Cutey (Warner Brothers) is a pop romp in the vein of Cyndi Lauper. She first hit the country charts with 1984’s “Goodbye Highway,” and by the early 90s she’d found a niche (and commercial success) tweaking country’s mainstream formula; her 1994 album, Sweetheart’s Dance, hit number six on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart thanks in part to the Tejano-flavored swing-pop of “Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life).” Tillis’s new album, Looking for a Feeling, released this month on her own Stellar Cat label, features tracks that highlight her roots in soul and rock as well as appearances from her country-musician friends. Though ballads such as “Last Summer’s Wine,” which Tillis wrote with longtime Nashville hit maker Bobby Tomberlin, could easily fit on country-with-a-capital-C radio, the album’s highest points are when Tillis allows her rocker side to shine. “The Scheme of Things” has a soulful feel that makes her alto seem like it’s in a broken-hearted duet with the bent notes of the lead guitar, and the beautiful “Better Friends” would be at home on an indie folk rocker’s playlist. I’m a little disappointed with her cover of “Dark Turn of Mind,” but only because Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s 2011 original has a slow, subtle weirdness that seems lost in this version’s Texas shuffle. Still, Looking for a Feeling is a strong and personal set of songs that showcases who Tillis is at her core; it’s a great album from an artist who could easily be resting on her laurels and playing to the 90s retro-country circuit. v

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Country mainstay Pam Tillis hits her stride on Looking for a FeelingSalem Collo-Julinon May 1, 2020 at 8:00 pm Read More »

Death metal supergroup Umbra Vitae blend catharsis and fun on Shadow of LifeJamie Ludwigon May 1, 2020 at 8:41 pm

The beauty of musical collaboration is that you can never totally anticipate what will happen, even when the people coming together have established aesthetics of their own. Some groups devise a concept and never stray from it, while others incorporate unexpected twists and turns–and Boston postmetal project Wear Your Wounds (started by Converge front man Jacob Bannon) has spawned a whole new band. As the story goes, Bannon and Wear Your Wounds guitarists Sean Martin (formerly of Hatebreed) and Mike McKenzie (the Red Chord) would start rehearsals with gnarly death-metal riffs that didn’t fit the group’s melodic, mournful template. They had so much fun with it that they started Umbra Vitae as an outlet for that material, recruiting Red Chord bassist Greg Weeks and Job for a Cowboy drummer Jon Rice. The ferocious death metal on their debut album, the Kurt Ballou-produced Shadow of Life, mixes 90s and modern influences with hardcore energy and plenty of grit, anxiety, and rage. The urgent, seething “Mantra of Madness,” with its weighty grooves and hair-raising riffs, indicts a system that offers only meaningless “thoughts and prayers” as nihilistic assailants force crime victims to plead for their lives. Few songwriters in heavy music can write about the heart-crushing agony of human relationships as poetically as Bannon, and the bleak atmospheres and bleaker refrain of “Blood Blossom” (it repeats the phrase “Do not resuscitate”) make cutting ties feel as pleasant as ripping off a Band-Aid that’s been upgraded to industrial-grade adhesive. The music may be fun and games–at least if you consider death metal fun–but the title track, which closes Shadow of Life, tackles some of the album’s heaviest subjects as it spins into a powerful, chaotic rumination on our inner conflicts and struggles. v

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Death metal supergroup Umbra Vitae blend catharsis and fun on Shadow of LifeJamie Ludwigon May 1, 2020 at 8:41 pm Read More »

Psalm One and Angel Davanport of Rapper Chicks introduce Big Silky, their sharpest collaboration yetJessi Rotion May 1, 2020 at 8:53 pm

Born from the ashes of Rapper Chicks, one of the city’s best and most slept-on rap groups of the past decade, Big Silky reintroduces two members of that crew, Psalm One and Angel Davanport. On their debut EP, Big Silky Vol. 1, written in tribute of former bandmate Henny B (she passed away in 2018, and she’s honored in the liner notes as “executive producer”), the duo deliver music that would’ve made their comrade proud: bold, vicious rhymes and a succession of slick, rat-a-tat rhythms that allude to classic hip-hop composition, courtesy of beat makers Optiks, Budah Tye, Benzilla, OnGaud, and Bionik. Psalm and Davanport are both accomplished solo artists, and they don’t hesitate to remind you of their lyrical and vocal dexterity–their cocksure cadences make them sound like rascally descendants of east-coast heavyweights Big Pun and Lil Kim. Big Silky is the sharpest presentation yet of their forces combined, and their cunning assessments of rap’s boys club, clout chasers, and players serve as reminders to always give praise where and when it’s due. After years of sharing the stage with each other in one project or another, they’ve been able to capture their live energy and chemistry in the studio on Big Silky Vol. 1. They revisit themes from their collaborative tracks on Psalm’s album Flight of the Wig and EP Don’t Get Lazy Now! (both from 2019), including taking direct aim at the way society’s adherence to traditional gender and sexual binaries elevates some artists over others. “They don’t show you where the pain start / Y’all gon’ be straight with this gay art,” Psalm declares on “Put Your Cape On.” On “Smokin’ in Therapy,” their perseverance shines like aspirational quotes on vision boards: “Real bitches never break,” Davanport raps. “We knuckle up and elevate, hoe.” Though the EP’s closing track, “Rprchx Iz Ded,” is a summation and farewell to one chapter of Psalm and Davanport’s musical journey together, with Big Silky they make it perfectly clear that they’re not going anywhere. v

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Psalm One and Angel Davanport of Rapper Chicks introduce Big Silky, their sharpest collaboration yetJessi Rotion May 1, 2020 at 8:53 pm Read More »