Maclean

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 25, 2008

Maclean was not an insane asylum.

Maclean

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 25, 2008

Maclean was not an insane asylum.

Lit-rockers Okkervil River put on new suits to match new album

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 30, 2007

Okkervil River’s lead singer and songwriter, Will Sheff, often appears particularly bleary-eyed on stage. In interviews, Sheff has said that he takes off his glasses when he performs so that he can’t actually see his audience. Though this may not be a good thing (if Sheff can’t see the edge of the stage, for example),...

Pitchfork gives music festival a 7.4; hipsters rejoice

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 19, 2007

Indie’s eccentric tastemaker Pitchfork Media threw its third annual music festival from July 13–15 in Chicago’s Union Park. Unlike some other summer fests, Pitchfork is affordable—from the tickets to the vegan ice cream—and tends to be a very chill experience. Attendees lounge in the grass, read in the shade, and peruse attractions such as the...

Summer preview: Eclectic lineups heat up Chicagoland

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / June 1, 2007

Those looking forward to summer in the Windy City have many things to anticipate—sunshine, humidity, lakefront lounging—but among the best occurrences in Chicago this summer are two of the most popular music festivals to hit the Midwest. Pitchfork and Lollapalooza may not have the jam band-–friendly freedom of Bonnaroo or the hip starlets of Coachella,...

HPAC celebrates anniversary in style

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / May 1, 2007

The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) moved to its swanky new location on East 50th Street and South Cornell Avenue a year ago and this weekend celebrated its first anniversary with a 24-hour event chock-full of art openings, performances, and lots of smiling—though somewhat tired—faces. The day-and-night-long celebration (from noon on Saturday to noon on...

Ambitious Parks premiere caps off New Work Week

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / April 24, 2007

The scene on Saturday was a slightly strange one, with a crowd of theatergoers lounging on the twisted stairs that lead up to the Francis X. Kinahan Third Floor Theater. The line before the doors opened at 6:45 p.m. was for those who anticipated the world premiere of seven new plays by noted dramatist Suzan-Lori...

Latest Lethem funny but shallow

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / April 10, 2007

You Don’t Love Me Yet may not be the most important novel that Jonathan Lethem has ever attempted, or the most complex. It is a sarcastic, comic drift through the hipster clichés of an unnamed, unsuccessful rock band in Los Angeles. The band has its share of issues—bandcest, unrequited love, excessive angst, and most importantly,...

Shortcuts—Elvis Perkins’s Ash Wednesday

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / February 20, 2007

Acoustic folk rock is probably not a category that immediately appeals to you. Beware comparisons to Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. Beware the hyped-up NPR folk-warbling resurgence—these are applicable warnings. This kind of strumming repetition can be boring. Watching the unassuming Elvis Perkins take the stage as he opened for lit-rock favorites Okkervil River last...

Deerhoof tramples rock standards

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / February 2, 2007

Deerhoof is one of the most adorable and inevitably volatile live bands performing today. Front woman Satomi Matsuzaki is a pint-sized dynamo who has been known to bring oversized stuffed bananas and strawberries onstage and gesture like a kindergarten teacher or jerky (the adverb, not the adjective) crossing guard. Her bandmates, drummer Greg Saunier and...

Angela Lee blurs the line between freak and chic

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / January 12, 2007

The human body can be a compelling, but oftentimes off-putting canvas. To look through the books of flash (pre-designed tattoos) at a standard American tattoo parlor is often to be filled with disgust and shock—does anybody really want a skull with fire and whiskey in its eye sockets on the back of her hand? Or...

Top 5 Albums of 2006–Rose Schapiro

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / November 28, 2006

Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Neko Case sings the songs of a sky before the thunderstorm, a building loveliness hammered out by a strong voice. The tracks are all short and without choruses, but not without structure. Case hits the specter of longing and magic straight on, and the characters, all present for...

Top 5 Albums of 2006–Rose Schapiro

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / November 28, 2006

Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Neko Case sings the songs of a sky before the thunderstorm, a building loveliness hammered out by a strong voice. The tracks are all short and without choruses, but not without structure. Case hits the specter of longing and magic straight on, and the characters, all present for...

Voxtrot wins fans over through awkward—but winsome—live act

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / November 7, 2006

Something about seeing Voxtrot makes me wish that they had gone to my high school. They are a band full of Duckies from Pretty in Pink, adorable and gawky and unafraid, though always a little bit apologetic. You might not have heard of Voxtrot, but you probably will. They are a quintet from Austin, Texas...

Beck plays puppeteer in concert of old favorites

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / October 17, 2006

It would be a safe bet to assume that the crowd who waited in the cold to see Beck last Saturday night didn’t think they would also be watching intricate puppets perform. Yes, the world can be full of beautiful surprises—like seeing Beck and his backup band turned into a grown-up version of Sesame Street....

Indie starlets build on reputation with catchy material

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / October 6, 2006

In June 2005, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was yet another five-piece ensemble working out of Brooklyn. But, following the self-release of their first full-length record, buzz around the band in the indie scene reached an absurd level of hysteria. Within months, Clap Your Hands managed to sell out nearly every stop on their tour—even...

Pitchfork harvests hipsters’ favorites

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / September 14, 2006

The week before the summer heat wave broke and released Chicago from temperatures above 100 degrees, Pitchfork Media, the definitive news source for all things indie, curated its second annual music festival in Union Park. Hipsters sidled onto the grassy field in inappropriately constrictive jeans and faux-vintage sundresses to hear an array of bands handpicked...

Islands create a delightful mix of onstage antics, jangly pop, and slow dancing

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / May 19, 2006

If, by chance, some awful war happens and is followed by a traumatizing, eternal cold winter, it would be amazing if Islands were still around, simply so that they could play at the post-apocalyptic barbecue. That way, even if humanity has no sunlight, at least we’d all have peppy antics and shimmering guitar hooks. Though...

Detailed family drama should keep Pilsen’s EP Theater on Life Support

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / May 5, 2006

On the surface, Life Support seems as though it would only be appealing in one of two ways. The play, which runs through June 2, is about a brother and a sister reunited at the foot of their comatose 22-year-old brother’s hospital bed. This kind of plot usually veers off in one of two directions:...

Rhett Miller finds a Believer in the crowd at Park West

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / April 28, 2006

As Rhett Miller finished up his set with a second encore, the enthusiastic crowd downed their final beers and danced (fairly drunkenly). A bouncer from the security staff at Park West stood resolute in front of the stage, looking a little bored by the ass-shaking women in front of him and the sweaty, crooning songwriter...

Sentimental Coast of Chicago bridges Pilsen’s postwar past and present

By Rose Dichter Schapiro / January 27, 2006

The Lookingglass Theatre’s production of The Coast of Chicago is framed by a powerful question, spoken by a slightly hammy narrator in the first scene as he peers up towards the ceiling. The narrator, played with a sort of overly intense nostalgia, asks, “Will I ever leave this city?” His semi-wistful sentiment is immediately echoed...