Kevin Warwick, Reader staff writer, is obsessed with. . .
Sleigh Bells at Pitchfork Sleigh Bells have a reputation for playing a vacuous, overblown hybrid of hardcore and party-pop that’s more glitter than grit, but their Pitchfork set confirmed what blockbuster movie studios have known all along—big flash and big fun sell. Front woman Alexis Krauss was totally geared—riling a crowd swimming through 95-degree heat with her bounce-dancing and crowd surfing—and guitarists Derek Miller and Jason Boyer relived their years in Poison the Well by making tough faces and whipping their guitars in time to the electronic double-bass beats. A total blast.
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Captain Beyond, “Sufficiently Breathless” The title track from this psych-leaning classic-rock band’s 1973 sophomore album, “Sufficiently Breathless” is a haunting and often gentle acoustic yarn, made perfect by Rod Evans’s casually swaggering vocals and the late Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt’s fuzzed-out guitar solos trying to touch the stars. Though Captain Beyond’s self-titled debut is their best work—it’s rawer and heavier on the riffs, with great black-light ambience—this breezy track is still one of my favorites, with a radiant outro that’s not nearly as bleak as its lyrics suggest.
He asks. . .
Caryn Robinson, aka DJ All the Way Kay, what she’s obsessed with. Her answers are. . .
Stardust DJ, part of Chicago Dirty Girls
She asks. . .
Nicki Butler, local DJ, music director at Columbia College’s 88.1 WCRX FM, what she’s obsessed with. Her answers are . . .
Air guitar and teen angst at Pitchfork with Wild Flag Summertime Chi is for lovers. In a city usually reserved for hate, Chicagoans bask in festivals of ribs, music, Old Style, and love. The high heat of a July Saturday brought fiery riot-grrrl memories lustily satisfied by a Pitchfork performance from Wild Flag—Sleater-Kinney dreams finally satiated in a haze of too much Chief Keef and too little Lady Gaga.
