RYAN RUSSELL Pet Symmetry The ways in which musicians tempt music fans into buying an album can be as interesting and colorful as the music itselft, especially when it comes to the items included in a physical release. Actually, I sometimes find the add-ons more entertaining than the music: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about purchasing the “Ultra LP” version of Jack White’s Lazaretto for the vinyl’s bells and whistles (a hand-etched hologram?...

The world premiere of Her Story Theater producing artistic director Mary Bonnett’s drama, directed by Cecilie Keenan, explores the little-known role of women in stoking the Ku Klux Klan’s xenophobia and nativism in the 1920s. It’s a fascinating topic worthy of deep exploration given its germination on the heels of women’s suffrage and all-too-real ties to current events. But the production lacks the focus and critical eye necessary to understand how “everyday” people can coalesce around such dangerous movements....

For Vincenza Handzel, a senior at Jones College Prep, dancing isn’t just a hobby—it’s a passion. She began dancing at the age of two, and is now setting her sights on Pace University in New York City, where she hopes to double major in dance and communications. Students have remarked that completing their senior year virtually has created something of a communication barrier between them and school counselors, leaving them feeling as though they have to navigate the application process alone....

Hmmm . . . a vaguely regional taco-focused Mexican restaurant opens in a neighborhood with an ever-diminishing Mexican population. What do you call it? No, no, no. Lonesome Rose is the name of the latest spot from Land and Sea Dept., the outfit that starting in the aughts conquered Logan Square with Longman & Eagle, Parson’s Chicken & Fish, and Lost Lake before landing downtown at Michigan Avenue’s Chicago Athletic Association reboot....

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. Various artists, Funeral Dance in the Mountains Speaking of tuned metal percussion, it’s everywhere on this Canary Records collection of southeast Asian rural ethnographic recordings, compiled from LPs released in the 60s and 70s. Low fidelity makes the gongs and bells sound murky and watery, their resonance bleeding at the edges. The competing layers of ritualistic rhythms—sometimes stately and meandering, sometimes frenzied and warlike—divide your mind against itself, suspending it in a trance of blissful forgetfulness....

At a joint press conference today on the stage of the opera house, Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet announced their 2021-2022 seasons—the first for Joffrey at Lyric, after more than two decades at the Auditorium Theatre. Noting that most of the world’s great opera houses regularly offer ballet, Lyric general director Anthony Freud welcomed the dancers as Lyric’s new “roommates.” With the pandemic still hovering in the wings, there’ve been some adjustments: the plans currently are to keep performances to 2....

In 1996, feminist scholar Susan Wendell wrote: “What can I know if I can’t know what I am feeling in my own body? How can I remain connected to a world that denies I am in pain, or dizzy, or nauseated, when I myself cannot deny that I am?” In the same vein, vaginismus is difficult to diagnose due to similar side effects crossing over among various pelvic and vulvar dysfunctions, disorders, and diseases....

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....

Tonight local promotion company Phantom Note kicks off the three-day Phantom Note Phinale at Quenchers Saloon. Cofounders Sam Edgin and Josh Hastert launched Phantom Note five years ago, and eventually found a home base at Quenchers. They decided to throw in the towel in November. “The production business is a very hard one to maintain and make money,” Edgin says. For Edgin it’s a big change. “It’s hard,” he says. “I’ve been booking at this point longer than I haven’t, and it’s the main thing I’ve known....

A sewing machine whirrs and an iron pumps out steam. A small band of women sorts a pile of donated fabrics into reds, whites, blues, and golds of varying shades, removing pinks, greens, and purples. Then this group, joined by an occasional man on ironing duty, will sew the patriotic fabrics into quilts for American veterans and service members at monthly Quilts of Valor sew-ins at the National Veterans Art Museum in Portage Park....

Jimmy Carrane first made a name for himself 28 years ago when he premiered his solo “intimate evening,” I’m 27, I Still Live at Home, and I Sell Office Supplies at the Annoyance. Now in his 50s, Carrane is still doing solo shows. His latest, World’s Greatest Dad(?), premiered this past June at Judy’s Beat Lounge at Piper’s Alley. Beginning this weekend, it’s being revived Saturday nights in the same location....

Mogwai have never presented themselves as a sentimental band, but the (mostly) instrumental Scottish postrock group are leaning into nostalgia to commemorate their 25th year: they’re releasing their tenth studio album, As the Love Continues, almost exactly a quarter-century after their debut single, “Tuner” b/w “Lower.” Though the new record explores novel musical channels of the electronic persuasion, Mogwai also remain loyal to some of their own traditions—most notably by enlisting producer Dave Fridmann (a founding member of Mercury Rev), with whom they’ve worked on several catalog highlights, including 1999’s Come on Die Young and 2001’s Rock Action....

Nearly four years ago pianist Jason Moran descended on Chicago to debut Looks of a Lot, an ambitious multimedia commission from Symphony Center. It grew out of a loose collaboration with artist and activist Theaster Gates into a sweeping salute to the profundity and resilience of Chicago’s creative music tradition on the south side. Moran voraciously absorbs art in all forms, and as the project developed he began enlisting a diverse cast from Chicago: reedist Ken Vandermark, whom he’d recently started performing with; singer and bassist Katie Ernst, whom he first encountered in 2012 through the Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, where he’s artistic adviser for jazz, in Washington, D....

John Michalski died May 24. In a hospital in Santa Monica. Of cancer. He was 72. There’s a pretty good chance you don’t know his name. Or if you do, it’s a name you haven’t heard in a while. It’s been a few years since this native son lived and worked here. Yet every year all across the country thousands of people plunk down their money to take improv classes hoping to be the next Bill Murray, or Seth Meyers, or Tina Fey....

Every few years there seems to be a wave of think pieces that herald a new age of “women in rock.” That’s great in principle, but in practice, writers have often bolstered their case for the latest wave by erasing the many, many women who’ve led the way for it, which results in an ahistorical mess that throws generations of women rockers under the tour bus. Cherie Currie and Brie Darling aren’t having it....

There’s a very real Chicago thing that happens in early-stage relationships where you have to decide if the person is worth leaving your neighborhood for. As you get older it switches to worth leaving the house for. — Salem Collo-Julin (@hollo) August 6, 2020 You would have thought I tweeted the cure for cancer or something. Never seen so many of you respond with so much gusto, either for or against the idea of someone being “Geographically Desirable” (a tip of the hat to previous Reader contributor Ted Cox for bringing that up)....

Chung Ha’s unmistakable ferocity is palpable immediately upon hearing her music or watching her videos. She’s among the biggest K-pop artists of the moment, and her rise to stardom wasn’t exactly a surprise. She was introduced to the world on the reality show Produce 101, and her first audition was a major highlight—the judges immediately recognized her as a star in the making. Chung Ha eventually became one of the program’s 11 winners and ended up in the resulting K-pop group, I....

Last Flag Flying, now entering its second week in Chicago theaters, reminds me of Neil Young’s 1990 album Ragged Glory. It’s a rough, but casual, meditation on American themes, made with relaxed, subtle mastery. If the film feels a bit underwhelming on first encounter, I suspect it will gain from repeat viewings—it’s full of subtle characterizations and charming grace notes, and these things can become more resonant once they’re more familiar....