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When James Swanberg isn’t making sunny bubblegum pop in the Lemons, he’s cranking out blissful lo-fi ditties as Today’s Hits. Beginning in March 2011, Swanberg wrote and recorded a song a day under that name for nearly three years, and though his output has slowed since then, he’s nonetheless got a catalog of more than 1,000 tunes. On Thu 5/7 Swanberg will hit the Whistler to play 100 of those songs, all recorded during his first months in Chicago­—and because they usually last a minute or less, you won’t be there all night....

Earlier this summer I was walking through a residential part of Lincoln Park south into Old Town when I heard . . . could it be . . . live music? It’d been so long since I’d been to a full-band concert (March 4, to be exact) that as I approached the sound I had visions of that old Looney Tunes bit where Bugs Bunny bursts from his tunnel thinking he’s on Miami Beach, then runs off whooping into what turns out to be the Sahara Desert....

When you think of Slow Mass, CSTVT, My Dad, and Noumenon—assuming you know they’re some of the best local bands to play emo and mathy indie rock in the past five or ten years—the last things that come to mind are blastbeats, breakneck hardcore, and explosive sludge. But on the brand-new Mourner by Chicago trio Stay Asleep—whose members have played or still play in all four of those bands—you get all that and more....

This piece was originally published in Momentum, an anti-racism blog officially powered by Medium. Many journalists, local and otherwise, immediately condemned the piece—especially for its lack of compassion for the young victim and the community still mourning his loss. “What about Adam’s humanity?” we asked. My Northwestern colleague Steven Thrasher canceled his subscription to the paper and in a letter to Tribune leaders wrote: “I will not, under any circumstances, support journalism which calls for the debasement of marginalized people; which tries to justify the summary state execution of children; and which argues against my humanity....

If America were a king in a Greek play, his tragedy­­—the circumstance he can’t evade, the sin for which he can never atone—would be slavery. For all its horror, the subjugation of Native Americans can be viewed as a tectonic motion of history. One plate sliding bloodily over the other. Slavery was a business strategy. Sure, plenty of us think the Civil War paid the price for black servitude in lives, money, and legislation....

Q: Is it a red flag or sign of deeper attachment or commitment issues if your long-term partner never tells you he loves you? Q: My fiancé has an ex-girlfriend who just can’t let it go. He’s blocked her on social media but his mother still follows his ex and is friends with her and they interact at least monthly. Likes, comments, etc. Can I address the issue with his mom or is that just somewhere you don’t go?...

The harp company Lyon & Healy, immortalized in the title of the 1995 Gastr del Sol album The Harp Factory on Lake Street, has been producing high-end instruments since opening in 1889. This week it hosts a four-day concert series that showcases an impressive variety of approaches to the harp. I’ve already previewed Thursday’s show by Brandee Younger, who’s following the jazz harp tradition blazed by Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, and on Wednesday evening the series opens with a performance by Korean-born, Dutch-raised classical harpist Lavinia Meijer, who’s tailoring the typically florid sound of her instrument to a minimalist repertoire....

A meditation on endings and new beginnings, Lottery Day is a fitting capstone for Ike Holter’s seven-play Chicago Cycle. Each play cast a spotlight on overwhelmingly unsolvable issues like gentrification, violence, politics, and community identity in the fictional 51st ward of Rightlynd, and Lottery Day attempts to reckon with the sum of these parts. Through pointed references to Chicago politics, Holter takes aim at entities such as Rahm Emanuel, Lori Lightfoot, the reviled police academy, and the thinly veiled “Applewood Foundation,” all of which strive to change disinvested neighborhoods by making choices that they will never have to feel the impact of....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts this weekend to alleviate our stir-craziness. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 5/12: Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer demonstrates his elasticity and imagination within his agile sextet. The group’s debut album, Far From Over, is praised by Reader critic Peter Margasak. “For every bit of explosive, tightly coiled energy within tracks such as ‘Down to the Wire,’ there’s an opposing loose, expansive vibe, such as that on the soulful trio performance of ‘For Amiri Baraka,’” he writes....

Like many avant-garde-leaning guitarists, Bill MacKay exudes the spirit of a wandering player walking the earth, at peace with pulling up a rickety stool and shuffling through a dusty acoustic jam with whomever he happens to encounter along the way. A frequent collaborator with local savant Ryley Walker (the pair have made a small selection of records together), MacKay has more recently been releasing his own solo guitar explorations, which prove he has the chops to command a quiet and respectful room of listeners....

Philadelphia indie-rock alchemist Alexander Giannascoli understands better than most musicians who’ve emerged in the past decade how to convey the slipperiness and complexity of emotion in song. The 27-year-old kicked off his career in the early 2010s with a streak of albums he self-released or put out through small cassette labels, and they all wound up on the Bandcamp page he ran as Alex G. By the time he added “(Sandy)” to his stage name in 2017, his blossoming cult status had gotten a major boost from his contributions to Frank Ocean’s two 2016 albums, Endless and Blonde....

Mortdecai Last week, when I was holed up with a bad cold, I was looking for some escapist entertainment I could enjoy while under a Nyquil stupor. I have the good fortune to live just a few blocks from a Redbox rental kiosk, so I thought I’d pick up some $1.50-a-night DVDs when I made a run to the supermarket for tissues and soup. Mortdecai is currently the featured new release at Redbox....

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. The Other One This 2015 Netflix documentary details the long, strange trip that’s been the life of Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, following this humble and far-out dude on his seemingly endless journey as the anchor of one of America’s most prolific bands. Even some hard-core Dead detractors I know have gushed over how excellent and inspirational The Other One is....

A new amendment to Chicago’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Ordinance introduced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot at last week’s City Council meeting extends protections for tenants facing no-fault evictions. If passed, the changes would require landlords to give 90 days’ notice—instead of the current 30 days—to tenants whose leases they don’t want to renew. And, if landlords aren’t renewing a lease to “substantially rehabilitate or demolish” the unit, they’d be required to pay the tenants a $2,500 relocation stipend....

Pilsen hardcore heroes Los Crudos celebrate their 25th anniversary with nine days of music and art this fall. Desafinados, which roughly translates as “those who are out of tune,” will center on a gallery exhibition documenting the history of Latino and Chicano punk in Pilsen and Little Village; the Co-Prosperity Sphere will host Desafinados, which runs from Friday, September 30, through Saturday, October 8. Desafinados will also include an art fair, panels on queer art and local punk, and a literary night with readings by Michelle Gonzales (Spitboy) and Alice Bag (the Bags)....

Goldlink’s runaway 2017 hit “Crew” would be nothing without the buttery-smooth vocal hook from Brent Faiyaz. Raised in Columbia, a Maryland suburb that rests on an axis between Baltimore and D.C., the 22-year-old tried his hand at being an MC before he received a Twitter DM from a stranger advising him to stop rapping and focus his on other aspects of his music. Faiyaz wisely followed suit, making the stranger his manager....

In the wake of the latest blow to affordable housing construction on the northwest side—a City Council zoning committee no vote last week on a proposed development with 30 affordable units in the 41st ward—advocates and aldermen have joined forces on a new ordinance package. The proposed new rules would give affordable housing proposals the same due process in City Council that strip clubs currently enjoy. In an attempt to limit aldermanic prerogative—the City Council custom that affords aldermen wide latitude to veto development proposals in their wards—the ordinances would require aldermen to present hard evidence about any possible negative impacts the development might have on their ward....

Here’s some of the goings-on about town we recommend for your weekend: Sat 10/14-Sun 10/15: The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s popular Open House Chicago expands its neighborhood tours to the Logan Square and Avondale neighborhoods. The Congress Theater and the Stan Mansion are among 200 buildings citywide opening their doors to the public; the complete list can be found at openhousechicago.org. Various times

Part two of this year’s countdown begins below. You can read about picks 40 through 31 here. Today’s playlist: