I’m heading with a couple other Halfstack staff members tonight to Schuba’s on Southport to see St. Louis power pop band The Feed. They sound a bit like Brendan Benson’s solo stuff, with a lot of hand claps and “woo-woo”s. Summer calls out for acts like this. I’ll post my review and interview with them as soon as I’m done with it.
Filed under Music
I teased this yesterday, and the following is my conversation with roots band The Deltaz, who are playing again in Chicago at Moe’s Tavern on Milwaukee Ave. tonight. They have an open, austere sound with real dirt to it, and lyrics that recall the demons of country’s past. Plus they were gregarious and a blast to interview. Here’s singer-guitarist Ted Siegel on their recent trip to New Orleans.
“We saw two guys get jumped in New Orleans, like, bloody. That was kind of strange. It was horrific. We were coming out of a gig in New Orleans. We’d heard about how New Orleans is kind of crime ridden with violence. We didn’t think too much of it. You know, you can be kind of ignorant when you’re in a new place. We were coming out of a show and all of a sudden these two big guys, big touristy looking guys, come running up to us and they were covered in blood. It looked unreal. They were like, ‘Oh my God, we were just jumped and robbed. Someone call the police.’ They were covered in blood. It was actually kind of a frightening experience.”
Filed under Journalism, Music
I’ll be covering Los Angeles roots rock band The Deltaz tonight at Uncommon Ground on Chicago’s north side for Halfstack Magazine. They’re no-frills types, a straightforward group. Hollow guitars and ramblin’ man story songs. They go on at 8. I’ll sit down for an interview with the guys afterward, but otherwise I’ll be flying solo. Anyone in the Chicago area who wants to get a beer with your favorite up-and-coming culture journalist, come say hi and let’s talk about the show.
Filed under Uncategorized
As I wrote here almost two months ago — wow, I’ve been lazy around these parts — I have been working for Halfstack Magazine lately. I’ve been getting up the gall to go full-on backpack journalist by being my own photographer, working from home, emailing the editor, etc.
Anyway, I attended an event Friday for WAT-AAH, a bottled water company with a neat marketing strategy of using street and graffiti artists to design their labels. They expanded to Chicago after art exhibits in New York City and Washington D.C. in recent months. My piece for Halfstack, “Using Street Art to Get Kids to Stay Hydrated,” has the run-down on everything, but here are the photos I didn’t have room for in the writeup.
There’s some gorgeous work in here. There’s nothing monochromatic to be found. Everything is bright, vibrant, and has the rush of passion instead of the rush of impatience. Every brushstroke is fluid and athletic. As WAT-AAH expands to other cities — CEO Rose Cameron told me Philadelphia, Miami, some Texas cities, Los Angeles, and others are in the offing — you should go and get your kids to drink more water by showing them how cool the labels are.
Defeating Boredom 