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Articles by Robert Rodi
For “Want” of a Change: A Preview of Rufus Wainwright at Ravinia Park
RECOMMENDED Rufus Wainwright isn’t the first singer-songwriter to reinterpret earlier work through an orchestral lens; but usually the work being revisited has entered the culture in a leaner, smaller-ensemble incarnation. Whereas much of Wainwright’s third and fourth albums, “Want One” and “Want Two”—whose twentieth anniversaries are the prompt for this new tour—is already fully scored.
Music Top 5: July 2023
1 JAPANESE BREAKFAST (Salt Shed) With an upcoming big-screen adaptation of her bestselling 2021 memoir, singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner is seriously poised to go mega. Fortunately Japanese Breakfast, her irresistible lo-fi music project, remains front and center in her profile.
Punk Grows Up: A Review of The Artist Formerly Known as Vince Band’s “A Problematic Opera”
RECOMMENDED TAFKAVince Band—as the ensemble is commonly abbreviated—has been around for going on thirty years (it formed in 1996), which is more than sufficient time for its members to have achieved a burnished synthesis; a seamless, intuitive coming together. But they haven’t exactly done that.
Youth and Consequences: A Review of OK Cool’s “Fawn”
RECOMMENDED As a middle-aged music critic, covering a field rife with middle-aged (or older) rockers, I suppose I can be excused for sometimes forgetting that rock ‘n’ roll was originally the music of the young—a genre that proved uniquely suited to expressing the alienation and angst of the generation that came of age at the last midcentury, and which inspired those that followed to take it to even greater Dionysian heights.
Harrowing Intimacy: A Review of Kara Jackson’s “Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?”
RECOMMENDED Oak Park singer-songwriter Kara Jackson was named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019, so lyrically, you know you’re in for a ride. But what surprises about her full-length debut (she released an EP in 2019) is the level of music-making. This isn’t your standard collection of AABA tunes; it’s a journey through love and loss where compositions vary in form and length, sometimes shifting tempi and structure mid-tune, and boasting a dizzying sonic array of textures, grooves and colors.
Music Top 5: June 2023
Filed under: 1 STEVIE NICKS (United Center) Her voice is a shell of what it once was, but at this point it’s almost irrelevant; Nicks is less a rock ’n’ roll “survivor” than a preternatural mystic whose concerts have evolved into something like ecstatic benedictions. June 23 2 JIMMY WEBB (City Winery) Few songwriters of the previous century could match Webb as a source of top-ten singles for such a range of artists.
Rocking the Apocalypse: A Review of Cosmic Bull’s “Hangin’ in the I.P.”
RECOMMENDED It’s not easy to mount a cri de coeur when your voice is as deep as Mark Vickery’s; you’re better off calling it a cri des intestins. But as resonant as Vickery’s baritone may be—and it occasionally drops into basso profondo range—it’s also got an edge, and it’s those serrated line readings that turn the tunes in his latest EP as Cosmic Bull into a genuinely affecting, often life-affirming statement.
It’s the Voice, Bitch: The Power Behind Lizzo’s Persona
Lizzo, one of the few incontestable divas of the present, takes the United Center stage on May 17, and as usual when she hits town, I feel, as a music journalist, obliged to make note. But lately, as a music journalist, I find myself wondering whether her milieu is actually my province… whether, in fact, this is an event that would fit more comfortably in the theater section.
Music Top 5: May 2023
Filed under: 1 RICHARD THOMPSON (Evanston SPACE/Old Town School of Folk Music) Anytime the near-legendary elder statesman of British folk makes a Chicago appearance, it’s an essential event. This time around, he’s hitting two major venues on consecutive nights. May 5-6 2 JEFF TWEEDY (Vic Theatre) The Wilco frontman returns with his annual benefit shows for education.
Hymn to Possibility: A Review of Spektral Quartet and Julia Holter’s “Behind the Wallpaper”
RECOMMENDED Spektral Quartet announced its disbanding last year, to the dismay of Chicago’s new-music community. We’ve since learned that there’s a silver lining: the ensemble, while officially defunct, yet has plans to release a few final recordings, including the one that dropped last month: “Behind the Wallpaper,” a song cycle by composer Alex Temple, which the Quartet recorded with vocalist Julia Holter.
Delayed Gratification: A Review of MIIRRORS’ “Motion and Pictures”
RECOMMENDED The five-man ensemble MIIRRORS was just poised to go widescreen when the pandemic shut down the city’s music scene. But in the ensuing few years, the band deftly improvised and maneuvered to keep working and to keep the project on the radar. Now their debut full-length is finally here, and if you’re wondering whether it’s worth the wait—let me reassure you: it would’ve been worth an even longer one.
Music Top 5: April 2023
1 DEPECHE MODE (United Center) The trailblazing new wave band, now whittled down to duo Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, arrives to support its new studio album, “Memento Mori.” Based on the first single, “Ghosts Again,” its classic electronic sound is gloriously intact.
Choosing Sides: A Review of Poi Dog Pondering’s “Keep On Loving Each Other”
RECOMMENDED It should come as no surprise that the new full-length by Poi Dog Pondering—the band’s tenth studio album and its first in five years—should trigger nostalgic responses. Even when it first emerged on the scene in the very late eighties, Poi Dog was a breezy, shaggy callback to the kind of sun-soaked, melody-driven hippie fare that had ruled the airwaves twenty years before.
Music Top 5: March 2023
1 IGGY POP (Salt Shed) The former Stooges frontman spent decades as a paradox: impossible to ignore, yet largely disregarded.
The Eloquence of Spareness: A Review of Half Gringa’s “Ancestral Home”
RECOMMENDED By now, we’re accustomed to seeing artists releasing COVID-era records that are stripped down and streamlined—a necessary accommodation to the pandemic’s many restrictions. The question then arises: what about the artists whose work was already stripped down and streamlined? In Half Gringa’s new EP, “Ancestral Home,” we have an answer, which is: the same, but more so.
Sly Subjugation: A Review of Emily Chloe Quinn’s “My Own Mountain”
RECOMMENDED The city’s music scene is rich and bountiful, which is a great boon for listeners and concertgoers—less so for artists trying to find a place in all that richness and bounty.
Music Top 5: February 2023
1 VIAGRA BOYS (Salt Shed) The Swedish post-punk ensemble is touring its new album, “Cave World,” which satirizes our paranoid cultural moment; not that that moment doesn’t satirize itself, but these guys are both funny and fierce.
Showing Who’s Bossa: A Review of Ari Lindo’s “Cost of Giving”
RECOMMENDED I recently wrote about Late Nite Laundry’s eponymous EP. And as I continued to play and enjoy it after filing the review, I was prompted to check out the solo debut by the band’s guitarist and vocalist, Ari Lindo. It dropped a few months ago, but for a talent like this, better late than never. Lindo is a third-generation Brazilian immigrant, which you could’ve inferred from the bossa nova influences in Late Nite Laundry’s new sound.
Music Top 5: January 2023
1 POI DOG PONDERING (Thalia Hall) The genre-embracing ensemble hits the Thalia Hall stage just days after the planned release of its long-awaited new album—about which, at press time, details remain spare and expectations stratospheric.
Songs from a Small Room: A Review of Nora O’Connor’s “My Heart”
RECOMMENDED “My Heart” opens with singer-songwriter Nora O’Connor crooning, “When you turned and walked away / You know I didn’t see it coming / I tried to find a way to set you straight / And I… ” The way she holds onto that final syllable, looking for someplace to take it, before giving up and letting it droop and fade, is such an elegant moment; she finds eloquence in speechlessness. At that moment, a mere twenty-four seconds into the album, I knew I was in good hands.
Dealing in Dualities: A Review of Late Nite Laundry’s “Late Nite Laundry”
RECOMMENDED The latest EP by the newly reconstituted Late Nite Laundry begins with a fake-out. A drumbeat fade up, increasing in volume until you’re ready for the tune to burst open like a piñata; but when the verse does come in, it’s like a pebble dropped into a pond, and the tune that follows is a gorgeous ripple of summery psychedelic soul. If the first track of a record can be considered its mission statement (I’d argue), this one couldn’t be clearer.
Talking to Herself: A Preview of Elizabeth Moen at Empty Bottle and Schubas
RECOMMENDED The first thing that strikes you about Chicago singer-songwriter Elizabeth Moen is that voice. It’s an amalgam of styles and mannerisms from everything from classic rock and country, and as such it manages to be both warmly familiar and tantalizingly new.
Wholly Holly: Christmas Music Blankets Chicago
The ubiquity of Christmas music has a lot to do with background buzz in bars, restaurants, supermarkets, doctors’ offices and the like, and the insistent drone of good will and good cheer can drag you down when you’re just trying to navigate the minefield of the average day. The best way to combat the phenomenon is to engage with Christmas music as an active participant, by putting yourself front-and-center as its eager and intended audience.
Music Top 5: December 2022
1 SHEMEKIA COPELAND (City Winery) The fierce, incomparable blues singer arrives on the heels of her latest standard-bearing, autobiographical album, “Done Come Too Far.” December 16 2 ORIGIN OF ANIMAL AND HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PLAYERS (Unity Lutheran Church) The two bravura pomo big bands join forces to play, in its entirety, jazz legend Charles Mingus’ iconic 1972 orchestral album, “Let My Children Hear Music.” December 3 3 ELIZABETH MOEN (Empty Bottle) The Chicago singer-songwriter hosts...
Top Down: A Review of Push Puppets’ “Allegory Grey”
RECOMMENDED Way back in the previous century, my friends and I had an affectionate term we applied to songs that embodied the breezy, easy, wistful feeling summer gave us: we called them “top down” tunes. Somewhere in the ensuing years we dropped the term—probably because none of us had a convertible anymore. Also, summer no longer makes us feel that way. Middle age’ll do that.
Hooked: A Review of Nice Motor’s “Superior Street Sessions”
RECOMMENDED Streaming hasn’t quite killed the album, but the idea of an album, one that gelled sometime around 1968 as a coherent statement comprising discrete tracks reflecting a particular sensibility, theme or point of view, seems to be on the wane. As a relic of the twentieth century, I still make it a point to give every new album a close and concentrated listen; but lately there have been fewer returns on that investment.
Music Top 5: November 2022
1 UMPHREY’S MCGEE (Riviera Theatre) The enduring and much-loved Indiana-born jam band—which just released its latest full-length, “Asking for a Friend”—returns for another iteration of its shaggy, jubilant, fan-interactive concert event, UMBowl. November 11-12 2 ENSEMBLE DAL NIENTE (Epiphany Center) The acclaimed contemporary classical group presents Kyle Flens and Amanda DeBoer Bartlett performing new music for soprano and percussion, including works by Melissa Vargas and Emma Hospelhorn.
All In: A Review of The Claudettes’ “The Claudettes Go Out!”
RECOMMENDED With the title of their new release, Chicago’s much loved, genre-devouring party band serves notice that they’re once again ready to engage head-on with the world, after the long spell of sheltering-in-place that saw so many musicians turning inward out of necessity. And the Claudettes have been as good as their word, energetically gigging everywhere to support the new record.
Big Sounds from Small Rooms: Reviews of New Albums by Airan Wright and Andy Pratt
Music is usually a collaborative pursuit, but the past two-and-a-half years have pushed some artists to find inspiration in isolation. Airan Wright, the Evanston-based artist and musician, pushed himself a little farther than most; his debut album, “Error Cancellation” (which dropped in spring, but so quietly it took me a while to twig to it) comprises eleven tracks of music he personally improvised, tracked and mixed.
High-Water Mark: Thirty-Two Years Of They Might Be Giants’ “Flood”
Two years ago, singer-songwriters John Flansburgh and John Linnell, collectively known as They Might Be Giants, were scheduled to set forth on a tour celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their major-label debut, “Flood.” Like nearly every tour that year, it was abruptly and indefinitely postponed. This June it finally got under way, with a Chicago show on the docket October 13 at The Vic Theatre.
When Humans Ruled the Earth: The Inevitability of Mass Extinction
In the hierarchy of things that keep people awake at night, mass extinction may not rank very high. There are immediate calamities to contemplate: job loss, illness, broken relationships and all the other reefs upon which we so frequently shipwreck. Mass extinction—the wholesale disappearance of species across the biological spectrum—seems abstract by comparison. Let’s underline that “seems,” though. Because mass extinction is already under way, and has been for some time.
Music Top 5: October 2022
Filed under: 1 THE B-52S (Chicago Theatre) Time marches on, and the once subversive dance-punk quintet, winnowed down to a high-camp glee-club trio, are donning their day-glo and the beehives for what they’re calling their farewell tour.
Can’t-Miss Music Events (Fall Arts Preview 2022)
Jonathan Richman—Constellation, October 27-28 At seventy-one, the still ridiculously boyish singer-songwriter is enjoying another career renaissance. Much of the catalog from his time fronting seminal proto-punk band Modern Lovers is being reissued, which has triggered a reappraisal of his legacy (and even of that proto-punk label). Meanwhile, his solo career has kicked up a notch, with a slew of new music.
Music Top 5: September 2022
Filed under: 1 LIL NAS X (Aragon Ballroom) The young rapper is still growing as a singer-songwriter, but as a cultural provocateur he’s steadily ascending to the pantheon alongside David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Prince. September 10-11 2 FLORENCE + THE MACHINE (Northerly Island) Florence Welch’s new album, “Dance Fever,” takes the title literally—it’s inspired by a medieval dancing plague—for an intense, widescreen statement on the pandemic era.
Heavy On the Everything: A Review of Colin Peterik’s “Everything and Nothing”
RECOMMENDED The first thing that hits you about singer-songwriter Colin Peterik’s full-length debut, “Everything and Nothing,” is how lavishly it’s produced. There’s a multilayered sheen over the entire album, right from the opening bars of the first track, “Smile.” And yet the effect isn’t obtrusive or overwhelming; in fact the soundboard serves almost as a separate instrument, and it’s played with extreme subtlety.
Psycho-Bauble: Andrew Bird Surveys His Interior Landscape
It will be interesting to see which Andrew Bird takes the stage at The Salt Shed on August 12. Bird, who was born in Lake Forest, is returning for a hometown gig for the first time since his album “Inside Problems” dropped in June. His previous release, 2019’s “My Finest Work Yet,” featured—in addition to that gauntlet-throwing title—a full range of politically engaged tunes.
Music Top 5: August 2022
1 EL TEN ELEVEN (SPACE, Evanston) Bassist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogerty are true outliers: an instrumental duo who have incrementally built a huge following for their highly melodic, irresistibly textured work, which comprises layers of looping and effects. August 18 2 ELVIS COSTELLO WITH NICK LOWE (Canal Shores Golf Course, Evanston) Two of the most eloquent of the punk era’s angry young men reunite as sardonic old men, none the less compelling for it.
Music Top 5: July 2022
Filed under: 1 ESPERANZA SPALDING (Ravinia) The singer-songwriter-bassist has charted a highly adventurous and idiosyncratic course since her Ravinia debut a decade ago; she returns to the park one of the most exciting artists in jazz or, frankly, any genre.
Band Leaders: A Review of New Albums by Chris Greene Quartet and Bowmanville
RECOMMENDED Chris Greene Quartet’s latest album is titled “PlaySpace2: Play Harder,” which clearly marks it as a sequel to 2019’s “PlaySpace,” which documented a performance at Evanston’s Space. But “PlaySpace2” is a stranger bird; it comprises five tracks from three different sessions—with one track not even recorded at Space.
Range Rovers: A Review of New Albums by Dan Dougherty and Matt Gold
RECOMMENDED Singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Dan Dougherty has been kicking around the scene for years—decades, even, though you wouldn’t guess it to look at him—but he hasn’t emerged as a major presence because he’s spent most of that time fronting one band after another. He finally released a solo album in 2020, and its follow-up, “Fun Times Ahead,” has dropped, and it’s a further testament to his range as both composer and performer.
Sibling Revivalry: The Aluminum Group Heads Back to the Lounge
Brothers Frank and John Navin released six albums as The Aluminum Group between 1995 and 2008, each a meticulously crafted work of what might be called chamber-lounge pop.
Music Top 5: June 2022
1 RUFUS WAINWRIGHT (City Winery) The singer-songwriter has made a side career out of recreating Judy Garland’s iconic 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. The show is part tribute band, part camp-fest and part religious rite; but Wainwright’s charm carries it home. June 16-18 2 CIRCUIT DES YEUX (Constellation) Last year’s album “-io” wound up on a number of Best of 2021 lists (including this magazine’s).
Music Top 5: May 2022
Filed under: 1 JANIS IAN (Old Town School of Folk Music) The iconic singer-songwriter is taking a victory lap before retiring from the road. Expect songs from her new and final album, “The Light at the End of the Line,” as well as indelible tunes from the last seven decades. May 14 2 TORI AMOS (Auditorium Theatre) The iconic singer-songwriter released her sixteenth album, “Ocean to Ocean,” in 2021; the world being what it is, the accompanying tour had to wait until now.
To Be, and Not to Be: A Review of Michelles’ “The Empty Promises of Rock and Roll”
RECOMMENDED The singer-songwriter Michael Daly has released his third album as Michelles—a project he describes as “dream pop for the nightmare inclined.” Its title is “The Empty Promises of Rock and Roll,” and in fact the cover shows what appears to be a world-weary Daly, all in black, slumped on a stool like a postmillennial Hamlet. You’re prepared for some full-bore melancholia.
Singing of War: Joe Goodkin Advances the Bardic Tradition
I spoke with Chicago singer-songwriter Joe Goodkin on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. I’d called to interview him about his remarkable new album, “The Blues of Achilles,” which retells the story of the Trojan War (or at least those parts covered in Homer’s “The Iliad”).
Music Top 5: April 2022
1 ROBBIE FULKS (SPACE) The famously collaborative singer-songwriter takes a left turn, and mounts a solo show focusing on his rich back catalog—a kind of mid-career retrospective—that includes tunes from his last, critically lauded album, 2016’s “Upland Stories.” April 30 2 THE FLAMING LIPS (Riviera Theater) The venerable, genre-defying band, tacking somewhere between post-punk and psychedelic pop, hits town on the final leg of a world tour celebrating its acclaimed 2020 release, “American...
Full Adhesion: A Review of Cosmic Bull’s “27×2”
RECOMMENDED Don’t let the DIY-style cover fool you: the new album from singer-songwriter Mark Vickery’s Cosmic Bull project is a gleaming, polished work of sophisticated and infectious alt-pop gorgeousness.
From Agony to Ecstasy: A Review of Hollyy’s “If You’re Ever Lost”
We pretend that our reaction to music is objective—a matter of a song, (or a suite or a symphony) checking off certain boxes on our aesthetic checklists—but it’s vastly more complicated than that. Our response to music can be profoundly influenced by where we are when we hear it, and with whom, and at what time of day. Then there’s the weather, the day you had at work, whether you’re hungry or tired—it all factors in. That’s one of the reasons music criticism can be such a minefield.
Music Top 5: March 2022
1 BILLIE EILISH (United Center) The COVID-delayed tour for the singer-songwriter’s second album, “Happier Than Ever,” arrives on the heels of an acclaimed documentary on the then-teenage star (she turned twenty in November). Eilish is having a genuine cultural moment.
The Worth of a Song: A Review of Cloakroom’s “Dissolution Wave”
RECOMMENDED Cloakroom’s new release is a concept album, and the concept is a notably exotic one. This self-billed “space western” is set in a cosmos in which the title phenomenon has erased human art and abstract thought; only songwriters, and something called “the Spire of Ward and Song,” remain to keep the cultural train on track.
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