The Week In Chicago Rock

Curation By The Beachwood Rock Local Affairs Desk

You shoulda been there.
1. Lionize at Mojoes in Joliet on Tuesday night.

Posted on February 14, 2014

How The Tribune Saw The Rolling Stones

By Steve Rhodes

Given the unsurprising squareness with which the Tribune greeted the Beatles, I thought it would be interesting to look up the paper’s early coverage of the Rolling Stones.
The band’s first mention in the Trib, as far as I can tell, was this article by Louise Hutchinson on June 12, 1964:

Barber Gives Scare To Five Fuzzy Singers
Rolling Stones Roll Out Of His Way
The visit of the Rolling Stones, who say they are singers, ended abruptly yesterday on North Michigan avenue. A barber came along.
There are five Rolling Stones, all from London. All wear tight trousers and haggard looks All of them slouch. Each look unkempt. And they wear their hair, they vow, two inches longer than the Beatles.

Posted on February 13, 2014

How The Tribune Saw The Beatles

By Steve Rhodes

Ahead of this week’s obsessive and commercially trumped-up celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles appearing on The Ed Sulivan Show, at least one news organization has admitted that they were so square as to have predicted “The odds are they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict.”
That was Newsweek, as recounted in “The Beatles Suck. Yeah, We Said That.”
That got me wondering about how the esteemed Chicago press saw the Beatles at the time. The only newspaper archives going back that far I have access to are those of the Tribune, so they’re the ones in the crosshairs, but it’s a pretty safe bet the mainstream media was uniformly uptight, just as it is now.
In the Trib’s case, their obsession was the Beatles’ hair. And how they sucked.

Posted on February 12, 2014

Local Music Notebook: 2 Chainz At Tanner Elementary

Plus: Reckless Angel Olsen

1. He stayed in school.

Posted on February 11, 2014

The Weekend In Chicago Rock

Curation By The Beachwood Rock Local Affairs Desk

You shoulda been there.
1. The Coup at Reggies on Friday night.

Posted on February 10, 2014

The Week In Chicago Rock

Curation By The Beachwood Rock Local Affairs Desk

You shoulda been there.
1. The Black Angels at Park West on Wednesday night.

Posted on February 7, 2014

Phyllis’ Musical Inn: Alternative Leisure For 60 Years

The Real Deal In A Neighborhood That No Longer Is

“An intimate outpost in a now-transformed landscape, Phyllis’ Musical Inn provides alternative leisure to Wicker Park’s gentrified classes, ubiquitous hipsters, and stubbornly entrenched artists, recording professionals, luthiers, musicians, and writers who feed on the area’s persevering postindustrial vibe.”
That description from the bar’s Facebook page pretty much nails it. sounds about right.
“Wonderful spirits have been dancing and spinning for 60 years at Phylllis’ Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division,” Dave Hoekstra wrote earlier this week for the Sun-Times
“The historic Division Street music room celebrate[d] its anniversary on Feb. 4, the same date it opened as a polka club in 1954. The bar [was] closed for a private and no-blue-jeans party, but any time is a good time to vist Phyllis’. Along with the Gold Star, it is the last authentic bar in Wicker Park. (Owner Clem Jaskot Jr. said a public anniversary celebration is on tap for the club’s annual Fourth of July festival.)”
Let’s take a look.

Posted on February 6, 2014