Alt-country progenitors Souled American drop their first album in 30 years - Chicago Reader Plus: Jason Balla of Dehd celebrates a new record as Accessory, and CHIRP throws its fourth CD Blowout Sale.

I interviewed Souled American about their first album in 30 years for @chicagoreader.com. Plus some details on Accessory’s record release show and @chirpradio.org’s CD Blowout Sale!

Acknowledging the stark, ugly truth that the Republicans basically had no good reason to do what they have done for the last 11 years and have lapsed into vast collective psychosis over totally immaterial and utterly depraved delusions is terrifying, and as such most commentators simply do not do it

Not just on brand, but also on the right side of the Pride question, which you can't assume about 91-year-old guys!

Here’s Lou and the set of his dice I was honored to buy from him at Gary Con in 2017. RIP to the Colonel!

I grew up in Plano, and I hated how white and boring it was in the 80s. The big visible change is that it's now almost 25 percent Asian (mostly Chinese and Indian), and Plano is a much better place to live as a result. The city has the sixth largest percentage of Chinese residents in America.

This should be a much bigger story.

The Trump administration is about to hand TotalEnergies, a French oil company, nearly $1 billion of your money to cancel its American offshore wind projects. And they are pulling the cash from an account they are not allowed to use this way.🧵

in general, & across the world, the political gender divide really opens up around 2016

wonder if something happened then?

When you use AI to do your writing, you are telling your audience: “I deserve your attention, but you do not deserve my effort.”

Robert Johnson - Cross Road Blues (take 2, test pressing) YouTube video by Nick Dellow

A rare test pressing of Robert Johnson containing an unreleased take of his Crossroad Blues has been uploaded to YouTube a couple days ago by Nick Dellow.

The sound quality is incredible.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmnN...

Charles Joseph Smith brings his music aboveground  - Chicago Reader Charles Joseph Smith is a beloved fixture on Chicago’s DIY scene, but the ambitious music he's been making for decades has gone mostly unheard—until now.

This evening in Bridgeport, Charles Joseph Smith will play piano and participate in a Q&A with @imleor.bsky.social moderated by Glen Curran of @sooperrecords.bsky.social. chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

I have heard foxes described as "dog hardware running cat software." Maybe coyotes are similar . . .

the president of the united states is personally looting the treasury to the tune of literally billions of dollars and that he is not being immediately removed from office and tried for high crimes against this country is a devastating indictment of every part of our political system

Rogers Park gets a new brick-and-mortar record store - Chicago Reader Plus: The Empty Bottle hosts release concerts by Mina Mills and Double Extra Large, the Black History Future Folk Symposium honors choreographer Katherine Dunham, and more.

Record Store Day is Saturday, but I have better news—NEXT Saturday, Chicago gets a new brick-and-mortar record store! Specifically, Rogers Park. Meet High Voltage Records & Hi-Fi: chicagoreader.com/music/high-v...

This Tax Day 287 major companies are avoiding $139,256,870,000 in taxes on $1 trillion of their 2025 profits.

She was granted withholding of removal from India *decades* ago, and had been living and working legally (including for the U.S. government!) ever since.

But with third country removals now a real option, TSA shared her data with ICE and they arrested her at the airport on her way to a job.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announces it has found a buyer to keep the newspaper open Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said they have found a buyer who had agreed to keep the newspaper open, less than a month before it was due to shut down.

The nonprofit that runs the successful, Pulitzer-winning Baltimore Banner is going to take over the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Of all the possible outcomes here, this is likely the best we could have hoped for.

apnews.com/article/pitt...

I have a better idea. Every single immigration judge should be fired, period. Universal citizenship. Total amnesty.

Analysis Finds That Google's AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization A new analysis commissioned by The New York Times suggests that Google's AI Overviews are wrong an astonishing percentage of the time.

This is catastrophic.

To flex just a little, @imleor.bsky.social and I published on this story more than a year ago. chicagoreader.com/music/gossip...

The Chicago underground rock community grieves engineer Simon Small - Chicago Reader The talent and generosity Simon Small brought to the city’s studios and stages won over a huge number of people in the emo, punk, and posthardcore scenes.

Farewell to Chicago recording engineer and musician Simon Small. @imleor.bsky.social talked to people in his professional and personal circles to get a feeling for the magnitude of the absence he leaves behind. chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

Volunteers turn a fan's recordings of 10,000 concerts into an online treasure trove In 1989, an up-and-coming rock band from Washington called Nirvana played in Chicago for the first time at a club called Dreamerz.

A group of devoted volunteers is methodically researching, cataloging and digitizing more than 10,000 concerts that one music fan recorded over four decades.

NOW: B52 bombers are literally in the air on their way to Iran and hundreds of thousands of Iranians are in the streets waving flags and surrounding bridges & power plants.

Difficult to imagine this has any precedent in modern warfare.

(🎥 Al Jazeera)

Ali Ghamsari is a celebrated composer and master of the tar. He did a video series traveling around historic sites in Iran, playing classical Iranian music, often with nods to Iran’s diverse population. His love of country was palpable long before this major act of protest.

$200 billion could entirely repeal the SNAP cuts with money leftover
$200 billion could fund the ACA Premium Tax Credits and help lower health care costs for 6 years with money leftover
$200 billion could permanently expand Medicaid coverage to people in states that have refused to expand coverage

TURNSTILE Comments On Ex-Guitarist BRADY EBERT Attempting To Murder Current Vocalist's Father - Metal Injection Turnstile have spoken out on Brady Ebert, who is facing charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

TURNSTILE Comments On Ex-Guitarist BRADY EBERT Attempting To Murder Current Vocalist's Father metalinjection.net/news/turnsti...

Charles Joseph Smith brings his music aboveground  - Chicago Reader Charles Joseph Smith is a beloved fixture on Chicago’s DIY scene, but the ambitious music he's been making for decades has gone mostly unheard—until now.

My latest Reader music feature is all about Dr. Charles Joseph Smith, a classically trained pianist and pillar of Chicago DIY who is about to release a multi-disc archival compilation on @sooperrecords.bsky.social

Charles Joseph Smith brings his music aboveground  - Chicago Reader Charles Joseph Smith is a beloved fixture on Chicago’s DIY scene, but the ambitious music he's been making for decades has gone mostly unheard—until now.

Another deep dive from @imleor.bsky.social, this time on basement-show savant Charles Joseph Smith. If you've been on the Chicago DIY scene in the past 20 years, you've probably seen him—but have you heard his music? Do you have any idea what he can do with a piano? chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

BREAKING: Trump Administration Orders Dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service The headquarters is going to Utah. Every regional office is being shuttered. The research program is being destroyed.

the trump administration is selling this country wholesale to rapacious, extractive industries that will destroy our collective resources for private profit morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

Every year, hundreds of people walk silently through the streets of Minneapolis… looking at the windows of the houses.

It's the Wedge Cat Tour: the residents put the cats in the window and the crowd stops to admire them.
Yes. This exists. 😹