Death Metal MusicMusic and Culture on the Edge

New year means lots of new releases to ponder. So it's time to run through the last of the stuff received last year, one very mixed bag.

This stuff might be proggy in nature, but it is for the most part heavy too. A nice bunch of releases from some cool bands.

To borrow a phrase from staff writer Dan Caffrey, The House of Blues is seriously the Chili’s of music venues. It doesn’t matter where you go in this country, any venue in their caliber has the same decor, the same goofy stuff on the walls, the same wooden staircases and even the same overpriced beer that’s really not worth it. There’s not a speck of difference here in Chicago. In fact, since this the city where the “electric blues” started, the House of Blues Chicago goes that extra mile to ma

If you want to see/hear national acts and hang with a big crowd, you have plenty of chances this weekend: Great White headlines a hard-rock fest at Crossroads KC, Ziggy Marley and 311 perform at City Market, Rancid, Rise Against and the Riverboat Gamblers are at the Uptown Theater, and Summer Jam, featuring Soulja Boy and Tech N9ne, comes to Sandstone. As usual, there are plenty of smaller events going on, featuring local acts and more modest cover charges and ticket prices. Here are a few:

Pat Boone just can't keep his mitts off other people's stuff. In the 50's he ripped off Little Richard and other black artists to produce watered down rock and roll that white people could listen to without turning into chest-beating savages and destroying the fabric of the family and democracy. Sound familiar? Of course it does. Every generation has its white sheep. If you want to get all spiritual about it, you could argue that without the moralists there'd be no one to piss off. And i