The Whole Wilco: After 17 years and 8 albums, the Chicago band knows how to take care of business. As founder and bandleader Jeff Tweedy put it, "young artists wait for inspiration. Other artists get to work." By MARK GUARINO | Blurt Growing old together is [...]

By MARK GUARINO Blurt MagazineAnnie Clark made the right decision to get born in 1982.Now 26, she skipped the travails of corporate radio and the one-dimensional MTV star machine, landing in the era of digital populism that is newly opportune for the type of music she [...]

With her hotly-anticipated new album, Neko Case lends cinematic grandeur to rock swagger. By Mark GuarinoShaming gold diggers in sexy synth-pop is what keeps the Hall & Oates legacy vibrant.Yet until Neko Case came along, the term “Maneater” referenced women who metaphorically ate men alive, hollowing [...]

By Mark Guarino Elation in the first 48 hours. Both perfect strangers and dearest friends signing emails, ending phone calls, peppering conversations in the street and over cubicles and across El train aisles with that gooey group rejoinder relayed in Grant Park and spread around the [...]