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Music Aloe Blacc: Exploring Soul and Beyond

December 2, 2010 - 12:08 pm

Prior to 2010, far too few were familiar with the talent of vocalist/MC/producer Aloe Blacc. This well-versed musician out of Orange County (now based in L.A.) has been releasing dynamic hip-hop with his longtime friend Exile as the group Emanon since the late-90s. Emanon’s last album, 2005’s The Waiting Room, was notably diverse drawing from reggae, folk, and much more. The LP was well received by those who heard it—just as Aloe’s solo debut Shine Through (released the following year) was. But Shine Through saw Aloe expand his vocal range from rapper to straight up singer who explored his Panamanian, Afro Latin roots with Cumbia-styled tracks while also tapping into his new soul sound.

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Gallery Music Battle of the Beats: Chicago Hosts Red Bull Big Tune Finals

by Max Herman

November 23, 2010 - 11:43 am

Over the past six years, the formula behind the Red Bull Big Tune producer battle hasn’t been messed with much—two beat makers still face off in multiple rounds to see who has the more crowd-pleasing track. And judging by the 2010 Red Bull Big Tune Finals at Chicago’s Metro, hip-hop heads across the country are still dedicated to showing up and making noise for their favorite beat.

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Gallery Music Red Bull Big Tune Welcomes Black Milk to Chicago

by Max Herman

November 19, 2010 - 12:34 pm

Let’s just get this out of the way: hip-hop shows, more than any other genre, regularly feature an absurd amount of waiting before the headliner you went to see finally hits the stage—often after midnight. Some of the opening acts or DJs you see beforehand might be good and you may even be hyped to have been introduced to them, but when it takes four hours before the main act steps on stage, shit can get old. With this in mind, Black Milk’s last minute, Red Bull Big Tune pre-show in Chicago at Reggie’s Rock Club was as close to ideal as you can get.

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Music Magical Properties hits Chicago

by Max Herman

November 8, 2010 - 11:15 am

The amount of options on Halloween weekend this year for live music in Chicago was dumbfounding yet word of the Magical Properties Tour stopping by the Double Door was hard to pass up. While The Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus have both made repeat appearances individually in Chicago during 2010, seeing the two on the same bill outside of L.A. is a rarity—one only heightened by the addition of 12^th Planet and Teebs to this ridiculous bill of beatsmiths.

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Music Moe Green: An Everyday Dreamer

by Max Herman

October 28, 2010 - 11:00 am

“I wanna be relatable to the average person instead of trying to be the superhero rapper with a cape,” says up-and-coming rhymer Moe Green from his home in Vallejo, California.

Green (a.k.a. Gregory Carter) admits that his raps used to be all about the get-money lifestyle, but his perspective now as a twenty-something has noticeably broadened. On his recently released debut, Rocky Mavia: Non Title Match, this MC raps precisely about the random facets of his life not so much as a storyteller but as a line-for-line lyrical technician.

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Music The Temper Trap Create An Audio/Visual Stir

by Max Herman

October 19, 2010 - 10:34 am

Bands who bring their own light setup to a show in a modest-sized venue clearly have an appreciation for their audience. In a sense, it’s a statement that the live show experience is about more than the music—one that young Australian rock quartet The Temper Trap regularly makes on stage.

After being intrigued by the band’s highly visual set at their Hard Rock Lollapalooza after show, I made sure to catch their next Chicago appearance at Metro. This sold out performance featured lead vocalist/guitarist Dougy Mandagi and bandmates recreating their debut and only album, Conditions (along with a couple new, unreleased tracks), with each song enhanced by an all-out light spectacle—one that gave this photographer a welcome challenge to keep up with.

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Music The Slew: A New Era of Turntable Rock

by Max Herman

September 24, 2010 - 10:54 am

Without a doubt, Kid Koala’s latest project The Slew put on one of the liveliest and most engaging sets at the inaugural Sónar Chicago festival. In this weekend fest dominated by avant-garde electronic sound play, this international four-piece group brought a welcome alternative: an approachable onslaught of turntablism, psych rock, and no shortage of hard-hitting sonics to the modest-sized yet appreciative crowd at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

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Comic Books Gallery Chicago Comic Con: Characters of all Kinds

by Max Herman

August 27, 2010 - 2:40 pm

“It’s a strange existence,” actor Jake Lloyd bluntly tells the Chicago Comic Con crowd about working the convention circuit. Lloyd, best known as playing young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), has largely grown out of acting and moved onto other endeavors (film editing) hence why talking about a childhood role can be so awkward. Yet Lloyd remains an avid Star Wars fan and will be forever connected to what comic con fans love: iconic characters.

The tens of thousands of attendees who poured into the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center August 19-22^nd in some way were all looking to embrace the heroes and villains they grew up with. And this includes attending panels with actors like Jake Lloyd, buying dirt-cheap vintage comics, picking up a T-shirt, or recreating the characters themselves in costume. Regarding the latter, homemade Iron Man and War Machine costumes were just a sample of the incredible cosplay seen at “The Con.” A female take on a beat-down Kick-Ass also remains ingrained in my mind with her all too real make-up job.

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Featured Gallery New York City Graffiti perseveres in the ever-changing NYC

by Max Herman

August 11, 2010 - 12:56 pm

Graffiti and New York City are inseparable. Regardless of how many security cameras are installed or other preventative measures enacted, there is no way to completely stop writers from leaving their names on surfaces across the expansive five boroughs. It’s a decades old tradition that not even rabid gentrification can cease. And in 2010, it’s good to see that walls, doors, street posts, and all reachable surfaces are still being hit up with style.

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Event On The Floor hits the Midwest

by Max Herman

April 8, 2010 - 10:52 am

The concept behind Red Bull Music Academy’s On The Floor event is simple—bring a few notable participants from the academy together and let them each mix/perform whatever they chose for ninety minutes straight. Depending on the combination of talent, the formula could amount to a straight up stellar show. And this was the case overall last Friday at Chicago’s Double Door as influential L.A. producer Flying Lotus was joined by Londoner Kode 9, and Toronto’s Mymanhenri for a night of mad, mind-bending beats.

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