Tag Archives: Chicago

Featured Music Deep Dish and Deep House: Tony Arzadon’s Guide to Chicago

by Rich Thomas
January 26, 2012 - 10:00 am

Worldwide by way of Chicago, Tony Arzadon has brought his big room crossbreed of deep, punchy house and infectious pop to the masses via some of dance music’s choicest labels, including Juicy Music, Movement, and System Recordings. Like many of his contemporaries, it was his success with bootlegs that ignited his approach into the mainstream, having produced unofficial rerubs for Justin Timberlake and One Republic that caught fire with other DJs and across the Beatport spectrum. Though he’s no stranger to nightclubs in Los Angeles and Vegas, Tony is a Chicago boy through and through, raised on a steady diet of deep dish pizza and Bulls basketball. Before he departed to Aspen to DJ the X Games, Tony gave us the head’s up on his latest production project, as well as a list of his favorite Windy City spots for food, drinks, and music.

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Contest World’s Top Snowmobilers Fly High in Urban Freestyle Snowmobiling Competition

by Shop Keeper
October 27, 2011 - 10:31 am

On Saturday, November 5, eight of the globe’s top snowmobilers will take over the Windy City’s evening sky for Red Bull Fuel + Fury. The freestyle snowmobiling competition will take place on Clark Street between Addison and Waveland in a lot outside of Wrigley Field. Gates will open at 5 PM and the competition will begin at 6 PM. Tickets will be required for entry but will be available for FREE at www.redbullusa.com/fuelandfury.com.

The inaugural Red Bull Fuel + Fury took place in Jackson, WY in 2003, but this year marks the first time ever for any extreme freestyle snowmobiling to touch grounds in the heart of Chicago.

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Featured Gallery Music Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (The Godfather-esque Interview)

by Nicole Pajer and Catie Laffoon
October 17, 2011 - 10:38 am

Alec Ounsworth and Sean Greenhalgh from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah joined us in the dining room at Taix French Restaurant for what the guys referred to as a “Godfather-esque” interview. We had our own private dining room complete with white linen tablecloths, cloth napkins, and an obnoxious amount of silverware. As Alec showed off his napkin folding skills, he told us all about his hobby of writing obscure children’s songs. Sean admitted to his obsessive self-Googling habits and the band joked about ridiculous photo shoots they’ve been wrangled into.

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Gallery Music Bad Souls and Pretty Lights: Lollapalooza Day 2

by Kim Taylor and Graham John Bell
August 7, 2011 - 8:45 pm

Chicago rain came pouring down in the night, so the pristine grounds of Lollapalooza 2011 have turned into a mixture of mud, hay and grass on Saturday, August 6. It now smells like the true heartland of America that it is. Yet nothing will deter the up-for-it music fans coming to Day 2 of the sold out event.

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Gallery Music Day 1: Clap Your Hands, Say, Lollapalooza

by Kim Taylor and Graham John Bell
August 6, 2011 - 11:45 pm

Feel the love of this shiny, happy festival.

Walking over the 11th Street Bridge towards Grant Park, the immaculate city center grounds of Lollapalooza, a pulse emerges in the hot, moist air. Chicago’s grand architectural beauties loom all around with the anticipation and calm that something significant is about to happen.

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Art Gallery Behind The Curtain: The Chicago Street Art Show

by Max Herman
May 25, 2011 - 9:42 am

When it comes to street art, graffiti, or any artwork that winds up in public, there’s a certain process involved that can be as interesting as the final piece itself. With The Chicago Street Art Show, the work of Chicago-based artists like Don’t Fret, Chris Silva, Goons, and Mental 312 is hardly framed in a neat display; this show held at the Chicago Urban Art Society exists freely on and off the walls of the gallery, allowing people to really see the work and layers involved in contemporary street art. Personally getting to witness the final day of setup for this show illustrated how much life these pieces take on—especially when multiple artists bring their individual visions together.

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Gallery Music Red Bull Thre3style Blows Through Chicago

by Max Herman
May 3, 2011 - 12:10 pm

Sure just about everyone with a laptop and a playlist wants to be a DJ nowadays, but a true selector is often judged only by how well they can connect with a crowd. Red Bull Thre3Style, a new, countrywide competition series, is weeding out the wannabes and finding the top crowd-moving DJs in each city. The format features eight competitors who are given fifteen minutes to garner a response using music from at least three genres. On the Chicago leg of the Red Bull Thre3style tour held at The Mid, the competition largely took the challenge seriously and pushed themselves to dig deep in their Serato playlists to come up with party-worthy sets.

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Gallery Music No Escapin’ The Beatnuts

by Max Herman
March 16, 2011 - 5:23 pm

“Psycho Dwarf,” “Hit Me With That,” “Get Funky,” “Off The Books,” “No Escapin This”— these are just a handful of hip-hop hits from Queens, New York’s long-lived duo The Beatnuts that will instantly evoke head nods. Fan or not, it’s hard to deny the potency of these two beatsmith/MCs Psycho Les and Juju’s sample-centric, hard-hitting productions. Hell, even J Lo’s team jacked the same Enoch Light disco sample that The Beatnuts used for their club-ready and biggest single ever, “Watch Out Now.” They may not be known as critically-acclaimed lyricists, but as Blaq Poet rhymed on Da Nuts 1997 track, “Thinkin’ Bout Cash,” “The beats are nuts so you critics can’t say shit!”

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Featured Gallery Music The Real Deal: Dani Deahl

by Nicole Pajer and Dustin Downing
February 21, 2011 - 11:58 am

Dani Deahl is well on her way to becoming one of the most widely recognized female DJs. A Chicago native, Dani conquered the local club scene in her first year spinning, going on to tour internationally while releasing records along the way. She has played at Lollapalooza twice, hit the Billboard charts for singles such as “Poppin’ Bottle,” and runs Satellite Records, a label that produces some of today’s best dance music. Dani also writes for top industry publications including URB and TimeOut and runs a music blog titled D Squared.

She’s known for rocking her signature pink and black locks and bringing her rock meets electro vibe to the DJ booth. Her career keeps expanding and she isn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. ChinaShop was able to nail down this electronic superstar for a quick Q & A and a photo shoot that may or may not have resulted in her falling into a swimming pool fully clothed in designer threads.
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