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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

BLACK TUSK Announce European Tour #tourdates #originalphotos #videointerview #metal




Black Tusk is one of our favorites in the metal genre and maybe the only "swamp metal" band around.   Here's our original video interview with the guys and our live show shots from a number of their Chicago gigs over the past few years.

BLACK TUSK have confirmed that they will return to Europe this autumn to tour on the back of their brand new EP Tend No Wounds. The trio from Savannah, Georgia will be supported on all dates by Fight Amp.

The band commented:

"BLACK TUSK is excited to be returning to Europe and the UK to support our new EP Tend No Wounds.  This will be our first time extensively touring the UK as well and we are excited to see new cities show up on the routing that aren't usually there.  We couldn't be sharing the stage with a bunch of better dudes than Fight Amp and we are looking forward to slaying some shows and drinking some beers with all our buddies on the other side of the pond!"

Additionally, Brutal Panda Records has repressed the long out-of-print BLACK TUSK / Fight Amp split 7", featuring artwork from Baroness frontman John Baizley, specifically for the tour.  The split is also available for order here. http://brutalpandarecords.com/shop/black-tusk-fight-amp-split-7-vinyl/

Tend No Wounds is a six track EP that takes you on a twenty minute ride of raging Southern rock and pure adrenaline, providing the perfect stop-gap between their last album  - Set The Dial - and their next. The EP was recorded with producer Phillip Cope (Kylesa, Baroness) at the Jam Room in Columbia, South Carolina. Tend No Wounds will be available in CD, Vinyl and digital formats and can be pre-ordered from the Relapse Records Store HERE.

BLACK TUSK has also announced a handful of regional tour dates for this summer.  They start July 24th in Augusta, GA and runs through July 27th in Memphis, TN. 

The tracklisting is:
1. A Cold Embrace
2. Enemy of Reason
3. The Weak and the Wise
4. Internal/Eternal
5. Truth Untold
6. In Days of Woe

Full European tour dates are:

13.09.13 Germany Frankfurt @ 11er 
14.09.13 Belgium Antwerpen @ Trix  
16.09.13 France Toulouse @ Le Saint des Seins 
17.09.13 Spain Barcelona @ Razzmatazz 3   
18.09.13 Spain Madrid @ La Boite 
19.09.13 Portugal Porto @ Armazém do Chá  
20.09.13 Spain Bilbao @ Azkena  
21.09.13 France Montpellier @ Secret Place 
22.09.13 Italy Milano @ Lo Fi Club 
23.09.13 Germany München @ Feierwerk 
24.09.13 Switzerland Geneve @ l'usine 
25.09.13 Switzerland Zürich @ Dynamo Werk 21 
26.09.13 Austria Wien @ Arena 
27.09.13 Poland Wroclaw @ Obserwatorium 
28.09.13 Poland Bydgoszcz @  Estrada stagebar 
29.09.13 Czech Rep Prague @ 007 
30.09.13 Germany Berlin @ Cassiopeia  
01.10.13 Germany Hamburg @ Hafenklang 
02.10.13 Norway Stavanger @ Checkpoint Charlie 
03.10.13 Norway Oslo @ Revolver 
04.10.13 Sweden Linköping @ Lorient
06.10.13 Holland Hengelo @ Metropool KZ 
07.10.13 UK London @ Barfly  
08.10.13 UK Southampton @ The Cellar 
09.10.13 UK Manchester @ Alter Ego 
10.10.13 UK Glasgow @ Ivory Blacks 
11.10.13 UK Bath @ Green Park Tavern 
12.10.13 Germany Essen @ Cafe Nova

North American Dates:
July 24                        Augusta, GA                           Sky City
July 25                        Chattanooga, TN                    JJ's Bohemia
July 26                        Louisville, KY                         Diamond Pub
July 27                        Memphis, TN                                     New Daisy Theater


To keep up to date with all things BLACK TUSK please visit:

Spiritualized at Lincoln Hall 7-12-13 #originalphotos


I had the pleasure of shooting Spiritualized for ChiIL Live Shows at Lincoln Hall in Chicago 7/12/13.   Check out our original show shots right here.






 Spiritualized




Sweet Heart Sweet Light

"When you make a record, it has to be the single most important thing in your world. This time around, I wanted to do something that encompassed all I love in rock 'n' roll music. It's got everything from Brtzmann and Berry right through to Dennis and Brian Wilson.  I'm obsessed with music and the way you put it together and I don't believe there are any rules." So says, J. Spaceman, commenting on the recording of his new album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, which was released on Mississippi-based independent Fat Possum in March 2012. 



Recorded over the past two years in Wales, Los Angeles and Reykjavik, and mixed for a year in the confines of his own home, Sweet Heart Sweet Light was Spiritualized's seventh studio album and the first release since last year's epic Radio City Music Hall rendering of their 1997 game changer Ladies In Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space


Coming four years after release of the internationally acclaimed Songs In A&E,Sweet Heart Sweet Light was one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of 2012. Taking musical risks is a hallmark of Spiritualized's outlook. 

Witness them playing the new album, unannounced, from start to finish live at London's historic Royal Albert Hall - something unheard of in today's clamour for instant hit gratification. As J.Spacemen says "I don't believe there are any rules" and this album will testify to that.




    • 1:01
    • 1. Huh? (Intro)
    • 8:52
    • 2. Hey Jane
    • 3:40
    • 3. Little Girl
    • 6:47
    • 4. Get What You Deserve
    • 3:45
    • 5. Too Late
    • 8:23
    • 6. Headin' for the Top Now
    • 4:31
    • 7. Freedom
    • 4:38
    • 8. I Am What I Am
    • 6:12
    • 9. Mary
    • 4:03
    • 10. Life Is a Problem
    • 7:52
    • 11. So Long You Pretty Thing

Friday, July 12, 2013

CLUTCH Frontman Neil Fallon to Guest on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" This Saturday Night! #metal





Neil Fallon speaks with Bonnie Kenaz-Mara (AKA:   ChiIL Mama) for ChiIL Live Shows





Clutch has been one of our favorite, literate alt-metal bands for decades! 
 We own almost all their albums and our kids have grown up belting out Clutch.   It was a high point of our year to score an interview with Neil Fallon.   He spoke with us about Earth Rocker, beard bands, inspiration, weird lineups, name origins and more.   He even contributed to our long running video series on How Creatives Parent & How Parents Create for ChiILMama.com
Thank to the commenter who said "Finally, the interviewer is not an idiot."   You made my day.Clutch is getting some main stream acclaim at last.   But they're no sell outs.   Their new material is intense and as amazing as ever!  

Click here to check out our original Clutch live show shots, album review and more past coverage.




  • Next Leg of "Earth Rocker" North American Tour Starts in September!
  • Festival Appearances Announced!

Earth Rocker North American Dates


*Denotes Festival Date*


Follow CLUTCH on Twitter:

Like CLUTCH on Facebook

For More Info Visit:




CLUTCH Frontman Neil Fallon to Guest on
VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" 
This Saturday Night!


CLUTCH is wrapping up the summer on the European leg of their "Earth Rocker" World Tour which saw the band playing to sold-out houses at their headline shows as well as numerous festival appearances.  The band will back stateside after two sold out shows in Greece this weekend. But before they land in Maryland, singer Neil Fallon will appear as a featured guest on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show" hosted by Eddie Trunk, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine.  The episode premieres tomorrow on VH1 Classic at 11:00 PM EDT.  Neil appears alongside guests Ricky Warwick and Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy/Black Star Riders) whom CLUTCH has toured Previously toured with in the UK.  For more information visit the "That Metal Show" site HERE.

CLUTCH will kick off the next leg of the "Earth Rocker" World Tour September 14th in Baltimore, MD with an appearance at "The Shindig Festival".  But before they doCLUTCH will also make a one off trip to Western Canada and appear in Edmonton, Alberta on August 31st for theAlberta's Own Festival.  Support on the headline tour in September will come from The Sword and Crobot

The start of the October leg of the tour will begin with another festival appearance in Virginia Beach, VA at "Localpalooza".  Support on the October and November shows will be provided by The Sword and American Sharks.
Any fan's dream is to know what it's like to be on the road with a Rock and Roll band, but you may be surprised to see what it's really like - long periods of boredom, broken up by brief periods of intense activity and most of all hard work.  CLUTCH has been posting a tour diary blog throughout their European tour on how it really is.  The posts can be read on the band's Facebook Page and

Earth Rocker was released March 19th via the band's label Weathermaker Music.  The album entered the Billboard Top 200 chart at #15 achieving the band's highest chart position to date.  The album then proceeded to hold its own on the Billboard Top 200 for a total of 5 weeks. The album also came in at #1 on the Hard Music Chart and #3 on the Independent Album Chart.  The digital demand for this album continues to be very strong. In the week of releaseEarth Rocker shot to #4 on iTunes' overall Top 100 album charts and was #1 in their rock chart.

Earth Rocker is available for purchase at the CLUTCH Merch Store



Earth Rocker World Tour


Earth Rocker North American Dates

*Denotes Festival Date*

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Trampled By Turtles included in film and soundtrack to The Way Way Back out this week!




Hideout Block Party / AV Fest
September 6-7 / Chicago IL
July 9, 2013

Trampled By Turtles included in film and soundtrack to The Way Way Back out this week!
This will be TBT’s ONLY Chicago festival performance of 2013!
Get your tickets NOW!

Yes! Trampled By Turtles, who will perform at the Hideout Block Party / AV Fest have had their beautiful song “Alone” included in the highly anticipated film, The Way Way Back, which was just released in theaters nationwide this week!

TBT proudly come from humble Duluth Minnesota.  They have tattoos of Minnesota on their arms.  They proudly play at the Minnesota State Fair. TBT has an intense and loving legion of fans, and great reviews for all their albums especially their latest beautiful album “Stars and Satellites”.   Known for their amazing raucous live shows, they quietly went up the northern Minnesota to record and be “Alone” under the great northern stars and satellites. “We wanted to make a record that breathes,” explains Dave Simonett (guitar/vocals).  “You know how sometimes they say ‘less is more,’” notes Erik Berry (mandolin), “that’s what Stars and Satellites is about.” Less is More! That is the Hideout Style! The Chicago Style! The Midwestern Prairie Style! TBT is a band of big burly bearded Lumberjacks.  Regular guys who can hunt and fish and survive the cold winters.  But inside these guys burns a hot red campfire heart, a big bear hug of love.  They have a silly ironic band name, but when you see them live, you’ll know why we all love them.  And you are not “Alone”!

“Lit up and charged…four-part harmonies that are close to being crystalline.” —Daytrotter

 “Supercharged songs with a hooky playfulness and white-knuckle power…” —Esquire

Trampled By Turtles will perform their ONLY Chicago
festival performance of 2013
at the Hideout Block Party / AV Fest 

Get your tickets NOW!

WATCH RIGHT HERE! LIVE Stream 10th Wheel Gymnastics World Championships 2013 Chicago

10th Wheel Gymnastics World Championships 2013 Chicago LIVE Stream of the competition’s events for the rest of the week. Starting today at 11:30. Check it out!

Monday, July 8, 2013

FREE Family Friendly Fire Jam THIS Wed at Garfield Park Conservatory 7/10 #originalphotos

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ACT OUT OPENING: PRODUCE at Signal Ensemble Theatre July 26-27 & Aug 9-10




The Ensemble Project & Signal Ensemble’s Julie Ballard and Anthony Ingram present:  PRODUCE

Returning for a Third Season of Artistic Mixing and Matching
at Signal Ensemble Theatre July 26-27 and Aug 9-10, 2013

WHAT:   The Ensemble Project Presents PRODUCE: a multi-arts experiment in four parts

WHO:  Hosted by Lauren Warnecke and Signal Ensemble member Anthony Ingram, with participating artists Country Death Trip, Mark Hardy / Celestial Architecture, Carol McCurdy and Michael Zerang, Philip Elson, The Nexus Project (Michel Rodriguez Cintra and Benjamin Holliday Wardell),
crawlspace (Lydia Feuerhelm), Newman and Newman (Cara and Julia Newman), and hey girl hey omg girl real life (Heather Marie Vernon and Darling Shear).

WHEN:  Friday and Saturday July 26-27 at 7:30pm and Friday and Saturday August 9-10 at 7:30pm

WHERE:  Signal Ensemble Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice, Chicago, IL 60613. Street parking available on Ravenswood and Berenice (runs one way going west) CTA Brown line EL stops Irving Park and Addison CTA busses #80-Irving Park, #152-Addison, #50-Damen, #11-Lincoln. Handicapped accessible. For additional parking and transportation information, visit http://www.signalensemble.com/contact/directions.html

HOW MUCH:  Tickets are available for $8 ($25 season pass) at the door or online at https://www.artful.ly/events/1476

The Ensemble Project and Signal Ensemble Theatre’s Julie Ballard and Anthony Ingram present PRODUCE for its third season in collaboration with Lauren Warnecke / Art Intercepts. Selected by Time Out Chicago as one of the top dance performances of 2012, PRODUCE is a multi-disciplinary lab for sound and movement artists to play with their work, and with the traditional audience format. Selected artists are “mashed” together in various combinations and conditions over four consecutive performances. 

Throughout each performance and the series, the audience has an opportunity to provide real-time feedback, ask questions, figure out what experimental performance is and how it works, and help to inform the next phase of the performance (the substance of which is largely decided in the moment). Artists and audience alike witness the deconstruction and regeneration of existing works thrust into unforeseen territories as dictated by co-hosts Lauren Warnecke and Signal Ensemble member Anthony Ingram.

First devised by co-producers Lauren Warnecke and Milwaukee-based musician Timothy Russell, the series premiered in 2011 and continued last year with hosts Warnecke and Chicago sound artist Russell Weiss. 

Now in its third season, this year's line-up includes:
Country Death Trip, Mark Hardy / Celestial Architecture, Carol McCurdy and Michael Zerang, Philip Elson, The Nexus Project (Michel Rodriguez Cintra and Benjamin Holliday Wardell), crawlspace (Lydia Feuerhelm), Newman and Newman (Cara and Julia Newman), and hey girl hey omg girl real life (Heather Marie Vernon and Darling Shear). Adding to the PRODUCE family in 2013 is new co-host and Signal Ensemble member Anthony Ingram who, with fellow Signal Ensemble associate Julie Ballard will be producing the series under The Ensemble Project. The Ensemble Project creates opportunities for Signal members and associates to work on individual projects outside the company’s performance season by providing them with space, marketing opportunities and mentorship. Working alongside Ballard and Ingram is original curator/producer Lauren Warnecke / Art Intercepts. 

With this change in venue come increased support, possibilities, and production value, as well as a new performance structure.  Instead of four single weekly performances, Season 3 of PRODUCE consists Friday and Saturday performances two weeks apart.

PRODUCE runs July 26-27 and August 9-10 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $8 general admission.  Season passes are available for $25.  All performances are located at Signal Ensemble Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice, Chicago, IL 60613. For more information, call Lauren Warnecke at 773-341-8940 or purchase tickets online at https://www.artful.ly/events/1476.


SOUND AND MUSIC ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:
Mark Hardy / Celestial Architecture: Mark Hardy is a musician, composer and artist currently living in Chicago. His music has been performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Butchershop Quartet, and other ensembles around the world.  Painting and drawing has always been a passion for him concurrent to music writing, and his graphic scores for improvisation that merge these two disciplines. Celestial Architecture is a group with revolving members assembled to perform “Constellations.”
Michael Zerang of McCurdy/Zerang: Michael Zerang has been a professional musician, composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater, experimental theater, and international musical forms. As a percussionist and composer, Michael has over eighty titles in his discography and has toured nationally and internationally to 34 countries since 1981, and works with and ever-widening pool of collaborators.
Country Death Trip, Staring Barry Thaded and The Deacon: Country Death Trip hit the road, the Summer of ’72 – the year of the Rat. Touring the backwaters of Terrebonne Parish, LA – raising hell and saving babies – they were eventually run out of the state by peckerwood Sheriff Allan T. Complain… for honin in on his territory. Since then, CDT has circled the world 5 times (not necessarily in that order) sleeping on the sofas of adoring jailbait – and occasionally wedged between the Pepsi machine. At one point they were to open for the Residents, but were dropped from the roster when Randy’s eyeball went missing. Today, the Trip recaptures its long lost youth, playing prom dates, quinceañeras, and the occasional bris.
MOVEMENT AND DANCE ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:
The Nexus Project (Michel Rodriguez Cintra and Benjamin Holliday Wardell): The Nexus Project is a complex choreographic collaboration in which twelve Chicago-based choreographers from a wide range of dance backgrounds each had twelve hours to choreograph a duet on the two of us. Now, we are breaking all the duets apart and remixing them to create a unique choreographic vocabulary out of strictly nothing but the original choreographers’ movements.  This vocabulary will comprise the movement for an evening of storytelling in November 2013.
Carole McCurdy of McCurdy and Zerang: Carole McCurdy has performed at spaces including the Chicago Cultural Center, Epiphany Dance, Links Hall, Hamlin Park, High Concept Laboratories, Movement Research (NY), and Defibrillator Gallery. She has created solo performance pieces and work for ensemble, danced in butoh pieces with Nicole Legette’s Blushing Poppy, and worked with a talented array of Chicago improvisers and devisers.
crawlspace (Lydia Feuerhelm): Lydia Feuerhelm is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance at Columbia College Chicago and plans to graduate in the Spring of 2014. Her choreographic and improvisational work has been presented  at various events including The Dance Repertory Company, The American College Dance Festival Association, Manifest Urban Arts Festival, WedLocal, and Chicago Art Institute’s After Dark.  Her recent performance credits include works by Charlotte Kahler, Alexa Rittichier, and Andy Slavin. Besides investigating movement, Feuerhelm has a keen interest in exploring dance for camera and multi-media collaborations.
“hey girl hey omg girl real life” (Heather Marie Vernon and Darling Shear): We want a lot of things to happen we want to make people aware of their surroundings, what they say, how they move, how they interact with each other and the world around them.  We want them to be playful with what happens when we do push those boundaries and navigate those bordered spaces. We want people to figure out what and who they are – like a bird who makes her nest based on the circumference of her wingspan and what’s around her.

Philip Elson: is a dance artist engaging with various arenas of dance research and performance including live performance, dance for camera, and experimental collaboration. He received a BFA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago. Currently, Elson is in his fifth season dancing with contemporary dance company The Seldoms, with whom he also serves as Technology and Media Coordinator. Elson’s choreographic work has been showcased in Chicago as part of MIX with SIX presented by The Seldoms, Dance for $9.99 presented by Chicago Moving Company, The Open Space Project, Poonie’s Cabaret, The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2010: Chicago, Red Tape Theater’s CFANN 2010, Manifest Urban Arts Festival, Links Hall’s Linkages Program, and at The Loyola University Museum of Art in conjunction with The Seldoms. Elson’s choreography has also been presented nationally and internationally by Performance Works NorthWest (Portland, OR), Collin College’s Dance Fusion (Plano, TX), In It For Life Productions (New York, NY), Muscle Memory Dance Theater (Dallas,TX), the American College Dance Festival (Urbana,IL), and Basso (Berlin, Germany). Elson’s collaborative roles with dance involve sound and video design, web design, video documentation and editing, curation, and arts administration. Elson has served as curator for Bizarre Bazaar: A Holiday Special hosted by Red Tape Theatre, The 2011 Chicago Fringe Artists Networking Night (CFANN), the Student/Alumni Stage for 1306: Ten Years Later at The Dance Center of Columbia College, and Dive – a festival event presented by The Open Space Project. Elson has had the pleasure to work with companies and artists such as Carrie Hanson/The Seldoms, tEEth, Joanna Rosenthal/ Same Planet Different World Dance Theater, Paige Cunningham-Caldarella, Colleen Halloran, Jonathan Meyer/Khecari Dance Theater, Liz Burritt, Matthew Hollis, Jyl Fehrenkamp, and Muscle Memory Dance Theatre.

Newman and Newman: Cara and Julia Newman have been dancing together for over two decades. Cara Newman received her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011 and has been making work and performing in Chicago since then. Her work has been performed at Links Hall, the Fasseas White Box, and the ATTIC.  Cara began collaborating with her sister Julia Newman recently in an effort to investigate the quality of movement and references made as a result of two sisters creating work together. Julia Newman received her training at the Dance Centre in Lombard, IL and is currently a nursing student at Loyola University.  Cara and Julia would like to thank their parents for creating quite the duo.

ABOUT THE PRODUCERS:
Lauren Warnecke / Art Intercepts is a Chicago-based dance artist, writer, and educator. She trained in classical ballet and modern dance, earning a BA at Columbia College Chicago. Lauren completed an MS in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she is a full-time Clinical Instructor and Certified Personal Trainer (American College of Sports Medicine). Created in 2009 as a platform for dance-based discourse, Lauren owns and operates Art Intercepts. She is a contributing author/blogger at Dance Advantage, SeeChicagoDance, 4dancers, The L Stop, and the Huffington Post.  Lauren also freelances as a choreographer, grant writer, and production/stage manager, and enjoys baking scones and digging in the dirt.

Julie E. Ballard is a Chicago-based lighting designer, photographer, production/stage manager and sound/media designer.  She worked as the Lighting Director at the Dance Center of Columbia College for nearly 8 years, and is owner/operator of Overlap Lighting Productions.  As an independent, freelance artist, Ms. Ballard is an Artistic Associate with Signal Ensemble Theatre and Unnatural Spaces, as well as Technical Director for The Seldoms, Same Planet/Different World, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre.  Ms. Ballard has been a part of numerous festivals as well as American Dance Festival, and has toured nationally and internationally with David Dorfman Dance and The Seldoms.  Some of her favorite theatre designs include Cabaret (University of Florida), 1776 (Signal Ensemble Theatre) and I Sing (Whitehorse Theatre).  Ms. Ballard holds a BA in Theater, and earned her MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Florida. www.overlaplighting.com

Anthony Ingram is in his eighth season as an ensemble member with Signal.  His sound designs with the company include Princes of Waco, Hostage Song, Motion, East of Berlin/The Russian Play, Aces, Aftermath, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Six Degrees of Separation, The Birthday Party, Old Wicked Songs, Fool for Love, Hamlet, The Weir, Closer, The Dumb Waiter and The Zoo Story, She Stoops to Conquer and Seascape. He has stage-managed prior Signal Ensemble productions including Catch-22 and the original run of Waiting for Godot,  performed as Lucky in the remount of Godot, and directed Accidental Death of an Anarchist. He has been building, designing, performing in, directing and stage-managing productions in the Chicagoland area since his arrival in 2002. His other recent sound designs include Lifeline’s Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, The Factory’s Dead Wrong, Right Brain Project’s And They Put Handcuffs On The Flowers, Shattered Globe’s The Little Foxes, and Bailiwick’s Thrill Me.

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE PROJECT:
Signal’s mission speaks to our commitment to challenge and support our distinguished ensemble in their artistic growth.  The season of shows provides opportunities to grow as an ensemble within the framework of the company’s vision, but we recognize our artists’ potential as individuals outside of that as well.

The Ensemble Project has been created to provide our ensemble members and associates with an outlet for their individual projects.  These are not limited to the theatrical medium and can be proposed at any time.  Upon approval, Signal provides the space, certain marketing opportunities and other help, which is determines on a case-by-case basis.  The individual is the primary producer on this venture and assumes the remaining production responsibilities.

For more information, visit http://www.signalensemble.com

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