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The Lawrence Arms were born out of the same suburban punk network that gave us Slapstick, Alkaline Trio, and Rise Against, and for the past two decades they’ve been working to become the quintessential Chicago band. The trio’s aesthetic is so specific and well-worn that it can come across as self-parody: three white dudes, including one with a pretty voice and one with a boozy rasp, sing loud, anthemic punk songs that name-drop various Chicago intersections, bars, and venues and glorify the downtrodden working-class misfits of the midwest....

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. Kevin is curious what’s in the rotation of . . . Tame Impala, Currents In my opinion, Tame Impala’s Currents was the best album of 2015. It’s as cohesive as Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City or the Beatles’ Love. Not only does it hang together musically, but it also follows a story line, adding a somewhat cinematic element to the project....

In 2009, when I interviewed Roosevelt University professor D. Bradford Hunt about his just-published book Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing (University of Chicago Press), it didn’t occur to me that his academic analysis of some wonky institutional history could be the basis for a riveting play. Two weeks later, vacationing in Scotland, Paparelli stepped out of his car to shepherd some wayward sheep across a road and was hit by another vehicle; he died there May 21....

For those of us who roll eyes at the accoutrements of Big Woo, Bari in Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Be Here Now might be our antispiritual guide. From the opening scene, where she silently resists the soothing instructions of a yogi, we know she’s a tough nut. And who can blame her? She’s on the verge of failing to finish her dissertation on nihilism, she’s stuck in a small town where the only job she can get is at a “fulfillment center,” packaging cheap made-in-China Buddhas (with the tags ripped off so the bosses can pretend to be selling Tibetan goods), and she can’t find a buyer for her dead parents’ house because ....

Steppenwolf Ghostlight Ensemble Finalists: Otherworld, Above the Law

Gardening keeps Milton Sewell grounded. The 56-year-old North Park resident embraced the isolation brought on by the pandemic by leaning on his hobby. Throughout the spring and summer, he’d scout backyards belonging to friends and church members, converting bare, patchy spots into small fruit and vegetable gardens. “I was always in constant fear that I would come out of remission,” he recalled. Sewell talked about being physically exhausted and mentally drained, until he reached a breaking point: “I just cannot go back to another hospital....

Three years ago, Cory Hanson’s LA band Wand released three albums of melodically rich psych-rock in 13 months. The group then fell silent, but Hanson didn’t slow down: last year he dropped his first solo record, The Unborn Capitalist From Limbo (Drag City), whose muted chamber-pop employs more elaborate arrangements than Wand’s old material. This approach bleeds beautifully into the band’s new release Plum (Drag City), performed by an agile five-piece that gracefully pivots from dreamy pop tunes to slashing hard rock....

I always watch the Academy Awards, and if they run long I don’t care; but Sunday night was the first time I felt I had skin in the game. When Spotlight was named best picture, I hollered; so did my wife. But to my surprise, before the night was over I was on Facebook defending Spotlight against a journalist who thought it wasn’t “half as good a movie” as All the President’s Men....

Sweet Mandy B’s Runner-Up: Swedish Bakery

Audrey Cefaly’s new play, receiving its world premiere at 16th Street Theater as part of the National New Play Network 11-theater rolling world premiere, tells the story of a photographer who comes to shoot a lonely agoraphobe in Alabaster, Alabama, and ends up having an affair with her. The fact that the plot sounds a lot like The Bridges of Madison County is even joked about by one of the characters late in the play, but actually the differences between this story and that one are so profound, you would be forgiven for not noticing the parallel....

Paul McGee of Lost Lake Runner-Up: Larry Coppolino

Bloom Yoga Studio Logan Square Pilates & Core Studio Finalist: Inner Sense Healing Arts

The meandering series of bits, skits, monologues, and pantomimes that makes up Hot Kitchen Collective’s exploration of outer and inner space doesn’t necessarily have a narrative, but it has no shortage of things to say. Nine performers take turns riffing on science facts and fiction while wearing very homemade, provisional astronaut garb. I spent most of its 75-minute running time with a smile on my face. References to shopworn pop culture signifiers like the musical theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (used repeatedly as an interstitial, to varying comic effect) are counterbalanced by moments of poetic, often wordless wonder....

Dave Blanco called for his daughter Carli, but she wasn’t there. The 14-year-old had stayed home from school that day with a stomachache, but she was in good spirits, even laughing and joking with her father—a retired Chicago police lieutenant—as they watched YouTube videos on that Tuesday, April 4, 2017. The jovial nature of that morning was a welcome respite from the past few months, when Carli’s battle with mental illness had reached crisis levels....

Michael Gebert Kurumaya in Elk Grove Village During the course of my interview with Japan-obsessed cook Scott Malloy yesterday, we got to talking about what Japanese restaurants we liked, especially in the suburbs around O’Hare, where there are a number of authentic ones serving the employees of Japanese companies based near the airport. Many were ones we both knew, but his absolute favorite was one completely unknown to me—though, as it turns out, he heard about it from a mutual friend (thank you, Charlotte Tan)....

Twenty years ago Illinois emo trio American Football released their self-titled debut to little interest or acclaim, but since then the wistful, gentle record has become a totem that’s eclipsed many bigger indie and emo releases of that era. Even the album’s cover art—an angled photo of an Urbana house none of the band’s members even lived in—has proved inspiring, becoming the subject of works of art and memes, as well as being referenced by bands on their own album sleeves....

Hollywood Grill Golden Apple Finalists: Diner Grill, Jeri’s Grill, Belmont Snack Shop, Griddle 24

Emily Blue Tatiana Hazel Finalist: Jack Larson

James Eastwood tattoosbyjames.com Runner-Up: Tine DeFiore