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Sophia Reyes Maria Pinto Finalists: Dearborn Denim, Richard Dayhoff

Reckless Records Laurie’s Planet of Sound Finalists: Bric-a-Brac Records and Collectibles, Dusty Groove, Rattleback Records

A screen shot of the “Melba’s Call” video On Friday London-based DJ, producer, and Night Slugs label cofounder Bok Bok comes to Primary. Night Slugs is one of the most prominent and consistent labels in underground electronic music—the music released on the label, often under such misnomers as “dubstep,” sounds more like Loose Ends or Control-era Janet Jackson instrumentals than Burial or Shackleton. The connection to late-80s and early-90s R&B has never been more prominent than in the music of the label’s most mainstream-ready artist, Kelela, whose trip-R&B singing is ideal for the production styles of Night Slugs’ roster (which includes Girl Unit, Kingdom, and Jam City)....

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. Mica Levi, Delete Beach Mica Levi (Micachu & the Shapes) has written tension-filled film scores for Under the Skin and Jackie, and within that practice she shifts gears for this sci-fi anime by British experimental filmmaker Phil Collins. Her 29-minute soundtrack combines electronics, guitar noise, queasy washes of strings, and environmental elements (rain, a barking dog)....

At around the same time that Alderman Ameya Pawar was blasting Governor Bruce Rauner last week, former alderman Will Burns was lighting into Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Well, not Burns directly, but Airbnb—the company he works for. In my mind, Pawar and Burns will always be linked as the smart guys Rahm turned to in the first years of his reign, when he needed a surrogate to offer a little progressive spin on his policies....

Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court archives In the viewing room of the archives, visitors can peruse files of famous court cases, like the 1886 trial of the accused Haymarket bombers, the 1920 trial of the White Sox who were charged with throwing the previous year’s World Series, and the lawsuits against the builder and architect of the Iroquois Theatre, in which more than 600 died in a fire in 1903, shortly after it opened....

Boston is rarely celebrated for its contributions to hip-hop (Gang Starr started there, but most remember the legendary duo for their time in New York), yet last summer when Fader writer Eric Diep asked Boston rapper Stephen Goss, aka Cousin Stizz, whether he believed his hometown’s scene deserves more outside recognition, Stizz replied, “Yo, Boston is going to do whatever the fuck it do regardless if people want to give us recognition or not....

Some bands break up because of creative differences. Some break up because they can’t stand each other anymore. Some break up for financial reasons. But Chicago indie electro-pop group Celine Neon—aka Emily Nejad and Maggie Kubley, with Maggie’s brother Will producing—are splitting up because Nejad started making cakes. That friendship is of long standing: Nejad and Kubley met 15 years ago at Ball State, where they were both looking to form a band....

A shuttered branch of MB Financial Bank sits on the northeast corner of Fullerton and Halsted. It’s a bland, corporate, auburn brick building with rectangular aquamarine glass windows that’s unmistakably a dispiriting white-collar business. But maybe I’ve been looking at this edifice the wrong way—whereas I see bureaucracy and the uneasy motion of small-stakes capitalism, someone else saw a space to assemble a monumental art show. Though “Art AIDS America” was initially organized by the Tacoma Art Museum and first shown there, the Chicago edition boasts a number of works that weren’t part of the original exhibit....

In his epic masterpiece King Hedley II, the penultimate play in his Century Cycle, August Wilson captures man, society, and God in a bottle, and director Ron OJ Parson uncorks its glory and unleashes its fury on the Court Theatre audience like a torrential downpour. Director Parson deftly navigates the relentless waves of grief that buffet Hedley’s kingdom by offering frequent comedic beats, leaving the audience unmoored and vulnerable for the next sucker punch....

Honey 1 BBQ honey1bbq.com The north side really blew it. As a glut of half-assed commercial barbecue joints opened during the past few years, Bucktown stopped showing love for Robert Adams Sr.’s hickory-smoked ribs, tips, and links at Honey 1 BBQ. So he and Robert Jr. looked south and decamped to a former beauty salon in Bronzeville. Now, with a new custom-made Belvin aquarium smoker twice the size of the old one, the father-son team is smoking way more chicken, brisket, and pulled pork, but the go-to order remains the chewy, barky, smoke-saturated tips-and-links combo (sauce on the side, of course)....

ARTIST: Matthew Fleming SHOW: Brandi Carlile at Thalia Hall on Wed 12/30 MORE INFO: matthewjayfleming.com

Alison Bechdel’s iconic eponymous Bechdel Test isn’t the same exam it was when the award-winning graphic writer (Fun Home, Dykes to Watch Out For) created it back in ye olden 1985. A quick refresher if you’ve been under a rock since then or are still entrenched in the patriarchy: In order to pass the Bechdel Test, stories—be they on stage, page, or screen—have to include at least two female characters. And those two women have to talk at least once about something other than men....

Supporters of incumbent alderman Proco Joe Moreno were well represented at last week’s First Ward debate at Well’s High School on Ashland. A group of them occupied several front rows, whooping and offering robust rounds of applause for the beloved “hipster” (or is he punk?) alderman, and occasionally . Rumor has it that Moreno foots the bill for pizza and beer after the debates, hence the turn out and enthusiasm....

Hybrid events are becoming de rigueur in 2020, and this week’s gig poster presents an option for fans of techno and dance music. DJ M. Sylvia designed this poster in two color schemes, integrating a version of the Eye of Providence created by Andrew Panahon with other visual elements by DJ Tima Fei of NORdjs. It promotes an in-store set that she’ll play at Lakeview’s legendary Gramaphone Records this weekend. She’ll be spinning in the DJ booth for socially distanced shoppers, and the store will livestream the afternoon via its Twitch channel for those who need to be elsewhere....

Brotherhood, meet sisterhood. Those who know clarinetist, composer, and self-described “sonic archaeologist” Angel Bat Dawid from the incisive October release LIVE likely associate her with her stalwart seven-piece band, Tha Brotherhood, which backs her on that album. It was recorded during a fraught, frustrating 2019 European tour, but when the pandemic shuttered venues and stilled plane engines, Dawid turned her sights to more intimate musical ventures. So far they’ve included a duo act with galaxy-brained synth wizard Oui Ennui (cleverly christened Daoui), a one-shot spring 2021 release on Australian label Longform Editions, and, on Juneteenth, the astonishing Hush Harbor Mixtape Vol....

It’s been nearly 20 years since Bat Boy: The Musical had its world premiere on Halloween night in 1997 at the Actors’ Gang, the California theater company led by actor Tim Robbins. And it’s been a little more than 15 years since the show had a high-profile off-Broadway run in 2001, winning the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Yet as his intellect and language skills develop, Edgar becomes more and more unhappily aware of his animal nature....