Posts

Apr 7, 20223 min read

Terry Chambers: XTC's powerhouse drummer meets Caropop

Drummer Terry Chambers is an unlikely keeper of the XTC flame. He powered the band over its first five increasingly ambitious albums,...

Mar 18, 20223 min read

Colin Blunstone and the bizarre history of a great band, the Zombies

Colin Blunstone has one of the most distinct voices in rock, and the Zombies, one of my favorite bands, has as strange a history as any...

Feb 28, 20224 min read

Big Star's Jody Stephens: The Caropop Conversation

I first met Jody Stephens in April 1993 after a student group at the University of Missouri in Columbia asked the great cult band Big...

Dec 10, 20213 min read

Steve Dawson, The Caropop Interview: Still growing after all these years

After I moved back to Chicago following my post-college stint at the Boston Phoenix, I started covering local music for the Tribune. My...

Nov 15, 20211 min read

Richard Thompson, in person at last

Richard Thompson is playing two solo shows at the Old Town School of Folk Music Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and though they're sold...

Nov 5, 20213 min read

Mitch Easter, The Caropop Interview

This dates me, but I first saw Mitch Easter when his band, Let’s Active, was opening for R.E.M. in the fall of 1983 on my college campus....

Oct 28, 20213 min read

Riccardo Muti and the death and rebirth (we hope) of culture

Sitting in the Symphony Center lower balcony on the evening of Sept. 23 was a surprisingly emotional experience for me and, I assume,...