Maniacal Metal Sculptor Adds To The Corgan Machine

Billy Corgan recruits local metal sculptor for stage aesthetics.

Next week, Billy Corgan will be playing the Vic Theatre in support of his new album "TheFutureEmbrace". Along with himself and his solo band, he will be incorporating local metal sculptor Dessa Kirk’s work on stage with him during the performance. Kirk specially made 16 vine like pieces for the show, which will grow from the floor to harness the keyboards, and wrap around Corgan’s microphone and mic stand. The Corgan crew has been touring with the elaborate stage setup since they began the two-month tour, and the group is headed to Chicago for two sold-out shows next week.
The blending of the two artists' work on the same stage seems like a good fit and not just thematically. Corgan and Kirk have actually been fans of each other for quite a while. In the late '90s, Kirk collected Cadillac scraps and welded them into enormous metallic lilies. Corgan saw them at a gallery show. They eventually met years later at Whole Foods and he told her, "Don't ever quit making your work." Kirk believes this happenstance to be kind of profound. "It sounds kind of hokey, but when someone you admire likes your work, you feel like you're doing the right thing."
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Cartoon Metal Band Dethklok Perform Flawlessly at NU

Dethklok destroys Northwestern University. Over 500 strong packed the Ryan Family Auditorium to witness the creators of the fictional television show Metalocalypse and various heavy metal musicians play the music of Dethklok, the stars of the hit television show. As part of the Adult Swim Presents Tour, the band visited 11 different college campuses throughout the West and the Midwest in November with opening act And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. “Metalocalypse" is a late-night Cartoon Network show focused on the abuses of the heavy metal band Dethklok. The show takes the viewer through days in the lives of Dethklok’s five members. They ended up playing a great show, which was no surprise to the fans. Fan Vanessa Diaz was among the first in line to buy merchandise after the show. "Oh my God, they're amazing," Diaz said. "Whatever they have here, I'm going to buy it." The live band played in near darkness while a large screen of the cartoon figures played behind them. Co-creator and lead singer Brendan Small ended the night by speaking to the crowd in the voice of Nathan Explosion. "It was a pleasure to come to your miserable college and play in the smallest room ever." Read more!

Punch In The Face Dish Out Exactly What They Stand For

Chicago’s Punch In The Face deliver a well-rounded, pummeling first album. Despite their lack of live shows, playing only three in 2007, Punch In The Face display their raw aggression and overall application and expansion of hardcore musical techniques on At War With Everybody. The band conveys a feeling of hostility and angst throughout the record, but expands on those themes through well-crafted songwriting, giving the listener plenty of ear candy to experience through continual listens. The title track really displays this sense of ire and rage through both music and lyrics, while incorporating solid songwriting methods. “In the city/I can’t connect/Surrounded by assholes/With no respect… Keep on pushing me/They keep on pushing me/Keep on pushing me/Everyone’s an enemy.” The lyrics have the capacity to hit home with many, whether you live in a city or not. The hardcore musical formula is preserved on this record through a combination of the four obvious elements: drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. But the difference between this band and other hardcore bands is how they use those instruments. You can hear the emotion in their playing. Punch In The Face will not be touring anytime soon, but “At War With Everybody” is a testament that this band will be going places in the future. Read more!

The End of an Era

Ministry calls it quits while still on top of their game. Chicago native Al Jourgensen, along with his cohorts in Ministry, is delivering a final gut-wrenching blow to not only the music world, but also to the Bush Administration. "Obviously, my muse for the past six years has been George W.," said Jourgensen in a recent interview, "and he's going to be riding off into the sunset soon, so I figured I'd just go out with him." The Last Sucker, set for a mid-September release, is the third and final installment in Jourgensen’s musical raid upon George W. Bush following 2006’s Rio Grande Blood and 2004’s Houses of the Mole. In his over 25 year career as the brainchild behind Ministry, Jourgensen feels confident that The Last Sucker provides as an appropriate, musically encapsulating final studio album to his illustrious career with the band. "This is definitely a fitting end to it all, but that's just the way it came out. There's a couple songs left on a shelf somewhere in case I die in a plane crash and they want to release outtakes, but for the most part, we picked out the ones that made the record flow in a way that, as it turned out, encapsulated the Ministry sound." Read more!

Heavy Metal Machine

My name is Anthony and I love music; mainly hard rock/heavy metal music. In Chicago, there is quite a large underground following for heavy music and I'm going to be talking about it right here. I'll also being talking about bigger names within the scene and bands that have come out of the city as well. So come on by and drop a line. This should be interesting. Read more!