Andy Downing

You may or may not be familiar with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a group that tours during the holiday season with a show that combines rock music, an orchestra, stage performances...

If Andrew Bird sounds a bit dazed on the phone, it is completely forgivable. The singer/songwriter has just returned from a grueling 32-day, 28-show tour of Europe and has a...

After OKGo's 2002 self-titled debut exploded--eventually selling in excess of 250,000 copies--the band spent the better part of two years touring behind it. That extensive time on the road was...

Hip-hop is loaded with characters whose backgrounds--real and imagined--rival those of comic-book superheroes. Curtis Jackson, a.k.a. 50 Cent, was shot nine times and lived to rhyme about it, while Daniel...

Fiery Furnaces "Rehearsing My Choir" "I'd like to tell you a story kids," says Olga Sarantos, grandmother of the Fiery Furnaces' Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, on this fascinating and frustrating...

As a 25 year old, singer/songwriter Brad Peterson discovered how difficult making a living in the music industry can be. He toured as a solo artist in the early '90s,...

Public Enemy "New Whirl Odor" The self-proclaimed CNN of the black community gets back to broadcasting with "New Whirl Odor." Chuck D, whose booming voice still hits with the impact...

Jered Gummere, lead singer and guitarist for local noisemakers the Ponys, is adamant that the focus remain on the music at all times. So the Spartan packaging on the band's...

When Rachel Ries began recording her second full-length disc, "For You Only" (Waterbug Records), she chose to leave Chicago and its many distractions. She did so by retiring to a...

It's been six years since Freakwater released its last album, "End Time" (Thrill Jockey). During the down time, both singers in the group released solo records (Janet Bean's "Dragging Wonder...