Peter Margasak
Chicago Reader
Chicago, IL, United States
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Past articles by Peter:
Music critic Peter Margasak says farewell and thanks to the Reader and to Chicago
A sign-off and an appreciation—plus some favorite stories from the past 25 years → Read More
Horse Lords saxophonist Andrew Bernstein delivers a different strain of intensity on his visceral new solo album
Saxophonist Andrew Bernstein is a major contributor to the churning intensity of noisy Baltimore art-rock band Horse Lords, and while the music on his forthcoming... → Read More
Arlington Heights native and saxophonist Brian Krock leads a Chicago-based lineup of his big band Big Heart Machine
It’s no secret that in today’s world running a big band is a daunting prospect. It’s difficult enough to wrangle 18 musicians together to perform, let alone rehearse complex, harrowing scores, not to mention finding venues with stages large enough to fit the entire ensemble. → Read More
Progressive bluegrass combo Punch Brothers settle into a hybrid sound with a sharp melodies
I’d hoped to make it through my life without hearing a host of A Prairie Home Companion break out in a rap, but with the... → Read More
Five portraits of the 40th annual Chicago Jazz Festival
This year’s extended lineup brims with compelling and adventurous artists—including Afrofuturist visionary Nicole Mitchell, avant-garde pillar Matthew Shipp, and tireless explorer Chris Speed. → Read More
Avant-garde reedist Chris Speed grows into tradition
With the trio he brings to the Jazz Festival, formed decades into his career, he treads the ground of the old masters without losing himself. → Read More
Round Robin offers improvised duets from Chicago jazz, rock, experimental, and hip-hop musicians
In 2010 Adam Schatz, a New York musician who’s been one of the driving forces behind NYC’s sprawling Winter Jazzfest, launched Round Robin, a program... → Read More
Seattle organist Delvon Lamarr brings serious funk to his nimble organ trio
Although the sound of the jazz organ trio—where the keyboardist lays down bass lines with foot pedals while a guitarist plays chords and a drummer... → Read More
Seun Kuti keeps the Afrobeat concocted by his father Fela, nicely simmering
Afrobeat scion Seun Kuti turned 35 early this year, and he’s already nearly two decades into his career. In 1997, when he was just 14, he took the reins of Egypt 80, his father Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s explosive working band. → Read More
John Zorn explores heavy, precise rock music in Simulacrum, and will play with the trio in Chicago
Back in the late 80s, John Zorn famously crammed many of his disparate musical interests into the work of a single ensemble. His quintet Naked City embodied his rapid-cut aesthetic; every couple of bars the ensemble abruptly and precisely switched tone and style, communicating a short-attention-span ethos that foreshadowed the age of information overload. → Read More
Two of Chicago’s best rock bands come together to celebrate a pair of classic Neil Young albums
Throughout its thirty-five years as a band, Eleventh Dream Day has regularly sprinkled its incendiary sets with carefully chosen covers of obscure and well-known rock... → Read More
Campdogzz carve out atmospheric space and thread rustic folk-rock with indie-pop flavors
I’ll be honest that the name Campdogzz—which conjures some third-rate hip-hop crew from the end days of No Limit Records or an indie band that... → Read More
On Shelter British singer Olivia Chaney retains the intimacy of British folk while escaping its confines
British singer Olivia Chaney emerged on the British folk scene nearly a decade ago, harmonizing behind Scotsman Alasdair Roberts and writing her own music. Over... → Read More
Wiry Chicago punks Negative Scanner sound as furious as ever on their blistering new album Nose Picker
Three years can be an eternity in the course of a young, razor-sharp punk band, but on their bristling new album Nose Picker (Trouble in... → Read More
Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan conveys the confusion of late adolescence with maturity on Lush
In a recent feature published in the New York Times Lindsey Jordan, who makes music under the name Snail Mail, said of the material she... → Read More
Pitchfork outflanks its festival competition with left-field bookings
Circuit des Yeux, Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society, Irreversible Entanglements, and This Is Not This Heat don’t sell tickets like Fleet Foxes, but they help keep Pitchfork interesting. → Read More
Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm reunites with his Chicago improvising trio featuring Keefe Jackson and Julian Kirshner
Multigenerational improvising trio J@K@L is one of the more exciting ensembles to emerge in Chicago over the last few years. Fueled by the energy of the young drummer Julian Kirshner, the group benefits from the vast experience and disparate aesthetics of reedist Keefe Jackson and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm. → Read More
Chicago rock vet Thomas Comerford’s new album Blood Moon was worth the four-year wait
Thomas Comerford is a devoted student of rock music who takes his own contributions to the form as seriously as its rich history. He operates with meticulous detail and patience, which might explain why it’s been four years since his last release, the 2014 album II. → Read More
Tracyanne Campbell works through the death of her Camera Obscura bandmate in a new duo with Danny Coughlan
Glaswegian Tracyanne Campbell understandably retreated from playing music after her best friend and longtime bandmate in Camera Obscura Carey Lander died from bone cancer in... → Read More
Two generations of noisy oddballs from the LA underground descend on Chicago
Veteran LA noise maven John Wiese has dramatically slowed his release schedule in recent years, but he’s made up for that relative scarcity by increasing the rigor in each project. Last month he dropped Continuous Hole (Gilgongo), a stunning collaboration with Drew Daniel of Matmos that redirects his penchant for sonic violence. → Read More