Latest news with #Deadhead
Scoop
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Andy Shauf's Foxwarren New Album, 2, Out Now Via ANTI-
Canadian quintet Foxwarren – Andy Shauf, Avery and Darryl Kissick, Dallas Bryson, and Colin Nealis their new album, 2, out now via ANTI-. Alongside the album they release the new single/video 'Deadhead'. Following 'Yvonne,' praised by AV Club as 'an understated kind of gorgeous,' 'Deadhead' sees Foxwarren on a quest for levity. The song seamlessly moves from an MF Doom -like pitch-shifted sample to a line-dance guitar lick to honeyed country-rock harmonies of the titular band all in three minutes. There are darting flutes, mangled electronics, and meticulous snippets of rhythm, all expertly placed to illustrate the song's emotional tumult. 'I won't stop dancing,' as Shauf sings, is exactly the feeling the song evokes. 'Deadhead' exemplifies the unique approach Foxwarren took in creating 2. After touring their lauded 2018 self-titled debut, the band dropped the familiar band-in-a-room routine. Instead, in their own home studios across four provinces, all five members would upload song ideas, melodic phrases, or rhythmic bits to a shared folder. In Toronto, Shauf would then plug these into a sampler and construct songs from the fragments supplied by his bandmates, leaning into classic hip-hop techniques and musique concrète alike as unlikely lodestars. Foxwarren would convene at weekly online meetings, offering long-distance suggestions about which way a song might shift. The result is mesmerizing and uncanny, an album that traces two sides of a relationship through 37 minutes of collage art that aspires to 'sound best blasting out your car window,' as put by Shauf. By himself, Shauf has already had a stellar career, his reputation built by the sweet melodies and uniquely imaginative and precise storytelling found on 2016's The Party through to 2023's Norm. Foxwarren, especially here, is a crucial part of that ongoing process, but 2 represents something even more significant—five friends now nearing the end of their second decade making music together, pushing against what they've learned how to do in order to venture somewhere new. It is the sound of friends who trust each other, cutting themselves loose from their past and their preconceptions to have some fun with a sampler and the very idea of songs.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Afternoon Briefing: Chicago's new US attorney balances tradition with new directives
Good afternoon, Chicago. Chicago's newly appointed U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said today that he's committed to balancing the storied office's traditional areas of focus with new policy directives coming from the Trump administration, from immigration to narcotics and human trafficking by international cartels. In his first interview since assuming the powerful law enforcement post three weeks ago, however, Boutros said he'll be doing it with less manpower than in recent years, as there are now fewer than 100 federal criminal prosecutors and a hiring freeze mandated by the president that has no end in sight. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Subscribe to more newsletters | Asking Eric | Horoscopes | Puzzles & Games | Today in History The city of Chicago is joining other cities in suing President Donald Trump and his administration in a bid to halt the firing of federal employees. Read more here. More top news stories: After years of negotiations, state lawmakers consider measures to phase out plastic bags, foam food containers 1 dead, 1 injured after crash shuts down Edens Expressway Four people killed when vehicle smashes through downstate Illinois after-school building, police say Consumers across the U.S. still will be able to buy higher-ethanol blend E15 gasoline this summer, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday, saving them a little money at the pump but frustrating environmentalists who believe the move potentially harms the air and water. Read more here. More top business stories: Amazon denies tariff display move after White House slams reported plan President Donald Trump to offer automakers some relief on his 25% tariffs, after worries they could hurt US factories Oswego trustees discuss options for possible grocery tax If you blinked, you might have missed the review of the Chicago Bears' addition to their backfield in last weekend's NFL draft. Read more here. More top sports stories: How NFC North fared in NFL draft: Chicago Bears and all 3 of their rivals add projected starters on O-line Bulls and Sky Q&A: Should the Bulls trade for Zion Williamson? Will Ajša Sivka play for the Sky this season? A Charli XCX concert, to give it a little context, if that's possible — because there's really nothing like a Charli XCX concert as far as traditional concerts go — is your niece's Margaritaville. But also, your nephew's nihilistic post-apocalyptic vampire rave. And maybe your mom's Deadhead utopia. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Fred Anzevino, founder of Theo Ubiqu Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens showcases 50 interior and exterior spaces A judge ordered a former Wisconsin prison warden implicated in an inmate's death to pay a $500 fine to resolve the case after concluding he has no criminal record and didn't realize his guards weren't following policy. Read more here. More top stories from around the world: Spain and Portugal focus on cause of huge blackout with power almost fully restored Layoffs, closures and gaps in oversight expected after hundreds of DOJ grants are canceled
Chicago Tribune
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Afternoon Briefing: Chicago's new US attorney balances tradition with new directives
Good afternoon, Chicago. Chicago's newly appointed U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros said today that he's committed to balancing the storied office's traditional areas of focus with new policy directives coming from the Trump administration, from immigration to narcotics and human trafficking by international cartels. In his first interview since assuming the powerful law enforcement post three weeks ago, however, Boutros said he'll be doing it with less manpower than in recent years, as there are now fewer than 100 federal criminal prosecutors and a hiring freeze mandated by the president that has no end in sight. Here's what else is happening today. And remember, for the latest breaking news in Chicago, visit and sign up to get our alerts on all your devices. Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration joins lawsuit against Trump to block federal worker firings The city of Chicago is joining other cities in suing President Donald Trump and his administration in a bid to halt the firing of federal employees. Read more here. After years of negotiations, state lawmakers consider measures to phase out plastic bags, foam food containers 1 dead, 1 injured after crash shuts down Edens Expressway Four people killed when vehicle smashes through downstate Illinois after-school building, police say The EPA is allowing the sale of cheaper, higher-ethanol E15 gasoline across the US this summer Consumers across the U.S. still will be able to buy higher-ethanol blend E15 gasoline this summer, the Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday, saving them a little money at the pump but frustrating environmentalists who believe the move potentially harms the air and water. Read more here. How the NFL draft's deep class of running backs seemed to dance away from the Chicago Bears If you blinked, you might have missed the review of the Chicago Bears' addition to their backfield in last weekend's NFL draft. Read more here. More top sports stories: Review: Charli XCX redefines in her Rosemont show what it means to play live today A Charli XCX concert, to give it a little context, if that's possible — because there's really nothing like a Charli XCX concert as far as traditional concerts go — is your niece's Margaritaville. But also, your nephew's nihilistic post-apocalyptic vampire rave. And maybe your mom's Deadhead utopia. Read more here. More top Eat. Watch. Do. stories: Judge orders former Wisconsin warden to pay $500 fine in inmate's death A judge ordered a former Wisconsin prison warden implicated in an inmate's death to pay a $500 fine to resolve the case after concluding he has no criminal record and didn't realize his guards weren't following policy. Read more here.
Chicago Tribune
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Charli XCX redefines in her Rosemont show what it means to play live today
A Charli XCX concert, to give it a little context, if that's possible — because there's really nothing like a Charli XCX concert as far as traditional concerts go — is your niece's Margaritaville. But also, your nephew's nihilistic post-apocalyptic vampire rave. And maybe your mom's Deadhead utopia. For two hours at Allstate Arena, the world, the universe, school, work, disappointment, money — it all vanishes. It's a Monday in Rosemont but the whole thing becomes so enveloping, you stop noticing the gray concrete arena. This place that hosts monster truck jams and Disney on Ice disappears. What replaces it is proudly prurient, hedonistic, chest-crushingly loud, chaotic, fueled with last-night-on-Earth abandon, rarely pausing, never standing still, until the lights come up — even then, on Monday, when lights came on, pockets of the audience kept dancing. The night, literally by design, is a blur. Charli XCX, or Charlotte Aitchison, producer, excellent songwriter, a party girl's party girl, seems to grab the collective audience by the hand, occasionally allow for a moment of doubt, a second to walk out onto the veranda and wonder anxiously if they should have said that at the party — 'Sometimes I just want to rewind,' she agrees — then tugs them back to the dance floor. She even, no joke, at one point, spits on the stage and licks it back up. Yes, it's a complete night. The guy in front of me threw his body around impressively, like one of those waving balloon men in front of a car dealership. A woman beside me sat for a second yet continued dancing and smacked her head against a concrete ledge behind the row then looked at her friends, stunned, laughed and kept going. Dress code: Mad Max at the club. Men in orange Speedos and mesh tank tops. Bug-eye sunglasses. A woman walked past in angel wings and a T-shirt with a single offensive word — probably the worst thing you can call a woman, worn proudly here. Think more brat green than a crossing-guard convention. And leather boots, barely-there flayed skirts, faux leather, faux ostrich feathers, and while crowds at Lollapalooza may edge ever closer to public nudity, Charli and her ongoing Brat Summer tour clearly inspired a cleavage arms race for the ages. As for Charli: Red bra, black bra, snow white sorta ostrich-y feather corset dress, a tornado of black curls whipping around her head and sweat, sweat and more sweat. She stomps, stomps, sashays, poses, writhes, poses, stomps, writhes. She lets the guy following her with a video camera even show her pushing sweat from her eyes. When her microphone came untethered from her outfit, a stagehand rushed on stage but Charli waved him off, continuing with the wire wrapped around her. Hot mess as lifestyle choice. Or as she puts it in song, wistfully: 'Guess I'm a mess and play the role.' Look, this is the first time I went to a concert and left wondering if 'concert' needed quotation marks. And yet, that 'concert' is a great, even insightful time and thoughtful time, from time to time. Charli, who broke huge last summer with her great 'Brat' album after a decade defined by the songs she wrote for others, began as a teenager bouncing around London's underground rave scene. Her stage show takes a cue from those days. It's a one-woman show, on a stark stage bathed in harsh white light, with a cage for Charli to stomp inside for video screens. There's no band, no dancers, not even a DJ to suggest some part of the music is crafted live — other than her singing, which is live. The use of backing tracks is an open secret among many performers; last summer, footage of Frankie Valli, at 90, barely keeping up with his backing track, caused a brief viral scandal. But a Charli XCX show suggests a strange post-live-music concert landscape that, if done smartly, might work here and there. Good songs, of course, help. Her best songs often drop a few hints at how strange it is to be a pop star, and how you're not supposed to show, never mind sing about, jealousy, self-consciousness, how uneasy you can be around talented people. Real vulnerability cuts through. She sings of having 'one foot in a normal life,' yet needing the flash and fun of the job. The show mirrored those dueling emotions: She boasted 'I'm your favorite reference, baby,' then, on 'Girl, So Confusing,' admitted unease around another, perhaps smarter singer (the New Zealand pop star Lorde). In Rosemont, it became a balancing act, going from a party track about parties and a party track about being cool, to songs tinged in doubt and a touch of self-loathing. You could hear the ongoing influence of Kanye West's auto-tuned confessional '808s and Heartbreak' — whether intentionally or through osmosis — in the ominous synth backbones of those moodier songs. But Charli is a riskier songwriter. As she built to 'Sympathy is a Knife,' the night's physical, anguished climax, she sang of being needy, and not knowing if she's being condescended to or just being paranoid. As much as she's wildly, somewhat satirically, cloaked in posturing and artifice, she's relatable. She closed with 'I Love It,' her best-known song, a 2012 hit for the Swedish duo Icona Pop, which lands on a sweet spot in her writing voice, between unhinged and righteous: 'I crashed my car into the bridge, I watched, I let it burn. I threw your (expletive) into a bag and pushed it down the stairs …' The arena sang and bounced like this was the last concert they would ever attend. Still, again, I wanted to ask: Was this even a concert? The better question is: Does it even matter anymore? There is no future, the future is dead, long live the future.
Boston Globe
19-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
In the midst of a messy ice cream divorce, Ben & Jerry's are sticking to their principles.
Unilever was so anxious to get its corporate mitts on the brand that it sweetened the deal by throwing in a promise to contribute millions to the foundation Cohen and Greenfield formed to promote progressive social causes. And it granted Ben & Jerry's an extraordinary amount of autonomy, agreeing to let an independent board oversee the ice cream maker's operation, and to make sure Unilever kept its promise to retain Ben & Jerry's business culture and social mission. Lest any of its loyal customers thought selling to multinational conglomerate Unilever smacked of selling out, Cohen and Greenfield framed the deal as giving their company the money and leverage to expand its social mission, which included pushing for marriage equality and responding to climate change. Advertisement In doing so, Cohen, a confirmed Deadhead, quoted from the Grateful Dead's song, Scarlet Begonias: ' Once in a while, you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.' Advertisement Cohen and Greenfield were never under any illusions about the difference between Ben & Jerry's and its parent company. As Greenfield put it in 2010, 'Ben & Jerry's is values-led, whereas Unilever is more consumer driven.' Still, for most of the corporate marriage, Unilever abided by the autonomy it had promised Ben & Jerry's in its initial proposal. The first serious cracks in the marriage showed up in 2021, when Ben & Jerry's announced it would halt sales in West Bank settlements, saying the Israeli occupation there conflicted with its values. That move led a half-dozen states pulling hundreds of millions of dollars in their pension funds from Unilever. Unilever's response was to sell off the Ben & Jerry's brand in Israel. And Ben & Jerry's, in turn, sued Unilever. As with most marriages, once the lawyers get involved, it's over. Last year, London-based Unilever announced it would cut 7,500 jobs and spin off its entire ice cream unit, which included the Ben & Jerry's business, as part of a cost-cutting move it hoped to conclude by the end of this year. Since then, things have only gotten messier. In November, Ben & Jerry's filed a lawsuit against Unilever, The suit claimed Unilever tried to squash Ben & Jerry's independent board and muzzle its efforts to express solidarity with Palestinian refugees, US students protesting against the war in Gaza, and opposition to US funding of Israeli military aid. Advertisement Unilever scoffed at the claims. Then, in January, Ben & Jerry's claimed Unilever prevented the company from criticizing President Trump in a social media post scheduled for Inauguration Day. Things got even worse in March when Ben & Jerry's board amended its lawsuit to say Unilever fired Stever because he refused to stop the ice cream maker from taking public positions on political issues. The board also claimed Trump's aggressive targeting of DEI measures and of critics of Israel's war in Gaza coincided with Unilever refusing to allow Ben & Jerry's make social media postings in support of Black History Month and Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University activist whom the adminstration is trying to deport for leading pro-Palestinian protests. In a statement, Ben & Jerry's board chair Anuradhapura Mittal offered the clearest evidence yet the marriage with Unilever had reached the point of irreconcilable differences. 'For 25 years under Unilever's ownership, this unique governance structure has been key to Ben & Jerry's success,' she said. 'But today, that structure — and the values it protects — is under direct attack. Unilever has repeatedly interfered with the Independent Board's authority, attempting to silence Ben & Jerry's advocacy, and even threaten the Board's dissolution.' Unilever sent me its own statement, saying it followed the terms of its agreement with the board over decisions about the company's CEO, adding, 'We are disappointed that the confidentiality of an employee career conversation has been made public.' Cohen Advertisement Look, it would be in Ben & Jerry's financial interest to lay low until Unilever spins them off. But that's not how they roll. When so many people are following Seamus Heaney's admonition 'Whatever you say, say nothing,' you don't have to agree with Ben & Jerry's politics to admire their conviction. And, as the Grateful Dead guitarist and singer who inspired Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream once put it, 'Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.' Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
