Founder Joe Shanahan never intended to be in the live music business. But his passion for house music transformed his Chicago venue into a nightlife hotspot and a "beacon of hope" for US dance music. The story begins on the North Side of Chicago in 1982. In the aftermath of Disco Demolition and the advent of [...]
Founder Eric Williams said the annual show, which started as a small gathering of neighbors in a Wicker Park alley, has gotten too expensive to produce. The final edition will be July 29-30 at Oakwood Beach. OAKWOOD BEACH — After almost 20 years, one of Summertime Chi’s favorite street festivals is calling it quits. [...]
“The Warehouse,” at 206 S. Jefferson St., regarded as the birthplace of house music, could be granted historic landmark status by the city as early as Wednesday. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time From 1977 through the mid-1980s, the resident DJ at the Warehouse was Frankie Knuckles, a record producer and remix artist hailed as the “Godfather of [...]
From banging cuts for the ballroom to surprisingly tasteful early big room house, these tracks expose the genre's roots in queer American club cultures. House music is gay music. The sound emerged from the queer black and latinx club cultures of New York and Chicago in the ’80s. Strangely, these roots of the culture are not very well [...]
First stop and hit play on the GRAMMY-nominated DJ Disciple‘s ‘Whole World Party’ as you continue to read into the vetted Producer’s eye-opening perspective of the house music culture in conjunction with, Henry Kronk, the Co-Author of the book, The Beat, the Scene, the Sound : A DJ’s Journey through the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of House Music in New [...]
Beyond Heaven is a series of books that serve as one of the best historical references to the early days of Chicago House Music that we have. Collecting flyers dating back as far as 1981, the books are stuffed with the names of DJ both prominent and obscure and forgotten, and venues that no [...]
Three generations of dance music DJs, producers & fans have been enlightened and inspired by the funky, souled’up testament of Victor Simonelli. A new collection focuses attention on his deeply influential early ’90s house tracks. It’s happened a million times, it’s happened every day for more than 30 years and it’s probably also happened [...]
In New York City, the side hustle is a right of passage- a bridge to a paid utility bill, new social circles or eventual career pivots. Landing a side job often traces back to one ubiquitous website: Craigslist. Anyone who skimmed the New York City “gigs” and “talent” section between 2005–2021 might recall the [...]
What do Roger Sanchez, Todd Terry, Kenny Dope, Erick Morillo, Armand Van Helden, and Josh Wink all have in common? Only the most celebrated House Music multi award winning A & R Label boss in history! In a strictly rhythm kind of we sat down a chewed the phat… Mike Mannix: Nice [...]
Chicago’s Trax Records released some of the most influential records in house history, but decades later, many of the artists behind them are still waiting to be paid. Harold Heath investigates the long and complicated history of one of house music’s most infamous labels HAROLD HEATH Tuesday, March 7, 2023 The Trax Records saga [...]