It’s time to light the masks on fire, have a cold beer, listen to loud music, eat kickass food and re-embrace the concept of what ‘Saturday night’ can be. Cobra Lounge (235 N. Ashland) owner Louie Mendicino returns to the…

An early favorite for my 2021 “best of” list is David Singer & the Sweet Science’s new album, “Vicious Kicks.” After years of exemplary songwriting, David has outdone himself with this new release. David and I met at Roma’s on…

Record Store Day, 6/12/21: I recorded this one from the front of Siren Records in McHenry, just as the doors opened at 8 a.m. I talked with owner Bill Linquist about the state of record store retail, the pros and…

Drew McIntyre is a giant among men and a giant in professional wrestling. He’s a 2-time WWE champion… former Intercontinental champion… 2 time Raw tag team champion… a Royal Rumble winner… a guy who’s worked every corner of the business…

Victims of human trafficking are often “branded” with tattoos of pimps’ names or bar codes. Gang members’ tattoos are proof of allegiance. But what happens when a human trafficking victim escapes enslavement? When a gang member leaves the life? Those…

Evanston was a hotbed for the temperance movement and remained a dry town for many decades. These days, it’s home to one of our favorite distilleries, the very-local and very-excellent FEW Spirits. We went onsite to the distillery for a…

What is Phonation? I’m chatting about the podcasts-on-vinyl crowdfunding project with my co-conspirators Giorgio Reyes and Zach Spangler. We had plenty of video mishaps as we recorded (it’s been a long time since I did car-based podcasts on a regular…

Alex Botkin of Lavasocks Records joins me to talk about the rerelease of 80s punk comp “The Thing That Ate Floyd” and the forthcoming Rancid tribute “And Out Come the Lawsuits.” Sponsored by Siren Records McHenry

Letdown is the next band to break big out of Chicago. Half a million TikTok users can’t be wrong… Blake Coddington of Letdown returns to Car Con Carne just as the podcast makes its return to recording in the car!…

The music of Illinois is on display in Springfield at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in the “The State of Sound: A World of Music from Illinois” exhibit. I made the trip there to record a special episode of Car…