Car Con Carne is thrilled to announce its partnership with the Autobarn Mazda of Evanston! I bought my last two cars there, and can’t say enough about the Autobarn’s approachable and enthusiastic customer service (to say nothing of Mazda’s exceptional,…

It’s another exclusive “backseat performance” as Chris Otepka of Heligoats plays two of the band’s best songs (My Camping Trip From Hell, Fish Sticks) live in the back seat of the Mazda 3. For this episode, we visit the spectacular…

I’ve had this one “in the can” for a while, waiting to launch it simultaneously with Yak Channel. My timing was a little off. Okay, a lot off. Regarding online harassment, multimedia journalist/star Amy Guth had been told to “suck…

What do you do when your band guest is vegetarian? Feed him falafel. Sean Lenart, frontman of Victorian Halls joined me in Skokie for a conversation over Middle Eastern food at Pita Inn. We talked about the band’s long history,…

I’ve known and adored fellow radio personality Tim Virgin for a very long time. For this week’s show, Tim met me at Herm’s Palace, a long-standing hot dog joint in Skokie. I had the Polish sausage with pastrami, he had…

Chicago bluesman Toronzo Cannon jumps in the backseat just as his Alligator Records debut, “The Chicago Way” is about to drop. He brings his resonator guitar along to play stunning acoustic versions of “Walk It Off,” “Pain Around Me” and…

“What goes on here? This is like a boarding school.” This week’s episode finds James and comedian Paul Faravhar sitting a few doors down from Allende, a dive-y burrito place in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. As they sit and talk about…