'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World'

The Decemberists

3 stars (out of 4)

Colin Meloy opens "What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World," the Decembrists' first album since 2011, with something of a tongue-in-cheek Dear John letter to the Portland band's most ardent fans. "We're aware that you cut your hair / In the style that our drummer wore in the video." But, Meloy gently advises, as much as the fans didn't want the band to shift gears, "we had to change some."

The adjustment he advertises on "The Singer Addresses His Audience" isn't particularly radical, but notable. For a band that made its reputation with epic, progressive-rock-leaning song suites and concept albums, brimming with four-syllable words and historical and literary references, the Decemberists' seventh album plays as a less cohesive, less-ambitious work. The band doesn't rock nearly as hard as it did in peak moments such as the raging "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" or weave story lines as thick...

Phish’s Trey Anastasio will join the remaining members of the Grateful Dead to celebrate the band's 50th anniversary and pay final tribute to the band’s gray-bearded leader and guitarist, Jerry Garcia, July 3-5 at Soldier Field.
 
The announcement Friday in Billboard magazine didn’t come as a total surprise. It was perhaps inevitable that the Dead’s Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann would do something to memorialize the 20th anniversary of the band’s final performances with Garcia. The only real questions were when, where and, more importantly, how.
 
“These will be the last shows with the four of us together,” Weir told Billboard. Lesh invited Anastasio to join. “I got a really heart-warming letter from Phil saying that he and the other three guys had talked about it and hoped I would do it,” Anastasio told Billboard. “I didn’t hesitate for a second to say yes.”
 
Keyboardists Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti also will join the group.
 
Tickets will be available to fan club...

Kevin Cribbin, the 33-year-old bassist in Oozing Wound, never had any illusions about becoming a rock star or going "pro" as a full-time musician. He knows the music he gravitates toward is a bit too fringy and extreme for that. But playing in Oozing Wound with guitarist-singer Zack Weil and drummer Kyle Reynolds has its benefits.

"Where we're at, music is more to keep us sane," he says. "It's medicinal."

Oozing Wound's strong medicine finds the trio cutting across thrash metal, progressive rock, stone rocker and psychedelia with serious intensity and seriously dark, sometimes darkly humorous lyrics. On the band's second album, "Earth Suck" (Thrill Jockey), Oozing Wound continues a Chicago tradition of strong, non-traditional heavy albums in recent years from the likes of Pelican, Bloodiest, Yakuza, Minsk, Russian Circles and many more.

Cribbin takes a phone call in his North Side home after coming indoors from his day job delivering sandwiches on a bicycle – a job made more...

Billy Joel apparently loves Wrigley Field. The piano man was booked Thursday for his fourth appearance at the historic ballpark Aug. 27.
 
It’ll be a busy late-summer stretch for music lovers at Wrigley, with Joel preceding a concert by Foo Fighters by two days.
 
Joel, who has sold more than 150 million records, is the first artist to play Wrigley four times.
 
Tickets ($44.50, $94, $124.50) go on sale Jan. 24 via Cubs.com/BillyJoel, or by calling 1-800-THE-CUBS. A pre-sale begins Jan. 20 for American Express card-holders.

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Sleater-Kinney's stature only increased while it was away. After recording seven mostly terrific albums over a decade that saw the Pacific Northwest trio grow from riot grrrl upstarts into one of the most accomplished bands of its generation, Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss drifted apart in 2006. Because they left on a high note, a comeback seemed only a matter of time. But how to live up to that daunting legacy?

The ballad-free "No Cities to Love" (Sub Pop) provides an emphatic answer. The first half lands with anvil force, as Tucker, Brownstein and Weiss approach the second phase of their career with a wary, skeptical eye. "Price Tag" declares "We never bought in," and by implication suggests they never will. Tucker and Brownstein's voices argue, their guitars fight for turf. Over Weiss' thundering backdrop, they tangle right to the final second. The band has never been easy listening, and "Price Tag" ups the ante.

The almost desperate sense of purpose makes for...

Winter has arrived, and with it a bunch of new Chicago concert bookings. Here's a sampling of some of the more notable shows in the next few months (listed chronologically):

Sam Smith: Coming off a sold-out appearance at the Riviera a few months ago, the U.K. pop-soul singer has picked up six Grammy nominations and is touring U.S. arenas for the first time. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at UIC Pavilion, 525 S. Racine, $38.50, $48.50, $64, $74, $84; jamusa.com

Sleater-Kinney: The pioneering riot-grrrl trio splintered in 2006, but now Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss are back with a new album, "No Cities to Love," due out in a few weeks. 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Riviera, 4746 N. Racine Ave., $30; jamusa.com

Swans: Michael Gira's epic albums have a heft all their own, but they take bolder shape on stage, where the musical ebb and flow can become overwhelming. 9:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at Thalia Hall, 1227 W. 18th St., $25 and $35; thaliahallchicago.com

Hozier: Irish singer Andrew...