15 Breweries Offering Curbside Pick-up and Beer Deliveryon March 27, 2020 at 9:29 pm

As the bars and restaurants in Chicago and many other cities are closed down due to the spread of the coronavirus, some breweries are offering beers to go. Below are 15 breweries in Chicago where you can still go to pick up or have your drinks delivered.

Daisy Cutter — Photo Credit: Half Acre Beer Company Facebook

Half Acre Brewery | 4257 North Lincoln Avenue

You’ll have to order ahead but Half Acre is offering pick-up for their cans and bottles.

Off Color Brewing’s Mousetrap | 1460 North Kingsbury Street

Whatever your favorite beer by Off Color is, you can get it go for pick up right now.

Dovetail Brewery | 1800 West Belle Plaine

Dovetail is offering pick up and delivery for cans, bottles, growlers and kegs.

Moody Tongue Brewing Co. | 2515 South Wabash Avenue

You can get one of their many culinary-inspired beers like Sliced Nectarine or Frozen Banana Wheat Ale.

On Tour Brewing | 1725 West Hubbard Street

You can get their beer curbside or get it delivered by one of their staff.

Revolution Brewing Tap Room | 2323 North Milwaukee Avenue

One of the more popular breweries in the city, Revolution is offering beer for pick up.

Empirical Brewery | 1801 West Foster Avenue

Offering over 10 different cans of beer, you’ll be able to get at least one of your favorites from Empirical Brewery.

Lake Effect Brewing Company | 4727 West Montrose Avenue

Not only can you get beer delivered but you can also get miniature pies from Fannie’s Bakery with your order.

Alarmist Brewing | 4055 West Peterson Avenue

When you arrive to pick up your beer cans here, they’ll come straight out to your car to deliver it to you.

Old Irving Brewing | 4419 West Montrose

You can order for pick-up whatever Old Irving Brewing has on tap.

Twisted Hippo | 2925 West Montrose Avenue

Not only is Twisted Hippo offering four-packs and crowlers of beer, they also are delivering bottles of wine.

Pilot Project | 2140 North Milwaukee Avenue

You can call ahead or stop by Pilot Project to grab some cans of beer.

Piece Brewery & Pizzeria | 1927 West North Avenue

When you order one of their signature pizzas for delivery you can also add on a growler of beer.

Corridor Brewery | 3446 North Southport

For only $8 you can get a 32-ounce crowler for pick-up or delivery.

DryHop Brewers | 3155 North Broadway

You can get $8 crowlers online for carry out or delivery at this East Lakeview brewery.

At UrbanMatter, U Matter. And we think this matters.

Tell us what you think matters in your neighborhood and what we should write about next in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: Twisted Hippo

Sampa the Great makes uplifting spiritual soul on The Returnon March 27, 2020 at 11:00 am

If you’re looking for an album to give you courage as you peer out at the apocalypse from behind your living-room blinds, you could do worse than Sampa the Great’s The Return (Ninja Tune). The Zambia-born, Australia based artist released this sprawling, languid record last September, and it’s full of 90s beats, heart-on-the-dashiki rapping, and such a crowd of guest stars–Brooklyn MC Whosane, Australian singer-songwriter Thando, Melbourne artists collective Mandarin Dreams–that it feels as much like a family affair as a solo effort. Her crisp, catchy flow is down-to-earth and uncolored by Auto-Tune, whether she’s dropping boasts about Afrocentric empowerment on “OMG,” lusciously rolling the syllables of “mel-a-nin” over her teeth on “Final Form,” or soaring toward enlightenment with Australia’s Sunburnt Soul Choir on “Mwana.” As is often the case with neosoul, Sampa’s music can start to feel overly earnest by the end of the album. She seems aware of this herself; the interlude “Wake Up” is an answering-machine message from a friend who declares, “I don’t think you have time for all this finding-yourself spiritual shit.” But we’re in the middle of a life-altering time, when spiritual shit might be something we need. It’s hard not to feel grateful when Sampa and London collective Steam Down end “Summer” by singing “I’m not afraid” in ascending harmonies–the power of their voices together makes you believe their message. v

Sampa the Great makes uplifting spiritual soul on The Returnon March 27, 2020 at 11:00 am Read More »

Chicago postpunk four-piece Stuck deliver an uppercut with Change Is Badon March 27, 2020 at 11:30 am

Workaholic Chicago rocker and audio engineer Greg Obis has suffered through a challenging five years. Both of his parents died (his mother in 2015, his father in 2018), and his ferocious but underrated punk band Yeesh broke up in 2017. That same year, Obis spent time on the road playing bass in indie-rock outfit Clearance; on long van rides, he’d listen to contemporary postpunk bands like Uranium Club and Omni, who tussle with rawboned guitars and relentlessly driving. Obis caught the bug and set about forming Stuck, eventually enlisting three local musicians: drummer Tim Green (Furbie), bassist David Algrim (Gentle Heat), and guitarist Donny Walsh (Surveillance, Krozer). The band’s new debut album, Change Is Bad (out on Obis’s label, Born Yesterday), builds tension without ever boiling over, offsetting its fury with catharsis–but the fury is intense enough that you wouldn’t want your ears on the line if these guys ever lose control. Obis evokes his battered exhaustion with lyrics delivered in a pointed talk-singing style, which sometimes bleeds into serrated howls that energize the band’s precise, propulsive playing. The darkest moments of these songs can gnaw at your psyche, but Obis and company emerge sounding like a Golden Gloves boxer after 12 bloody rounds–bone-tired but undefeated. v

Chicago postpunk four-piece Stuck deliver an uppercut with Change Is Badon March 27, 2020 at 11:30 am Read More »

The new Facs album, Void Moments, shows the Chicago trio at their apexon March 27, 2020 at 2:40 pm

The Facs formula has always been stark minimalism. On their first two albums, the Chicago trio–currently drummer Noah Leger, guitarist-singer Brian Case, and bassist Alianna Kalaba–built every track on tense rhythms, simple bass throbs, barely-there guitar plinking, and direct spoken-word vocals. It was like they were casting moods more than writing songs. The formula worked to great effect, both live and on record: their music was spooky, hard-hitting, and efficient, with no note or tone ever falling out of place. Still, in the back of my mind, I found myself wanting more–perhaps due to my obsession with Case and Leger’s previous band, the four-piece Disappears, who created mesmerizing layers of textures and evil energies. But on the brand-new Facs full-length, Void Moments (Trouble in Mind), anything I felt like the band might’ve been missing suddenly appears. The album is an absolute masterwork of experimental postpunk. Facs work up an incredible ruckus, piling on alien sounds, razor-sharp bass parts, and almost catchy vocals. A highlight for me is Leger’s performance: I’ve already used a lot of Reader ink to praise his work over the years, but on Void Moments he’s an unstoppable force. His drums act as the band’s lead instrument, and he plays with off-the-leash energy, hammering out bizzare beats and dazzling fills with staggering precision and power. Void Moments isn’t just Facs hitting their stride–it’s an impressive peak from an excellent band. v

The new Facs album, Void Moments, shows the Chicago trio at their apexon March 27, 2020 at 2:40 pm Read More »

Melkbelly’s juxtaposition of weird and pretty keeps getting more perplexingon March 27, 2020 at 3:04 pm

Chicago four-piece Melkbelly are best known for playing what you might call noise pop. Though they employ guitarists with a knack for wiry, minor-key interplay, a drummer who pays homage to Brian Chippendale, and a singer who can flip the switch in an instant from sweet Kim Deal croons to blood-curdling screams, they also inject their songs with as much undeniable melody as harsh dissonance. On the brand-new Pith (Wax Nine), Melkbelly continue their growth in both directions. Their pop side shines brighter than ever thanks to the majestic vocal hooks of guitarist-singer Miranda Winters, so that a casual, surface-level play-through of Pith could persuade you that it’s simply a great indie-pop record. On further listens, though, you can hear the band’s ongoing weirdness–that aspect of their sound has become more sophisticated and subtle, but it’s also more complex and intricate. “Sickeningly Teeth” creates a dizzying juxtaposition by colliding a sad, beautifully sung verse with a rhythm that constantly changes speeds. “LCR” climaxes with a catchy chorus anchored by explosive Lightning Bolt drums. And album centerpiece “Kissing Under Some Bats” starts as an upbeat, danceable number, then gives way to nearly ten minutes of dark, spacey, psychedelic drones. It’s always been exciting to try to make sense of Melkbelly, and with Pith they’ve become even more perplexing. v

Melkbelly’s juxtaposition of weird and pretty keeps getting more perplexingon March 27, 2020 at 3:04 pm Read More »

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke proves his electronic mastery on Animaon March 27, 2020 at 3:23 pm

Thom Yorke may be best known as front man of legendary British art-rock group Radiohead, but he’s also amassed an impressive discography on his own, putting out several solo releases, a 2013 album with his side group Atoms for Peace, and the score for 2018’s Suspiria remake. His third album under his own name, last year’s Anima, is the best expression of his musical philosophy yet. While Radiohead has long incorporated dance music, Yorke fully commits to electronica in his outside work. Anima consists of instrumental sketches edited down to nine tracks by producer Nigel Godrich. The resulting tight mix of dubby bass lines and beat machines is reminiscent of the self-titled 2011 album by Yorke collaborator Sbtrkt. Anima is best heard from start to finish; the way its rhythms and synths bleed into each other makes it feel like a masterful DJ set. Even when the percussion is stripped away, Yorke still has his sharp pen and otherworldly voice. On “Dawn Chorus,” a lyrical collage of trite everyday phrases (“If you could do it all again,” “Back up the cul-de-sac”) is imbued with pathos by yearning keyboards. With its complex mood, this anxious hymn recalls Radiohead’s best work–it feels like suppressing grief and fear in order to find enough peace to get through another day. Yorke’s character in the three-song short film for Anima (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and streaming on Netflix), begins and ends the production in the London Underground, which when it debuted last summer still unambiguously symbolized the claustrophobia of modernity’s grind. Given that London mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that Tube travel will lead to more COVID-19 infections, the sight of commuters on a packed train car may soon be enough to inspire nostalgia–an irony befitting one of Yorke’s songs. v

Radiohead front man Thom Yorke proves his electronic mastery on Animaon March 27, 2020 at 3:23 pm Read More »

Spend quality time in quarantine with your new favorite Chicago albumson March 27, 2020 at 4:40 pm

Sampa the Great, Stuck, Sterling Hayes - PHOTOS COURTESY HIGH ROAD TOURING, BY VANESSA VALADEZ, AND BY TROY GUENO

For many Chicagoans, going to shows at small clubs and DIY venues is a way of life. So during our shelter-in-place order, we’re not only missing close friends and loved ones, we’re also missing the sights, sounds, and camaraderie of our local music community.

But pandemic or no pandemic, the concert previews in our April 2 issue (assigned weeks ago, before all the shows were canceled) were going to be something special. The Reader typically covers a mix of local and touring artists, and when we’d publish our usual 11 show previews each week, a handful might be about Chicagoans. This time around, though, we’d lined up seven record-release shows by some of the city’s most exciting underground artists, including postpunk bands, rappers, an R&B group, an avant-garde cellist, and more.

We can’t celebrate with these artists in a live setting, but we can sure as hell celebrate their musicianship and accomplishments. We’re still running the show previews that we could repurpose as record reviews–and that means nine this week. When you stream the new albums listed below, try closing your eyes and picturing yourself at one of Chicago’s beloved neighborhood venues with your best concert buddies. You just might come out of quarantine with a new favorite local band.

New albums from Chicago artists:

Deeper, Auto-Pain

Drama, Dance Without Me

Facs, Void Moments

Sterling Hayes, Flirting With Death

Helen Money, Atomic

Melkbelly, Pith

Stuck, Change Is Bad

Other reviews added this week:

Sampa the Great, The Return

Thom Yorke, Anima

Last week’s reviews: