Maddie Rehayem @maddierehayem - Tumblr Blog

In Rotation in the Reader

It’s been a little while since I’ve done any music writing, so I was excited when a former G2 colleague and fellow Chicago musician asked me to write part of the In Rotation column in the Chicago Reader. I’ve been a Reader reader since high school and a big fan of the music section, so I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to it. I wrote about my favorite record I bought in 2019, my little rhythm machine and of course Dolly Parton. Check it out here.

Updating...

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in with you, Tumblr. We’re both playing different ballgames now, but like old friends, It’s the things that initially brought us together that we can keep returning to. In our case: a blog and portfolio platform.

For now I’ll update you on some of the content writing work I’ve been doing lately, but let’s make it a point to get coffee every once in a while. We have a lot to catch up on.

pitqueenzine

Dingbat Dungeon//Urbana 4.30.16 (photo set ½) These are photos from the final Dingbat Dungeon show. This space has meant a lot to me. For better or worse, a lot of my best and most formative ~punk times~ were spent here. Major shout out to GABE (with the bloody nose), this house wouldn’t have been what it was without him. I couldn’t pick just 10 photos so there are two sets. Also I have some Dumb Fest 2016 photos to share, coming soon! (Long live Central IL punk)

maddierehayem

Photos from April part 1

pitqueenzine

Dingbat Dungeon//Urbana 4.30.16 (photo set 2/2)

maddierehayem

Photos from April part 2

You can learn a lot from Mother Nature

The last article I wrote for Smile Politely before moving to Chicago was a profile of C-U based hip-hop duo Mother Nature—probably the best thing that C-U has going for it! They performed at C-U’s biggest annual music event, The Pygmalion Festival, in September opening up for Run the Jewels. I think they took a lot of people by surprise—myself included. I’d listened to some stuff on their bandcamp and enjoyed it, but going to hip-hop shows has never really been my thing, so I had yet to check them out.

The first thing I learned from them was not to take shit from anyone about your right to create. These two black women obviously face a lot of obstacles, but they show no shyness on stage. Even on the Pygmalion festival stage in front of a mostly white audience full of dumb alt-bros who’ve been soaking up boring indie-pop all day. They fucking owned it and it’s inspiring that they even got there in the first place.

By way of a show review of that Pygmalion set, I learned about myself and my purpose as an editor. Ruth Nicole Brown is a UIUC professor both halves of Mother Nature (they go by T.R.U.T.H and Klevah) have taken GWS classes with. She wrote the coolest article I’ve ever been tasked with editing. The most annoying part of Music Editing at SP was getting writers to write, so when I got Professor Brown’s email submission, I flipped. I think my managing editor was a unsure of it since the writing style was decidedly black. I’ve never seen anything like that before in music writing, but I think it was the best review that could’ve possibly described the Mother Nature Pygmalion set. It was a joy and a learning experience to edit, and it helped me cement my values as an editor.

TL;DR, bye C-U, hello Chicago, amazing stuff happens everywhere and I love it.

#C-U #Champaign-Urbana #mother nature #klevah #t.r.u.t.h

pitqueenzine

Dingbat Dungeon//Urbana 10.29.15

#photography

I’m a bit late to post this but a few weeks ago I got to interview co-owner of Polyvinyl Records Matt Lunsford and take a tour of the new location in Champaign, Ill. The result: this article.

#polyvinyl records #champaign-urbana

Some recent work from this summer

Summer is kind of over since school started up again and it’s just about Labor Day. On the other hand, temperatures here in Champaign-Urbana are still in the 90s and it’s humid as hell, and we haven’t even reached the equinox yet. I’ve had a laid-back few months, but I have also been writing. Here are some of my favorite pieces I’ve done in the season’s latter half.

The lovely Food & Drink section at SP published my interview with one of the co-owners of Dancing Dog, a vegan restaurant in Downtown Urbana. I originally did the interview to incorporate into a spread about the place I made for my Graphics and Design class. Here’s the Q&A, and here’s the spread.

I sat down with Kenna Mae Reiss, one of C-U’s most naturally talented working artists. Girl can sing and she does it everywhere, all the time, usually accompanied by nothing but an acoustic guitar, sometimes another dude with an acoustic guitar. Here’s my Q&A with her on SP.

Sweetcorn Festival happened. I got to see The Church and The Psychedelic Furs (which was so, so wonderful) AND volunteer at one of the beer tents, earning a free tshirt and ear of delicious, buttery corn. I wrote a preview of the fest and included a little music primer.

Error Records, a C-U punk institution dear to many, myself included, is closing. I interviewed its owner and the guy who is taking over the record shop under a new name next month. I tried my best to capture what this place meant to Nathan, its owner, and so many young people in town. This is the article I came up with.

I had a great time bugaloo-ing at Karaoke Underground last week — check out my article on Smile Politely about it ft. an interview with DJ Kaleb Asplund.

KU rules!

#karaoke underground

Here are some of the photos I took at Pitchfork Music Festival last weekend — more photos and a fest recap here: http://smilepolitely.com/music/pitchfork_music_festival_2015_in_review/

#photography