Romantica's Ben Kyle, Purest Spiritual Pigs' Helena Thompson interviewed in this week's City Pages

Photo by Aaron Schuh

​Professionally speaking, Ben Kyle's cup seems to runneth over: He just got back from a European tour with Carrie Rodriguez and is preparing to release a duet album with the famed fiddler in February, is busy mixing the third studio album by his acclaimed alt-country band, Romantica, and is set to re-release their second album, America, on vinyl this weekend.

All of which gave us a nice excuse to sit down with the pensive songwriter for an in-depth chat about his drive to create, his nagging "horrible disease of perfectionism," and how he holds it together amidst the chaos and demands of a life spent on stage.

We also have another great music profile in today's print edition on Purest Spiritual Pigs mastermind Helena Thompson, a talented performance artist and drummer who is bringing her "Swine Show" to the Bryant-Lake Bowl this Saturday night.

And as always, we've got a fresh 5ingles column in the paper today, along with our Critics' Picks for the best shows to see this week, from tonight's Dark Dark Dark show to the Doomtree Blowout, BNLX's EP release show, Darryl Hall and John Oates, and Tricky.