Excuse our limited posting schedule today. Chicagoist has one hell of a hangover! Huge thanks to everyone who came out to Double Door last night and made Ctrl-Alt-Rock v2.0 a success!! We were afraid that the subzero temperatures would tempt you to stay home, but it's amazing what some free 312 will make people do. The Reptoids, The Ladies And Gentlemen, Farewell Captain, and The Passerines played an awesome show. We had such a fantastic time and hope you did too. And it's always great to get out and meet our readers. Without you, we wouldn't even have a site. Hugs!

Now, as soon as this aspirin and caffeine finally kick in, we'll have more photos to post.

Update: Photos from Ctrl-Alt-Rock v2.0 are online here and here.

Oh wow. This is going to be so much fun. The first CTRL-ALT-ROCK was a huge success so version 2 had to be bigger and better, naturally. But we think we've outdone ourselves. Chicagoist has profiled all four of the bands performing, to bring you up to speed:

The Reptoids
The Ladies And Gentlemen
Farewell Captain
The Passerines

We'll be giving away lots of Chicagoist swag, we've lined up a killer beer special, and early birds will get the extra bonus of free booze while it lasts, so make sure you get there right when the doors open at 8:00pm!

We'll also have giveaways from local bands whose shows Chicagoist is co-sponsoring in the near future. Sounds before, after, and between the bands will be provided by DJ Tankboy and a couple of the other Chicagoist writers flexing their DJ skills. Or at least their talents at solid song selection. Please be kind to them.

On top of it all? Print out the flier to the right for two bucks off admission!

We'll see you there.

We were talking to a friend yesterday and they began to bemoan the fact that there were no “classic” rock bands anymore. We didn’t totally agree, since we believe there are MANY bands that “rock” out there, but we understood what they were getting at: It’s hard to find a band in the classic rock vein that plays with heart and familiarity while avoiding cliché.

Farewell Captain’s members have logged time in numerous notable groups like Light FM, Oblivion, Textbook, The Vindictives, The Siderunners, The Bon Mots, Nymb … to be honest, the list just goes on and on. It’s pretty impressive.

So what happens when you get a bunch of guys with such formidable chops, fill ‘em with beer, and stick ‘em in a basement? Well, they write a bunch of songs that suck out all the spare oxygen in the room and kick it like the Who or Neil Young in their loudest amp-shredding incarnations. Frontman Mark Ruggiero delivers melodies that sound as if he’s trying to blow out his vocal chords while always hitting the perfect notes. We’re almost willing to buy into that whole “creative consciousness” thing too, since the band writes songs we swear we’ve heard before. And loved.

The first time we heard the frenetic keyboard intro of “Out Of My Reach” our hearts skipped a beat as our breath hitched with excitement, and our blood ran flush with approval when the opening guitars crash in to deliver a perfect opening punch. And then the hook swoops in, delivered via Ruggiero’s distinctive pipes, and we knew we were in for a hell of a ride.

The band’s live show is filled with an exuberance we rarely encounter anymore. The group is like a bunch of five-year-olds cranked up on pixie-sticks just after nap-time. It’s the sort of contagion that sweeps through a crowd in seconds and makes one truly believe in, and fall in love with, the rock and/or roll all over again.

We are stoked they’re appearing on the Chicagoist CTRL-ALT-ROCK v2.0 bill at Double Door tomorrow night and we’re looking forward to converting a whole bunch of you into believers.

Also, don't forget to enter our contest for your chance to win a free pair of tickets to the show!

Photo by Dan Lutger

We know that at Double Door tomorrow night you're excited to see The Reptoids, The Ladies and Gentlemen, Farewell Captain, and The Passerines. And that you'd like to meet some of the Chicagoist writers (please don't punch anyone for saying your favorite bar sucks) and that you'd like to get your mitts on some Chicagoist shirts and pins and stickers, but we're also not going to let you fool us. You've been waiting to hear the drink situation, haven't you?

We're happy to announce that thanks to the kind folks at Goose Island, we'll be offering you one of your favorite beers, 312 Urban Wheat, for only $3. Not only that, but we'll also buy you drinks if you get there on time, before the tab runs out.

Free and cheap beer — this is a party you cannot pass up!

Ctrl – Alt – Rock v. 2.0 on Thursday, February 8, at Double Door. Show starts at 9 p.m.

When Chicagoist was organizing the bill for the upcoming Ctrl-Alt-Rock v2.0 extravaganza, we needed to make sure at least one band on the bill would cause the drunk masses to shake their drunk asses. Cue The Ladies and Gentlemen.

Formed from the broken pieces of former local bands, this new-wave quartet has been shaking up Chicago’s swankiest clubs for the past couple of years. We recently sat down with band founder Skid Marks to find out a little bit more about the gentlemen behind The Ladies and Gentlemen.

Chicagoist: All of the members of your band were in different bands before you formed The Ladies and Gentlemen. How did you all come together?
Skid Marks: The last band that I had, called Box-O-Car, had a kind of revolving cast of players. We needed a full-time drummer, and our guitar player at the time knew Mike Zelenko. Our bass player in Box-O-Car had a gig, so we needed one to fill in. We knew Lennie, who’s the bass player in The Ladies and Gentlemen. Box-O-Car disbanded, and Mike and I wanted to keep working together, and so did Lennie. And we started out having the three of us, and we had a couple different keyboard players who would fill in when they could. We wanted a full-time keyboard player, and Lenny was friends with Scott, who is our keyboard player now. Originally I was just doing solo gigs with a band, but we weren’t called The Ladies and Gentlemen. I was writing a bunch of new songs and just wanted to play them live and get the band going to see if people liked it.

Walking in Sylvie’s Lounge from the brisk and breezy night was like arriving home after a long day at work. Greeted with smiles by the few faces in the front room, we wondered for whom the three bands we came to see would be playing. Most notably, the Passerines, a band hailing from Hyde Park who will take the stage at Chicagoist’s own Ctrl-Alt-Rock v. 2.0 on Thursday, February 8.

Passing the half dozen or so dart boards, we ventured around the corner to see the stage. The entire place had the feel of a kid in middle school that isn’t quite sure what he wants to dress like. Posters of popular paintings like Van Gogh's Starry Night, adorned the walls while a faint black light lit the room. Somehow though, Sylvie's pulls it off. To the left, seated snuggly on the couch were the three members of the Passerines — Emily, Gabe and JJ.

The Passerines sound is a coupling of intelligence and innocence. Evoking the poetic tones of a Calvin Johnson and heartache of Fleetwood Mac, the Passerines somehow manage to actually sound and look incredibly happy. This is where the innocence of the group comes in. For the most part the band plays in and around Hyde Park, frequenting art galleries and record stores. When asked about their preference for this type of venue, the members all attribute it to both fan base and surroundings. “They seem to fit us better, more intimate, more for a small band,” said Emily. Gabe, almost finishing Emily’s thought, explained, “We are from Hyde Park, we all went to school down there. A lot of our core audience are students, when we were starting out they weren’t of age and it was harder to get them to come.”

Here would be the appropriate place to fill you in on what the three in the band play, but it is a regular game of musical chairs (get it!) on stage. The easiest member to pinpoint would be Emily, whose presence on stage singing and playing guitar gives the impression she is the center of the band. However, the band and their history give a different impression.

Initially an all-girl band, it was started by the expat Sarah Johnsen, who has moved to San Francisco. The band has had many members come and go which is attributed both to the changing sound as well as circumstance. Gabe entered the band because he lived in the house they were practicing in at the time. The drummer would miss practice and Gabe would hop on. When asked how the constant changing of members has shaped how they play, Gabe enthusiastically answered, “The best part is that we get to draw on this catalog of songs, when it was the four of us we all wrote songs. We’ve all played in different arrangements. Even now we play those songs that the previous members played in the band.”

Some of these will be making it on an epic 15-song LP that is currently being finished up by the group and is expected to be out this month. They are also preparing an EP which will include songs left over from the first record, and they expect this to be a free internet-only release.

Passerines will appear at Chicagoist's Ctrl – Alt – Rock v. 2.0 on Thursday, February 8, at Double Door. Show starts at 9 p.m. Keep reading Chicagoist for more details.

We are only seven days away from CTRL-ALT-ROCK v2.0, and we feel the anticipation building by the minute. Okay, maybe we don't have a clock in the upper left-hand side of our screen counting down the days, minutes, and seconds, but that doesn't mean we're any less excited.

We also think the groups involved — The Reptoids, The Ladies & Gentlemen, Farewell Captain, and The Passerines — are pretty durn excited, and we've heard rumblings of 17-hour practice sessions as the groups fight to perfect each and every last note just for you. And Chicagoist's own booze-faeries have been hard at work behind the scenes to make sure attendees are liquored up enough not to care, just in case one of the performers does accidentally flub a note or two.

Since CTRL-ALT-ROCK is all about community, and introducing our readers to some of our favorite bands, we figured what better way to get folks included than by giving away some tickets to the show! So fill out the form after the jump for your chance to win some tickets!