You like lulz and nonchalantly explicit Craigslist ads, right? Sure you do. Here’s one straight from the City of Wind, purportedly written by a young lass trying to find her bathroom stall hook-up at February’s Megadeth/Motörhead Gigantour stop at the Aragon Ballroom. more ›

There are those artists whose faces (and songs, and merchandise) are so ubiquitous, you'd pay them to go away. Then there are those who acts who don't come around nearly enough; they take so long between albums (cough, eleven years, cough) you have to remind yourself that the band hasn't, in fact, broken up. more ›

Start planning accordingly: the Lawrence Red Line station will be closed from 5:30 and 9:45 p.m. tonight due to President Obama's birthday party/fundraiser at the Aragon Ballroom. more ›

Before opening for The Flaming Lips July 8th at the Aragon Ballroom, Kill Rock Stars shredder Marnie Stern will showcase her furious finger-tapping in a far more intimate setting at a special guitar clinic held at Pancho's. more ›

With Labor Day weekend out of the way, 2010 is entering its autumn years, both literally and figuratively. Pretty soon, we'll all be ringing in 2011, wondering where the hell this year of tea parties, political upheavals and near book-burnings went. For those who want to spend their last moments of 2010 in less ponderous, more dance-worthy fashion, The Black Keys have got you covered. According to Jam Productions' Facebook page, the stylish twosome have announced that, once again, they'll be playing in Chicago on New Year's Eve. Instead of the Riviera, where the Keys played last year, the duo will see in the new year through in the larger though sonically inferior likes of the Aragon Ballroom. more ›

There sure are a lot of Vampire Weekend haters out there. [Ed. note: Well, we don't HATE them, but...] The New York act’s brand of sunny, breezy pop is enough to repulse any cynic, but we can’t help falling for their super-catchy Afrobeat tunes. Just yesterday, they announced their fall tour, which is more like an indie extravaganza as they team up with notable acts Beach House and Dum Dum Girls. The tour consists of a handful of North American stops, including Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom Sunday, September 5. more ›

Spoon are currently on tour supporting their newest album, Transference, and will be making a stop at Aragon Ballroom on April Fool’s Day. They’ll be bringing along openers Deerhunter, the quickly rising Atlanta-based garage-psych band that’s been doing a lot of its own headlining lately, as well as experimental pop trio Micachu & the Shapes. more ›

Trent Reznor took to Twitter today to announce the dates for the upcoming NIN tour - allegedly their last - and the Chicago dates are August 28 and 29, both shows at the Aragon Ballroom. The NIN.com presale for both dates is July 17 and general on-sale will be July 31. Mew will open both dates. more ›

Bringing back this column has reminded us of the nature of ticket sales. Last week was huge for upcoming shows, and inevitably this week follows in lighter suit. Don't fret, we still rounded up a couple gigs that will pique your interest. more ›

A thousand might be a little facetious, but between a strong roster of bands playing Ribfest and piles of amazing shows gracing our city's venues this weekend, your options are vast. Here is the weekly rundown of the upcoming shows on sale in the days ahead, and holy crap are there some good ones this week. more ›

We heard that last Thursday's Beck show at Aragon was the pits, so we went into Friday's appearance in the same room with great trepidation. Well, whatever went wrong Thursday went incredibly right Friday since it was by far the strongest set we've ever seen the blonde lanky folkie / hip-hop / troubadour / experimentalist / punk / musical dumpster diver turn in. Yes, it was even better than that time we saw him backed by The Flaming Lips. Beck turned in a raw, energetic, cohesive set drawing largely from his more popular material and delivered it to a crowd that went from being merely appreciative to largely rabid. We had a blast. Hell, we had so much fun we forgot just how much we hate the acoustics of the Aragon! more ›

Remember those My Morning Jacket shows we told you about? Well, we can now tell you that, according to the Chicago Theatre website, tickets will go on sale via Ticketmaster at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 16. So get your mouse clicking finger ready. more ›

We hate the Aragon Ballroom as a live amplifier-driven music venue. Hate, hate, hate. The acoustics are awful, the sight lines suck, and the place hasn't been worth stepping inside since they got rid of the buckets of beer after that Sonic Youth / Public Enemy show we were at that ended up in a riot. more ›

We know, the week just started. But it's never too early to look forward to the weekend, right? Maybe some lunchtime margaritas for Cinco de Mayo will cure your case of the Mondays, but for the rest of us, we're just working for the weekend. Consider us pleasantly surprised to find that tickets for M.I.A.'s Friday show at the Aragon Ballroom are still available via Ticketmaster. She may be tiny, but she packs a mighty wallop. more ›

Things slow down a little this week, but not by much. In fact, the only upswing to this week's slightly lighter musical calendar is that it doesn't force us to make as many tough decisions as last week! Apollo Sunshine is steeped in the psych-pop of the '60s, and we admit it's beginning to feel like we've been waiting since that decade for a proper follow-up to their last album. Maybe folks checking out their... more ›

We pause from our wall-to-wall coverage of Pitchfork to focus on a musical destination of a different kind: Uptown's Green Mill. Whenever people come in from town, there is a short list of places we like to take 'em. One constant is a trip to the Mill - not only for the bad-ass Manhattans and the live jazz, but for the sense of history, aged grit and old-world charm that the Mill practically bleeds. The... more ›

In one of his rare stops in the US, Spanish-born Parisian Latin folk singer cum punk rocker Manu Chao played to a sold-out crowd at the Aragon Ballroom last night. Wildly popular in both Europe and Latin America, Manu Chao has had less mainstream success in the US, although his fan base here is large and loyal. Heavily influenced by the UK punk scene during his formative years in the suburbs of Paris, Manu Chao's... more ›

Today, New Line announced the cast for the upcoming film adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife. Genetically gifted/cursed, Henry DeTamble, will be played by Eric Bana (Incredible Hulk, Troy) and his wife, Clare Abshire, will be Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, Wedding Crashers). The rights to the book were purchased by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's Plan B production company back in 2003. At the time the studio was in discussions with Gus Van Sant to... more ›

A friend just called from the Lawrence Red Line stop adjacent to the Aragon Ballroom and said that the Aragon appears to be on fire. .. that there's black smoke billowing out and fire trucks everywhere. Anyone have any more info? We can't find anything on it and are dying to know.... more ›

The Pixies have added one more date to their stop in Chicago! They'll be at the Aragon Ballroom November 17 with Urge Overkill. The Pixies were already scheduled for November 13-16 before heading to Detroit on the 18, but as far as we know those shows have long since sold out. The Datsuns open on the 13, Secret Machines the 14, the Walkmen the 15, and the Cocktails the 16. more ›