It's a small mystery to us how, after The Mountain Goats' feel-good show at The Vic Tuesday night, John Darnielle didn't wind up with the whole audience going home with him. Darnielle is best known for his vivid and robust lyricism, which is easily his greatest strength and the likeliest reason behind the band's consistent wave of critical praise. Perhaps less well-known is Darnielle's surprising skills as a front man, able to disarm a crowd with his lyrics before simply charming the pants off them with his banter. more ›

Whether with The Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party or Grinderman, Nick Cave has spent plenty of time meditating on themes of death, sex, darkness and redemption (of the Biblical kind); 2008’s Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! with The Bad Seeds had more of the latter, where Birthday Party (Cave’s early ‘80s band) explored Gothic, murderesque post-punk. Since forming Grinderman in the second half of the decade with several members of his core band, Cave's side project retains the requisite grinding guitars and chunky, stripped-down sound but has yet to approach the level of polish or tightness kicked out by The Bad Seeds. Though what Grinderman lacks in perfect polish, it more than makes up for in daring and brilliant raunchiness. more ›

We couldn't help but notice that The Hood Internet boys just continue to collect accolades tumbling their way. Pitchfork loves them. Very Short List digs 'em. USA Today grooves to them. Heck, even the CBC is singing their praises! The art of the mash-up has been largely on the wane over the past year or so, but these wild upstarts from the mean streets of Chicago have injected brand new life into the art form... more ›

A scene of warehouses and industrial grit served as the stage backdrop during this weekend’s Touch & Go 25th Birthday Party and we can’t think of a better visual fit for the label’s aural aesthetic. Many of the bands performing over the weekend fit perfectly within the visual suggestion set about by the mega-urban “City That Works” setting, thus setting this festival apart from the lush environs experienced during Intonation / Pitchfork / Lollapalooza earlier... more ›

Chicagoist 2nd Birthday Party Poster via rachelleb. Don't forget! The Chicagoist 2nd Birthday Party is this Thursday! more ›

Our city has a lot of nicknames, “Second City”, “City of Big Shoulders” and “Windy City”. But perhaps none is as sacred to us, the real Chicagoans, as “City on the Make”, the title of the prose poem by Nelson Algren. We like to think we know our Chicago history pretty well, but often find it lacking when we come to look at Algren’s piece again. We realize how much there still is to learn... more ›

Chicagoist is gonna be your best friend. With the holiday lurking around the corner this weekend and the hangovers slowly lifting from last night’s Chicagoist First Birthday Party, it is just the right time for Chicagoist to unleash and share with you the greatest summer drink in the history of the free world: Rosemary Lemonade. more ›

It’s a slow day here at the Chicagoist offices and that inevitably leads to a lot of web-surfing and snarky comments. Today’s target of our ire: Tara Reid. We know it’s like shooting fish in a barrel (actually, it’s like shooting really large baby fish that don’t have the ability to move…in a barrel) but we can’t help ourselves. What set us off was this AP story posted on Metromix. It seems that Ms. Reid... more ›