With all the excitement over The Black Keys' outstanding new album, El Camino, 2012 will surely be the year of similarly-minded Chicago psych-rock visionaries Bailiff. Honestly, we don't understand why this quartet isn't on the lips of every Chicago rock fan yet, but it's only a matter of time. Josh Siegel, Ren Matthew and crew are taking their brilliant, sludged-out melodic meanderings on the road for the first time this month and they won't return home as a best-kept secret, so catch them while you can at Subterranean this Friday. more ›

Keeping their word to release a new album by the end of the year, The Black Keys announced that they’ll drop their next full-length, El Camino, on December 6. But instead of just saying so, they announced the new album with a cryptic but comical video campaign involving Bob Odenkirk and a used minivan. more ›

Every year, we plan and plot our attack on the megafest that is Lollapalooza and every year we run ourselves ragged trying to see it all. It's an impossible feat, trying to squeeze in as much as possible while scurrying about Grant Park, trying to get in a little of too many bands. It never works. Something goes amiss, half a set is missed, moments pass and aren't appreciated. Lollapalooza, after all, is an experience, a marathon: the music, the people, the food, etc. For better or for worse. So this year, rather than spend 15-20 minutes at each stage, we decided to target a few bands and spend a little time taking in the festival experience as a whole. After all, that's what most people do, right? Day One was bright, sunny, and warm, and while it didn't present the overbearing heat the weather can bring in early August, it was still a good day to take it easy and get the lay of the land as the marathon fest kicked off. more ›

Lollapalooza announced its aftershow line-up through new local event site Do312 this morning and while there's nothing as mind-blowing as Them Crooked Vultures at Metro there are quite a few goodies. Phoenix, a band we say about this time last year playing Park West only to blow up into a festival headliner lickety-split, returns to the relatively smaller confines of The House of Blues on August 8. Black Keys, another band to blow up since last time they played a mid-day slot at Lolla a few years ago, will blow the Metro apart on August 7, playing on the back of the release of what we believe to be their strongest album yet, Brothers. On 6 MGMT plays the Dare2Dream benefit for the People's Music School and while we saw that group WAY too much over the past couple of years we've always enjoyed them more in smaller rooms, so this would be an excellent chance to check out their new material while aiding a good cause. more ›

Dan Auerbach's full-time gig is blowing out eardrums with meaty blues licks in the The Black Keys. In his off time though, Auerbach settles back into a more reflective phase in his solo work, as showcased in the recently released Keep It Hid. Don't worry, it's not some namby-pamby folksy record singer-with-a guitar record -- Auerbach knows his primary weapon is buried in the wiring to his distortion pedal -- but it does allow him a bit more breathing room than his day gig usually affords. more ›

Yesterday was Lollapalooza's first ever sell out (as is Saturday), cramming over 75,000 people into Grant Park, and it felt we were jostled by every single one during Radiohead's closing headline set. We bumped into fest curator Perry Farrell and spotted a few other celebs standing at the side of the stages. Also in attendance? The sun. One of the loudest cheers we heard all day was when the first cloud blessed us with its presence...around 5 p.m. Amongst the sun and beer cups was some fantastic music and some performances that left us wanting a little more. more ›

DeRo has the lowdown on a bunch of other confirmed Lollapalooza acts. We already knew Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against The machine would be headlining, but now you can add Racontuers, Kanye West, and Wilco to that list. We'd bitch about the fact that three of the six headliners have already played Lolla, which in its current incarnation is still a neophyte, but fuck it, we love all the headliners so we'll keep our trap shut. more ›