Mekons vocalist Sally Timms talks about the band's new longplayer Ancient & Modern. Mekons plays Lincoln Hall tonight; tickets are still available. more ›

Bloodshot Records and Hideout have a working relationship that goes back practically since Bloodshot was founded nearly 17 years ago and some Bloodshot artists may have even served you a beer or a shot. more ›

Local soul showstoppers JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound will be releasing their second full-length album, Want More, Oct. 25 on Chicago label Bloodshot Records. more ›

Local soul revival superstars JC Brooks And The Uptown Sound have signed to local label Bloodshot Records, and will release their second full-length record through them this fall, according to a post on the label's blog. more ›

The immensely talented, hard living singer-songwriter took a few moments to talk with us in advance of his gig at Millennium Park tonight with Andre Williams and the Goldstars. more ›

Ask any five Neko Case fans to name their favorite album from the flame-haired siren and you'll likely get a different answer from each. For us, it's a tough call but we always go back to Blacklisted. That album was the beginning of Case's shift from outright twang to the more literate, ethereal blend of country and pop she's now producing. Blacklisted was also Case's last record on Bloodshot. Here's one of many standout tracks from the album - "I Wish I Was the Moon." more ›

If the frigid temperatures have you bundling up and hibernating next to your furnace on these biter, arctic nights, it is really tough to find a viable reason to leave the comfort of your abode. Though the promise of spring is just around the corner we here at Chicagoist have even dusted off our old Jimmy Buffet records just to try and remember the sun-drenched days, sandy shores of Lake Michigan and of course, what life is like without four-layers to guard our ever-so-vulnerable pasty skin. One such artist that has kept the hope of spring alive and conjures memories of long days with a Corona in one hand and a Frisbee in the other is the music of Justin Townes Earle. more ›

The Yayhoos are something of an alt-country supergroup comprising of Georgia Satellites frontman Dan Baird and bassist Keith Christopher, Olympic Ass-Kickin' team drummer Terry Anderson and Batavia native Eric "Roscoe" Ambel. Ambel was one of Joan Jett's original Blackhearts, a founding member of the Del-Lords and Steve Earle's lead guitarist during the early part of the last decade. As a live act, they absolutely rip it. The Bloodshot release Fear Not the Obvious would make our desert island disc collection because, well, if we do one day wind up stranded on a desert island we'll need something to laugh with once in a while. more ›

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Bloodshot Records is offering a free sampler of love songs on Amazon. It's a tight selection of what Bloodshot calls "the good the bad and the ugly" in their love song catalog. They're right; it's a good cross-section of drinking songs, cheating songs, murder ballads, and songs about breakups and longing from artists such as Nora O'Connor, Alejandro Escovedo, Scott H. Biram, Robbie Fulks and Andre Williams. more ›

It's been written here previously: Justin Townes Earle has some mighty large footsteps to follow as a musician. The son of hardcore troubadour Steve Earle (one of the best songwriters of the past 40 years) and named after his father's best friend and hero Townes Van Zandt, Earle's musical education rivals anything you can get at the Old Town School of Folk Music. more ›

File this under reunions we seriously thought would never happen. We were surprised when The Blacks resurfaced for a set at last year's Bloodshot anniversary party at Hideout, but we're absolutely shocked the band decided to continue on and record an EP of new material, the release of which they will celebrate at Schubas tomorrow night. more ›

In these trying times everyone is cutting back where they can, even awesome block parties. The Hideout has trimmed their two-day affair to a single day -- though to be fair, until a few years ago it was always that way -- and have brought in Bloodshot Records to curate the day and celebrate their 15th birthday with a big ol' party. In many ways this is a return to form for The Hideout; after a couple years of putting together jaw dropping weekends that rivaled most smaller music festivals tomorrow's shindig a return to the more relaxed vibe of earlier years. The block was always a place where you could take your kids, have a lot of fun, and hear a bunch of great music from national and local acts with deep roots to The Hideout's scene. more ›

Bloodhsot has hijacked this year's Hideout Block Party to throw their 15th Anniversary Beer-B-Q! Bands playing include the reunited Blacks, Bobby Bare Jr., Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, The Deadstring Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, and The Waco Brothers. And, as is tradition with the hideout Block Parties, the party also acts as a fundraiser and this year it benefits Rock For Kids and 826 Chicago. more ›

If you missed today’s stellar installment of Audible Architecture with The Ex at Millennium Park’s Great Lawn, never fear! You can get your fill of electronic music in the open air when the park puts on their Audio Picnic tonight, where you can witness firsthand the intense battle for local label dominance as employees of Thrill Jockey Records, Bloodshot Records, Kranky Records, and Drag City throw down their finest tunes at this musical free-for-all; rare recordings and as-yet unreleased tracks from the labels’ upcoming albums are definitely part of the evening’s playlist. more ›

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Frankly, whenever we read about record sales, digital rights management, and record companies, we usually switch off because the whole issue is stupid and always ends up more complicated than it should (iTunes or iTunes Plus?). The major record labels have always reminded us of our Drunk Uncle Pete; they're late to the party and only after our money, while indie labels have been distributing DRM-free music through retailers like eMusic for a while now. more ›

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir releases their self-titled sophomore full-length on Bloodshot Records today. It's always nice to see a local label with some real clout helping out a local band, and we're predicting that this is a team-up that will prove beneficial to both parties involved. Scotland Yard Gospel Choir's sound is more Belle And Sebastian, and less Old 97's, so it marks a sonic departure of sorts for the label. That isn't to... more ›

Cyrano's Bistrot is open again, after a week and four inspections to combat a roach infestation caused by condo renovations above the restaurant. Congratulations, Chef Didier. Just don't expect us to visit anytime soon. Gabriel Magliaro of Half Acre Beer Company has been busy. Half Acre and Bloodshot Records have a promotion where Bloodshot is offering a sampler album as a free download to Half Acre fans. Magliaro will also be at Whole Foods... more ›

Everyone is to blame for album sales being down except the actual industry itself. Who gets the spotlight for bringing down the sales this time? It’s the media and those promo copies they receive in order to review albums before they hit the street. Everyone remembers the Jack White/Q101 fiasco a few weeks back after Electra played Icky Thump in its entirety and then (surprise!) the album showed up on file sharing sites three weeks... more ›

Ah, SXSW. Yup, it's the time of year when industry flacks, up-and-coming bands, under-the-radar hopefuls, and drunken journalists all descend upon Austin, Texas, for a few days of shmoozing, boozing, and live-music grooving. Chicago bands are being well represented this year, and a few of them are even traveling in style after Hideout's fundraiser last weekend. (We were told that the event raised over $10,000 in donations to send the sixteen bands that participated down to Austin. That's a lot of Shiner Bock!) And of course there's the great day parties thrown by local venues down there like Metro, Schuba's and Bloodshot Records. more ›

Tom Curtis, a former bartender at the Empty Bottle and current Twisted Spoke employee, was the victim of a senseless attack on December 8th. Walking home from a friend's house through an alley near the epicenter of Wicker Park, he was robbed by a group of young adults, beaten with a shovel about the face, neck, and head, and left for dead. Tom was found and taken to Stroger Hospital, where he received several transfusions for massive blood loss, and treatment to repair a crushed skull, a broken nose, jaw, teeth, and cheekbones. His neck was so swollen that intubation was required to allow him to breathe. The crushed skull also led to swelling and infections on the brain. Doctors gave little hope for Tom's survival. But he's fought back and is recovering better than the experts thought, although he still has a long way to go, including a couple more surgeries. And those are going to cost money; like many members of the service industry, Tom doesn't have health insurance. more ›

Bloodshot Records has been up to some fun stuff as of late. First, they dropped an advance copy of the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vol. 1 in the Chicagoist mailbox and it's full of gems. We usually like more rock in our folk but damn if we aren't suckers for any version of "I Know You Rider." Linda Smith turns in a fine turn here as does Robbie Fulks on the following... more ›

Attention music snobs: if your parents have been after you to come out to the ‘burbs for a visit, may we suggest the third week of March? The final roster for South by Southwest’s music conference is out, and since most of your favorite bands will be out of town at that time, Chicagoist thinks it’ll be a good time to bring home some laundry. The full list of Chicago bands is here. We noticed... more ›

Gary "Elvis" Schepers is one of those cogs in Chicago's music scene that works tirelessly and is never noticed. Gary plays the rock tuba with Devil In A Woodpile and also works as the sound guy at many venues and for a veritable who's who of the last 20 years. He worked with The Service before they reincarnated into the New Duncan Imperials, Material Issue and Uncle Tupelo and at Lounge Ax, Empty Bottle, the... more ›

Today Bloodshot Records releases a 2-disc set commemorating existing for 11 years and Chicagoist is for one very excited about it. This isn’t the normal run-of-the-mill retrospective that repackages music previously released by the label. The 42 songs on For A Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records are new and previously unreleased. Sure, the old, reliable Bloodshot artists are there: Bobby Bare, Jr., Waco Brothers, Old 97s, and Kelly Hogan to name a few, but they’ve also added some of the friends they’ve made along the way, such as My Morning Jacket, Mary Lou Lord and the Handsome Family. more ›

Bloodshot Records has teamed up with Farm Aid to bring music to the farmer's markets around the city next week. These performances are early, and we all know the early bird gets the best produce. All shows are free and are scheduled as follows. more ›

Covered in dust from Intonation Fest, Chicagoist headed over to Rock Around The Block to see the band we're most likely to stalk - the Old 97s. more ›

When is a look back also a step forward? When an artist taps into the verve of his earlier work and uses it to re-assert his relevance almost thirty years after his debut. And so it is with the recent Graham Parker album Songs of No Consequence. more ›

This was the year that the Sundance Film Festival definitively jumped the shark. When the big story coming out of Park City isn’t about the bidding war for some hot new film but rather how much swag DJ Qualls is pulling down then you know something’s amiss. And so the South by Southwest festivals stand alone in wearing the mantle of the true independent spirit of the arts. Despite growing in size and scope over... more ›

Man, five o'clock cannot come fast enough. We love when the weekend is brimming with autumnal goodness, and we can't help but celebrate by using overly cheesy and obvious icons. Here are three of our picks for the oh-so-enjoyable last weekend in September: more ›