Bad Veins are following their spectacular debut with an even better sophomore effort coming out next month. The Mess We've Made finds the duo of Benjamin Davis and Sebastien Schultz have taken the mixture of dance, rock and lush arrangements they're so good at and amped it up a notch. We've seen their live show and the new album's found the band focusing that exuberance and capturing it in the studio. more ›

Cocktail competition Speed Rack will hit Bottom Lounge from 3-7 p.m. Sunday, March 18, as 20 women from Chicagoland will compete head to head in this intense test of speed and accuracy. more ›

Few producers have bridged the gap between the UK's underground bass scene and North American popularity. The most obvious of these producers is James Blake, whose minimal electronic soundscapes have maintained a certain accessibility, most likely attributed to his mature, soulful voice and boyish good looks. Second to "The Prince of Dubstep", though, might be SBTRKT, whose more pop approach to bass music has landed him a considerable amount of success when compared to his contemporaries. A highlight of this year's North Coast Music Festival, SBTRKT will yet again hit Chicago, this time for a live show with collaborator Sampha at Bottom Lounge. more ›

Bottom Lounge was filled with hand-crafted, small-batch booze last night. more ›

We miss when Deerhoof used to give their music away like it was a ticking bomb. That was back in the day before the San Francisco experimental rockers blew up to their current state of renown. But yesterday was just like old times when they dropped a free, downloadable album, 99% Upset Feeling. more ›

In yet another in what seems to be an unending series celebrating the 20th anniversary of albums that were popular (and meaningful) when this writer was in college, Matthew Sweet will be touring his masterpiece Girlfriend. We could adopt the cynical stance and wonder loud why Sweet would depend on the past to sell tickets today but that would be ignoring two very important points:
• Sweet has continued to release strong work pretty much without pause between Girlfriend and now, and in fact this tour is also in support of his newest disc Modern Art, out September 27.
• Girlfriend is one of those albums that is not only at the peak of the power-pop mountain but also shares the distinction of being one of the few albums that is absolutely perfect from beginning to end.

The Features' latest album, Wilderness, is on a label run by the Kings of Leon. This makes total sense. If Kings of Leon are to atone for their sins against music we can think of no better penance than to expose the firebrand that is The Features to the wider public. more ›

This weekend, some of the best in hardcore music hits town when The Rumble comes to Bottom Lounge. more ›

We joined hundreds of fellow rumheads at the Bottom Lounge's Volcano Room last Thursday for the Third Annual Chicago Ministry of Rum Festival. Early birds were treated to a Jamaican buffet, courtesy of Ja'Grill. And we're glad we were one of them--with more than 100 rums on pour, imbibing on an empty stomach would have been sheer foolishness. As it was we sampled about 15 before calling it quits. Attendees were given a handy little program with plenty of space for jotting down tasting notes. There were scores of gems. We were especially excited to sample the entire line of New Holland Brewing Co.'s rums. Their Freshwater Huron White would make for a powerfully tasty Hemingway daiquiri. Here are some shots we took while wandering around. more ›

In which we take a quick look at a few recent or upcoming musical releases. more ›

If concerts were assigned a "physical exertion" index for the audience, most of us would agree to something like: intimate singer-songwriter folk jam < power pop indie rock < punk and metal freak-outs. Polite applause versus tooth-loosening mosh pits. Mild mustiness versus sweat and blood. A performance by Guitar Wolf, the self-described "jet rock n roll" trio from Japan, surely ranks in that red-zone level of intensity. They're tests of endurance; a Jack LaLanne-esque "feat of strength" for the concert-going contingent. more ›

French pop group YELLE has a developed a reputation for upbeat shows, wacky costumes and edgy lyrics. Their lead singer, Yelle, is petite and playful on stage, hopping and bouncing around with an energy that encourages her audience to do the same. When YELLE announced a tour for their new album, Safari Disco Club, it was no surprise that the Chicago stop sold out, and the crowd in attendance was cheerful and boozey when she and her band took the stage at Bottom Lounge this weekend. Everyone present immediately started dancing from the opening lines of “Je veux te voir,” ready to match Yelle fist pump for fist pump and jump for jump and scream what lyrics they knew. The dancing didn’t stop until the lights came on. more ›

It's weird to think of ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead as being elder statesmen on rock and/or roll, but the band has been destroying their instruments and releasing dense thickets of music for over 15 years with no sign of slowing down. Their albums are energetic affairs, full of wild drums and guitars that dart this way and that before spinning around, knocking you down and reaching for the rafters. On their latest release, Tao Of The Dead, the band has brought some balance into their sound to create a work that, while no less a whirlwind, does offer more generous focal points with which to get your bearings. more ›

We're hanging out near the back of the alphabet as we discuss new albums by two bands, Yuck and Yelle, playing in town over the next few days. One loves noise and the other loves beats but at their base we think they both love pop. Let's give these records a spin and talk about 'em! more ›

Chances are you’ve already heard samples of Deerhoof’s latest album, Deerhoof vs. Evil. The album was released in the States two weeks ago, but the band leaked the entire album one track at a time from October until its January release through various websites - a creative marketing move to match their avant-garde approach to music. more ›

Chicago-based California Wives excel at making calming, thoughtfully arranged music that slowly soars on the wings of its identifiable influences. (Like-minded local brethren The Changes are a good reference point.) On their latest EP, September’s Affair, California Wives deliver five tracks that often begin unassumingly—see the ringing guitar chords and soft, but persistent drum beats in EP opener “Blood Red Youth” —but eventually build to a well-earned catharsis. The band does so by laying out each musical element in their sound simply: a sighing vocal here, a jangly guitar line there, and all glued together by taut bass lines and atmospheric keyboards. more ›

While the guys from !!! explain that their peculiar band name can be pronounced by repeating any monosyllabic sound three times, they choose to pronounce it ‘Chk Chk Chk,’ taking inspiration from the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, which represents the clicking sound of the Ju/'hoansi bushmen’s Khoisan language with “!”. The band came together in ’96 in Sacramento and has since been developing its own blend of disco, punk, and rock, holding strong after the recent loss of members John Pugh, Justin Van Der Volgen, and Tyler Pope to other bands, as well as the loss of drummer Jerry Fuchs, who fell to his death down an elevator shaft November of last year. more ›

We can't believe it's taken this long for Kissy Sell Out to make it here, but tonight he finally debuts in Chicago tomorrow night at The Bottom Lounge as part of the North Coast Fest. Most people Stateside have probably heard Kissy Sell Out a.k.a. Tommy Bisdee's remix work without realizing it. His trademark super glitchy reworks of popular tunes truly embrace a daring aesthetic of sonic reconstruction, slicing and dicing tunes until they are both unrecognizable and even more danceable. more ›

Pre-parties, after-parties, birthday parties, dinner parties, LOST watch parties, parties you never even knew about. It's festival season and, with Pitchfork right around the corner, there's just about as much stuff to do that's associated with the festival that isn't actually the festival. This Thursday, the Pitchfork Festival Official Kick Off Party at Bottom Lounge is among the first of these associated events, and besides having the ability to pick up your Pitchfork Festival tickets early, the event has a solid lineup and other ancillary benefits. more ›

Let’s get this right out of the way; The Whigs sound uncomfortably similar to Kings Of Leon. So similar you’d be forgiven for confusing the two. Both are adept into molding a southern swagger into catchy mainstream anthems, but while Kings Of Leon have grown softer in recent years - hellfire preacher boys no longer - The Whigs have stayed lean and mean. more ›

There is going to be a LOT of beautiful noise at Bottom Lounge tonight. When 4ADers Serena-Maneesh, gauze-poppers The Depreciation Guild and local shoegazers Apteka each take the stage we expect the rafters will be rumbling from all the feedback. Also, attendees may suddenly find themselves sucked through a vortex of nostalgia to find themselves trapped on the set of 120 Minutes. We mean that as a compliment. more ›

What started off as a routine set by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at the Bottom Lounge on Saturday night quickly turned into a punk rock karaoke free-for-all when they were joined on-stage during the encore by Patrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus (who were in town doing an in-store at Reckless Records) for a rousing cover of The Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off,” and later by Ralph Darden of The Jai-Alai Savant for a cover of the Fugazi classic, “Merchandise.” more ›

Ted Leo and The Pharmacists more ›

Whether you're happily coupled or bitterly single on this February 14, we all know what the dating trenches are like. We've all lived out our fair share of rejection, drunken regrets and yes, even sometimes, poopy pants. The storytelling gurus at 2nd Story decided to compile some stories of failed happily ever afters, and tonight you can hear them at Mismatched: Horror Stories from Chicago's Dating Front. more ›

"Today is special. It's our first time playing in Chicago," announced Oliver Sims, co-lead of British trio The xx partway through a whisper-soft set of selections from the band's much heralded 2009 debut. It was appropriately cold and pitch black in the cavernous Bottom Lounge as a packed house stood silently, welcoming the musical newcomers with their undivided attention. more ›

Special to Chicagoist from Sarah Cobarrubias more ›

We never thought we'd be writing this sentence, but The Black Heart Procession's "Rats" sees the brooding, creepily atmospheric band ... getting funky? O.K., maybe funky is too strong a word, but the staccato guitars of the chorus play against the gentle surge of the drums to create a milieu that at least encourages finger-tapping, if not an adventurous toe-tap or three. We keep finding ourselves migrating toward their latest, Six, to slowly allow ourselves to sink and submit to its dark charms. They've always been hard to label -- are they goth, indie, sludge, Leonard Cohen swagga? -- and this album's thirteen songs will do nothing to clarify the band's intent enough to slot them into one niche or another. And frankly, we wouldn't want that. more ›

Halloween is quickly approaching and next week brings a host of musicians through the city to get your ghoulish weekend kick-started days in advance. more ›

Every great movie eventually leads to two responses: "Gee, I really ought to see that," and "Gee, I really ought to see that again." The summer is winding down, so seize the moment: more ›

Lykke Li has been on our radar a long time, and we've been vocal in our appreciation of her talents. We're hoping Lykke Li's appearance at Lollapalooza helps her break through to a much larger audience this year so more folks can appreciate her minimal electronic pop. It's the sort of thing that whispers in your ear oh so subtly and hypnotizes you with its charms so deeply you don't even notice you're already in its throes as you dance with abandon. more ›