Made in Chicago has been buried under snow and soot for a minute, but on a cold, wintry day such as this, we're digging it out with another homemade gem to share with all of you to help you finish out the week. more ›

Apparently, The Bottom Biting Bug is all the rage in Japan, which means 6 months later it's all the rage in the US. more ›

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure? more ›

The video below should infuriate you. And it should bug the hell out of any female DJ trying to be taken seriously today. DJ Colette -- whom we remember stinking up the joint back when she got her start at Liquid Kitty (at least we THINK that was the first bar stupid enough to let her behind the decks) -- is one of those vain, semi-talented knob-twiddlers that wouldn't garner any attention if she wasn't... more ›

Number one place not to smoke weed/hash: work. A longtime Cook County employee was busted in the stairwell of the County Building on Wednesday for allegedly smoking hash. New allegations of brutality by Chicago police have surfaced. In his lawsuit, one man claims he was beaten during a traffic stop. In that vein, two hundred people attended a town hall meeting on the city's West Side Wednesday night to complain about police misconduct and... more ›

Here's what happened while a punk rock choir distracted us from Doomsday: Fall arts season preview season is here. If you didn’t pick up a Reader over the weekend, you can still bookmark their A & E preview online. The Trib’s writers chose their 10 most promising in theater, art, dance, music (rock and otherwise), comedy and architecture. The Bright One previews Broadway in Chicago and upcoming rock concerts and CDs (remember those?). New City... more ›

Even though rapper 50 Cent proclaimed to the world earlier this month that he would quit music (and deprive the world of another "In Da Club") if Chicago native Kanye West's new album "Graduation" sold more copies than his new CD "Curtis," the two have reportedly ended their feud via the universal peace maker -- alcohol. The two are both dropping albums on Sept. 11 and have been debating in the press for the past... more ›

To background, I manage a Chicago band called Tom Schraeder & His Ego, which landed a coveted spot on the 2007 bill. Though our slot was early (12:30 p.m. on Friday), the work for artists doesn’t stop once they’ve loaded up their vans (or in our case, the hearse) and exited the festival grounds. To give our esteemed Chicagoist readers a quick sketch of life deep on the Lollapalooza undercard, I kept a scribbled-note journal... 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 ›

We have a confession to make: we've never been to Pitchfork before. Considering the festival's only been going on officially for two years, it's not all that surprising. Still, being music lovers, we wanted to shed the "Pitchfork virgin" connotation and take the plunge. The only other big music fest we've been party to was the Touch & Go 25th anniversary at Hideout last year, along with the occasional street fest. We picked Saturday for... more ›

We were trying to explain to a friend last night that most DJs no longer use vinyl, and now use vinyl emulators. Yes, the primary trend is to plug in the ol’ laptop and scratch away at your digital files. We DJ around town, and have made the migration from vinyl to CDs to MP3s / M4As over the years ourselves, so we don’t view this practice as being less authentic. In fact, in the right hands, it opens up whole new avenues of sonic overlays to explore. more ›

With Don Imus shooting his mouth off, the same old recycled music, and Clear Channel dictatorially ruling the airwaves, radio is leaving a lot to be desired these days. That's why community stations like WLUW (88.7) are such an oasis in the desert of mainstream radio. more ›

... that REO Speedwagon is ridin' the storm out to Elk Grove Village for an in-store appearance tomorrow at a Wal-Mart (801 Meacham Road, Elk Grove Village). If you can't fight this feeling that keeps coming over you when you watch the "We Love the '70s and '80s" shows, you might want to head out there and check it out. more ›

Oh, Starbucks. It is so easy to hate on you with your taking over the world ways, weird sizing (tall=small) and Norah Jones CDs. So very easy to hate. Which is why we were barely surprised to learn that you hate us too! more ›

We are guessing it is the weather and lack of activity, but we’ve been actively searching for good food-related events for the past month or so. This week is no different. We've also got dancing and book swapping, so get on it. more ›

Now that the Chicago Auto Show is well under way, we've had a few bright, shiny glimpses of what could be on its way for this car culture of ours. One of the most excitingly American innovations to debut is technology that could allow drivers to check email while on the road! Woohoo! We're sure it will take a few years for Chicago aldermen to notice it and ban it, so you've got some time... more ›

Predicting the actions of the city and county boards is nearly impossible. One never really knows who will be arrested on corruption charges this week, what sort of zany plan alderman will propose next, or as we recently learned, how easily sensitive data can magically go missing. more ›

After speculation over who will be the "special guest" at the Robbins Family benefit we posted about last week, organizer Jessica Hopper announced today that local legends Eleventh Dream Day will headline the event at Empty Bottle on January 27 at 8:00 p.m. Also appearing that evening are Chin Up Chin Up, Bobby Conn, Life & Times, and Red-Eyed Legends. Plus, they'll be raffling off lots of goodies. Here's the list so far: * VIP... more ›

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-a-verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is... more ›

Yesterday, Chicagoist took a trip over to the Tower Records downtown, where it’s all over but the shoutin’. If you wanted to own the complete Tony Orlando and Dawn series on 3 DVDs for less than twenty bucks, you were in luck. Other than that, finding recognizable artists in the dregs was a challenge (we managed to pick up recent releases from Cougars and Damone but nothing else held any appeal). It was pretty obvious... more ›

"little robin red breast" via runjenrun01. more ›

Last week had us blind with excitement, but this week’s slate – aside from some sure things - has us cautiously optimistic. After emptying out our wallet this weekend, we’re grateful for tonight’s free Mixel Pixel show at Empty Bottle. We’re still on the fence about the band’s album Music For Plants, which swirls industrial dance grooves around shoegazer-y vocals and Nintendo-inspired keyboards. But it’s the kind of music that gives white kids permission to... more ›

We love getting our blocks knocked off by bands we’ve never heard of. We love getting CDs in the mail from unknowns that grab us by our lapels (fully staffed by various band buttons, of course) and shake us out of the stupor that usually attends the hours-long sessions when we wade through all of the week’s new music arrivals. We love bands that sound classic while still sounding like no one else. more ›

Tower Records will soon be no more. It seemed almost inevitable with the ability to download music that the brick and mortar stores would slowly disappear. This weekend the chain that got us addicted with their deep catalog was auctioned off to the highest bidder. A lowly $134.3 million and she could have been all ours. more ›

If you missed the global sports extravaganza that was the Gay Games this summer (see, we've already *had* an Olympics, people!), you can still get in on a part of the action. To wrap things up and to clean out the closet, the organizers are having a mega garage sale. What might you find at this garage sale, you ask? "Items available for sale will include country and state banners used in the Opening and... more ›

Karen Hanson, Author of Today's Chicago Blues more ›

MySpace takes a lot of heat over being a haven for online predators and really ugly HTML coding. But without it, we wouldn’t have found out about a kickass music sale. more ›

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the... more ›

Sia and her backing band enter the stage and take their places. Sia is clad in skinny jeans, a black top, and pink suspenders which are attached to her pockets in the back. She proceeds to play with the suspenders while regaling an unhearing audience with something that appears to be a joke. She stands stunned that no one is responding and then realizes that the mic isn’t on. Now, on to the show. Sia... more ›

Could adult men actually be more complex than they get credit for? Is it possible that labels like "meathead," "metrosexual," and "yuppie," don't tell the whole story? Could lame marketing and advertising ploys masked as bonafide studies be any more annoying and debasing to not only the people they purport to reveal information on, but also to those releasing this asinine report in the first place? Chicagoist is not sure how. So many things come... more ›