Results tagged “cmj”

The Empty Bottle just announced that Black Kids will be playing the club's New Year's Eve show this year. The band walked away from this year's CMJ as the clear winner of the "Most Breathlessly Admired by Bloggers and Mainstream Press Alike." However there's still no word on whether Black Kids will be this year's Arcade Fire (massive!), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (petered out!), or Voxtrot (fizzled before anyone actually saw them!).

Is it just us, or is this one of those weeks that never stops? Looking ahead at our weekend musical calendar, we're realizing we're not going to get any sleep until we fall into a Thanksgiving dinner-induced coma next week. Oh music, we do it all for you.

We're hot off a solid 48 hours in New York for the annual CMJ Music Marathon, so not only are we hyped for live music again, there are also a TON of bands on the road home from the conference making stops along the way in Chicago. Without further ado, here's a glimpse at the shit ton of good shows this week: Rogue Wave is touring both in support of this fall's Asleep at Heaven's...

If you're not off to New York for the CMJ Music Marathon, or to Reykjavik, Iceland for the Airwaves Festival this weekend, there's plenty to take in right here on the home turf. There's nary a group of more talented individuals in independent music than Matador Records' New Pornographers. Despite the widely varying solo careers and additional projects of the main dudes, Carl Newman and Dan Bejar (of Destroyer and Swan Lake), and dudette Neko...

You’ve got to hand it to the University of Chicago for releasing the findings of a study that calls out the City of Chicago for not nurturing its hometown music scene, right on the heels of the most lucrative 3 days on the city’s annual music calendar. The study examined the economic impact of the music industry on the 50 most populous metro areas of America, pulling together data like number of jobs related to...

The Hideout plays host tonight to two of Chicago’s brightest independent collectives, Skybox and Plane. The latter have been on the Chicago and national radar since their 2004 album Shake My Ground debuted at #42 on the CMJ charts, but the going wasn't as smooth after that. Fans and critics alike were puzzled by the alternatingly hooky pop and quizzical experimentation on 2005’s follow up EP, Hello More. Never fear, however – Plane has clearly...

The first time we saw Pattern is Movement live, it was a chilly fall night at South Union Arts. The band played underneath a larger-than-life-sized neon Jesus to a crowd of about 10, fully bundled in scarves and hats and down coats, sipping plastic cups that were filled to the brim with three-dollar red wine. One would assume that this environment would be less-than-inspiring to a band that was finishing a cross-country tour, had recently...

The You Tell Me Cookie of the Week goes to “some guy,” who suggested that we check out new Chicago transplants The Whole Fantastic World last night at the Darkroom. This dedicated reader’s description (“Spoon playing the Police as prog rockers”) combined with our love of the Darkroom’s comfy booths on our weekend-weary bums proved to be an irresistible Sunday night, so we took a deep breath, ordered a cocktail, and settled in for...

The Fake Fictions

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they're designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we'd say that they're doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you...

Elia Einhorn, Co-Founder, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir

Last night at the Vic, The Bravery took the stage with their new wavey brand of rock-n-dance. Are they style over substance? Probably, but we also believe that they are just some boys who are having a great time being rock stars and their performance demonstrated that. Sam Endicott spoke before every song to explain what it was about, but the lyrics don’t need much explanation since they’re just not that deep. Before “Tyrant” he...

Thousands of bands are formed in high schools every year. Few actually end up playing out at paying gigs. Fewer still get to the point of releasing albums and building a loyal fanbase. And it’s a rare beast that gets a shot at breaking out to a wider audience. Over the last five years, Troubled Hubble seemed to be working their way up to doing just that. But alas, it isn’t meant to be as they’re breaking up and playing their final show tomorrow at Schuba’s.

The Chicagoist Prize Closet has been awfully bare as of late so we were thrilled when the folks at V2 Records offered up a pair of tickets to this Saturday’s Brendan Benson show at Metro with Robbers on High Street opening. Both groups are looking to build on recent good press thanks to some high-profile gigs. Benson last visited Chicago in April on the heels of his album The Alternative To Love. Since then he’s...

Since we know that many of you won’t be able to make the Lollapalooza fest this summer due to insufficient funds, we’re going to try and keep you up to date on shows by some of the bands that’ll be rocking Grant Park this summer. One of the few Chicago bands on the bill is The Changes. Thanks to a spot at CMJ, lots of love notes in Time Out Chicago, and some choice opening...