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 ›

Every time this year the ordinarily quiet neighborhood of Ukrainian Village at the intersection of Chicago and Damen is overtaken by a cavalcade of festival enthusiasts awaiting West Fest's hodge-podge collective of live music, pet and kid friendly booths, as well as your usual set of local food, bric-a-brac and art vendors. Past year’s lineups are certainly nothing to sneeze at with world-renowned acts like The Meat Puppets, Red Red Meat and Chicago rock veterans Urge Overkill. We must admit, we are even more excited about this year’s eclectic mix of live acts as curated by The Empty Bottle including such touted indie acts as Beach Fossils, F’d Up, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Chicago’s metal and dirge-driven Bloodiest. more ›

It's the return of our young Weekend Dance Party, and this week's spot is Saturday at Smart Bar where Felix Cartal will play with local deejay outfit Dark Wave Disco. Felix Cartal is currently on his Popular Music Tour and has been hitting clubs all over North America, showing off his heavily distorted, pounding dance music to adoring, unhinged crowds. Cartal resides on DIM MAK, and like most everything associated with the label, his music is hard-hitting and relentless, almost heavy metal in some ways. His sound points to the major shift electro music has experienced the past couple years, highlighted by the appointed hipster Kings of Dance, Justice. While we are teetering on the very point where this type of sound is overdone (at least in the context of electronic dance music), when it's in practice it still incites a significant amount of uninhibited footwork. There are times where we just don't care if it isn't hip anymore, we just want to have a good time. more ›

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