MSTRKRFT at Double Door. We're so happy they moved this banger of a show from Metro since it means a) no little kids and b) the fucking monstrous beats of MSTRKRFT will be demolishing a room as small as Double Door! Wahoo! It's bound to be absolutely insane. If you like either dance music or rock music, you do not want to miss this. Getcher tickets now, because it will sell out.......

The last time we mentioned Farewell Captain we were expecting them to release an album shortly thereafter. That was a year and a half ago. Honestly, we had begun to resign ourselves to the idea that they might be one of those Chicago bands to record great albums that never saw the light of day ... but this Friday the world will finally be able to get its hot little hands on the band's debut,......

Sloan played Double Door last Monday and we were lucky enough to catch them rip through a blistering set in top form. After the show we headed down the street to check out Rehab at evilOlive and had a surprisingly good time. We recommend checking it out sometime.......

Crystal Castles create dance music out of brittle 8-bit derived beats and high-pitched squeaks and squonks. It's dance music for the Nintendo generation, full of dancing Marios and Luigis grinding up against ambisexual Sonic the Hedgehogs. For the most part their music is heavy on the treble and way in your face, and we understand that's not for everyone. When the band pulls its attack back a bit, it's pop side surfaces, as in the......

We saw The Midnight Juggernauts open for Justice a few months ago and were surprised at how much enjoyed them more than we did the headliner that night. This Australian trio takes dance music, injects it with plenty of proggy Pink Floyd touches, a heavy dose of glammy disco, and then latches it all onto the back of a hard-charging muscle car powered by guitar churning rock and/or roll. On album this comes across as......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Ex-Pres Remember the good old days when Jimmy Carter was president? No, you probably don't, but believe us when we say it was kind of nice having someone honest in the Oval Office, even if things in this country weren't exactly going too terrifically. Carter is appearing at Border's tonight to support A Remarkable Mother,......

There's no way around it, and it has to be said, but The Sleepers gleefully worship at the altar of Angus Young. Three to four chord riffs, 4/4 drums, and whiskey frayed vocals power this combo, smelling of graffiti, subterranean dressing rooms, and day old kegs. You can almost feel the sweat causing you outgrown bangs to stick to your cheeks. The group recently released Comeback Special, full of tunes about chasing jailbait, drinking......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Clubs Where can you see a punk marching band, a crew of breakdancers, and a rock DJ tearing it up tonight? Sonotheque hosts a fundraiser for Links Hall featuring the musical stylings of the always inventive and entertaining Mucca Pazza, the DJ skills of Chris Widman, the the dance acrobatics of the Brickheadz. Get there......

Musical contests that rely on public voting are suspicious at best when it comes to actually discovering or rewarding talent. When the voting takes place online, though, we have a hard time taking any of the results seriously. Metromix is running a "Rock 'N Vote" contest, supposedly cherry picking the best talent you've never heard of and, surprisingly, we actually haven't heard a bunch of them. A few familiar names do pop up -- The......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Seriously, there are so many bands worth seeing this weekend, we're making this a music-only edition of Pencil This In. Spoon Britt Daniel and the boys bring his coked-out Bowie croon to The Vic tonight. It's been odd seeing the band go from indie darlings that couldn't even fill Double Door, to modern rock stars......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Pop Matt Pond PA plays polite and well-mannered pop that thrills with its shimmering chords and bouncy beats. If WXRT really wanted to play the sort of tunes its listeners could really grab onto, eschewing sentimentality in favor or originality, Matt Pond PA would become the station's mascot. Matt Pond PA is the thinking person's......

While we're fans of Fu Manchu, we were going to skip their appearance at Double Door tonight. They always put on a dependable show, and we've never been let down by Scott Hill and his band of skater stoner-rockers, but every once in a while even we need to stay in and take an evening off to relax. Well, at least that was our plan. This morning, serendipitously, opener ASG's album, Win Us Over, made......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Burlesque We don't know of many other "burlesque festivals" out there, but we're certain that Angela Eve's Twisted Burlesque Festival is the first one to take place in Chicago. We've known Angela Eve for years, and have always found the breadth of projects she could simultaneously tackle rather daunting, so we're not entirely surprised that......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Pat McCurdy is one of those people who have been around forever. Seriously. Literally forever. His everyman songs appeal to a wide swathe of the population, which would explain his loooong-running Monday night residency at Beat Kitchen. He's sort of like a cross between Robbie Fulks and Jimmy Buffet, if you can imagine that.......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Spazz-poppers Hidden Mitten play Double Door tonight. The band specializes in turbo-charged melodies and, from what we can tell, super-short mini-skirts. How can that not rock? If you miss them tonight we also hear they're playing The Mutiny tomorrow, mini-pitchers in hand. 1572 N. Milwaukee, 9 p.m., $8, 21+ Wine We used to do......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music The Riverboat Gamblers fucking slay, there's no debate there. Lead singer Mike Wiebe channels Iggy Pop's figuratively red-headed step-child as he thrashes and throws himself across the stage belting out hook-filled punk rawk anthems. No song breaks the 3-minute mark because there's no point in pushing the riffs any further than they need to......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music The Dirtbombs, the longest-running project of Detroit garage rock legend Mick Collins (The Gories) is arguably his best. Their line-up of two drummers, two bassists (one of them playing through a fuzzbox effect) and Collins on guitar plays classic groove-oriented, hip-shaking music. Their 2002 release Ultraglide in Black belongs on our desert island discs......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Burgers: While we are loathe to actually divulge this information, the Dunlay's location in Logan Square has fucking awesome hamburgers. Almost as good as Kuma's, we swear. So it's no wonder that on Wednesdays the place is jam-packed with folks stuffing their faces with the restaurant's ground beef since today if half-price burger night. If......

It’s that time of year when our kids begin to get stir crazy. With the parks snowed over, and the temps discouraging any neighborhood meandering, these indoor play areas are godsends. The idea is that you pay per visit (or pay less by becoming a member or buying visits in bulk), and spend a few hours with your kid, playing in their space. Each location has huge interactive areas, stocked with toys you can ride......

Does anyone besides us remember Wolcott? That band had so much energy, combining Springsteenian grandeur with indie-rock passion. The only downside was that you HAD to see them live to get it. Their single album never did the group justice. Well, a bunch of guys that used to be in Wolcott teamed up with some ex-40 Piece Choir folks, re-jiggered the set-up, and named themselves The Quilts. They play a unique blend of Americana......

Man is there a lot going on tonight. Are you sure it's only Wednesday? Because it sure feels like the party is already kicking into high Friday mode. The last few weeks have been a tad lackluster, music-wise, but December is taking this year out with a bang! Here are just a few of tonight's options. Evan Dando resurrects The Lemonheads tonight at Double Door. We caught him last time he came through town and......

Lots to rock about over the next few days, from Modest Mouse at the Congress, to Bob Pollard at the Metro, to our beloved Hall & Oates at the UIC Pavilion, but DDaN's gonna keep it live and local this week. InchWORM mounts the stage at the Double Door tomorrow night to fire up the cornfield psychedelia and shambling country pop that have garnered them comparisons to Wilco, Sparklehorse, and My Morning Jacket. Their most......

We HATE the term Black Wednesday. We hold it in the same regard as other made-up holidays like Sweetest Day and Bosses Day. Growing up, we always knew it as "the weekend everyone is in town at the same time and gets fall-down drunk." Kind of like New Year's Eve, with longer legs and slightly less puking. Here are five spots with terrific musical happenings where we think the displaced weekend warriors will be few......

Within the first 30 seconds of last night's Meat Puppets show, we were asked, "You a weed smoker? Because I got this whole joint no one is smoking!" And, sadly, Chicagoist was not smoking up. But ... maybe we should have been! Whilst we were enamored of Los Bros., Kirkwood, we couldn't help but notice the prodigal bros.were worse for the wear physically. However they won us over totally. It makes sense, though. Seriously, they......

Tired of Halloween yet? We've been celebrating "Christmas for Adults" since some time last week and admit that the parade of costumes is starting to turn into one long mental blur. But we ain't complaining; oh no! We love it. One tradition we were afraid we were going to miss this year was the annual Local H-led Halloween show at Double Door. When we heard last year was Scott Lucas and company's swan-song, we admit......

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......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Chicagoist. AMEX Urban Adventures, because big cities are full of little adventures. Rogue Wave, playing Double Door on October 24th. World War Z, perfect as Halloween is coming up. Travelzoo, with its Top 20 list on travel deals. Busted Tees, where they're in Halloween mode! If you're interested in advertising on Chicagoist or any other site in our network, check out our......

Girl Talk, aka one Greg Gillis, has been wowing audiences from the Empty Bottle to the Pitchfork Music Festival with his wildly popular brand of mash-up wizardry. Just try to hold a stoic cool-kid pose when Gillis brings his one-man jammin' train through town in January, with newly minted prince of the hipster dance party Dan Deacon in tow. Metro, January 26, 7:30 p.m. (all ages) and 11:30 p.m. (18+), $16. On sale Saturday.......

The Donnas have finally transformed themselves into the female KISS, sans make-up (well, the Kabuki-inspired kind); the band excels at writing party songs, evoking bygone licks, and caring not one whit that there isn't an intelligent lyric in sight for miles. Unlike KISS, the quartet of girls have razor-sharp chops and an endearing sense of relevance, which only makes sense since it seems as if they've been on the road almost non-stop for the past......

Marnie Stern may look like a bookstore clerk or a Starbucks barista, but this Brooklyn guitar virtuoso has little else to do with lit or lattes. She's a metalhead through and through, having mastered such thrash-god techniques as finger-tapping, shuddering time-signature shifts, and balls-to-the-wall shredding that would make Eddie Van Halen blush. So what's this obvious shred-head doing on venerable punk rock shock shop Kill Rock Stars Records? She's carefully bridging the gap between the......