We hope Eleventh Dream Day -- the Chicago quartet of Rick Rizzo, Janet Beveridge Bean, Douglas McCombs and Mark Greenberg -- never move out of their parents' metaphorical basement. The band's forthcoming Riot Now!, their tenth release in an over two decade-long career, features a band seemingly in possession of a flask of the rejuvenating waters from the fountain of youth. Download "Satellite" and check out the goodness for yourself. more ›

We've been feeling a tad nostalgic for the '90s lately (even if Liz Phair doesn't share our sentiment) so when Jon called us all into his office to watch this 1990 Dutch documentary on Chicago legends Green and Eleventh Dream Day we were seated in front of his wide-screen computer with a bag of freshly popped popcorn in no time. The hair! The noise! The fonts! House music versus hip-hop! The Chicago music scene! Dig it. more ›

The Horse's Ha, centered around The Zincs Jim Elkington and Freakwater/Eleventh Dream Day's Janet Beveridge Bean, is one of those quiet affairs steeped in an intimate countrified folksiness. That's how we would describe it to an outsider at least. To everyone else familiar with either's work we'd say it sounds exactly like what one would expect were The Zincs' and Freakwater's songs to get together and make babies. Exactly like that. Their debut Of The Cathmawr Yards is filled with all kinds of fragile little gems just begging for your attention. more ›

At first we wondered how a bus-full of rowdy Hideout regulars -- musicians, employees, and employees -- would be greeted by a city like D.C. We pictured streams of lobbyists and grumpy Republicans growling with disdain at a ragtag group dressed up in their finest duds of proms long past. more ›

The huge banner containing an image of President-elect Barack Obama and makes it pretty obvious that Hideout's owners and staff were pretty vocal supporters of the dude when he was running for office and are tickled pink that he's about to take the reins. more ›

Thrill Jockey Records turns 15 this year, and in order to celebrate they've decided to throw themselves a couple of big-ass parties, one of which already occurred in London earlier month. However, the label has called Chicago home for over a decade, so we're expecting the 2 days of shows happening at Logan Square Auditorium on December 14 and 15 to blow London's party apart at the seams. 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 ›

Chicagoist is, in fact, indier than thou. So obviously we lurve the radio that is independent. This is why we cried last week when we learned WOXY was finally giving up the good fight. However, we cheered ourselves up with the news that KEXP would be doing a remote broadcast from our fair city. KEXP is in town for the next few days and there live on-air schedule is filled with Chicago favorites like (and... more ›

Bloodshot Records has been up to some fun stuff as of late. First, they dropped an advance copy of the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vol. 1 in the Chicagoist mailbox and it's full of gems. We usually like more rock in our folk but damn if we aren't suckers for any version of "I Know You Rider." Linda Smith turns in a fine turn here as does Robbie Fulks on the following... more ›