Two up-and-coming Chicago bands sharing a bill at the Empty Bottle Monday have released tracks from their upcoming records. Download them here. more ›

So, apparently there’s some sort of outdoors-y festival type thing happening this weekend? First that we've heard of it. Whether or not you’re heading to Grant Park to check out the 3-day festival behemoth known as Lollapalooza, more live music may be the last thing on your mind. After all, you’re about to be inundated with the sounds of hundreds upon hundreds of acts. But, if you’ll indulge us with one more music recommendation, we’ll promise that it’ll be worth it. Monday’s show at The Empty Bottle features quite the strong lineup of live music—including locals Common Loon, whose praises we’ve sung before—but one act is especially worth your attention: The Delta Mirror. more ›

As the Pitchfork Music Festival gets under way, with heavy hip-hop hitters like Big Boi and Freddie Gibbs set to make their marks on the hipster populace, we can’t help but reminisce about past acts to have graced the ‘Fork stages with the ones and twos: GZA and Dizzy Rascal provided memorable experiences, to be sure, but the cocaine-crazy energy of rap dup Clipse back in 2007 served as an indomitable highlight. If you’re wishing that this year’s festivities had a little Clipse, or if you wish they just came back to Chicago in general, you’re in luck. Local hip-hop blog Fake Shore Drive tweeted out that, on July 29th, Clipse and local chart-topping speed-rapper Twista are playing a free show sponsored by XXL magazine at a secret location. Mysterious! more ›

While it’s certainly true that you can’t swing a dead cat in the city of Chicago without hitting a skuzzy, lo-fi and ridiculously melodic garage-cum-glam-rock band hailing the glory of fuzz and snotty attitudes, local quartet Mickey manage to stand out from the pack in several ways. Through the release of a single on burgeoning label Hozac Records, a 12” EP on FDH Records, and a DIY cassette that combines the two, Mickey successfully recalls the best of Bowie, Bolan and Mott The Hoople without merely recycling those bands respective bags of tricks. more ›

By now, you’re likely recovering from a drunken stupor because your boss decided that the best way to celebrate America’s birthday was to let you go home at 1:30 yesterday. Even still, you’re probably thinking about how to end your long weekend in the most explosive fashion possible. Fireworks-wise, you’re on your own, but if it’s music you’re jonesin’ for, then we’ve got you covered. Monday gives you to check out one of Chicago’s most intriguing supergroups: Shapers. more ›

Having spent much of the rainy, overcast and surprisingly cool weekend indoors, much of the city probably spent their free time scavenging their music collections for a record that would provide the perfect soundtrack for such weather. Hopefully, they came across Time And Temperature, the second album from Chicago quintet Judson Claiborne. more ›

Local quartet This is Versailles specializes in a lisghtly unusual blend of raw hard-charging rock taking a few slight cues from alternative nation shoegaze on their eponymous debut. The vocals are urgent and delivered on the cusps of screams mingling between male and female throatsof bassist Caitlin Garibaldi and guitarist Jaisen Ehas. The guitar leads of Neil Yodnane and Ehas are at time roughly scraped out of the guts of their intruments, and at other times they're coaxed out in lines of reverbed adrenaline driven ahead of the force of John Rugger's drumming. As the EP goes on, later songs allow the band to display a bit of their grasp of conventional melody but, honestly, it's when they're reaching into the hailstrom that their sound is best. more ›

The Cool, Lupe Fiasco's much-anticipated follow up to Food & Liquor, dropped on Tuesday to a cloud of bittersweet press. Some critics have blasted the album for its darker sound, wishing for the breezier days when Lupe's rhymes were all about meeting cute girls and skateboarding. Others question if the change in sound is a move in the right direction. more ›