Results tagged “hideout”

The Interview Show is a humorous monthly Chicago-based talk show hosted by quick-witted syndicated columnist Mark Bazer the first Friday of every month. The show is a similar format to late night TV talk shows set in the intimate space of the Hideout. Past guests have included writer Jen Lancaster, chef Rick Bayless, interior designer Nate Berkus and filmmaker Steve Conrad.

Writer Claire Zulkey is bringing the funny back to the Hideout for another round of her excellent Funny Ha Ha series. Funny Ha-Ha rounds up Zulkey’s funny friends for a reading of pieces they’re particularly proud of and a few performance pieces. Low-key literature plus a dash of multimedia from Zulkey’s husband, Steve Delahoyde, equals big laughs at the Hideout next Wednesday.

We can't imagine reminiscing first loves and past friendships without the appearance of the ubiquitous mixtape. While kids these days might opt for a CD, or even a .zip file, our fond memories center around hours spent alone in our room, painstakingly crafting the perfect expression of our teenage emotions onto a double-sided cassette tape. We mailed our mixtapes to pen pals we'd never met, slipped them into the locker of a crush and when we were scorned, our mixtapes became little plastic outlets for misery and rage.

Brooklyn's Pete & J aren't trying to keep up with the trends that fly out of their home borough every other day, and that's mostly because they don't have to. Who needs keytars or Nintendo sounds when you've got pristine pop melodies and the kind of killer harmonies that melt the hearts of folk fans everywhere?

Bloodhsot has hijacked this year's Hideout Block Party to throw their 15th Anniversary Beer-B-Q! Bands playing include the reunited Blacks, Bobby Bare Jr., Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, The Deadstring Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, and The Waco Brothers. And, as is tradition with the hideout Block Parties, the party also acts as a fundraiser and this year it benefits Rock For Kids and 826 Chicago.

Ew, this week's weather has been a dreary reminder that our all-too-brief summer is just about over. Luckily, we Chicagoans are pretty good at finding sun in things other than the weather. That's why so many of us will be at the Hideout tonight for Cambridge, MA's Drug Rug, a psychedelic pop explosion that'll lift the mood of even the mopiest Midwesterner.

The Fiery Furnaces may now hail from Brooklyn but they were born in Oak Park, sprouting from the fertile crowns of brother and sister team Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger. They've made their name creating markedly disjointed music, only recently cutting the artifice with steadier and more traditional drumming alongside the occasional glam chord. Their last album, Widow City, found the band finally channeling their weirdness through undeniable pop structures pocked with indelible melodies. To be honest, it was the first Fiery Furnaces album we honestly liked from start to finish.

Martha Bayne is at it again. The "Soup and Bread" mastermind is now holding Bingo nights at Hideout. Starting this Wednesday and running through September 9 Bayne and the fine folks at Hideout will be calling out Bingo numbers from 6-8 p.m., giving players a chance at free produce, sauces and other goodies from Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks.

It's a big week for Wilco. While Chicago's most popular alt-rock band wraps up the Western U.S. leg of their tour and gear up for the East Coast segment, their new self-titled LP sees its official release tomorrow. Of course, you don't have to sit on your hands waiting for the record store to open tomorrow morning to grab your copy. The Hideout, in conjunction with Laurie's Planet of Sound, is hosting a live band Wilco karaoke night. Featuring the Wilco cover ensemble The Late Greats, you'll have your chance to get up on stage and belt out "Casino Queen" or "I Got You" all you like. Then, at midnight, you'll have a chance to purchase copies of the new record. All it costs to get in is $5 but what price can be put on watching Wilco lovers emulate their favorite band on stage? [h/t Time-Out Chicago]

Annabel Alpers is Bachelorette and she's crafted one of the most entrancing albums we've heard this year. We hear praise heaped upon her like minded contemporaries like Bat For Lashes and Polly Scattergood, but while they are producing gauzy half-baked stabs at art-pop, Alpers is creating inventive soundscapes to surround her bewitching vocals.

Slowly but surely, the concept of Community Sponsored Agriculture is picking up steam for people looking to buy the freshest possible locally grown produce. Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks is one example. Growing Home, which also provides agricultural job training, is another. I can speak from experience to the benefits of a CSA subscription.

The Post-It note was developed accidentally by Dr. Spencer Silver. Were Dr. Silver present at the upcoming Post-It Note reading series, we hope he’d surely approve of the appropriation of his creation. Developed as an anecdote to workplace boredom, Arthur Jones created daily drawings on Post-It notes until friend and This American Life contributor Starlee Kine asked Jones to contribute to a literary series. Like chocolate and peanut butter, Kine and Jones quickly discovered illustrating stories in front of a backdrop of Post-It note illustrated PowerPoints (think: Steven Colbert’s “The Word” but with Post-Its) was an idea that was made to stick.

Maybe you’ve seen Alana Bailey’s Hideout calendars on the flyer-covered wall at Earwax Cafe, or her sold-out Hideout Block Party print on the door of Boulevard Bikes. Or you wrapped your holiday presents with gift wrap that she designed for Paper Source. Since 2006, Bailey’s recognizable screen printed posters have been decorating Chicago’s bars, businesses, and telephone poles with minimal, dramatic illustrations that balance intricate shapes with scalloped lettering.

We were at the show the below video was filmed at, and we admit we thought Andrew Bird was pulling our leg when he offered a synopsis of the storyline ... we should have known better. Plus, we will always hear this song from here on out along with the awesome swell of Mucca Pazza's brass section in a comfortably crowded Hideout at the climax of the song.

Life During Wartime is throwing an Inaug-u-rave at Hideout tomorrow, but don't let the title of the event scare you with images of spandex-clad hipsters with glowsticks since it features some of the best rock and/or roll we've heard in a while. Headliner Lasers and fast and Shit play heavy hooky borderline punk-metal with a DIY light show that has to be seen to be believed. These guys are so hardcore they build most of their musical equipment from common household objects, bent nails, and duct tape.

                     

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.

Starting this Wednesday and running through April Fool's Day, Hideout will be transformed into a soup line with a weekly dinner featuring three soups fashioned by Hideout staff, regulars, local chefs and maybe even a food writer/blogger or three.

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.

              

We have to admit from the very top that we've never really been huge Andrew Bird fans. We've appreciated his nuanced compositions and have respected his technical expertise, but he's never really connected with us on an emotional level.

Well, it's not on Hideout's website, but there are two shows at Hideout listed on Andrew Bird's site. And tickets are were only $20 (and still available for Sunday and Monday)?! What the hell? How is this not already sold out?!

Still looking for something to do tonight? The outstanding combo of Mavis Staples and Booker T & the MG's play the Harris Theater tonight for the Old Town School of Folk Music's annual benefit. Staples is also supporting her upcoming Live: Hope at the Hideout, a recording made this June at, well, the Hideout, that's out this Tuesday. FYI - the liner notes for the disc are by Time Out Chicago's (and former Chicagoist contributor) Scott Smith. As of post time, good tickets were still available.

Despite Starfucker's rather brutish-sounding choice of band name, the music on their debut is anything but aggressive. We think the term for this sort of sound is synth-pop, or maybe disco-pop-rock, or maybe it's just simply pop. By the time you fall into the band's trance inducing pleasures -- which we predict will be about 20 seconds into the second track on the album "German Love" -- you won't give a fuck how you're supposed to classify these stars' ditties. If a band can get us to overlook an incredibly lame song title like "Myke Ptyson" by replacing punny imagery with images of sugar-soaked children maniacally clapping and smiling along to little more than a jaunty acoustic guitar, then ... well, then we think they deserve a certain level of respect for pulling that off.

                                                   

This year’s Hideout Block Party had it all: blues, world music, stoner rock, deep country blues, puppet shows, political dissidents, robo-rock, the return of Neko Case in two guises, and a punk rock marching band. In-between all of this the organizers managed to mix in voter registration, political discussion, and a drunken spelling bee. The amazing thing about this whole package? Its whole purpose was to raise money for various community centers, primarily in the interest in improving the lives of area children, proving The Hideout truly is striving to create a sense of community through the arts.

              

We just couldn’t possibly do justice to Monotonix’s set with a mere couple of photos, so here’s a full photo set from their appearance last Saturday at The Hideout Block Party. This explosive trio from Tel Aviv – and explosive doesn’t even do their set a lick of justice – turned in a chaotic show that redefined the concept of crowd participation. Words just can’t do them justice, so take a look at the mayhem from inside the melee.

               

This weekend's Hideout Block Party had quite a few arresting images -- Monotonix anyone? -- but the unholy meeting of Michael Jackson songs, Robbie Fulks, Rhymefest, and a whole mess o' zombies threatens to be one of the weirdest and most enduring mixture of sound and images of the whole weekend. The choreographed dancing to "Thriller" was pretty durn impressive, and the make-up and costuming was absolutely terrific. Where DO they come up with these ideas? We'll have a full photo set spanning the weekend up here soon, but for now, bring on the zombies!

My favorite part is at 1:29. From our pals Mark Bazer and Steve Delahoyde, with the vocal stylings of Kate James.

This is your last reminder that Hideout's annual block party kicks off tomorrow. The line-up is the best we've seen the venue book and everyone we've spoken to is super excited about it. Tickets are still available, but both days are expected to sell out. look for us in the front row throwing our undies at Dark Meat and Neko Case.

Chicago has been particularly successful in generating a bunch of dance rock band worth buzzing about -- Walter Meego, Hey Champ, Prairie Cartel, etc. -- and now we can add another to that list with Parks And Gardens. This newer group doesn't really deviate from the form of loop and sample laden rockin' designed with the discotheque in mind, but instead of utilizing those elements to create a cliche they inject an angular artsiness into their songs. In effect this creates a minor agitation in the listener, and we think that's kind of a bold move for any band trying to ingratiate themselves with a crowd not particularly interested in anything beyond basic Sybaritic pleasure. It's this element that bonds Parks And Gardens with the aforementioned bands, and helps raise them -- and the Chicago dance music scene in general -- above the countless other drones aping the style.

Hey kids, look! It's YET ANOTHER scuzzy, grungy, good times rock outfit out of Brooklyn, NY! While the preceding statement is 100% true, if you took it at face value and wrote Cheeseburger off as just another bunch of hipster wannabe trendsetters, you'd be missing one hell of a party.

This month's VICE party at Hideout is going to be PACKED! Matt & Kim are the headliners, and we're beginning to think they might be more popular with the dance-rock kids in our fair city than anywhere else. They certainly get shown enough love for their simple keyboard and drum driven tunes whenever they play here. Perhaps it's because their songs are driven by a certain jubilant innocence that is currently so in vogue in Chicago's party scene today? Perhaps it's because even the most jaded and angry youth have a hard time listening to anything off the duo's self-titled debut without cracking a big ol' up-with-people style smile? Perhaps a clue can be found in shared bills with like-minded day-glo dance duo Flosstradamus?