Home is where the heart is so they say, and being that many of us grew up here in the big city, or have transplanted and now consider it home, we stay on our own turf when the holiday season rolls around. Luckily for us there are a merry myriad of magnificent musical events taking place over the holiday weekend. Take a gander at some of our favorites and spread the holiday cheer accordingly: more ›

It was a good year for live music in Chicago so we asked a couple members of our music writing team to pipe in with their personal favorite moments. more ›

Featuring 127 tracks, Live from the Old Town School will be available Dec. 13. more ›

Pork, booze, and record bins. These are a few of our favorite things. The folks from Schubas are bringing all three together at their first annual Pig, Swig and Record Dig. more ›

Moresland isn't just for music, it also is one of the better comfort food spots in Rogers Park. more ›

Disappears guitarist Jonathan Van Herik updates us on the band's new material, their summer tour plans, and what's in store for record number three, which they plan to record in Hoboken, New Jersey later this year. more ›

Grails are an instrumental rock band from Portland, Oregon, with an extensive discography suggesting that, contrary to popular belief, Portland is not where young people go to retire. Rather, Portland is where you go to make eclectic, genre-busting instrumental music. Deep Politics, the trio's latest, is a blend of down tempo electronics, expansive arrangements versed in film music, cutting-edge cut-and-paste composition techniques, and prog-rock. more ›

When sub-genres become popular amongst a wider musical audience, two possible outcomes can occur. The first is that a style of music that's influential, if rough around the edges, gains a greater melodic focus and recording fidelity previously non-existent. For instance, contemplate the musical lineage between a Flipper record and Nirvana's Nevermind. That's a good -- nay, a great -- outcome. The second, and far more common, unfortunately, outcome, is that those influences are diluted to pablum sold to the masses. Without naming names, emo fans know how their scenario turned out. Luckily, the best revivalist bands can return a wayward genre to its economic roots without releasing the musical equivalent of a purist's screed. This is where the new release from Chicago's The Part Five comes into play. more ›

Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, better known as "Tricky" to most fans, left an indelible mark on the music world 15 years ago with his game-changing 1995 classic album Maxinquaye, which won England's coveted Mercury Prize and was named NME's album of the year. Tricky also had his hands in one of our favorite groups here at the Chicagoist offices, Massive Attack; having rapped on their critically acclaimed debut Blue Lines. more ›

Let's face it, there is a lot to like about Sweden. Delicious Meatballs, lingonberries, lutefisk, great films like Let the Right One In and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, reasonable minimalist furniture from Ikea and lest we not forget, The Muppets' own culinary master himself: The Swedish Chef. That being said, we are also big fans of what those Swedes do musically. That's why we're excited Junip is coming to town. more ›

Let's face it, this past summer was a hot one. Probably the most sweltering summers one we've had in a long time; so when Chicagoist took to cover The 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival we left most nights crazy dirty and sweaty only to retreat to our air-conditioned bedrooms instead of a late-night, booze-drenched after show. One after show that we particularly regretted missing was one of our favorite artists to come out of the art-rock Brooklyn scene: Bear in Heaven. more ›

Chicago music fans, get ready to whet your whistle. Two of Chicago’s best underground music depots are giving it a go. CHIRP, otherwise known as the online-streaming Chicago Independent Radio Project, and Coach House Sounds, the analog-taping, digital streaming live music outlet we profiled earlier in the summer, are teaming up. more ›

Monday is usually the night to stay in and couch. This Monday was a night worth putting on some pants and making it out of our ice-cream-eating, re-run watching den of sloth, have a buck-fifty PBR and see a free show and the reformation of one of Chicago’s great local acts. more ›

Lady GaGa is far from the only queer-friendly musician coming to the Windy City this winter/early spring. Check out these recommendations for five very good, gay-ish live shows we're looking forward to in the coming months, including La Roux, Miike Snow and Tegan and Sara. more ›

Wicker Park Fest makes its 2009 appearance this weekend and is slated to bring out 25,000 over the course of Saturday and Sunday. If three music stages and over 40 acts is enough to make the mob scene of hipsters co-mingling with Bugaboos bearable for you, then we'll see you at the beer tent. more ›

Another weekend. Another street fest. This weekend the annual West Fest closes off Chicago Avenue between Damen and Wood for two days of live music, kid and pet festivities and even an outdoor fashion show. The antithesis of the chaos formerly known as Ribfest, West Fest is the one street fest we can always count on for a relaxing afternoon. more ›

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Last week’s free McSkillet burritos spoiled us. All we had to do was purchase one little drink and we got a free breakfast? Suddenly paying for meals seemed like a sham. It got us thinking - where else can we score some free grub in this town? Well, seek and ye shall find: more ›

We were grabbing a granola bar from the Walgreens by our office this morning and came across these amazing treats. It was then we realized that we've been so caught up in the Leap Year excitement that we nearly forgot that it's time to get excited about St. Patrick's Day. While most of our non-Irish friends celebrate this time of year by getting drunk on green beer and acting like idiots, we like to think we actually do pay proper respect to our Irish ancestors by cooking up a nice Irish stew and flipping through our family tree notes. Of course, our great, great, great grandfather was an Irish moonshiner (true story!) so there is some overlap. more ›

Clayton Hauck, Chicago's everywhere-at-once nightlife photographer, has released the results of a reader's poll he ran to discern which clubs, DJs, promoters, and bands are at the top of The People's list. It's hardly a scientific poll, and Hauck even admits that when it came to the promoter results there was probably more than a little ballot box stuffing, but we find it interesting as it functions as a good peek into the indie-rock dance micro-scene. And this is the scene, one could argue, driving the majority of the musically related social activity in our fair city these days, so we also find it interesting as an indicator of where things might be heading. more ›

Today we continue our series of letting you know about the New Year's Eve packages being offered by local restaurants so that you have enough information to make a decision and not wait until the last minute to grab a table. In case you missed yesterday's installment, we've linked to it here for your review. Vegetarians rejoice! Green Zebra will offer an all vegetarian, 5 course tasting menu priced at $75 per person, with an... more ›

It's National Leftovers Weekend, and while the food you're downing may not be entirely fresh, the live music you check out can be if you're hitting up the Bottle on Sunday night for Tiger Surprise. Some of Chicago's finer players comprise this 5-piece ambient pop group, whose expansive song structures and pinpoint musicianship recall everything from Radiohead to Grizzly Bear to The Police. Flying a bit under the radar thus far, Chicagoist thinks that it's... more ›

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. Austinist attended a town hall meeting about proposed noise ordinances that could undermine the city's future as the Live Music Capital of the World, and lamented the possible loss of Texas's only feminist bookstore. Throughout the week, they interviewed a bunch of indie fashion designers and D-I-Y websites—Etsy, Ornamental Things, 31 Corn Lane, and Aorta Designs—for the upcoming Stitch Fashion Show. They also did... more ›

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... more ›

Halloween, for some of us, is the most wonderful time of the year. If you're of the same mindset, get thee to the Music Box Massacre III tomorrow, a 24 hour horror movie marathon filled with spooky, scary and gore-y goodness. The third installment fittingly offers 13 movies (along with a short, and several vintage trailers) hosted again by Rusty Nails. Fred Dekker, the director of The Monster Squad (being shown this year) and RoboCop... more ›

We admit we rarely really listen to WXRT anymore — in fact it fell of out regular rotation sometime in the '90s as their demographic skewed older and mellower — but we do still remember it as the "big" station that really tried to be a part of the community. And while WXRT's playlist may no longer excite us, we do still appreciate a number of the artists they continue to trumpet, their devotion to... more ›

Rocktober is truly upon us. Usually we would avoid such cutesy phrasing for fear of falling into obvious cliché, but this year truly holds some outstanding live music coming through Chicago in the month of October. Here's a sampling of what to expect this week. Honestly, we’re beginning that suspect that both Matt & Kim and Dan Deacon secretly have apartments in Chicago, because it feels like they’re playing here every other week. If that’s... more ›

If you want to usher in the fall weather with an almost guaranteed good time, bust out your jeans and autumn jackets and head down to Division Street this Saturday and Sunday, where two of West Town's best attraction, the Renegade Craft Fair and Do-Division Street Fest, have joined forces for a weekend of crafty goodness, musical enjoyment, and plenty of hipster-watching. Held on Division from Damen to Wood, Renegade Craft Fair will bring together... more ›

As a boater on Lake Michigan, you're entitled to profanity-free air. At least that's what a group of 300 boaters and motorists, who came together to protest on Sunday night, are saying. They're, as the punny Trib puts it "honking mad" about the youth-infecting rap music that's been occurring at Northerly Island for the past two weeks. There were apparently complaints after the show on Aug. 26, which included Wu-Tang, MF Doom and Pharoahe Monch.... more ›

We all still love rocknroll...right? We’re still recovering from all that Lollapalooza coverage over here at Chicagoist HQ, but that doesn’t mean we’re too tuckered to tie into an old skool, roll-on-the-floor-in-stale-beer sort of show this weekend. The Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown will play host to the inaugural edition of Do You Still Love Rock ‘N’ Roll?, an eleven-band, all night filth affair of rock for the love of rock. Starting at 7pm and costing... more ›