Friday, April 25: Aggrolites at Beat Kitchen Cloud Cult w/ Mason Proper at Schubas - Eco warriors fight the good fight through haunting orchestration and deceptively simple songwriting. MP3: Cloud Cult - The Ghost Inside Our House The Acorn at the Empty Bottle - Sunshine + Earth + water = acorns. Throw a few tight harmonies into that recipe and you'll end up this namesake group. MP3: The Acorn - Blankets Ted Ansani Project w/......

Remember when there was that big launch last October of (PRODUCT)RED? And Oprah and Bono showed up at the Michigan Avenue Gap and acted like douchebags? Do you remember that? We do. We also remember seeing a litany of celebrities — Steven Speilberg, Christy Turlington, Mary J. Blige, Penelope Cruz — in advertisements wearing the (PRODUCT)RED clothing. And we thought to ourselves, are we really supposed to be feeling good about buying clothes to benefit......

"Solitude." "Mood Indigo." "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing." Even Mary J. Blige covered "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." These are all standards composed, of course, by Duke Ellington, arguably the greatest American composer of the 20th century. Yet he did not write his band's theme song, "Take the 'A' Train." That composition is by Billy Strayhorn. For 29 years he worked with Duke, shunning the spotlight even......

Ice Cube vs. Oprah. The ultimate Celebrity Death Match. Just come on a little journey of the imagination with us for a minute. (It’s Friday. You ain’t got sh*t to do.) Cube comes out swinging with a 40 oz. of Old English, a couple platinum records and a, uh, water pipe. The Big O’s throwing diamond earrings, toys meant for orphanages in Africa and a few of her “Favorite Things.” The tussle ends with 50......

In one of the biggest upsets at last night’s Grammys, one of Chicago’s most talented artists was robbed of the top honors for his stellar work in the past year. As unbelievable as it might seem, Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones didn’t win the Grammy for Best Polka Album. And Kanye West is gonna have a problem too, ya'll. Unlike last year, we chose not to subject ourselves to the Grammy awards so we’ve been catching up......