You could call The Asteroids Galaxy Tour a commercial band since their initial break onto the scene was through an Apple commercial with their tune "Around the Bend," and recently they resurfaced with "The Golden Age" and its prominent placing in an international beer commercial. So you could call the band commercial. Get it? Though the sound the band produces, while slick, isn't exactly commercial. more ›

Did you enjoy the new video for Wilco's "Dawned On Me" we posted yesterday? We discovered there's more the Wilco / Popeye collaboration than initially meets the eye... more ›

Listening to Narrow Sparrow's debut EP is a little bit like floating through space in your jammies—part bedroom pop and part dreamy space adventure. more ›

On Wednesday, the band revealed the first single from their upcoming third album Pre-Language, titled "Replicate." Download it here. more ›

Billy and the gang dug deep into the pile of Christmas wreaths behind his garage and pulled out this gem from bygone days. It's simple, spartan and actually a nice little holiday tune. And, believe it or not, nakedly sweet. Between this, the SPRC and the recent re-embracing of the band's past, might Billy be on the road back into our heart? Could be! more ›

The Chicago kids in Unicycle Loves You won't let you hear all of their new album, Failure, until February or so of next year, but they're more than happy to give you a preview of what to expect with "Wow Wave Cinema." Between it and "Sun Comes Out (And I Don't Care)," streaming on their website, it appears they're hoping to share a nice huge bonfire on the beach while enjoying the Wavves tickling their toes. Given the grey days and blustery chill that's settled over the city, this is an enjoyable reminder that you can always enjoy a summer day through a good tune. more ›

Pretty Good Dance Moves may operate our of Brooklyn but they were born here. We've got a taste of what to expect from their next album LIMO, due next February. more ›

Chicago-based contemplative experimentalists Pillars and Tongues will be playing a special, intimate performance at Experimental Sound Studio for its Outer Ear Fall Series. more ›

I'm still digesting the self-titled debut from Mwahaha, but judging by the fact I've listened to it five or six times bodes well for my opinion of it. Admittedly after the first listen I was ready to delete it from my hard drive, thinking it was just another woozy, semi-psychedelic pop group -- a genre I truly enjoy but am noticing it's also becoming the default for an increasing number of musical groups -- but something stopped me from doing so. OK, full disclosure; I DID delete it, and then added it right back moments later due to the nagging feeling I was making a mistake by writing it off so quickly. This happens. One pitfall (oh man, here come the tears) of writing about music for OH SO VERY LONG is that you have SO MUCH to listen to!* But the upswing is that you're well aware of the pitfall so you develop an internal radar that keeps you from dismissing the good stuff too quickly. Sadly this doesn't stop you from adding not-so-good stuff to year-end lists prematurely but that's a whole 'nother story. more ›

Holy Ghost! have been putting in their time on the road, primarily opening for better known acts, to promote their excellent self-titled debut album. The duo of Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel create electro-pop that is infectious and fun and, unlike many other in the genre, feels fresh and playfully new. There's a definite '80s bent to their approach but there's an approachability to their presentation that feels ver of the "now." There's a tropical feel mixed with an urban feel in their music so I guess you could say it feels like your dancing on a beach with a kick-ass light show surrounded by beautiful people. What's not to like? more ›

There's something not quite right going on in the middle of the noise that Wooden Shjips creates. The quartet looks like a band of slightly deranged denizens from some misty, eerie backwoods. There's probably a swamp or something hidden back there. And the music they create does its best to sonically evoke that image. Each song has a solid cor driving it relentlessly forward, like a slug stoically pushing its way through the soil, while muddy layers of guitar pile up on each other creating layers of noise that melt into a single flow. An interesting thing happens when the vocals come in, their sound evoking wide open yet desolate desert skies. This is psychadelia in the sense that its inviting you to hollow out your skull and fill it with red sunlight, dust and sweat. You take that, retreat to a bathtub filled with peat and submerge yourself in the music and the story will tell itself. So yeah, there's something not quite right going on here and we find that rather wonderful. more ›

This week we check out recent offerings from Chris Holmes' Ashtar Command and Rachael Yamagata, ex-Chicagoans both, and artists whose paths have frequently crossed. more ›

In which we take a quick look at a few recent or upcoming musical releases. more ›

Local folk-pop project Está Vivo has been keeping it quiet since his January debut, but he’s back now with a new track, “Wonder Away,” and word of an upcoming album. more ›

Billy Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins™ are on tour and we suspect that all that time spent digging through unreleased material for their reissues has awakened some sort of nostalgia in The Bald One. The group's set in Las Vegas recently was steeped in golden oldies (and, c'mon, who out there is hoping that's still the case when the band comes through town this Friday at The Riv?) and their nascent Smashing Pumpkins Record Club is giving us glimmers of the nuggets we can expect from said reissue campaign. Last night Corgan released an early version of a classic Gish track, titled "Rhinoceros Version Two (Reel Time Sessions)," into the wild and it casts the guitar burner in a slightly different, organ dominated light. more ›

Last fall, rough-around-the-edges Chicago garage rockers Mannequin Men debuted two new tracks from an then-upcoming Hozac Records single. One of those songs, "Hobby Girl," has re-emerged as the first single from their upcoming self-titled third record, which sees release in November on Addenda Records. Download it here. more ›

Unicycle Loves You, a local power-pop trio, released the first official single from Failure, its upcoming third album. "Sun Comes Out (And I Don't Care)" was released on Monday, and it's a driving, lush blend of layered psychedelia and mid-fi garage rock. more ›

Nnamdi Ogbonnaya is a 21-year-old drummer/songwriter out of Chicago’s South Side. We don’t know much else about the guy, except that he’s involved in a bunch of other acts we’re not familiar with (The Para-medics, Nervous Passenger, Richard Def and the Mos Pryors, Albatross, Pisces at the Animal Fair, and Water House). Oh, and that he recently released a ridiculous album called Rotissabooty. more ›

Cinematic instru-metal Chicago trio Russian Circles will release a new record, Empros, on Oct. 25. The group released a first track, "Mladek," through Rolling Stone on Wednesday . more ›

Liturgy brings brings their raging turmoil to The Empty Bottle tonight. These kids may hail from Brooklyn but don't insult them by calling this hipster metal. This is the real motherfuckin' deal and it's beautiful. Their latest album, Aesthethica, is the sort of record you can really get lost within and have a good time. Of course we're assuming you're idea of a good time is standing in the middle of a tidal wave bound in barbed wire. The band doesn't form songs as much as they create ridged instruments meant to knock you off your feet and leave you as disoriented as possible before strapping you back in for a brief moment of stability before taking you out for a second round in a twister. more ›

Stepdad formed in Chicago a few years ago and then moved away but they return to town tonight for a show at Subterranean. You should go see them play. more ›

Fucked Up and Wavves both play Logan Square Auditorium next week and both bands promise compelling sets for wildly different reasons. more ›

Little Red hails from Melbourne, Australia and craft the kind of dance rock fellow countrymen Cut Copy have already made familiar to most Americans. They'll be hitting these shores next month to promote their album Midnight Remember but we have a sneak peek for you to enjoy to whet your appetite and get your mouth a' waterin'. more ›

Ume is based in Austin but you might think they hail from an English factory town. They traffic in a sound that fits rather nicely in the midst of the current revival of all things '90s the music world is currently in the throes of. They're particular specialty is crafting big guitar songs that are equal part shoegaze and frenetic shredding and tops it off with floating, sweet female vocals. This is definitely band brought up on equal parts 4AD and alt-guitar majesty, and while some could fumble that mixture Ume pulls off the trick of making it all their own. Their sophomore album Phantoms carries a familiar feel to it and its easy to fall prey to its charms as the songs blend together in one furious, churning wash. more ›

We miss when Deerhoof used to give their music away like it was a ticking bomb. That was back in the day before the San Francisco experimental rockers blew up to their current state of renown. But yesterday was just like old times when they dropped a free, downloadable album, 99% Upset Feeling. more ›

The guys from Finding Fiction work fast. This Brooklyn-based indie-pop quartet formed through Craigslist in 2008 and by the next year had toured the country, dropped their debut, and begun to cause a stir among bloggers. Now a couple years and albums later, they’re still going strong and celebrating the release of a new EP, Try This At Home. more ›

Tokyo Police Club is remembering the first decade of the Aughts by recording a new cover daily to correspond with each year. Today's cover lines up with 2008 as the band tackles M83's sublime "Kim & Jessie" and they do it up right. It's slightly sloppy but that meshes well to offset the pristine perfection of the source material and allows Tokyo Police Club to stake their own claim to the tune. more ›

Team Bayside High are mainstays of the Chicago club scene and to celebrate a prime slot at this weekend's North Coast Music Festival the duo's released a new song for free. more ›

The Cute Lepers and Something Fierce are two bands that are keeping the fun and pop in punk, proving that the Brit vibe is still alive and well. more ›

The Features' latest album, Wilderness, is on a label run by the Kings of Leon. This makes total sense. If Kings of Leon are to atone for their sins against music we can think of no better penance than to expose the firebrand that is The Features to the wider public. more ›