Chicago’s nightlife rarely is without things to do. On any given night you’ll likely find your social media streams flooded with promoters, venues, DJs, bands, acquaintances and friends pleading for your presence at some event, half of which you have no clue about. With such a wealth of things to do in Chicago, it becomes increasingly difficult to cut through the noise and find something that is truly worth your time. For Marty Mars and Exbestfriends, they hope getting back to the roots of “good music and no drama” will help you decide. more ›

Even though it's their birthday, Do312 will be providing the drinks (courtesy of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Reyka Vodka and vitaminwater) and handing out the gifts in the form of tickets to Lollapalooza, Spring Awakening, Wavefront, North Coast and Riot Fest. Just make sure you get there early to enter the drawing. more ›

The Ratchet music series is always introducing us to new music, but tonight they’ll kick off a brand new bi-annual Composer Series with a month long residency by Cameron Pfiffner. more ›

Who are the luckiest kids ever? We nominate Santa Monica, California area High School students in the year 1964. more ›

The Chicago Scratch Orchestra is an ensemble of experimental musicians who use free improvisation as a means for sonic exploration and expression, and they’re coming together tonight to play Links Hall. more ›

Chicago’s experimental-pop trio volcano! has been mostly dormant for the past few years, but they’re returning refreshed this spring with a new album, Piñata, and it was well worth the wait. more ›

Treated. more ›

We love The Cribs. But do the kids love The Cribs? File under: everyone's a critic. more ›

First, we've been quiet on this subject for far too long, but WE LOVE PURRFECT THE CAT. To those not in the know, Purrfect is the surprise breakout star of NBC's The Voice. Seriously, that cat has gotten more attention than any of the actual contestants (sorry Jamie). Of course there might be a bit of nepotism at play here since Purrfect belongs to Cee Lo Green, but we're not going to complain about being introduced to this wondrous creature. more ›

We've been watching classically trained violinist Emily Wells for a while now, ever since a Millennium Park lunchtime concert in 2009 where we saw a girl who could jump from instrument to instrument and just as easily turn pretty much any item into an instrument. At that time, she was catching attention with a unique classical/hip-hop hybrid cover of Biggie Smalls’ “Juicy,” but her story really starts as a teen who was fending off major label advances. The girl’s got talent for sure, but she’s also got smarts--she turned down all those offers to hang on to one little thing: creative control. more ›

+(PLUS) Fest is basically a multi-city party to celebrate the release Bacardi+. Yeah, it's a marketing thing, but at least they're doing so in a way we can get excited about. On May 4 they're putting on ten free concerts in ten U.S. cities with more than 40 acts performing. The focus is on dancing with electronic acts and DJs forming the bills. Even Chicago's own Hood Internet is getting in on the act and performing in Las Vegas during the event. more ›

New Zealand's The Naked And Famous brought their dance rock through town for a stop at The Vic on April 15 to a wildly enthusiastic crowd. The band only has a single album to their name but the set felt like a greatest hits set from a bygone era. (And by bygone, we mean about 120 Minutes into the past.) While The Naked And Famous aren't pedling anything particularly new, music-wise, they know exactly what they should be plaing and they play it well. Hook after hook was augmented by a simple yet inventive light show to create an intimate concert experience that felt worthy of an arena. more ›

The band's sophomore effort Great Ideas In Action takes the promise of their debut, douses it in gasoline and bourbon and then gleefully lights a match to ignite pandemonium. more ›

The Drums are rather skilled at taking skeletal but catchy tunes that get you to sing along happily with until you realize just what it is you're singing. On their sophomore effort, Portamento, they mine, almost obsessively, the territory of unrequited or doomed love. The tone is that of a teenager's bedroom, cloaked in darkness with peeling tape holding together the makeshift wallpaper of a hundred band posters. There are please ringing throughout that since death is final you should love me tonight, or of lovers bound together by the knowledge that apart they wouldn't have a clue as to what to do, and that's not a good thing. more ›

Do-Division has updated its already-impressive line-up, adding an array of local and national acts that sets it apart from the multitude of street fests. more ›

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

The Empty Bottle and Ad Hoc are teaming up to present Banter, a new series that celebrates experimental music and intelligent discourse by mingling art, informative presentations, live music and, of course, dancing. more ›

One of Chicago's most singular, distinctive bands is post-everything act Anatomy of Habit, who concoct a delectable sonic witches' brew comprised of doom metal, shoegazer, goth, industrial, ambient, and hardcore. A new EP is reportedly on the way. more ›

For an electronic music duo named Modeselektor, it's fitting that their music has long navigated countless electronic (and sometimes non-electronic) genres. Members Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary borrow from everything from techno to drum 'n bass to dubstep to IDM and more, marking an attuned sense of the world of electronic music as a whole. Over the course of their 16-year career, Bronsert and Szary have built a name as one of the world's premiere live acts, as evidenced by their performance at Coachella just last weekend. In between their encore performance at Coachella this Sunday, Modeselektor have decided to embark upon Chicago for a gig at Metro on Saturday. more ›

While we're stoked to see FUN. go from playing Schubas to selling out concerts across the U.S and steal the #1 spot on the charts from Justin Bieber, we can't say we're surprised. (Though we'restill stinging from that GLEE! integration but hey, a buck's a buck, right?) Now that the teenyboppers have finally embraced the band this parody comes out for those of us, ahem, in our later years. We've always identified with the band's songs of identity struggles and heartbreak, but these lyrics really hit home! more ›

In the time that's passed between Tan Lines' first single four years ago and their recent debut full-length, Mixed Emotions, not much about Tanlines has changed--which is actually just fine. more ›

Well, that didn't take long. more ›

In 1972, Italian artist Adriano Celentano recorded the song "Prisencolinensinainciusol," to moderate popular success, including a television broadcast and inclusion on both an album and a compilation album Celentano has said that the song is about the incommunicability of modern times, and argued that the only word we need is prisencolinensinainciusol, which he claims means "universal love." more ›

Late last night the first wave of artists were announced for the third annual North Coast Music Festival. The three-day event, which takes place in Union Park over Labor Day Weekend, features a mix of electronic, hip-hop, and jam bands. The first wave of artists announced includes Pretty Lights, Big Boi, The Rapture, Steve Aoki, YACHT, Dan Deacon, Maya Jane Coles, and Com Truise. more ›

The Double Door is teaming up with a handful of local acts to help make some cash for Rudy Carillo, the venue’s security guard, who was hit by a car back in February. more ›

On July 3, 1973, Ziggy Stardust announced to a sold-out crowd at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, “Not only is this the last show of the tour, but it’s the last show that we’ll ever do.” more ›

OK, this goes up for two reasons. One, is the song is a goddamn earworm. Two, is the fact that tween stars are people, just like you and me! more ›

Our love for The Naked And Famous is reasonably well documented, but aside from seeing them perform a single song at the end of their set on the rooftop of a hotel a year ago we have yet to see the band in concert. They're still touring on the power of their debut Passive Me, Aggressive you, so there's no new material per se, but we did get our hands on a remix of "No Way' by Bloc Party's Russell Lissack. They swing through Chicago this weekend to play The Vic on Sunday, April 15, and you can exect to see us in the crowd as we procrastinate filling out our tax forms. more ›

Chicagoist Mix Series is an ongoing feature that profiles local DJs/producers and features a mix compiled exclusively for Chicagoist. This is mix No. 15, brought to you by Kid Color, who was recently announced as one of the acts at Lollapalooza 2012. more ›

Unicycle Loves You released a new music video for their latest album’s opening track, “Garbage Dump,” and it involves a whole lot of costumes and dancing. more ›