In a piece appearing on The Record yesterday, Dave Grohl weighs in on arena rocking versus club rocking and how to try and merge the two. In it we also learn that Grohl's very first live show was seeing Naked Raygun play The Cubby Bear! Here's what he has to say about the show: more ›

Food and music have a surprising, but deep connection. The spiritual nourishment of the latter can help inform the literal, life-sustaining nourishment of the former. (Listen to this episode of Sound Opinions with Anthony Bourdain if you don't believe us). For a group of Chicago-based punk rockers, including members of Naked Raygun and Rights of the Accused, food and music are combining for another fulfilling enterprise: Charity. 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 ›

Naked Raygun appeared at the old AAA Fence space in Wicker Park Saturday night for a secret show attended by a lucky couple hundred souls. A smattering of fans gained entry through winning a drawing but the majority of the crowd was made up of long-time friends of the band, lending the proceedings a loose atmosphere made energetic by the band's tight recitals of classics and road-ready versions of new tunes from their forthcoming 7" singles series. We've been fans of the band since the '80s and can honestly say we NEVER thought we'd see them in a room as cozy as AAA, and it was thrilling to be so close to the band as they performed songs that are deeply imprinted on our own musical DNA. more ›

We don't particularly like the whole "supergroup" concept, especially since it's usually employed by marketers eager to sell half-baked ideas by famous people (erm, Chickenfoot?). However, when it is a word merely employed to describe a bunch of legendary folks getting together with no pretensions, then we're O.K. with it. more ›

Baby, it's cold outside ... but Chicago's brightest musical talent is on display at a cozy venue near you. Here are some solid bets for this week: more ›

SXSW just released their full band list and the number of Chicago bands is really encouraging as far as supporting the national impact of our little scene. It's also a good indicator of just how genre-less Chicago is, since the bands range from punk, hip-hop, pop, math-rock, metal, and good ol' fashioned "college rock." It could haave easily been predicted that bands like OFFICE, The Redwalls, Sybris, and The 1900s were in, but big ups to local metal crew Bible Of The Devil and the overlooked and uncategorizable Tub Ring for being selected. And Yakuza? They picked the punk-jazz-metal of Yakuza? Awesome.We're shocked but pleased to see see Naked Raygun will be making a trek down to Austin, but we're really surprised to see Joan Of Arc heading South. Who knew they were still active? more ›

The first time we met MagnaFUx's singer, Matt Bessemer, was in college. One moment we were at a party, sitting on a couch, chatting up an attractive coed, and then the next moment we were suddenly underneath the now upside down couch we were sitting on. As we crawled out there was Bessemer, giggling and saying, "Yeah, that's kind of what I thought it would look like." more ›

The main tickets going on sale are Cubs tickets, but for those of us who prefer our activities in smaller bars than Wrigley and usually during the night time so our precious flesh doesn’t burn, here are a few choices for dropping some Benjamins. more ›

Diggin’ that warm weather? Yeah, we are too. Honestly, though, it kind of scares us too. Whenever we start to think too hard about that (or that whole “infinity” concept) we like to distract ourselves with live music. Here’s the notable stuff going on sale this week. Bloc Party’s A Weekend In The City isn’t quite knocking us the fuck out as hard as their debut did, but by the time they roll through town... more ›

Naked Raygun made a “surprise” appearance at Subterranean last Saturday night, although the surprise was thinly veiled at best. Word spread quickly in the weeks before, and the result was that both levels of Subterranean were packed to the bursting point with rabid fans both new and old. This was the one chance “regular folk” were going to have a chance to see Naked Raygun play in a room this size in, well, forever, so folks were suitably amped for the experience. more ›

Chocolate, Peace and Music. We can't think of any better combination. The information on the events are below. As always, feel free to add additional events in the comments section. more ›

When we heard that The Blue Meanies are playing Double Door, and Naked Raygun is playing Subterranean next week, we thought the local music news couldn't get any better. more ›

After a week jam-packed with shows, we're not surprised that this weekend finds us wishing that payday hadn't been so long ago. Did you know Morrissey is making his only 2006 appearance in North America here in Chicago? We feel like it’s all we’ve heard about all week. But it’s true. Except for when he played SXSW back in March. So, not as special now. But still: Morrissey! Still spelling cranky as s-u-a-v-e after all... more ›

Since we're so popular for spilling the beans about last night's Naked Raygun show at Cobra, we figured we'd go all "Oops, I did it again" on you. Tonight Urge Overkill are opening for Suffrajett. What? You don't care? Huh. Well, we don't either, really. We saw Urge over the summer and left us very "meh," even though the keyboardist was doing a pretty wicked Captain, from The Captain & Tennille, impression. We do... more ›

Frankly, Chicagoist has grown sick of the whole yuppie versus hipster versus Gamera versus Donkey Kong debate so we decided to investigate whether or not it was even possible for all of these groups to coexist peacefully. We found our answer in the most unlikely location. Liar’s Club. Chicagoist has hung out at Liar’s Club pretty much since it opened and we can even be found in the DJ booth from time to time. Amongst... more ›