Via Prefix, comes video of Smith Westerns first interview since the tragic stage collapse at Pukkelpop Fest in Belgium, which injured 75 people and killed four. more ›

Local buzz band Smith Westerns were performing at the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium when the stage collapsed, with guitarist Max Kakacek almost being crushed as a result. more ›

We caught up with Yuck bassist Max Bloom and drummer Jonny Rogoff after their intense Sunday afternoon set at Pitchfork. more ›

The A.V. Club's "Undercover" series has a brilliant conceit: Take up-and-coming bands and film them covering a popular song in an intimate space. The stripped-down nature of "Undercover" yields some great results. But there are some duds in there too. To wit: Local hooligans Smith Westerns lackluster take on a Tom Petty classic. more ›

We’re always excited when a Chicago group starts to garner a bunch of buzz in the music world so when we started hearing good things about Smith Westerns describing them as a garage group wise beyond their years and full of incredible hooks we got pretty excited. Until we heard their debut album, a lo-fi mess that was so dense no melody could penetrate it and so unlike the descriptions of the band we were convinced they must have made some unholy deal with the gods of blog buzz in order to accumulate the positive write-ups. So we were honestly shocked (and a little hopeful) when the “Weekend,” the first single off their sophomore effort Dye It Blonde, turned out to be a perfectly crafted little piece of sunny, ‘70s pop. Suddenly our disdain for the band turned into high hopes. Were we wrong about Smith Westerns all along? more ›

Have you heard the debut from Smith Westerns? I have, and it kind of blows. I understand the vibe they're going for, lo-fi garage "pop," but the execution is flawed resulting in a collection of songs that sound like fuzzy third-gen carbon copies of each other. Despite that the band has been riding a wave of ever growing buzz over the last year. Now I haven't seen them live yet, and from what I've heard their sets are fucking face-meltingly terrific, but 99.9% of the people buying into their hype haven't seen them either so the only thing they have to go on is the band's recorded output. So why are they talked about / fringe famous / even worth my time ripping out a few keystrokes over them? Despite their album not living up to its reputation I have great hopes for this little group because a) they're young and still learning and b) they KNOW they're young and still learning. This little snippet from a Trib profile of the band underscores both their own self-awareness and the glimmer of hope that even Pitchfork is grappling with the music media cycle they've been complicit in creating: more ›

Lo-fi garage-glam quartet Smith Westerns have achieved a freakish amount of success for such a young band since opening for White Mystery at the behest of Alex White and playing house shows around Chicago. more ›

Who would have guessed: Stuart Murdoch has a pretty good throwing arm. Along with his Belle & Sebastian band mates, Murdoch—the chief architect behind the group’s brilliant twee-pop/“sad bastard” music—wowed a full-house at the Chicago Theatre Monday night. The 90 minute set had a bit of everything, including fans dancing on stage, an impromptu makeup application and Murdoch pitching Nerf footballs into the crowd (for the record, Stu’s first lob landed in the upper balcony). A day before their latest release, Write About Love, dropped, the Glasgow group powered through the majority of their discography... more ›

Kanye might be discontinuing Good Friday come December, but we thought we'd get a head-start on brainstorming who could take its place. As always, here are our humble suggestions. more ›

Previously: Day One more ›

The year's end is quickly approaching and as we reflect on the past ten months in music in an attempt to define 2009, there are certain trends that, for better or worse, stick out. Across genres, music blogs have become powerful influencers, launching the careers of young bands, but often buzz can backfire. The newest amazing act often turns out to be little more than inexperienced amateurs live. Or, in the case of the recent two-day, sold out stint from San Francsico band Girls at the Empty Bottle, a solid performance falls on an audience of deaf ears all gathered to hear that one song. more ›