There's no joy in Mudville, or wherever the hell Tankboy's DJ'ing this evening. MillerCoors has reached an agreement with the city of San Francisco and 13 Attorneys General — including Lisa Madigan — to remove caffeine, ginseng, guarana and taurine from its Sparks energy drink. MillerCoors is also paying $550,000 to cover the cost of the investigation into Sparks and whether it was targeting young drinkers. more ›

Hey, just a quick note to folks who might be suffering from the same syndrome of restrictive pocketbookitis a.k.a. anorexic wallet that we are. Tonight's edition of Rehab at evilOlive features free Sparks (with RSVP) from 9 until 10. That, plus guesting female DJ-duo Rocktapussy, makes for a compelling reason to get out and shake it on the town tonight. more ›

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined 24 other attorneys general in calling on MillerCoors to stop the release of their new "Sparks Red" liquid speedball alcoholic energy beverage. Madigan cited studies linking Sparks and similar drinks to underage drinking, health risks, and Tankboy's love of the product (well, not that last one). [WBBM AM] more ›

This week looks to finally mark the beginning of winter around here, and while we're not huge fans of bulky sweaters, digging our out cars from under three feet of snow, and the unshakable common cold, we do love the feeling of coming out of the freeze and into our favorite cozy Chicago music venues. Ushering in wool sock weather this week are three very special rock shows: more ›

With a Kevin Shields-inspired, Lost In Translation-worthy intro track, Airiel's debut sets its agenda and keeps true to its promise. This band loves the wall-o-sound shoegaze of the late-'80s and early-'90s, and we love the fact they do that sound justice without resorting to sentimental trickery. Many bands have tried to tread the same path, building up walls of feedback, fuzz, and reverb to simulate the guitar crunching glories of those hazy days. Most fail, forgetting the whole concept of wrapping those raging sounds around an actual melody, and end up delivering a soupy mess that bludgeons when it should hypnotize. more ›

Chicagoist has a saying among friends, "no good night ever started with Sparks." While we are totally in favor of beer (obviously), we aren't totally on board with beer that tastes like orange candy and changes the color of your teeth and tongue. Apparently, neither is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Attorneys General from 28 other states. more ›

It’s coming down to the final moments before Lollapalooza begins. We’ve emailed our Lollapalooza schedule to our friends. We’ve purchased a gallon of sun block. We’ve stocked up on water and batteries. Now we have some time to gossip about Lollapalooza. We don’t think Perez Hilton should be the only one to have all the fun while he's in town for the festival. We’ll start off the gossip talk with this one from finifinito in... more ›

Memorial Day Weekend is under way, so pull out the grill, set up the yard games, and put on your leather. For 29 years now this Chicago weekend has been synonymous with International Mr. Leather—a leather beauty pageant, leather and fetish conference, adult superstore, and cocktail party rolled up into one giant event that attracted some 15,000 leather daddies, leather boys, leather mamas, and leather girls last year. (Folks, that’s an entire town of fetish... more ›

At the after party at the Hideout for the 2007 Chiditarod, the teams that were beaten to a pulp by first-place winners the Corporate Dalliance knew one thing: This team cheated. They just didn't know how. One budding, future Pulitzer Prize-winning Northwestern student has posted a video expose of the ordeal that demonstrates the team's methodology, proving they always planned to play dirty. On a whim, Medill Journalism student Matthew Bigelow embedded himself with this... more ›

Remember that little thing we did last year with the bands, and the rocking and the Sparks? more ›

If you've been reading Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week" series from its inception, you'll remember that one of our primary rules of alcohol consumption is if you're old enough to legally order something like Sparks, Long Island iced teas, vodka and Red Bull, frozen cocktails, any drink that ends with the word "bomb," or any cocktail containing Southern Comfort, you're old enough to know better. So where does that leave all you folks who... more ›

Chicagoist has lots of friends (we pay them), but few of them are as able to turn our frowns upside down like former Ctrl-Alt-Rock popsters May or May Not, who put the wraps on a week of CD release shenanigans tomorrow night at Hideout. Chicagoist was a big fan of the band’s debut, and though we realize it sounds like an insult to say that MOMN provides more of the same on their Bike EP,... more ›

There's a longstanding quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin that states, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Although Chicagoist's belief in a higher power is suspect, we agree with the rest of Big Ben's wisdom. Beer - and other malt beverages - is also a much discussed subject among the Chicagoist staff. One staffer is obsessed with the alcoholic energy drink known as "Sparks"; just can't get enough of... more ›

We enjoy hot and sweaty rock and/or roll which is why we readily admit we’re rabid fans of The Riverboat Gamblers. Watching their live show is akin to playing a frenzied game of Addams Family pinball on speed. Singer Mike Wiebe takes his cues from James Newell Osterberg, Jr., copping all of his best moves sans cliché or ironic intent, and sets the blender to crush/kill/destroy. The band's first album was a cauldron of hotblast... more ›

We’ve got a lot of reasons to like Editors. First, they’re a Brit rock-influenced band that actually is British. Second, rather than going back to the Clash/Duran Duran well that’s rapidly running dry, Editors graduated from the Joy Division and The Bunnymen School of Romantic Angst and Longing. Finally, they have a song called “All Sparks” which pretty much describes most of our evenings out. more ›

Jon Singer, Mike Simons and David Singer of Intonation Music Festival more ›

In case you missed it the first time Chicagoist weighed in on the subject, WE LOVES US SOME HAROLD'S CHICKEN!!!!!!! We also love to do the housequake, but that's a story for another time. more ›

In case you missed it last night, the big awards show was incredible. No, not that awards show. We’re talking about the awards Chicagoist gave out to politicians for outstanding achievement in campaign commercials—The Campaignys. Because none of the nominees were present, the members of the Academy of Campaign Commercial Arts and Sciences accepted their awards (cans of Sparks, a drink near and dear to our blood alcohol levels) and drank them on their behalf.... more ›

May Or May Not, Ctrl-Alt-Rock band more ›

We were sitting here minding our own business trying to take a nap until one of the other Chicagoist writers pointed out that Kanye West is on the cover of Rolling Stone this month. more ›

Last evening at The Vic, Wired kicked off Next Fest with a show curated by Jeff Tweedy featuring The Handsome Family and Joanna Newsom. The stage was stark with only a white backdrop and a chair holding a computer that pumped the sound of crickets throughout the room. Chris Anderson, Editor-In-Chief of Wired Magazine, started off the evening with a few words explaining Next Fest's history. Jeff Tweedy saunters on stage wearing the shirt... more ›

When is a look back also a step forward? When an artist taps into the verve of his earlier work and uses it to re-assert his relevance almost thirty years after his debut. And so it is with the recent Graham Parker album Songs of No Consequence. more ›