Day 1: Lady Gaga, Mavis Staples, The Black Keys and more more ›

American Idol season 8 winner Kris Allen is in town for a performance tonight at 7:40 p.m. as part of the Old St. Pat's World's Largest Block Party (other performers this weekend include Barenaked Ladies tonight and White Rabbit and Spoon tomorrow night). But prior to that, Allen hit up the plaza outside the John Hancock tower for an afternoon performance for a throng of fans who sweated and swooned for the crooner and Tony was there. more ›

Spoon are currently on tour supporting their newest album, Transference, and will be making a stop at Aragon Ballroom on April Fool’s Day. They’ll be bringing along openers Deerhunter, the quickly rising Atlanta-based garage-psych band that’s been doing a lot of its own headlining lately, as well as experimental pop trio Micachu & the Shapes. more ›

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

The Pitchfork Music Festival rolled to a triumphant close yesterday with a much-delayed set by Cut Copy literally stealing the show from the headlining Spoon. A few scheduling changes led to minor confusion between crowds from time-to time, but the organizers did a good job of trying to constantly remind people where they should be and when from the various on-stage announcements delivered by either Tim Tuten or Damon Locks throughout the day. It was also the dryest and warmest day of the weekend, but folks were looking out for each other and helped each other cope with the bright heat that settled over Union Park. more ›

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off its 2008 edition this weekend at Union Park, and we've been highlighting some of the "can't miss" acts of the weekend on Chicagoist over the next few days. Today we'll tackle eight acts from the sold-out Sunday line-up. But before we do, you should know that Saturday and Sunday are completely sold out and there are only a few walk-up tickets that will be available for tomorrow's show. If you waited too long though, you can still catch a few of the acts -- Fleet Foxes, Extra Golden, Boban Markovic, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw -- for FREE starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Now on to Sunday's highlights. more ›

With the Pitchfork Music Fest a little under three weeks away, the fest has released its official schedule. And, frankly, we're pretty psyched for Saturday's Hold Steady-Animal Collective pairing and Sunday's Spiritualized-Spoon pairing. Nice work, kids. more ›

Well, Lou was already gonna be at The Pitchfork Music Festival (July 18-20) anyway since Dinosaur Jr is playing that Sunday, but now he'll be there opening night as well, leading Sebadoh through Bubble and Scrape! Other new additions are: The Hold Steady (squee!), Elf Power, Caribou, Icy Demons, Boban Markovic Orkestar, Titus Andronicus, Bon Iver, Times New Viking, HEALTH, High Places, and Mahjongg. more ›

Well, the headline pretty much says it all, huh? Although what is wrong with Les Savy Fav ... are they allergic to playing indoors within the Chicago city limits? Oh well, at least it's another three bands we're not going to mind seeing at all when Pitchfork descends on Union Park. more ›

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Ah, late February in Chicago. Cubs tickets go on sale today, there's a forecast for a high temperature above 35 degrees next week, and thousands of indie rock kids around Chicago will soon be shedding their parkas for high-priced hoodies bought from Wicker Park boutiques (tip: ours cost us $12 at Target!) for several worthwhile shows around the Chicago area. Lots of tickets go on sale this weekend. So, despite this crappy weather, there is, in the words of Spoon, "something to look forward to." more ›

Brooklyn-by-way-of-Boston quartet Via Audio is no stranger to serendipity. A couple of years back, singer Jessica Martins passed Spoon drummer Jim Eno a disc of demos at one of the iconic indie band's Boston shows, and Eno immediately invited the young foursome to record at his studio in Austin. That's a tale of near epic proportions, but critical praise for the group's soothing, bedroom-meets-radio-ready pop in the vein of the Decemberists or Snow Patrol has piled up ever since. more ›

It's the 4th week in January. Do you know where your diet is? more ›

The clock to '08 is ticking. What are you doing to ring in the new year? If the answer to that question is a desperate, collar-loosening, sweat-inducing "I don't know!" then here are a few last-minute suggestions. Everything listed here will cost you less than $40 and was not sold out at the time of posting. more ›

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure? more ›

We hope you're ready to hop to it because this week's EOYW includes shows that have tickets going on sale within the next 24 hours. Get ready to spend some quality time sitting in the Ticketmaster queue. more ›

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,... more ›

Braless and wearing an oversized white T-shirt with a hand drawn peace sign and the word "Love" written underneath it, Patti Smith humbly began her set with an extra-Jamaican sounding "Redondo Beach," fumbling some of the lyrics and apologizing to the crowd for being too excited. more ›

This writer-photographer had never been to Lollapalooza and came with mixed expectations. Fortunately, we seemed to choose our acts correctly, and between the tight sets from The Hold Steady and Muse on Saturday and the intense energy offered up by Iggy and the Stooges and Cafe Tacuba on Sunday, we left the weekend without any disappointments. Chicagoist was fortunate enough to secure a few coveted photo passes, allowing us access to the photo pits... more ›

The city's biggest music festival of the summer kicks off tomorrow, and you can feel the excitement building in the Chicagoist offices. However, we've had to put our cub reporters through some summer festival basic training, since this one blows all the others out of the water in sheer scope and size. The bands are the draw, and the primary source of fun, but there are a few other things you -- and our cub... more ›

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a... more ›

The first day of the Pitchfork Music Festival showcased three classic acts, performing their classic albums. Slint re-created their seminal Spiderland, and while watching their set we realized that they are definitely one of those bands everyone name-checks, but almost no one has actually heard. Kind of like how dudes in the '90s would talk about how awesome Patti Smith's Horses was because that was just the sort of thing you were supposed to say.... more ›

First we learned about Spoon's free show at Schubas this Friday, scheduled conveniently after Sonic Youth clears the stage at Pitchfork. Tickets are ambiguously hard to obtain, as they're only being given away via drawing from Schubas, Reckless Records or from WXRT. We were annoyed when we heard this, as we don't like jumping through hoops to get into a show. Call us old, but if we can't just obtain tickets through traditional means, we're likely to not attend the show. But we're a little disappointed we presumably won't be attending the Spoon show. We live for shows in small venues, which ensure you won't be crammed together like Blue Line riders at 8 a.m. and can get that up-close, more intimate experience necessary to really see a band play its instruments. more ›

The You Tell Me Cookie of the Week goes to “some guy,” who suggested that we check out new Chicago transplants The Whole Fantastic World last night at the Darkroom. This dedicated reader’s description (“Spoon playing the Police as prog rockers”) combined with our love of the Darkroom’s comfy booths on our weekend-weary bums proved to be an irresistible Sunday night, so we took a deep breath, ordered a cocktail, and settled in for... more ›

We saw this on Gothamist a few days ago and realized that Urban Spoon also has a mashup for Chicago. Each of Chicago's 7,895 restaurants are shown as a point on the map. Roll over the map or the names below to highlight a neighborhood. Click the map or the name to see a list of that neighborhood's restaurants. Bon appetit! Question: Urban Spoon says New York has 23,602 restaurants. Can Chicago really only... more ›

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When Chicagoist sees the ever-expanding restaurant options in the South Loop these days, we cannot help but be awestruck. Fans of haute cuisine or Zagat ratings can head to Custom House or Opera; budget-minded diners looking for something above average have Gioco and the Chicago Firehouse; habitues of cheap eats can head to Grace O'Malley's, Taste of Siam, Eleven City Diner, and Hackney's Printer's Row; the truly suicidal can grab a late night bite at the South Loop Club. more ›

This week in Chicagoland is turning out to be the week of updating who will be playing at what fest. Tomorrow at 8:30 am is the big Lollapalooza line up announcement. Official on-sale date for tickets/wristbands to be announced as well. We will be throwing something up regarding this as close to the announcement as possible - we can only type so fast while "working". We're still scratching our heads wondering who thought it was... more ›

With the Jonathan Richman show postponed, the best musical bet this Friday night is over at Metro, where Austin's Spoon will perform. Combining some of the best elements of Elvis Costello and Wire, Britt Daniel�s band writes simple, infectious rock songs that make creative percussive use of handclaps and breathing sounds. (Chicagoist firmly believes that handclaps can make any good pop song great.) Spoon put on a solid live show, to boot, doing strong... more ›

It�s summertime in Chicago and that means (at least) one thing: street fairs! That�s right, rub elbows (often literally) with your Windy City brethren and �enjoy� over-priced, reheated food and watered down beer, all for the measly price of a �suggested donation.� To you and Chicagoist, that means free. (There was a great article in the Reader last year about how, no, you don�t have to pay for street fairs because they�re on public property. So don�t let those intimidating security guards strong-arm or guilt-trip you.) The real reason to check out the festival circuit every summer, though, is the chance to see some incredible bands for very little money. Last summer, for example, Chicagoist saw strong performances from acts like Spoon, Hot Hot Heat, and Interpol at street fairs. more ›