I appeared on FOX's Good Day Chicago this morning to chat about last night's Grammys telecast. Watch the video and let us know your thoughts on the show. more ›

This year a popular trend in year-end lists seems to be critics bemoaning the fact they have to construct year-end lists, but that they do so because the public expects it of them. This is bullshit. Critics love year-end lists; what the current crop of music writers is actually bemoaning is the fact that every year-end list looks like a carbon copy of everyone else's. This is due to two things: 1) Everyone likes to pretend that there is actually some sort of consensus on what constitutes a "best" album and 2) after a decade of fluctuation we've finally resettled back into a familiar music biz model of gatekeepers proclaiming which artists are worthy of mass consumption. more ›

*We're totally kidding. Smith Westerns could never write a song that good. more ›

Last year I observed that while there was a lot of good music still coming out, almost like a fire hose at this point, there seems to be a dearth of great music. This year finds me feeling no differently. There was lots of stuff this year to admire, and I’m not going to pretend I spent any real amount of time grimacing through stuff I had t review or simply grow familiar with in order to stay current with the prevailing tastes, both popular and critical. But as the year draws to a close I find myself shunning much of what I initially viewed as “artistic achievements” in favor for music I think has the actual legs to still pop up without me wincing a few years down the road. So once I finished my list no one could have bee more surprised than I at how it ended up. more ›

Needless to say, it's been a pretty eventful couple of weeks around here. I returned from Denver on September 18 and had a day to rest and get back to work when Marcus dropped the bombshell that he was moving on. The question he and Mama Gothamist Jen Chung had was, "Is there someone from within the staff who could replace Marcus?" more ›

As Tankboy noted earlier, today is my last full day as editor of this here website. I'm moving on down the information super highway to another pretty awesome spot next week which means it's time for me to bid you all adieu. It's been a fun two years filled with plenty of fun and surreal moments: Obama, Blago, the Olympic bid, and Mayor Daley's retirement just to name a few. But unlike the transfer of power that's going to shake-up City Hall next spring, we're getting ready for a change-over at the top here that will be far less disruptive to your reading. more ›

Today is Tankboy's birthday so we took him out dancing last night. Enjoy and Happy Birthday, Tanks! [via] more ›

Ahem. Well, this is a bit of a landslide pick, now isn't it? Nothing, and we mean nothing competes with Claychella for our pick for this week's Weekend Dance Party. In fact, there really was no point of finding a worthy competitor -- Lincoln Hall will be housing just about every notable Chicago-area DJ for this year's fest, which will be a 14-hour aural bender of all sonic wavelengths. Founded and hosted by Clayton Hauck (known for his party photography at everyoneisfamous.com), this year's Claychella will be the best yet, featuring the likes of Flosstradamus, The Hood Internet, Million $ Mano, Nick Catchdubs, WIlly Joy, Kid Color, Team Bayside High, and our very own Arts & Events Editor, Tankboy! more ›

This is the year where, in my opinion, a lot of good music was unleashed but very little great music was created. We've hit a stasis point it seems, where the music scene has become so varied and so wild that the end result is a homogeneity that makes it very difficult for anything truly astounding to surface. Sure, loads of critics laud the efforts of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, and I found their albums this year to be pleasant enough too, but how many people are still listening to them over and over again, months after their release? I don't doubt there are some die-hard fans, but I'd be willing to wager that even most of those placing those discs on their year-end lists haven't fired them up since the summer. more ›

Happy Halloween! Have you been wondering how your favorite politicians, Chicagoist editors and, um, Richard Marxes are going to dress this year? Eyewitness News Chicagoist has the scoop! more ›

One of the more inane rumors we've read today, but not the first one we've heard about Lollapalooza. The Sun Times' Bill Zwecker breathlessly reports there's a good chance LiLo could be joining DJ/girlfriend Samantha Ronson in the Windy City for the big music fest. Maybe she'll try to join Kanye onstage only to get booted off in tears, a la Paris and Fifty. Or maybe she'll DJ at the Burlington with our very own Tankboy! [Ed. Note: No way, José!] more ›

Police are still investigating what they think is a drug-related triple homicide that occurred last night in the 7800 block of South Kingston Avenue. [Trib, S-T, CBS2] more ›

Lauri Apple of Gapers Block asked me a while ago if I'd be interested in representing Chicagoist in a DJ battle against her / Gapers Block at The Burlington tonight. Naturally I accepted the challenge without a second thought. more ›