Scottish trio The Twilight Sad are known for their sublimely depressing sound-swashes on albums like 2007's acclaimed Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, so it's no surprise their February-released third album, No One Can Ever Know is something of a bummer. more ›

The Empty Bottle, 312 and WBEZ have teamed up to present the High Fidelity Music Series, an intimate and exclusive music series that kicks off next week. more ›

EP3 is Secret Colours' follow up to their 2010 self-titled album, and it continues to display the bands fondness of sounds rooted in '90s shoe-gaze, '60s British invasion, and early 70’s english metal. more ›

We're not 100% certain why Apteka is calling Gargoyle Days their first full length album when it has the same number of tracks as their debut EP in 2009, but when a band is creating music this good they can call it whatever they want. We've listened to the album quite a few times over the last few weeks and it just gets better every time. more ›

Liturgy brings brings their raging turmoil to The Empty Bottle tonight. These kids may hail from Brooklyn but don't insult them by calling this hipster metal. This is the real motherfuckin' deal and it's beautiful. Their latest album, Aesthethica, is the sort of record you can really get lost within and have a good time. Of course we're assuming you're idea of a good time is standing in the middle of a tidal wave bound in barbed wire. The band doesn't form songs as much as they create ridged instruments meant to knock you off your feet and leave you as disoriented as possible before strapping you back in for a brief moment of stability before taking you out for a second round in a twister. more ›

The Psychic Paramount fucking rules, and you should hurl yourself with a 28 Days Later-sense of blind fury toward The Empty Bottle in order to catch their live show tonight . more ›

The Promise Ring was one of those bands that handily occupied the middle ground between college rock indie cool and approachable alt. So it's no surprise that Maritime, born of The Promise Ring's demise (though we're sure the band is probably sick of hearing that now, but hey, context!), fits into the pleasant enough category well enough to even win over even the possible haters. more ›

Soft Speaker's latest, I'll Tend Your Garden, is a throwback to the days when bands weren't afraid to rock out and sweat while staying smart about it. The tunes sound simple but that's because all of the intricate, intertwining pieces fit together so seamlessly you don't even notice how much work went into crafting them. The group mines the rich vein uncovered by the melodic adventurousness of pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd and Neil Young's mid-'70s crunch. more ›

We already love the Empty Bottle for various reasons - its intimate setting, an assortment of musical stylings, a monthly farmer’s market, and free shows every Monday night. Last month the local venue gave us yet another reason when they announced the launch of another free monthly concert series, Music.Friendly.Dancing. Named after the simple motto presented on their marquee, the new series is the Bottle’s way of saying ‘thanks’ to its dedicated customers. Message received, old friend, and you’re welcome. more ›

For those of you tried and true music lovers out there, those of you who are insane devoted enough to brave the 2011 Blizzaster, there will be music! A select number of venues and crazy dedicated musicians will be playing across our great, snow-covered land this eve. more ›

Today would have been Alex Chilton's 60th birthday. By the time the legendary founder of Big Star (the band) passed away in March, Chilton's influence extended across two generations of power-pop groups around the world. more ›

The Blow has been pretty stagnant these past few years. Since Jonah Bechtolt left the synthpop duo in 2007 to concentrate on his solo project YACHT, vocalist Khaela Maricich has been trying to keep the act alive solo, though with little success, some might say because without Bechtolt’s solid, funky beats to back her up, her vulnerable, frenzied vocals just can’t hold their own. But this year, The Blow is redeeming itself and coming back strong; the act has a new EP coming out later this year as well as a new full-length album in the works. She’s also about to set off on a small North American tour and will be making a stop at the Empty Bottle Nov. 13. more ›

Saturday night at The Empty Bottle was a true journey into the regions of "The Outer Minds." If you were looking to get your face rocked off with the vintage sounds of piercing '60s-inspired garage rock and the staccato pounding rhythms of a Vox organ, then that was the place to be for sure. Zach Medearis and his band The Outer Minds took us on a voyage through past genres and beyond. A full stage comprised of three vocalists, one loud-ass guitar, organ, bass, drums and tambourine was a barrage of vociferous, yet finely tuned music that arrested the crowd and even had some of them dancing along. more ›

Red hair? Check. White skinny's? Check. Bad-ass rock attitude? Check. Well, if this sounds like you then head over to Ukrainian Village's Empty Bottle on Saturday to audition for the newest video for Chicago's retro, garage-rock, red-headed brother-sister duo, White Mystery. new video for the song Power Glove. more ›

So, apparently there’s some sort of outdoors-y festival type thing happening this weekend? First that we've heard of it. Whether or not you’re heading to Grant Park to check out the 3-day festival behemoth known as Lollapalooza, more live music may be the last thing on your mind. After all, you’re about to be inundated with the sounds of hundreds upon hundreds of acts. But, if you’ll indulge us with one more music recommendation, we’ll promise that it’ll be worth it. Monday’s show at The Empty Bottle features quite the strong lineup of live music—including locals Common Loon, whose praises we’ve sung before—but one act is especially worth your attention: The Delta Mirror. more ›

With a week full of rain, heat, humidity and general icky-ness here in Chicago, some of us are trying to find a way to spend our evenings when outdoor activities aren't in the cards. And there are plenty of music opportunities to check out before the behemoth that is Lollapolooza hits this weekend. more ›

There’s something shamefully alluring about seemingly innocent girls talking dirty, as long as they’re of legal age of course. And that’s just what The Baby Magic does. The little-known local three-some delivers minimalist, catchy indie-pop contrasted by vulgar lyrics, touching on subjects such as boners, violent sex and scat. At the head of this shocking trio is lead-lady Mary Beth Brennan, who also plays under the moniker Baggy Time, delivering lyrics like “I want to fuck like a sailor” (“Ass Against These Hands”) in her cutesy, childlike vocals. 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 ›

Pretty much the entire Joan of Arc family tree descended on The Empty Bottle earlier this year for a celebratory show creating a mix-n-match of musicians both tangled and mind-blowing. The highlight of the show was a brief reunion set by legendary local emo boys Cap'n Jazz. Lucky for us their label, Polyvinyl records, recorded the show and has decided everyone should get to hear it. We have the free download just for you! more ›

Local quartet This is Versailles specializes in a lisghtly unusual blend of raw hard-charging rock taking a few slight cues from alternative nation shoegaze on their eponymous debut. The vocals are urgent and delivered on the cusps of screams mingling between male and female throatsof bassist Caitlin Garibaldi and guitarist Jaisen Ehas. The guitar leads of Neil Yodnane and Ehas are at time roughly scraped out of the guts of their intruments, and at other times they're coaxed out in lines of reverbed adrenaline driven ahead of the force of John Rugger's drumming. As the EP goes on, later songs allow the band to display a bit of their grasp of conventional melody but, honestly, it's when they're reaching into the hailstrom that their sound is best. more ›

Free Energy's debut Stuck On Nothing -- out today -- is already one of our favorite party records of 2010. Their appearance at The Empty Bottle last Friday took tunes that on album are already pretty perfect and upped the energy and grit by blowing said songs through a dual-guitar attack and a stage show that never slowed down. Throw in choice selections from the band's small catalog, a smokin' cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Hey You," a dance section singer Paul Sprangers dubbed "the dude pit," and you had the making's of a pretty unforgettable show. It appears as if the bro nation is already onto these boys from Philadelphia, so we're glad we got a chance to see them at The Bottle since their next time through town is sure to be in a much larger room. more ›

Chicago is filled with treasures like Dorian Taj; these are the musicians who have been around just under the surface creating great music for so long that people tend to take them for granted. That's certainly a shame, because it's guys like Taj that provide the underpinnings of what makes Chicago such a great music town. A Midwestern work ethic and a no-bullshit approach that drives some of the most enduring offerings from our local catalog, and Taj has done his best to contribute more than a few entries. more ›

Pelican's latest album What We All Come To Need further refines the band's approach to sculpting mighty slabs of atmospheric metal. The band started out playing dive-y clubs in Wicker park and Ukranian Village years ago and gained a decent following pretty quickly by being scrawny indie boys playing instrumental metal. It was kind of interesting in a landscape of post-rocker and proto-hipsters. But what seemed slightly gimmicky at first turned out to be based in a real passion for taking sound and making it into monoliths eclipsing their audience. While their music has grown ever more precise through the years, it's never lost the passionate base that makes it something more than simply stoner math rock. more ›

In recent years many New Year's Eve bills have sold extremely slowly -- partially due to the economy and partially because there hasn't been much really inspiring --- but this year is shaping up to be different. The Empty Bottle has announced that their shows with Jens Lekman at The Bottle and Girl Talk at The Congress have both sold out. And we're told ticket sales at a number of other venues are also selling briskly. Don't worry though, we hear there are still plenty of tickets available for The Gin Blossoms at The InterContinental out by O'Hare. more ›

Buzz has been heavy around 25 year old songstress Victoria Hesketh a.k.a. Little Boots, and while we've bemoaned the fact that her album has yet to be released Stateside, we're extremely excited that she's playing The Empty Bottle this Thursday. We've said she writes tunes that are electro-pop gems set to steam up clubs and compel rollerskate divas to rub up all over skinny tied boys, and that enough would get us into the club to see her. more ›

A collaborative product of Kenyan and American musicians, Extra Golden inhabits a musical place that truly values each part of its sound, often by enmeshing the strident runs of warm, hey-is-that-the-sun guitar work with rhythms borne from funk, American indie rock, and the vestiges of disco. After two well-received records for Thrill Jockey, as well as an appearance at last year's Pitchfork Festival, the group is playing The Empty Bottle tonight in support of its newest, Thank You Very Quickly. more ›

MP3: Holy Fuck "Jungle" more ›

Dark Meat comes to us from Athens, Georgia, but the first time we heard them we were pretty sure they actually clawed their way out of another dimension to spread their riveting gospel across the land. If we're gonna play the "they sound like" game, we'd have to say Dark Meat resembles The Polyphonic Spree ... if The Spree's dark undercurrent exploded, shredding robes and ears for miles around as it blotted out the sun. more ›

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Remember Adorable? If you do you're probably old like us, so let's go for a slightly more culturally relevant (read: Sofia Coppola approved) touchstone and namedrop My Bloody Valentine. Hell, we could check any number of Britpoppers with huge guitar rigs. more ›