Takka Takka's new album Migration features guest performances by members of The National and Clap Your hands Say Yeah, is produced by Sean Greenhalgh of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah,and it was recorded in Brooklyn. Those three facts alone would be enough for a reactionary critic to torpedo the band under the assumption that the result would be so infused with smug inidieness as to make it near unlistenable for anyone not wearing a string......

R.E.M. with Modest Mouse & The National R.E.M. is coming back to Chicago and they’re bringing indie stars Modest Mouse and The National with them. They have a new record (out now) that kicks ass. Like Stephen Colbert, we don’t think it’s a comeback; they never went away in the first place. R.E.M. has been, and still remains, one of our most favorite bands (in spite of the timid Around The Sun) even when it......

While the Field’s Fans are too busy protesting poor customer service at Macy’s as they long for the days of Marshall Field’s, customer satisfaction for shopping scabs has increased. An annual University of Michigan Study ranking shopper satisfaction among discount and department stores and supermarkets reported Macy’s saw a 5.6% increase in customer satisfaction, ending with a score of 75 out of 100 points. Nordstrom tops the list with a score of 80, only five......

While the talk around town has focused on the implications of Tony Rezko's indictment for Blagojevich, the national story has been how close he was to Obama. Although they first met in 1990, when Rezko offered Obama a job, it wasn't until 1995 that Obama worked with the developer. Obama was working for Davis Miner Barnhill, a Chicago law firm that represents developers who build low-income housing with government funds. In 1995, Obama worked on......

Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain announced the nominees for their inaugural "Golden Clog" awards on Eater Tuesday. Among the nominees are Paul Kahan for the "Chef's Chef" award ("for the chef who continues to make the kind of food other chefs like, while flying largely under the national radar") and Hungry Mag's Michael Nagrant - that photo is of his son staring down a 23-ounce bone-in ribeye at Harry Caray's, btw - for the "Steingarten"......

Yes, it's going to keep snowing most of the night. The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather warning, a lake effect snow advisory, and a short-term forecast that says "more snow." We're looking at single-digit temps tonight, but it should warm up a little by the end of the week.......

SXSW just released their full band list and the number of Chicago bands is really encouraging as far as supporting the national impact of our little scene. It's also a good indicator of just how genre-less Chicago is, since the bands range from punk, hip-hop, pop, math-rock, metal, and good ol' fashioned "college rock." It could haave easily been predicted that bands like OFFICE, The Redwalls, Sybris, and The 1900s were in, but big ups......

This time it's for real. Probably. The snow we were supposed to see yesterday is actually coming today and local weathermen (and weatherwomen) are predicting even more snow than initially reported. The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning until 6pm today with up to 12 inches of snow in the forecast. With temperatures at or below freezing, the snow will be wet, heavy and mixed with ice. Bleh. Strong winds are also......

Good news, snowbunnies. The National Weather Service is predicting up to 7 inches of snow today, starting around 2pm and continuing through Friday morning. We're already having a very snowy season--so far, 22 days with measurable snow, and we've racked up 30.2 inches at Midway (average for the last 30 years is 25.5), which makes this the fourth snowiest winter in 25 years. Luckily, temperatures won't be too brutal, staying somewhere in the 20s.......

Don't put those boots away yet. Photo by Jeanneg This morning's not-too-brutal weather is a lie. A lie! Because starting around 3pm, temperatures are going to be falling, fast*, into the single digits. It's also going to start snowing, and winds will be gusting around 50 mph. Overnight, temperatures will be around 3 degrees, which putswind chill in the -24 degree zone. The National Weather service has issued a winter storm warning, and remember:......

With this year's presidential primaries perhaps the most exciting in recent memory, the media, and the nation, have paid very little attention to today's Democratic primary in Florida. Unlike the Republicans, who will let half of the state's delegates vote at the convention, the Democrats stripped Florida of its delegates to the August convention for holding a primary earlier than party rules allowed. As part of the party's castigation of the state, Democrats have agreed......

It seems like it was just a few weeks ago we informed you Radiohead was coming to town. Now another alt-rock behemoth has announced they'll be making their way to our little hamlet this summer. Just today, R.E.M. announced dates for their upcoming tour in support of their new record, Accelerate, due out on Warner Bros. Records on April 1. We've always been big fans of the boys from Athens, GA. At the same time......

The Tribune Editorial Board released its list of endorsements in the upcoming Illinois primaries on February 5. Among the list are 3rd District Congressman Dan Lipinski (striking a blow to challenger and progressive blog champion Mark Pera) and tenacious ice cream magnate Jim Oberweis -- running for Congress in the 14th District -- who is determined to get himself elected to some office, somewhere, some time (we hear Sugar Grove is looking for a......

Now that the Michigan primary is safely behind us, all eyes are focused on Nevada and South Carolina. For Democrats, who need at least 2,025 delegates to win the presidential nomination, Nevada's caucuses this Saturday offer 33 delegates. Not only is the nation looking at the Silver State, where early voting is a new experience for a mix of Latino, rural and urban voters, but so are the federal courts. Hillary Clinton has been polling......

Typically we like to blame Canada for cold weather fronts, but this week's frigid temps are "flowing all the way from northern Russia," according to Tom Skilling. Wowza! Cold air is currently moving through Alaska and Canada and working its way towards us (purple = really cold on that map), spreading frigid conditions through the region until we bottom out with single-digit highs on Saturday. The National Weather Center says lows might drop as far......

Michigan defied the conventional wisdom yesterday, giving Mitt Romney 30 delegates to the national convention and his second primary win. After a short night that saw swift winner projections and prompt concession speeches, analysis turned to exit polls and voter turnout. Without much incentive to turnout and vote, Democrats handed Hillary Clinton a hollow victory, giving her about two-thirds of the vote and zero convention delegates. Dennis Kucinich earned about 4 percent of the vote,......

This was a good year to be a large cultural institution. If cuts in state arts funding and unstable financial markets made a dent in Chicago’s largest museums, they sure weren’t letting on. The Art Institute remained one of the city’s prime attractions, attracting hordes of frugal visitors on free Thursday nights to piece together Richard Misrach’s disorienting beach photography and William Pope.L’s naïvely charming travelogue, or to enjoy Jeff Wall’s mind-bending photography — his......

Yesterday a low-pressure system swept across our region, ripping up trees, knocking out power and pulling the roof off at least one house. We're feeling Harper's Index-y, and we're giving into that feeling. 11: People killed in storm-related car crashes yesterday 88: Miles-per-hour that winds were gusting off the lake 215,000: Homes that lost power yesterday 15,000: Homes still without power as of last night 300: Flights canceled from O'Hare 100: Flights canceled from......

Mattoon carved out a spot in the national consciousness yesterday with news that a zero-emission FutureGen coal power plant will be built there in the next few years. However, within hours of the announcement, the Department of Energy issued a statement warning that "projected cost overruns will require a reassessment of FutureGen's design," putting the whole project in jeopardy. The DOE had originally pledged $1 billion for the project, but the budget has ballooned to......

The "nation's report card" for public schools came out yesterday, and Chicago ranks behind other urban areas on reading and math for 4th and 8th graders. about 16 percent of the 2,400 4th graders who took the reading exam showed proficiency, compared with an average of 22 percent in cities as a whole. In math, 16 percent of Chicago pupils were proficient, compared with an average of 28 percent in other cities. About 17......

Many Wicker Park commuters are feeling a little less caffeinated these days since Half & Half (under the Damen Blue Line stop) closed up shop. Owner Debbie Sharpe told Metromix that the quality of the building is to blame. The good news is Sharpe also owns the Goddess and Grocer down the street, and Half & Half's delicious commuter sandwiches and pastries will be available for purchase there. LTH commentors prophecy its space may become......

The Rev. Jeffrey Lee, a moderate in the eyes of religious leaders, was elected as the 12th Bishop of Chicago at the diocese convention in Wheeling on Saturday. Lee was selected over seven other candidates, one of whom is an openly lesbian priest, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind. Theological conservatives are condemning the vote and Lee, saying it doesn’t demonstrate enough restraint in maintaining the traditional view that the scripture condemns homosexuality. And some are......

From the "things are tough all over" department: As if the folks at Jays didn't have enough to worry about with its recent bankruptcy filing, now two former executives of parent company Ubiquity Brands filed a lawsuit Friday claiming that they were fired in a corporate restructuring "without cause". Former Chief Financial Officer William McManaman and Chief Information Officer Gary Rietz claim their terminations are a violation of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection......

A United Airlines flight had a rough landing at O'Hare last night--rough enough to bounce off the runway and blow a tire and damage two engines. The National Transit Safety Board is investigating. Buh-beep! The state speed limit for trucks remains at 55 mph. CommunityHealth and Erie Family Health Center will be offering free prescriptions to uninsured, low-income patients thanks to a new program called MedAccess Chicago. Sometimes, City employees speed in City-owned cars.......

This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival. Filmmaker Brett Morgan introduced last night's screening by clarifying that his movie Chicago 10 is not a sequel to Chicago the musical. He was joking, but we could all use a little refresher on the events of August 1968, when riots turned the Loop and Lincoln Park into battle zones between the police and protesters. The chronology of the whole nightmarish week......

Intonation is back! And they’ve partnered with the MCA to put on a big ‘ole party as part of the museum’s 40-year celebration. Even better? The whole show is as free as air. Intonation’s Rock/Art kicks off on tomorrow at 1 p.m. with a whole slew of local bands, representing some of the most notable sounds to come out of Chicago in the recent past. When you get there, check out the new Sympathy......

In a report published Monday, the Chicago Reporter found that Chicago is the the nation's capital for "high-cost" home loans. The study, looking at three years' worth of federal home-loan data, showed that in 2006, "the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan statistical area, which includes Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties" led the nation, with 88,315 “high-cost” mortgages. "High-cost" mortgages are defined as first-lien home loans that are at least three percentage points above......

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,......

As all of us watch the terrible news in Minnesota unfold, many state governments are starting to look at their own inventory of bridges. Illinois ranks in the middle of bridge condition when compared to other states, according to an AP article in The Daily Southtown, with around 10% of our bridges rated "structurally deficient" - slightly better than the national average of 12%. Yesterday Governor Rod Blagojevich ordered immediate inspections of high-volume bridges and......

It's only July, one year out, and already it feels like there is a presidential race going on, doesn't it? Maybe it's too soon to declare Bush a lame duck, but we're inclined to think he is. In this most early of seasons, much has been made of fund raising, often at the expense of real discussions of the issues. Obama is setting records, regularly pulling in millions of dollars in small sums, Hillary is......