We still remember sitting in Danny's back in 1995 when one of the bartenders started this track named "Leave Home" on the bar's cruddy stereo system. Back then, Danny's was basically a punk-rock house party every night, and the aggressive electronic song that suddenly tumbled forth stunned the entire room. We didn't know quite what to make of it, but we realized that someone had finally successfully synthesized a dance track with a rock and/or... more ›

The place: Logan Square Auditorium. The time: last night. The event? Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Chicagoist was happy like the little school girl we are because we scored tickets to the intimate YYY show last night. Knowing that we were going to hear the songs off Show Your Bones album that will be released March 28th , we were aware that figuring out which songs were which could be a little bit of a bear. Chicagoist, after all, is not the MSM who get a copy of the CD before the release date to review, cherish, and actually have the lyrics or for that matter the names of the songs in their very own hands when they go to see the band live. more ›

Steep Theatre’s aim to produce ‘everyman theater’ fits nicely in Chicago’s self-made arts community. Strong performances and smart programming turned heads and filled the seats in 2005. Now the ensemble reaches further, offering two productions in repertory examining poverty, rural isolation, and misplaced trust. The Night Heron is a smart and funny look at that world; Of Mice and Men never completely captures it. more ›

Okay, so we readily admit some ambivalence when it comes to chick lit. But every once in a while we find a book so labelled that catches our eye and causes us to curse the marketing strategy of genrefying everything. (And the legs and the shoes! UGH.) Lynn Isenberg's The Funeral Planner is an "entrepreneurial comedy novel" about an ambitious woman who gets in the business of planning funerals after attending the funeral of a college classmate. more ›

We don't normally go to Bill Zwecker for breaking news, but we'll give credit where credit is due. Though the AP wires just picked it up this weekend (thanks to a press release from Disney), Zwecker reported back at the beginning of April about Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Timed to coincide with the end of his Overlooked Film Festival wrapped up in Urbana, the announcement also... more ›

Conventional wisdom says that labels are not in the business of artist development anymore. Chicago’s own Wilco is a prime example of what happens when the A&R man says “I don’t hear a single.” And yet artists like the Donnas prove that given the chance, artists will often push themselves to grow and mature into their own identity. Their new album, Gold Medal, releases today just before the band hits the road this fall in a tour that kicks off here next week. more ›

Chicagoist recommends taking refuge from the downright temperamental weather to take in a flick. If, like us, you�re already tired of those overblown summer blockbusters � even though it�s only May � a number of great films are still playing in the area. Check out the serene Buddhist fable Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter�And Spring at the Music Box or the sexually explicit horror-cum-road movie (if that description doesn�t intrigue you, we don�t know what will) Twentynine Palms at Facets. Or, for a nice blast from the past on Thursday night, go see Peter Bogdanovich�s only true masterpiece, The Last Picture Show, at 600 N. Michigan, or Robert Mitchum in the timeless and extraordinarily creepy The Night of the Hunter at Northwestern�s Block Films, both shown in beautiful 35mm prints. more ›