Billy Corgan's Smashing Pumpkins™ are on tour and we suspect that all that time spent digging through unreleased material for their reissues has awakened some sort of nostalgia in The Bald One. The group's set in Las Vegas recently was steeped in golden oldies (and, c'mon, who out there is hoping that's still the case when the band comes through town this Friday at The Riv?) and their nascent Smashing Pumpkins Record Club is giving us glimmers of the nuggets we can expect from said reissue campaign. Last night Corgan released an early version of a classic Gish track, titled "Rhinoceros Version Two (Reel Time Sessions)," into the wild and it casts the guitar burner in a slightly different, organ dominated light. more ›

When Cut Copy released In Ghost Colours in 2008, they came out of nowhere. Though they'd been around for a bit, their second album dropped at the height of the indie-electro phenomenon, and its near-flawlessness became a sort of zeitgeist for the genre. The thing, however, was that not a whole lot of people outside the Pitchfork crowd knew about the Australian trio. And so Cut Copy toured modest venues making what we assume was a modest living, perhaps on their way to the ever-growing electro-indie graveyard, never be to heard from again. But then, in 2010, Cut Copy resurfaced, announcing their third LP, Zonoscope, and started touring again. And this time they weren't playing modest venues. No, they were selling out spots like Metro and, just last Friday, The Riv with opener Holy Ghost!. What could have been short lived suddenly became this immense potential to become one of the elite acts in the world. And Friday they proved that. more ›

We're conflicted. We can't tell if Jimmy Eat World's new album Invented is a welcome return to form or a retreat into the group's past. After the group hit the big time with a string of hits off 2001's Bleed American (renamed Jimmy Eat World after 9/11) later releases saw these Arizona-based emo-poppers descending into darker waters. Their earlier output was marked by sunny melodies and charging songs hell-bent of lifting the listener along with them but their output over the last decade has been far more aggressive and far less tuneful. more ›

X Japan is accustomed to selling out 55,000 seat venues in Japan. They're one of the largest and most popular groups in the world. Their shows are orgasms of pyrotechnics, drama and excess that makes Lady GaGa look downright lazy. And you've probably never heard of them. more ›

As a band, Ratatat is rather well known for piecing together simple layers of synthesizers, guitars, and mish-mash electronic samples with well-developed precision; as a venue, The Riviera is rather well known for acoustically making any sound created by an act register as if mud were being forced through the speakers. more ›

While we have long admired Kevin Barnes' ambition we’ve often found his execution to be flawed. The albums he’s released as of Montreal have often had thrilling moments, but unfortunately many of those are hidden by the thickly tangled music created my Barnes’ seeming inability to edit himself. Songs twist and turn too many times and come unglued as Barnes tries to stuff every musical idea that comes to him into every sonic crevice he creates. of Montreal often irons out these problems when the band collects as a live ensemble, even if we haven't always identified with their shows a s a whole, so we’ve long wondered what Barnes could create if he approached things differently. more ›

Georgia-based indie pop act of Montreal spits out so much material, it’s hard to keep track. Aside from collaborating with numerous bands, these guys have already released nine albums and are moving onto their tenth. Their upcoming full-length, False Priest, will be released to the public September 14 through Polyvinyl Records. more ›

Ratatat isn’t known for clever album titles. The NYC-based electronic duo recently released their fourth full-length album, LP4, the follow-up to their similarly blandly-titled 2008 release LP3. But don’t let the uninspired title fool you, because LP4 is bursting with the type of energetic, hip-hop-infused electro-pop fans have come to expect from Ratatat,expanded this time by experimenting with newer and stranger sounds. more ›

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Even the cops can't get enough Wilco. While our Chicagoist photographer sat in line waiting to get into Friday night's show, a CPD cruiser drove by by with the intro to "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" planking away on it's megaphone, eliciting a roar from the crowd. more ›