For many, familiarity with Flying Lotus' music exists out of obscurity. This is expected--when most of your exposure is limited to five-second, uncredited clips between Adult Swim programming, the path to fame is indeed a difficult one. But when FlyLo opens for Thom Yorke in less than a week at Aragon Ballroom, he's begun to transcend those lines. And when his second third LP Cosmogramma drops in a month on Warp, he'll have transcended even more. But first, last Friday night the electronic/hip-hop/dub/unclassifiable mastermind had a gig at Double Door--perhaps one of the last shows he'll play in the murky waters of the underground. more ›

Thom Yorke, you might know him from a little band named Radiohead, has announced a few warm-up dates prior to his big solo set at the Coachella Festival in April. He'll be visiting the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on April 10 and 11. Backing him will be Flea, Mauro Refosco, drummer extraordinaire Joey Waronker and man-about-town Nigel Godrich. Tickets go on sale March 3. more ›

Jesus Kee-rist, Trent Reznor is on a roll. Mere weeks after the release of the instrumental Nine Inch Nails quadruple album Ghosts I-IV, he's released the newest "pop" album by the band, The Slip. While Ghosts offered a tiered pricing plan, The Slip is available absolutely and completely free. Formats include MP3, FLAC, lossless M4A, and even WAV files. DRM-free. Creative Commons copyright. Super-fast download. And the songs ain't bad at all either! more ›

Yeah, they're coming, but that's all we know. We got a cryptic email this morning, stating that since In Rainbows debuted at #1 on the charts this week, Thom Yorke and company have decided to grace the States with their first full tour in, well, just about forever. more ›

Chicagoist recently had a conversation with a friend about our favorite "Christmas albums without Christmas songs," records that remind us of the holiday season without being full of carols and borderline-obnoxious good cheer. Our consensus choice was Richard Hawley's Coles Corner, a sprawling exploration of the warmest, most soothing, and dreamiest echelons of the singer-songwriter tradition. more ›

Usually we’re not big proponents of the whole, “hey, look, here’s a cool link!” mentality, but this is an exception to the rule. While everyone was (rightfully) going ga-ga over the whole kick-off to the Clusterfest Season 2006 (and no, we’re not talkin' 'bout MOBfest) Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis snuck a hell of a score past the goalie. more ›

Chicagoist admits to a New Duncan Imperials problem since our early college years and therefore in order to help a man who has made countless live shows enjoyable for us, we headed to the Abbey Pub on Friday night for the Gary Shepers fundraiser featuring NDI, Mr. Rudy Day and Diamond Jim Greene. Since the weather outside was frightful, the gathering wasn't that much of a gathering, but each band put on quite the... more ›

This week on Chicagoist, it was all about vice: preventing it, wallowing in it, or legislating it. more ›