With the recent release of *The Moonlight Butterfly* the Sea and Cake shows how to negotiate the fine line between consistency and boredom without ever falling on the wrong side. more ›

Future Islands used to be the soundtrack for a broken but manic heart, perfect for days when unrequited love made you downright rowdy. On the eve of Halloween Sunday night, the band veered away from their danceable, lovelorn tunes to play material that was chilling and delightfully dark. more ›

OK, so there's not an official fan-club style "I love Future Islands" group, but praise for the Baltimore-based group and their recent "On the Water" has been pretty much non-stop since the kickoff of their fall tour. Since their breakthrough early last year with "In Evening Air," Future Islands has climbed out of the "buzz band" category and earned themselves a sterling reputation on the strength of their intense live shows and tightly-crafted post-wave electro fun breakup music. more ›

The Reader reports that the Sony DADC warehouse, holding stock from numerous labels including Chicago's Drag City and Thrill Jockey imprints, was destroyed by a fire as a result of the riots in London last night. Thrill Jockey has suffered around $300,000 in losses and while Drag City wouldn't tell The Reader the exact extent of the damage until they knew more its effects are described as "catastrophic." The Guardian reports over a hundred other labels were affected including WARP, 4AD, Domino Records and Beggars Banquet. more ›

Chicago post-rock kings The Sea and Cake are a prolific bunch, having recorded and released nine albums over 17 years. And yet, some of those releases come in fits in starts: 2008's late-career peak Car Alarm followed the previous year's Everybody, which, at that point, was the band's first record in four years. With the announcement of The Moonlight Butterfly, the band's ninth record, due May 10th on Thrill Jockey, the longstanding quartet will once again head into the indie-rock spotlight. To celebrate the announcement of Butterfly, first single "Up on the North Shore," was released. more ›

Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, known to strangers and loved ones alike as hyper-prolific indie-prog duo The Fiery Furnaces, will start recording their next album sometime before Christmas, according to a newsletter from label Thrill Jockey. Bets are 50/50 as to whether the album, their ninth overall since 2003, will be thrilling like 2005's EP or totally out-there and irritating, like Rehearsing My Choir. But give the duo this: Not many people have the artistic gumption to record an entire album with their nana, much less release it. That kind of musical fortitude is no doubt what informs Furnace-man Matthew’s decision to release not one, not two, but eight official solo albums in the next year. more ›

Future Islands’ star has been steadily on the rise following a positive reception to the recently released “In Evening Air,” coupled with the active blog-fueled chatter surrounding the band’s genre bending, blending and self-classification as “post-wave.” Rising stars they may be, the band exploded into something positively meteoric for Saturday night’s show at the Hideout, handily convincing us that they are, in fact, deserving of the hype. more ›

We chose this new video for Tortoise's "Prepare Your Coffin" because its monochromatic hues perfectly mirror day's weather, but the band's driving music crossed with the editing of the imagery helps helps infuse this day with new life. We're hoping you feel the same and this will be enough to spark you up and power through the rest of the day. more ›

It's a Bottle edition of Local Options to reduce, reuse, and recycle this week. more ›

To say that it isn't hard to stumble into a taqueria in Pilsen is an understatement. Focus on the Blue Island corridor, however. and the question becomes trying to avoid one. We took advantage of yesterday's thaw to walk around, enjoy the weather buy some pirated movies (you should see our copy of "Untraceable"). Then, after we worked up an appetite, we headed into the first taqueria we saw for a quick bite, which wound up being an old favorite. more ›

Next Thursday's second day of the Tomorrow Never Knows weekend may be its most eclectic, which is an enticing departure from the usual blog-approved buzz acts. more ›

Frankly, whenever we read about record sales, digital rights management, and record companies, we usually switch off because the whole issue is stupid and always ends up more complicated than it should (iTunes or iTunes Plus?). The major record labels have always reminded us of our Drunk Uncle Pete; they're late to the party and only after our money, while indie labels have been distributing DRM-free music through retailers like eMusic for a while now. more ›

With the city being overrun by holiday bar crawls, it might be difficult to walk the streets this weekend without being accosted by a drunk dude in holiday vest or run over by a Santa in a hazmat suit. Throw on your best Cosby sweater and enjoy any or all of these weekend delights.... more ›

Hey, don't forget we're running a contest to win some cool Thrill Jockey swag through tomorrow. Have you entered yet? more ›

Thrill Jockey Records turns 15 this year, and in order to celebrate they've decided to throw themselves a couple of big-ass parties, one of which already occurred in London earlier month. However, the label has called Chicago home for over a decade, so we're expecting the 2 days of shows happening at Logan Square Auditorium on December 14 and 15 to blow London's party apart at the seams. more ›

With Don Imus shooting his mouth off, the same old recycled music, and Clear Channel dictatorially ruling the airwaves, radio is leaving a lot to be desired these days. That's why community stations like WLUW (88.7) are such an oasis in the desert of mainstream radio. more ›

When The Zincs' frontman Jim Elkington moved to Chicago about seven years ago, he had already fallen in love with the city. He had spend a decade living in London and drumming with a band, but he had an itch to write songs — and get the hell out of London. “I was in bands where other people were writing songs, and I would write arrangements,” he told Chicagoist last week, while devouring a cookie the size of his head. “And that was about it. I didn’t write any lyrics until I moved to the states.” more ›

It’s a digital world, and indie labels are figuring out how to compete when they still believe in the album as a whole, not just singles. The Meter takes a look at how Thrill Jockey is selling their catalog online with full-length streaming of songs and artwork with liner notes in jpeg format. more ›

Apparently, size doesn’t matter…when it comes to music and movies. Though Oscar nominations won’t be announced until the end of the month, the Tribune’s Mark Caro is already proclaiming this the biggest year for indie films “since four of the five 1996 best picture nominees were non-studio offerings.” But what is indie anymore? The examples cited by Caro include Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, and Capote, which are all films that come from... more ›

This week’s New City cover story “Music 45: Who Rocks Chicago” features 45 artists, talent bookers, and executives who rock Chicago. Though the awkward punctuation had us scratching our heads for a while, that was nothing compared with how we got our dander up over the list itself. Trust us: things get ugly when our dander is in the up position. more ›