Chris Hardwick @ Fun Fun Fun Fest 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Sarah Silverman's Just for Laughs shows at The Chicago Theatre on June 16 just got a whole lot better. Comedians Chris Hardwick, Marc Maron, Natasha Leggero, and Reggie Watts (who just played the Vic) will perform at both the early and late show. Tickets are still available for both performances, which are now billed as "Sarah's Pro-Choice."

Some videos below...

Continue reading "Chris Hardwick, Marc Maron, Natasha Leggero & Reggie Watts added to Sarah Silverman's Chicago Theatre shows"

DOWNLOAD: Amadou & Mariam - "Dougou Badia" (feat. Santigold) (MP3)

Malian duo Amadou & Mariam released their new album, Folila, last month via Nonesuch in the US. Their rhythmic blues-rock features hints of traditional West African music, employing deep djembe drums and iron bells. Vocal guests on the album include Santigold, TV On The Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, Bertrand Cantat, Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears, Ebony Bones, Abdallah Oumbadougou, and Theophilus London. Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner plays guitar on a few tracks and production was handled by Manu Chao, Damon Albarn, and Marc-Antoine Moreau. Download the album's opening track "Dougou Badia," featuring Santigold, at the top of this post. They've also have a music video for the song "Wily Kataso," featuring Tunde and Kyp, which you can watch below.

Amadou & Mariam will head to North America this summer for a select string of festival appearances and some club shows. Among those are Osheaga, Central Park Summerstage, Lollapalooza, and Outside Lands. They'll hit Chicago for Sunday (8/5) of the three-day festival. Single-day passes for Sunday only are still available.

All Amadou & Mariam tour dates are listed below, alongside their video for "Wily Kataso."

Continue reading "Amadou & Mariam released a guest-filled LP, playing Lollapalooza"

Zammuto @ Ecstatic Music Fest in February (NYC) (more by David Andrako)

Zammuto (aka Nick Zammuto of Books-fame) released his debut self-titled LP in April of this year via Temporary Residence. BV's Andrew Sacher talked a bit about it:

The new album is decidedly more pop than his work in The Books, but definitely maintains an experimental edge. Most of the vocals are heavily processed through vocoders and like much of the experimental pop coming out recently, the songs refuse to decide between organic and electronic sounds. The end result recalls the catchy frantic moments of Battles or a glitchier version of Four Tet's folktronica work.

After the album hit stores, Zammuto (with band) played a number of shows with label mates Explosions In The Sky. He'll hit the road with them again in mid-June, acting as main support on their previously announced show at The Chicago Theatre on June 26. Tickets are still available.

Nick Zammuto's old band The Books are prepping a career-spanning box set, due out "by the end of the summer," according to Zammuto's email list. The set will include all Books albums, audio/visual bonus material, and literature on their recording process over the years. Check out Zammuto's Tumblr blog for more information on the box set's release.

All Zammuto/Explosions In The Sky dates are listed below, with a stream of Nick's LP.

Continue reading "Zammuto are playing Chicago Theatre w/ Explosions In The Sky; The Books are prepping a career-spanning box set"

DOWNLOAD: Scott Lucas & the Married Men - "Blood Half Moons" (MP3)

Kelly Hogan @ the Vic in March (more by Chase Turner)

The A.V. Club: What was the origin of this album?

Kelly Hogan: Andy Kaulkin is the honcho at Anti- records, and I've known him for quite some time now through Neko. ... I was at Amoeba Records. We were doing an in-store with Neko, and I was shopping in the jazz section and Andy walked up. "I gotta talk to you." I thought I was late for bus call. I was like, "I'm sorry I'm late!" He said, "No, no, no. I want you to make a record for Anti-." I thought I was being punked. I was like, "Really?" It all goes back to Andy. The label's fantastic. It all goes back to the dude who's running it, because Andy just loves music so much.

The A.V. Club: So he had the concept of putting this band together and having all these people write songs for you?

Kelly Hogan: Yeah. He suggested from the get-go that I should call in favors, because I'd sung with so many different people. Last February, he said, "What do you think about coming to L.A.? And we invest our money in the band?" And I was like, "Okay, who are you thinking?" And he said, "I'm thinking Booker T." And I'm like, "Tell me more." He mentioned James Gadson on drums, and I'd just seen that Still Bill documentary the night before, the Bill Withers documentary. It's so great. James Gadson was Bill Withers' drummer. Have you seen the footage of Bill Withers on "The Old Grey Whistle Test"? You've got to Google that, man. It pans over to James Gadson and he's got this awesome Afro and this cool suit and a gold tooth and he's just smiling this gorgeous "Everything is all right and it's gonna be all right" smile. He still does that. That's his playing face. You know how when most people are concentrating on playing, they look like they're pooping?

Local H frontman Scott Lucas and his project the Married Men will act as main support on Monday night's show. Their new album, Blood Half Moon, is due out on June 5 via The End Records. Download the album's lead single "Blood Half Moons" at the top of this post. The band, who describe themselves as "country-ish alt-rock for people who like metal," will also be doing some touring with Deer Tick next month, and are included on the bill of the band's Chicago show at Metro on June 9. Tickets are still available.

All dates for both Kelly Hogan and Scott Lucas are listed below.

Continue reading "Kelly Hogan discussed 'I Like to Keep Myself in Pain,' playing Jay Pritzker w/ Scott Lucas & the Married Men on Monday"

California hip hop heavyweight DJ Quik is here. He'll headline the Double Door tonight (5/25), with support from Fess Grandiose, Vic Spencer, DJ Audio Kush, Big Face 100s, and Kenn Retro. Advance tickets are still available.

Quik began making a name for himself in the late-80s, DJing throughout Southern California and self-releasing homemade mixtapes. He's since gotten a Soundcloud account, handled production for Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and others, and has released eight studio albums to date.

His most recent LP, 2011's The Book of David (his given name is David Blake), includes collaborations with Ice Cube, Bun B, Bizzy Bone, Jon B., Kurupt, Dwele, and many others. The album was released via his own his Mad Science Recordings, founded in 2005. According to HipHop DX, Quik, Snoop, Battlecat, and The D.O.C. teamed up to create four songs for Dr. Dre. Two are said to be for Dre's long-in-the-works Detox and the other pair have been set aside for a project with Snoop.

In related news, Dam-Funk said, "If none of Dr. Dre's people reach out to the G.F.F.'s DaM-FunK to contribute to "Detox" then, it WILL NEVER BE be a 'true' representation of 'Los Angeles'. Period."

In also related news, Snoop Dogg threw out a ceremonial first pitch at the White Sox game last night before heading to the Horseshoe Hammond Casino to play a show. Check out a video of Snoop Dogg playing baseball below.

DJ Quik song streams and Snoop Dogg video below...

Continue reading "DJ Quik is here, playing the Double Door tonight"

Chicago metal band Sweet Cobra are gearing up for the vinyl release of 2010's Mercy, due out on June 5 via Hawthorne Street Records, and have scheduled a big hometown show at Lincoln Hall on June 19th. Support will come from Louisville supergroup Big Baby, who are comprised of members of Young Widows, Workers, Phantom Family Halo, and Slint, Trevor de Brauw, whose group Pelican play their own Lincoln Hall show on June 29, and Electric Hawk. Advance tickets are on sale now.

Sweet Cobra will also play the Bottom Lounge on August 25, acting as main support for Shiner's first of two shows at the venue. Coincidentally, Electric Hawk are also included on that bill too.

Old Baby debut EP, Misunderstanding Human Behavior, was released last month via Hawthorne Street Records. The group's sound draws a little bit from each of its members' respective projects, falling somewhere in the psych/hard rock range. Take a listen to the album track "Pale As Man" at the bottom of this post. Purchase Misunderstanding Human Behavior via Hawthorne Street's webstore.

Song streams from Sweet Cobra and Old Baby below...

Continue reading "Sweet Cobra playing Lincoln Hall w/ supergroup Old Baby, Trevor de Brauw & Electric Hawk"

French producer Onra (aka Arnaud Bernard) is here. He'll be kicking off a set of North American dates with a show at the Beauty Bar tonight at 9PM, with support from Supreme Cuts (DJs), Doc Ill & Raj Mahal of Push Beats, and DJ Moppy & RTST of Cutz On Cuts. Admission is FREE before 10PM and $3 thereafter.

Onra is gearing up for the release of his new EP, Deep in the Night, due out on June 12 via Fool's Gold. The first taste of album, a track titled "L.O.V.E.," has arrived and reminds me of SBTRKT's "Sanctuary" with a bit more boogie in its step. Take a listen to that and a few other tracks at the bottom of this post. The EP also features a guest spot from Slum Village's T3 on the album opener "After Hours." Catch a very affordable (free if you can help it) and bound-to-be-interesting performance from Bernard at Beauty Bar tonight.

All Onra dates are listed below, along with some song streams and album info.

Continue reading "Onra is here, kicking off a tour @ Beauty Bar tonight --------- (song streams, dates)"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: Stagnant Pools - "Dead Sailor" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Stagnant Pools - "Consistency" (MP3)

Stagnant Pools at Lincoln Hall in March (via Michael Gandy)

Bloomington, IN duo Stagnant Pools (brothers Bryan and Douglass Enas) recently announced their signing to Polyvinyl, and will release their first album for the label, Temporary Room, on August 7. You can grab two tracks from that release -- "Dead Sailor" and "Consistency" -- above, or stream them below. Both cuts are super muddy and soaked in reverb and distortion, but somewhere in this band's late '80s/early '90s record collection of noisy post-punk and shoegaze, must lie a scratched up, overplayed copy of Is This It that can't help but leave its mark on these songs.

Maybe you caught Stagnant Pools in Chicago when they opened for EMA at Lincoln Hall in March (pictured above). Or if you traveled a bit outside of Illinois, perhaps you saw them in Grand Rapids, opening for labelmates Japandroids, whose two-piece rock band set up is not too different from their own.

Stagnant Pools will be back in Chicago in July to play the just announced West Fest on July 7 on Chicago Ave with Black Lips, Bad Veins, He's My Brother She's My Sister, and more. It's their only upcoming date that we're aware of at the moment.

Temporary Room cover art, tracklist, and song streams below...

Continue reading "check out Polyvinyl-signed Stagnant Pools, playing West Fest"

As just mentioned on BrooklynVegan, Lindstrom is releasing a 12" of remixes of material from his Six Cups of Rebel LP and is playing a handful of shows this year. He's on a short run of dates right now, and the closest that comes to Chicago is Movement Festival in Detroit this weekend with Public Enemy, Actress, SBTRKT, and more (tickets). However, he'll be back out on the road for another batch of dates in October which brings him to Chicago on October 13 at Smart Bar. TIckets for that show aren't on sale but check Etix for updates.

A related reminder; Apparat, who plays Mutek this month, will be in Chicago right before that for a show at LIncoln Hall on Monday (5/28) and we're giving away a pair tickets!. Details on how to enter to win tix to that show are here.

All Lindstrom dates, a new song stream, and more at BrooklynVegan.

Continue reading "Lindstrom touring; playing Movement Fest this weekend, coming to Chicago in the fall"

West Fest 2012 is set to take place on July 7 & 8 on Chicago Ave. (between Damen Ave. and Wood St.). The street fest's initial main stage lineup includes Black Lips, Bad Veins, He's My Brother She's My Sister, R Ring, Bestfriends, Stagnant Pools, and more TBA. There will also be a DJ stage on each day featuring Flosstradamus, Sinden, Samone Roberts, and others. The current lineup can be found below.

As announced, Black Lips are also playing the Empty Bottle on July 6. Both K-Holes and Circles were recently added to the bill and tickets are not surprisingly sold-out. K-Holes released new record, Dismania, on May 1 via Hardly Art. Check out their video for the sax-filled album track "Window in the Wall" at the bottom of this post.

Current West Fest lineup and K-Holes' video for "Window in the Wall" below...

Continue reading "West Fest 2012 - initial lineup (Black Lips, Bad Veins, R Ring, Stagnant Pools & more)"