Author Archives: Eric Slager

The promotional sheet for this weekend’s Ribfest Chicago boasts, “1 weekend spectacular, 2 stages of music, 25 tons of pork, and 50 thousand fans.” Those are some pretty impressive statistics for what started as a community block party in 1999. Fourteen years later, Ribfest Chicago has evolved into one of the cities most anticipated street fests, and it’s easy to see why.

Along with its BBQ competitions and sanctioned rib-eating contest, Ribfest has become a powerful music festival that hosts twenty of the best local and national acts across two stages.

Ribfest starts off strong on Friday, 6/8, with a shortened but impressive evening lineup that will culminate with a set by Maryland rockers and headliners, J. Roddy Walston & the Business. Head out early for two local openers, and Delaware indie-rockers, The Spinto Band.

Check out the headliners for Saturday and Sunday as well as the full weekend lineups below.

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At the beginning of the year, we spotlighted a Kickstarter from Chicago indie-rock group Options. The campaign, an effort to press their latest EP to wax, was successfully funded, and now, five months later, with the support of DIY Chicago label Redbeard Records, Options is releasing Little Victories on vinyl.

Options will be celebrating the vinyl release at Underground Lounge this Thursday, 6/7. Grab all of the details you need, below.

While the EP was written and performed solely by front-man Seth Engel, since recording, Seth has expanded Options to a quintet with the addition of Bryan Kingsley, Mike Nardone, Mike Walker, and Evan Loritsch.

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Looking for some live music in Chicago this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Check out this weekend’s featured show along with a more extensive weekend list below!

SAUSAGEFEST CHICAGO on Sheffield Ave, 6/2 & 6/3

If there’s one things that Chicagoan’s love more than music, it’s meat, and this weekend’s SausageFest definitely aims to prove it. With a Sausage King contest that would make Abe Froman proud, and two full days of live music, meat-lovers and music-lovers alike are going to want to head down to Sheffield & Addison for this free fest.

One of the bands in particular that you’ll want to catch are Missouri Southern rocker’s Ha Ha Tonka. Currently signed to Chicago’s Bloodshot Records, the Ozark folk-influenced quartet has released a killer trilogy of vinyl. Check out the “Lonely Fortunes” video above, and the full SausageFest lineup below.

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This weekend, Chicago’s Division Street will once again be home to the annual Do-Division Street Fest & Sidewalk Sale, now in its sixth year. Kicking off on Friday, the now three day street fest spans 10 city blocks, from Ashland to Leavitt, and will play host to some of the best food, crafts, and music from the surrounding neighborhoods.

With an estimated turnout of 60,000 attendees, Division’s salons, spas, cafes, bakeries, boutiques, and restaurants will be participating in a massive sidewalk sale and Shedd Aquarium-sponsored scavenger hunt.

Throughout the weekend and across two stages, the Do-Division Street Fest will feature live music programmed by Empty Bottle Presents and Subterranean/House Call Entertainment.

Grab the complete lineup of amazing local and national talent, as well as all of the details you’ll need about the Street Fest, below.

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Looking for some live music in Chicago this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Check out this weekend’s featured show along with a more extensive weekend list below!

POI DOG PONDERING at Double Door, 5/26 & 5/27

This weekend, the Double Door is hosting the Poi Memorial Day Header with back to back shows from the incredible Poi Dog Pondering. Formed in Hawaii in 1985, the group made their way through Austin before settling in Chicago in 1992.Pulling eclectic sounds from genres like acoustic folk, electronic, and house music, the band centers around singer-songwriter Frank Orrall.

With eight studio albums, Poi Dog Pondering has managed to round up quite a loyal local following in the Windy City. Check out the music video for the 1989 track, “Living With the Dreaming Body”, below.

With their impressive discography in stores all over the city, you shouldn’t have much of a problem snagging a few Poi Dog records before the shows this weekend.

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Clocking in at about 2 hours and 30 minutes from the heart of the city, Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, IL is a bit of a hike. This weekend though, more than 15,000 music lovers will be heading out for the 2012 Summer Camp Music Festival. Nearly tripling the population for the weekend, Summer Camp is bringing over 100 artists out to perform across 6 stages.

Along with three days of music from headliners moe. and Umphrey’s McGee, Summer Camp also has top-billed artists Jane’s Addiction, Primus, Common, and Gov’t Mule slated to perform. Chicago will also be contributing to the festival with local bands like Kids These Days, Van Ghost, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, Mathien, and more.

With gorgeous weather in the forecast for the whole weekend, the festival kicks off on Friday, 5/25, and wraps up on Sunday. Check out the rest of the intimidating lineup as well as ticket information, below.

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Looking for some live music in Chicago this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Check out this weekend’s featured show along with a more extensive weekend list below!

DESERT NOISES at the Subterranean , 5/20

One of the shows that you’ll definitely want to check out this weekend is Utah’s four-piece indie rock group Desert Noises. Just last year, Desert Noises released their powerful full length, Mountain Sea through Northplatte Records. Check out a live video for the Mountain Sea track, “Oak Tree,” below.

Pick up a copy of Mountain Sea on vinyl from Desert Noises online store. The incredibly limited edition of 70 comes printed on sweet white vinyl, for just $20.

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Even attempting to cover one or two every week, I’m still not able to keep up with all of the amazing record releases in Chicago. This week though, we’ve got a double whammy. Hollows and Coffin Pricks will be releasing vinyl on the same night, at the same show. Lucky us.

Grab all of the details about the releases and Thursday’s show at the Subterranean, below.

Chicago indie pop quintet Hollows released their debut in 2010, and have since crafted their ‘90s girl-group influence into an impressive sophomore effort. The record features some seriously gorgeous melodies backed by strings and horns on top of the traditional instrumentation.

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Looking for some live music in Chicago this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Check out this weekend’s featured show along with a more extensive weekend list below!

BRIGHTON, MA at the Beat Kitchen, 5/11

Chicago indie-rock group, Brighton, MA, officially kicked things off in 2006, and have been moving fast ever since. They’ve had tracks in shows like Gossip Girl, Community, and One Tree Hill, and earlier in 2012, released their incredible 7-song EP, Billboard Sun. The seven songs form a wonderfully cohesive piece that just drips with summer nostalgia.

Check out “Slow Fade”, the opening track of Billboard Sun, as well as an actual video of the 10” spinning, below.

Pick up a copy of the limited edition 10”, pressed on high-grade virgin vinyl, for just $10 from Brighton, MA’s online store.

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With the number of Chicago bands putting out truly incredible music, one that I haven’t been able to take my eyes and ears off of is Mutts. The trio somehow manages to make the phrase, heavy rock with a Randy Newman undertone, a reality that you just have to hear.

So as you can imagine, I was absolutely thrilled to find out that five months after the release of their powerhouse album Pray For Rain, Mutts is going vinyl.

Mutts will be celebrating the release at their favorite vinyl-spinning bar, the Burlington this Saturday, 5/12. Grab all of the details you need, below.

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Gearing up for their Gets Over You record release show at Lincoln Hall this weekend, Brendan O’Connell and Stefanie Berecz of Chicago soul group, The Right Now, were kind enough to talk with me about vinyl records, Chicago music, and what it takes to make an album.

The 18+ record release show on Saturday, 5/12, kicks off at 9:00 PM, and you can grab tickets for just $10 online, or $12 at the door. On top of the newly released sophomore effort Gets Over You, The Right Now had a Record Store Exclusive 7″, that you may have seen as you shopped around on 4/21.

With both of your full length records and a handful of 7″ releases on vinyl, can you tell us a little bit about why vinyl is an important part of your music and why you have decided to consistently release on it?

Brendan: I think that it was probably our Bari sax player, Jonathan; we call him Jonny Hats. He was the first person that got the buzz going in all of us to really start appreciating vinyl. Obviously, it’s such a great way to consume music. I think that we all grew up listening, but Jonny Hats was really the first one to start digging in at record stores and finding rare 45s and pushing the idea that we should release a 7”.

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Looking for some live music in Chicago this weekend? We’ve got you covered. Check out this weekend’s featured show along with a more extensive weekend list below!

THE DAMN CHOIR (Record Release Show) at The Hideout, 5/4

We at TVD-CHI are big fans of Chicago indie-rock outfit, The Damn Choir. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing them live a handful of times, and are gearing up for another amazing performance tonight. What makes tonight’s show special of course, is the release of their sophomore album, You’re My Secret Called Fire. The record features the tracks “Noah” and “Virginia”, which were released earlier in the year as music videos. Check out the killer Chicago-focused video for “Virginia” below, and get yourself pumped for the show tonight at the Hideout.

Opening the show for The Damn Choir are Boston’s Kingsley Flood, and Chicago’s Paper Thick Walls. The show kicks off at 9:30, so make sure you’re there early to see the whole show and snag your copy of You’re My Secret Called Fire.

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I have been a fan of The Wombats since I first heard the acapella opening track of A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation when it hit the states in 2008. With that said I have no problem admitting that there was a period of skepticism following their sophomore release and the accompanying shift in style. However, less than a year after the release of This Modern Glitch, I’m officially a believer in the power of dual synths.

I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the Liverpool trio before, so I was definitely pumped for the headlining gig at Park West in Chicago on Monday. Knowing that they’d be playing heavily from their latest release, I buckled down and in a few short weeks, found myself addicted to This Modern Glitch.

Now, armed with a deep appreciation for the entire Wombats catalog, I grabbed fellow TVD Chicago writer, Patrick David, and we headed into the city.
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This upcoming Monday, 5/7, Toronto based art-dance/rock trio, Lioness, will be rounding out a short tour in support of their new release, The Golden Killer, at Township in Chicago.

The 18+ show kicks off at 9:00 PM with support from Chicago’s When Clouds Attack. Tickets are just $7, and can be picked up online in advance of the show through Ticketweb.

In anticipation of what’s going to be amazing show, we’ve got a copy of Lioness’ The Golden Killer to give away right here! Grab all of the contest details below.

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In the world of crowd-funding, sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are making it easier for interactions between musicians and fans to benefit everyone. New to my radar is PledgeMusic, and one of their current campaigns just happens to be from Chicago indie-rockers, Scattered Trees.

Raising money to record a follow-up to the incredible 2011 release, Sympathy, Scattered Trees has already reached 35% of their goal with 29 days left.

At the beginning of April, the band headed to Toronto, Canada, to record with producer Dave Newfeld (Broken Social Scene, Los Campesinos!). Along with video updates of the recording sessions and early streams of the new tracks, every level of the fundraising campaign is loaded with worthwhile incentives.

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