
Yeah, it might be pretty, um, snowy outside. But, like, there's some totally awesome shows going this weekend. We're talking Psych Fest at the Hideout, The Runnies at Ultra Lounge, Gaberdine at Subterranean and more! Let's go... FRIDAY THIRD EYE VISIONS: CHICAGO PSYCH FEST 3 The best of Chicago psych, kraut and rock that implements sonic elements that are on the fringe of the aforementioned [...]

[Video stills courtesy of Ian Perlman and Oresti Tsonopoulos ] Mike Kinsella has been involved in many a highly-regarded project over the years - in particular, the Illinois native still does time in Joan of Arc with his brother Tim (our recent recording of them [ HERE ]), and before that, he and Tim were in Cap'n Jazz (our recent recording of them [ HERE ]). The man's discography is longer than many artists twice his age - and most of it is quite good. The latest Kinsella project to receive positive [...]
Download: Fair Fjola - "Summer Song" If you are making a mixtape I dare you to find a better side-one track-one than "Summer Song!" I heard Fair Fjola's "No One Gets Any" for the first time early Monday morning and it's pretty much all I've listened to since. As a matter of fact it's so [...]

Owen - Ghost Town MMMM From his work with Cap'n Jazz to American Football, Mike Kinsella has always displayed a knack for being able to translate emotional weight through dizzying guitar riffs just as well as any singer ever could. As Owen, Kinsella has proven to be a master at arranging and layering, creating something soothing and accessible that still manages to be relatively complex and deep without losing a sense of purpose. Owen's sixth full-length album, Ghost [...]
Rare Monk resemble a mix of Celtic punk, avant-garde rock in the vein of Man Man, and southern gypsy-pop complete with quick-moving strings and snarling vocals. For a more concise comparison, think Modest Mouse with an extra shot of caffeine

Several Chicago rockers are banding together at Lincoln Hall on Thursday, Sept. 1, for raise money for Girls Rock! Chicago . Mike Kinsella, of such revered emo groups Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc and Owen - just to name a few, will join Braid frontman Bob Nanna, Fall Out Boy's Joe Trohman, Spitalfield's Mark Rose, The Felix Culpa's Dustin Currier and Weekend Nachos' Drew Brown on stage to perform as 80s pop legends The Cure. This isn't the first time Kinsella has assembled friends to cover a uber-popular 80s artist for a Girls [...]

Over the years, music evolves and changes in a lot of ways. Unless you're solely looking at mainstream music, its evolved pretty dramatically... particularly in the last 3 years. But every time I hear someone refer to a band as 'emo' it still pisses me off. Mostly because it never bears any resemblance to bands who were initially labeled 'emo' during a time when there was no description for it. You see, back in the mid-to-late 90s when all rock was 'alternative', distinctions had to be made when a particular group of bands had a general sound that stood apart [...]

Top 10 of 2011, easy. The explosive joy, kaleidoscopic melodies and desperate energy that are the musical hallmark of Philadelphia-based contemporary emo superheroes Algernon Cadwallader tethers the trio's magical sophomore set Parrot Flies to a familiar musical center. The evergreen nature of these core components make for reliable building blocks; while many acts cut figurative corners and compose crap with figurative straw or sticks, Algernon Cadwallader 's shit is constructed with brick, built to last. That the core components of the band's sound were first forged by superlative second-wave emo standard-bearers Cap'n Jazz [...]

Today's take me back before music made me pretentious moment comes from the summer of 2003. I realize before even making this list that it will bring obvious flaws in my taste of music to light which is something i'm fine with. My entire premise behind heycoolkid! has always been to present music that may or may not be "scene" enough for other blogs and at the same time bring attention to the music that i love and wish others would as well. ("others" meaning people whose opinions i actually care about, i'm pretty sure those people do exist, god [...]
We almost feel bad for Davey Von Bohlen. The fact that he was a part of the legendary Cap'n Jazz , and that he fronted highly revered, third wave emo stand-outs The Promise Ring , means that it's usually a couple dozen words into any blog post about what he's been up to for the last five years before you even see the name Maritime . There, we just did it again. But today marks the release of Maritime 's fourth full-length, a set characteristically stacked with Von Bohlen's melodic and yearning genius. Have you seen [...]

We've been so busy at the day job lately that we have hardly a recollection of ordering this, which we think we did at 11PM Central Time some night six weeks ago, which night was the umpteenth 15-hour day in a row. Good times. What we have here is the vinyl re-issue of Owls ' blindingly brilliant self-titled set originally released July 31, 2001. Jade Tree re-pressed the set in an edition of 550 pieces, 150 white platters and 400 black ones. What stock did not move in pre-orders was available in finer retail stores as of [...]

It's been a busy couple of days for Maritime . Not only did they announce an April 5 release date for their Dangerbird debut, Human Hearts , but they also premiered a video for its first single, Paraphernalia . I'm pretty amped to see them in Austin next week. Hard to believe that I've seen Cap'n Jazz twice - in the last calendar year, no less! - and Davey von Bohlen's latest band zero times ever. Maritime - Paraphernalia [...]

Label Me is an education. A schoolin'. A lesson on the most interesting indie Record Labels of current and bygone days. Imagine you're sitting across from Ricky in a dark, smoky, bar booth and he's had a few too many to drink and there's no stopping him now. Words by Rick Moslen Jimmy Eat World and Thursday are touring. The Get Up Kids and Braid are [...]

Upon first spying the headline for this event at the Hideout, it seemed too good to be true. Tim Kinsella and whatever awesome friends he happens to be near (the loose collective known as Joan of Arc ) recently released the excellent, dronetastic Oh Brother , featuring collaborations with local Chicago improv masters like super drummer Frank Rosaly and Robert A. A. Lowe (AKA Lichens ), Hella's Zach Hill, and former Cap'n Jazz bandmate Sam Zurick (among many, many others). The Lightbox Orchestra , a whoever-seems-to-be-on-hand improvised orchestra, is led [...]
It's finally that time of year again. Tree trimming and decorating has begun and Black Friday is a thing of the past. So on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree and a whole bunch of Christmas MP3's... a lot of Christmas MP3's. My daughter loves Christmas music so I love Christmas music. Actually, I've loved the songs of the season much longer than she's been singing these songs. There's just something totally festive about Christmas songs even when they're being butchered by punk bands. So without [...]
I know, I know. I completely neglected this site, and the months without mixes were lazy. The excuse is that I started a new job, and although I continue to DJ at work, the format in which I do so has changed and makes it difficult for me to casually pull together selections over the whole month. Combine that with me inheriting a vintage record player/stereo, discovering that the coolest record store in L.A. is in my neighborhood, and picking up a copy of Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music to feed my musical knowledge; I've been [...]

If you've slept on the past two days of Katie Hovland 's amazing photo editorial of 2010's Riot Fest , you've been missing out. Lucky for you, before diving into day three below, you can play catch up! Day one's photos of The Brokedowns , The Copyrights , and Propaghandi are here ! Day two ? Well, that meant Off With Their Heads , The Bouncing Souls , Circle Jerks , The Lawrence Arms [...]