Blog: Baby, You Got a Stew Goin'!

If you're in Chicago this weekend, I better see you here.

The same person who uploaded the Frames video I posted earlier also posted this excellent video from Paul Weller's stop in Dublin last month. Good stuff.

Check out this awesome YouTube video of The Frames performing "Fitzcarraldo" in Dublin this week. Damn song gives me chills every time I hear it, particularly live. Thanks to the band's Twitter feed for the heads up!

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted anything on this blog, let alone concert photos. I've got a ton of photos from the last month or so... hopefully I'll eventually edit them and post them here. For the time being, here's a few pics from tonight's Jeff Tweedy set at the Letters For Santa benefit at Second City. You can expect some more Tweedy pictures in the next few months, as it looks like I'll be attending one of the auctioned-off 30 person living room sets. Wheee!

And by info, I mean pretty new poster.

In case you missed the news , one of my favorite bands of all time, The Jayhawks , has officially reformed and is in the final stages of recording a brand new album . And if that's not enough, the band has also announced a short tour for January, including two shows here in Chicago at the Vic Theater on January 27th and January 28th. The first show will feature the band playing its classic Hollywood Town Hall in its entirety, and the second night will see the band playing [...]

Holy shit - it's a This Week In Chicago post! What's it been, a month? Sorry kids... Anyway, we're back, and just in time for a very mediocre week of music. Well, mediocre in terms of overall number of options, not quality of options. Because, of course, SUPERCHUNK is in town. And so is Chris Mills . And Robbie Fulks is about to close out a full year of Hideout residency shows, and locals The 1900s and Tyler Jon Tyler are at the [...]

More goodness from up North...

If you do nothing else tonight (or tomorrow), take 15 minutes and watch Sharon Van Etten's new Tiny Desk Concert with NPR. And when you're done, go buy her excellent new album, Epic , here .

Not sure how I missed this video... The excellent audio track for "John Huston" has been going around for a few weeks, but this live performance is even better. If you haven't seen it, take a couple minutes and check it out. THE REST - John Huston from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo .

Here's some pictures from a fantastic show that I went to at the Empty Bottle about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I meant to post them at the time, but work and other stuff got in the way (as it often does). I've also added a couple videos at the bottom (not mine) so that you can check out the bands if you don't know them yet. Because, you really should know them. The Henry Clay People [...]

Quality weekend of music in the greater Chicago area. First up on Friday was the always, always excellent David Vandervelde . I love that he's notched up the touring again after a couple of slow years. I've managed to see him four times this year (not including a show on New Year's Eve 09/10), and if it's possible he still gets better every time I see him. Last night was Maritime and Kid, You'll Move Mountains out in Dekalb, IL (thanks to Love Shack, Baby for driving!). [...]

So I've fallen a bit behind on this whole blogging thing again recently. I still need to put up pictures from the excellent Henry Clay People / The Dig show at Empty Bottle from a few weeks ago, as well as some shots from this week's Dawes / Vetiver show at Lincoln Hall and last night's David Vandervelde show at Empty Bottle. Phew... I'm tired just writing all of that. Before I get around to posting those pics, though - and before I spend a couple hours tomorrow writing [...]

I'm told we have a new poster coming for this soon, but for now here's the first flier for the really cool Beats and Blogs show going on at Subterranean on Saturday, December 18th. The show is being organized by the good folks at Betta Promotions and Loud Loop Press , and is also sponsored by a bunch of great area blogs, and one shitty blog . More importantly, the show features four great bands, including: WHITE MYSTERY HOLLOWS RABBLE RABBLE RADAR EYES [...]

Wanna see Clinic and The Fresh and Onlys at Lincoln Hall in Chicago TONIGHT?!? Head over here and enter by 2:30pm!!! Go now!

I've pretty much been frothing at the mouth since word started to percolate a couple of years ago that Blake Schwarzenbach of Jawbreaker and Jets To Brazil fame was making music again after a lengthy hiatus. Although his first new band, Thorns of Life , broke up pretty soon after forming, he formed another band called forgetters soon thereafter, and they've been going strong for more than a year now. The band played a fantastic set at Subterranean here in Chicago last month (see my bad pics [...]

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Second City has announced the date for this year's Letters to Santa benefit - Tuesday, December 14th at 7pm to Wednesday, December 15th at 7pm. As you may know - or as you can guess from the timing - the show is a 24-hour event featuring improv comedy from Second City performers (and alumni) as well as guest performances from several musicians. I went last year and attended about 16 of the 24 hours, and it was a great time. My favorite part was around 2am when everyone started getting tired and a bit [...]

One of my favorite young bands, Dawes , is set to hit Lincoln Hall next Wednesday (11/10) along with openers Vetiver and Peter Wolf Crier . All three bands are pretty great, and it should be one of the best shows in Chicago this month (aside from The Frames , of course). I'm a little too lazy at the moment to find MP3s to post for the bands, but if you want to check them out ahead of the show, here's some good links for ya: Dawes on Daytrotter [...]

Missed this when it came out last month. Be sure to catch the band at Lincoln Hall in January as part of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival ( tix ).