New albums out, shit. Hey, we love 'em, but let's be honest — a new release is just the same as any other release, it just sits in a record store waiting for it's own peculiar kind of magic to occur. Or, okay, right — on a website, waiting for your to download and upload and digitally loose its (reduced) magic. But a new release plus a show? Now that's something a little more real. The new music is represented in a place that is... (read more)

It's a wide world of song that we're living in, if you can really call what "we" do living. Actually, "we" need more living in our lives - so open your eyes and ears to the endlessness of song and vision and everything else that's available to your five senses! Who knows what's going out there until you check, you know? Like, case in point - the residents of Sydney, Australia probably wouldn't imagine while looking up at the high rises that a certain celestial... (read more)

Tomorrow night the famed Music Box Theater will host an evening of entertainment that will rival the glamour of the ice capades and the excitement of Vietnam-era USO shows. The Chicago premier of Dragonslayer starts at 7pm with live music from Bitchin Bajas, visual accompaniment from Olivia Wyatt and a rock and roll appearance from Mayor Daley.

We’ve been talking about it for months as the SXSW/Hot Docs hit has been travelin the country, making waves and leaving names in a trail of... (read more)

The organic movement is finally real! It brings us a caffeinated surge of pleasure to introduce to you the first-ever (and only) Bonnie Prince-certified organic coffee. Up until now there were rules and rules about how to get a product certified organic, but standards are for the birds. And Bonny eats birds for breakfast. With coffee, goddamn.

Along his travels Bonny some how managed to find himself on the island of Hawaii and met up with the Kona Coffee people. After rigorous experiments with... (read more)

People everywhere are always asking us, "what's up with J-New? Has she made a new record? Will she play my birthday party?" All the time! Sometimes when we're in the john, cuddled up to the urinal, and we hear "Do you know Joanna...?" So often, we leave people hanging. But not today! Come on, ask us! No, she won't play your birthday party, but we can safely report: Joanna Newsom did ACL and tore that shit up right good! No, not that ACL,... (read more)

The internet creeps hard sometimes. Usually the trash that floats into our inbox sticks to the standard, semi-personalized ads for sex written by ESL students. But after a few glasses of Tang and Purple on Time. at full volume, the poetry in these messages start to appear like ghosts in a samurai movie, hippies in the sunshine or, so we’re told, pirate ships in a magic eye poster. Spam is the new outsider art, man, coming to a contemporary art museum near you any day... (read more)

On January 25, 2012 Dragonslayer comes to Chicago for a one night only event at the Music Box - remember? Jesus, it seems like we've been talking about it forever! And well we should - because this documentary film is coming at us so hard from the opposite side of our "whoops, now it's sleeting in Chicago"-style existence, its gonna take a few mental breaths so as not to get the mental bends as we slide to the bottom of the contempo-California skate-punk metier that... (read more)

Relax, brainiacs — Brain Pulse Music is here! After years of researching the bioelectric functions of the human brain, combined with the traumatic aftershocks of Japan's Great East Earthquake, Masaki Batoh has emerged from his furthest incursion into the deep space and mystery of the human condition with an album meant to calm and aid in the healing of all around him. It has been Batoh's long-standing intention to create a machine that would interface with brain waves in a therapeutic way allowing the... (read more)

Remember when getting up off the floor and going to a rock show felt like a fun thing to do (it totally still is, but keep reading, ok?)? One where the potential for an exciting, possibly dangerous experience that could leave you with scars, the kind where you could eat the bar and lose your shirt and wet yourself and still go home with the chick (or dude) with the shaved head (or...)? Those memorable instances of pure, vacant joy are always aided and abetted... (read more)

Now when the music stops, find yourself a chair and sit on it. No pushin' people on the ground, no sittin' before the music stops, no "duck, duck, goose digressions," for Christ's almighty sake. And no, you can't go to the bathroom right now. This is important. No poutin' shoutin' or fuss aboutin', alright? Now, if you are lucky enough to be in the grace-a God and he wills that you win our little contest, your good friend and soundsystem operator Brigadeer Damus will take... (read more)