We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Chicagoist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Rothbury Music Festival, where you can see acts like the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg, and many, many more. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Chicagoist or any other site in our network, check out our......

We’ve read (and cried through) her diary and now we get a glimpse into her family photo album. “Anne Frank: A Photo Album” is on display at Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich. Funded from a state grant and brought in from the Anne Frank Center in New York, the exhibit features over 70 black and white photos taken by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, who was a talented amateur photographer. The exhibit chronicles......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Chicagoist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Rothbury Music Festival, where you can see acts like the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg, and many, many more. Missy Higgins, with an album that is available now. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Chicagoist or......

Jim DeRogatis provides an obligatory "Chicago's next big bands" list today, and we actually find ourselves agreeing with most of his picks, even if a few are overly obvious. For instance it's not exactly like he's mining the underground when he predicts Kid Sister and the Cool Kids are going to break in 2008. We were pleasantly surprised to see Airiel and Tom Schraeder on his list, though, since those are two acts that we......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Film Have you heard the new place to play hooky is the Portage Theater's classic Wednesday matinée series? Last week it was the Marx Brothers at their most anarchic. This week Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald star in "I Married an Angel." This classic 1942 fantasy features some classic Rogers and Hart songs sung beautifully......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music During the day, she's the Chicago correspondent for the Nikkei stock exchange's newpaper. After hours, Yoko Noge is one of the more adventurous musicians in the city, with an innate grasp of the blues that many folks born and raised in this city would kill to have. Singing both in English and Japanese, Noge......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Aquarium: The Shedd Aquarium is offering free admission to its general exhibits, and reduced admission to the fancy-schmancy ones, all this week! We haven't been there in a while so this is an excellent opportunity for us to check in on all the fishies and the whales. 1200 S Lakeshore, weekdays 9 a.m. until 5......

And you thought the Spice Girls had all the fun? Portland, Oregon's Uncle Earl, an all-woman string band, knows how have a good time banging out the bluegrass and old-time music. Closer to The Be Good Tanyas or The Yonder Mountain String Band than anything to do with Mrs. David Beckham, the ladies (or "g'Earls") of Uncle Earl have been touring in support of their latest release, Waterloo, Tennessee, produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul......

The clock to '08 is ticking. What are you doing to ring in the new year? If the answer to that question is a desperate, collar-loosening, sweat-inducing "I don't know!" then here are a few last-minute suggestions. Everything listed here will cost you less than $40 and was not sold out at the time of posting. Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile at the Old Town School of Folk Music: If you thoroughly enjoy the pop/folk......

In a situation only slightly less disgusting and tragically hilarious than the time Dave Matthews Band's waste landed on that tour boat, mysterious "splotches" over a three block radius in Lisle may be human poop and pee. Police in the western suburb are investigating a substance that landed on and often stained roofs, lawns, streets, cars, etc. The yellow and brown stains were described as "the size of the palm of [a] hand." While there's......

To the five people checking the site today, specifically my father: Please enjoy the above video of John Denver and the Muppets singing "Where The River Meets the Sea" from Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Can you watch this without choking up? We cannot. Anyway! It's been so stupid-cold the last few days we've barely left our warmth cocoon on the couch (tip: the fuzzy robe makes a huge difference), but if you haven't......

We can still remember with vivid clarity our parents sitting us down for the two major "talks" (sex and drugs) of adolescence. In our family, both talks were equally jarring and minimally helpful. Now imagine having to sit down and talk about drugs and/or sex with Bill Cosby. The Cos has long been a fan of jazz and at times dabbled in singing and scatting; his comedic talent and mugging for kids also masked for......

In a move sure to send ripples throughout the video game community, Electronic Arts, aka EA, is shuttering its Chicago office effective immediately. In case that leaves you scratching your head, EA is responsible for such gaming franchises as Madden NFL, The Sims, The Orange Box, and the upcoming Rock Band. The now former studio was located at 215 W. Ohio. According to EA Games president Frank Gibeau, shutting down the Chicago branch was “the......

Despite fending off service cuts and rate hikes by the skin of their teeth on Sunday, the CTA’s still got probs. Much probs. Not only will there most likely be another huge doomsday come January, the mass transit company has taken a hit in the public image department with their on-again, off-again crying of wolf. Newish president Ron Huberman openly admits to the CTA’s lack of credibility, what with the cycles and the bailouts and......

Yup, it's Halloween night. And, assuming you're not completely incapacitated from celebrating this holiday for the last week, you're probably blinded by the flurry of options on how to spend tonight. Allow us to make a few suggestions. We talked to Jesse Thorn a couple days ago about his The Sound Of Young America show. Well tonight is the live 8 p.m. taping at Second City's e.t.c. stage. Thorn will be interviewing engineer and Shellac-man......

Rocktober is truly upon us. Usually we would avoid such cutesy phrasing for fear of falling into obvious cliché, but this year truly holds some outstanding live music coming through Chicago in the month of October. Here's a sampling of what to expect this week. Honestly, we’re beginning that suspect that both Matt & Kim and Dan Deacon secretly have apartments in Chicago, because it feels like they’re playing here every other week. If that’s......

We admit we were a little late to the Watchers boat, not jumping on until we heard the band’s latest, Vampire Driver, shortly before its release this summer. It has now become one of our favorite albums of the year. Vampire Driver is hard; it’s jolting and jarring. But the harshness is backed by a funk bass-line and Talking Heads-esque vocals that contrast the beefy rock and create something that just makes you want to......

Chicagoist is a big cheerleader for the city, but there are some things that even we have a hard time getting excited about. Swimming in Lake Michigan or jumping into the Chicago River are two of them. Maybe it is the dumping. Or maybe it is (jump in the way-back machine, for a second with us) Dave Matthews Band. Or maybe it is the knowledge that every summer, the beaches are closed several times......

We fell in love with the concept of live band karaoke way back when we saw the original crew, that Chicago's collective would be modeled after, perform at Arlene's Grocery years ago. When we discovered an enterprising young man was taking the idea and planting it in Chicago we had great hopes for it, but we honestly didn't foresee just how popular it would eventually become. Yow! The thing about regular karaoke is that, well,......

This weekend’s music festival inspired us to check out some local indie talent with our kiddo this week. We’ve heard rumors that Mr. Singer (with or without his band the Sharp Cookies) was the best around: a talented guitarist whose folksy music set featured music you could bob your head to, a kids’ musician who was more Springsteen and less Old MacDonald. We were not disappointed. We arrived at the concert venue, the yellow barn......

The big dilemma of the week is just which ironic T-shirt to wear to Pitchfork, but some Chicago bands have their dreams set on attending a different upcoming music festival. The voting for the third round of the Lollapalooza Last Band Standing Contest only lasts two weeks, and the Top 5 vote-getters will compete live at the Double Door on August 1. Out of the 20 artists still left in the running, six claim Chicago......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

Is there enough going on this weekend? We’re here to add to the list of places to go. Sunday is “A Day in the Country” at the Hideout. Get some BBQ, hear some country music, drink some whiskey. Sounds perfect to us. The whole dang thing begins at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday with a couple acoustic sets out front by Tangleweed and The Golden Horse Ranch Band before moving the music inside for the remainder......

Voting for Lollapalooza's Last Band Standing contest officially began on June 1, and Chicago is already leading the pack. Although the standings are always changing, when we last checked the leader board, four out of the top 10 bands were from our fair city, with Evanston-based Rachel Metter at the top of the list with 1727 votes at press time. The band's profile says it has "gained a fan-base among high school students in the......

"I have one criteria, this is my one litmus test for guys and I could not marry someone if they didn’t pass this test. They can’t like Dave Matthews Band." That's a line from filmmaker Saya Hillman's documentary on the Chicago singles scene, dating rubik’s cube. Twelve people, ranging from twentysomethings to people in their early 40's, let loose about everything from the foibles of blind dates to married life (another sample quote: "I woke......

Richard Buckner ain’t your porch-sitting, whiskey-sipping, long-lost-love-ruing folk singer - he’s the sound of an adulthood spent clawing through the shadowy underside of America in search of the indefinable sense of self and place. Buckner’s eighth studio effort, Meadow, was recently released on indie hipmonster Merge Records, and is the latest chapter the ever-evolving tale of disappearing comfort and aggravated desire that makes Buckner a favorite soundtrack to coffee Sunday mornings and late night......

We’ve divided this week into the old, the in-between, and the young because we felt that the myriad of choices out there this weekend needed some sort of random pronouncement that really means nothing at all. Sorry ‘bout that, we may have just watched too much CSPAN yesterday and lapsed into nothing speak. The Old Psychedelic Furs June 29, House of Blues, $24.50-$26.50, 18+, on sale Friday at 10:00 a.m. Def Leppard, Styx, Foreigner –......

Chicagoist is a big fan of channeling our inspirations into our creative output, so we’re naturally drawn to the British Invasion — worshipping Locksley. Named for Robin of Locksley from Robin Hood, one has to expect and accept a certain amount of best-intended robbery. Fortunately, this fab foursome from Madison (by way of Brooklyn) has the gumption and showmanship to pull off the rip off with more than a bit of style and an......

Our spring rush has netted a fresh new class of pledges for our interview beat: Keidra Chaney, a self-described pop-culture nut, joins us from Lincoln Square, by way of Englewood, West Pullman, and Wisconsin. When she's not interviewing people like the folks at the A+D Gallery for Chicagoist, she works at DePaul, and she freelances for magazines like Venus Zine, Bitch, Friction, and Colorlines. Karl Klockars is also a Chicagoland native, growing up in the......

The jaunts will be short this week as most of us get out and enjoy the sunshine. We were walking around this morning and people just seem happier. Which is all the more reason to get out tonight for some good music. We plan on getting intimate with Ambulette and Maura Davis' intensely mesmerizing voice at Schubas, 3159 N. Southport. Davis splits her time between Richmond and Charlotte and comes to Chicago to rehearse with......