For Jasper Patterson AKA Groundislava, creativity combined with the video game, sci-fi sounds and general aesthetics of the 1980’s have been instilled since day one. A young 20 year-old hailing from Venice, California, Jasper’s father both animated and directed the classic “Take On Me” video by A-Ha and while Groundislava isn’t exactly the next logical step from the Norwegian new wave group, Jasper takes that same creative freedom and emotion and injects it into a sound grounded in beats, video games, technology and self-proclaimed “nerdy shit.” As part of the Wedidit Collective, Groundislava is the next representative stepping into the light and exposing a group of youngsters each with their own nonchalantly expert takes on forms of beat and electronic music.

Drawing from acts as diverse as Ludacris, Britney Spears, and Broadcast, oOoOO marries hip-hop-influenced beats with pop melodies and experimental sounds.

“What Burial is to rave, oOoOO seems to be for relationship. These songs are the ghosts of love affairs and the spectres of sex and we should be celebrating this for what it is: a strange, emotionally unsettling model of pop music that is high on melody, atmosphere and subtle drama.” – FACT MAGAZINE

RSVP on Facebook

RSVP on Facebook

Alex Wiley

Hailing from the West Side of Chicago, ShowYouSuck has gone from becoming an Alumni of the Art Institute, building the walls of art gallery Artpentry, to selling out several venues in his hometown in 2012. The Chicago emcee is breaking boundaries between genres & cracking the music mold by creating a style that is truly his own. Melting; Punk, Based, Trill, rap with a touch of wit. ShowYouSuck puts his mark on the music world with his incredible high-energy and captivating stage performances.

RSVP on Facebook

Easton, MD -- Front porch of producer John Alagia's house on the Chesapeake Bay.

I've just woken up from another end of the world dream where Bon Jovi was an alien planting explosive devices in cupboards that eventually cause massive flooding when I decide I need to do a morning coffee run (ok, I need cigarettes) so I grab my keys and head to town. E-Rob (Eric Robinson), our engineer, is just going to bed after working late on a vox comp for 'You Won't Let Me' and it occurs to me how I've truly lucked out with the people involved in "Chesapeake."

I am in the studio. And when I say studio, I mean Alagia's house that we've spent weeks converting into a studio. We shipped gear, borrowed microphones, amps, guitars, and a grand piano that's living in his bedroom (because that's where we get the best sound). We housed vox mics in his shower for some natural reverb and of course the porch where I write this -- a past scene of pre production jams complete with drums made out of cardboard beer cases and recycling bins -- cellos stuck in wads of duck tape so as not to slip on the floor, a wurly set up by the table of receipts I'm calling 'my office' etc.

I packed my car what seems like months ago chock full of air mattresses, giant breakfast skillets, keyboards, snow boots (unusable) and of course my diva tent -- an 8 person banana yellow monstrosity that I've been sleeping in for some time now to carve out a little private space for moi as well as leave room for the house full of amazing musicians that have come to play. There have been rounds of plumbers and air conditioner technicians, trips to Target for the inflatable pool that has since garnered a crop circle impression on the lawn for a mere $79.95, and thank you dad for the grill donation -- let there be burgers.

RSVP on Facebook

More

“It’s a question of being respectful to each other,” Dom Maker says of the art of collaboration. It’s a simple ethic, but one that has yielded rich rewards. Since 2009, Maker and his partner in Mount Kimbie, Kai Campos, have played a central role in forging a new form for electronic music. Their influence stretches far beyond the tiny corner of the dance music underground that birthed them and, with the duo now signed to the legendary Warp label, it looks set to stretch further still in the coming years. Since their emergence Mount Kimbie have repeatedly confounded expectations, transforming themselves from bedroom-studio producers to creators of one of the most fully realised electronic album-length statements of recent years. This year, with the release of the duo’s second LP, the perception of what Mount Kimbie is looks set to expand again. Still, at the heart of the band’s music lies that simplest of things: the meeting of two musical minds.

Campos was raised in Cornwall, Maker in Brighton. The pair met in halls of residence while studying at London’s Southbank University and bonded over a newfound passion for electronic music - specifically the burgeoning dubstep sound. “We weren’t particularly trying to break into any kind of scene or anything like that,” says Campos. “We were just making music that we didn’t even think was that weird at the time, but when you look back on it now...” Mount Kimbie drew on their thick soup of influences to make a hybrid music that was intimate in scale but far from lacking in ambition. Back then they were oddities; nowadays the approach they pioneered is practically the norm.

The first evidence of the impact Mount Kimbie would have came with the Maybes EP, released on then-dubstep label Hotflush in 2009. The title track was a dazzling statement of intent - a melancholic anthem of sorts, combining a delicate garage shuffle with gaseous vapour trails of guitar and fragmented vocal melodies. It was swiftly followed by the more colourful Sketch On Glass EP, and within the space of a few months Campos and Maker found themselves at the forefront of a new wave of bedroom producers radically re-interpreting the dubstep template. “In the early stages of Mount Kimbie everything happened very fast,” Maker recalls. “I remember the first show we ever did - actually getting paid money to play in this church in Oslo. It was a really bizarre feeling, almost like we’d cheated the system.”

RSVP on Facebook

More

The story that leads to Junip’s 2010 release is one of patience and perfectionism, frustration and persistence, sheer bloody-mindedness, inspiration and success. The place to which it takes you, however, is one of pastoral contemplation, autumnal grace and inscrutable, haunting serenity. A cosmopolitan three piece from Gothenburg, Sweden – featuring Tobias Winterkorn (keyboards), Elias Araya (drums) and José González (vocals & guitar), the latter of whom you’ll be familiar with from his solo work – Junip have existed since 1999, maybe even 1998. It’s so long, frankly, that none of them are quite sure. FIELDS, however, is the album that they’ve been itching to make ever since.

González and Araya have been playing together since they were 14. Their love of hardcore led them to form Renascence, (later called Sweet Little Sinister), and they first encountered Winterkorn at shows in Gothenburg in the mid ‘90s. “We talked about music that wasn’t hardcore music,” Winterkorn recalls. “I think we were all fed up and talked about doing something new.” “Our feeling was that we could do something more interesting with a setting that was more typical of the ‘60s and 70s’,” “By then in Sweden,” González relates, “it felt like everyone else was into Americana and country with steel stringed guitars,” he continues. “We had nylon strings and a Moog.”

RSVP on Facebook

More

Electro-pop from Glasgow, Scotland.

RSVP on Facebook

More

Electro-pop from Glasgow, Scotland.

RSVP on Facebook

More

Beyond the aughts-era duality of retromania and neophilia, Longstreth has found the beautiful, generous simplicity of the heart and soul. Same as it ever was. And this must be exactly the place where he’s planted the seeds for his band’s finest album to date.

“It’s an album of songs, an album of songwriting,” says Longstreth.

Another reinvention in a career defined by reinvention, Swing Lo Magellan does what no Dirty Projectors album has done before: it’s about songs. Few songwriters can pull off the challenge to write as simple and direct as possible, and fewer still can do it and be left with something that feels irreducibly personal and idiosyncratic. Swing Lo Magellan gives us twelve such songs, one after another.

The album contains some of the biggest choruses of the band’s career (the explosive and anthemic Offspring Are Blank and Unto Caesar), as well as some of simplest and most disarming (the closer Irresponsible Tune). Gun Has No Trigger is a fever dream of ecstatic paranoia, while Dance For You is a song of searching, spiritual depth (“in the language of Gyptian and Ligeti,” Longstreth suggests). The tender love declared in Impregnable Question would have resonated in any musical era of the last hundred years. The title track Swing Lo Magellan is a gorgeous lament to the night sky. Amber Coffman’s solo turn on The Socialites adds a compelling new layer to her persona. Each of these songs is a world unto itself – one that can be explored endlessly. Indeed, Swing Lo Magellan feels so unique in the context of much of today’s music because it is more about its content than about its frame and reference. It’s more heart than sleeve.

RSVP on Facebook

More

Beyond the aughts-era duality of retromania and neophilia, Longstreth has found the beautiful, generous simplicity of the heart and soul. Same as it ever was. And this must be exactly the place where he’s planted the seeds for his band’s finest album to date.

“It’s an album of songs, an album of songwriting,” says Longstreth.

Another reinvention in a career defined by reinvention, Swing Lo Magellan does what no Dirty Projectors album has done before: it’s about songs. Few songwriters can pull off the challenge to write as simple and direct as possible, and fewer still can do it and be left with something that feels irreducibly personal and idiosyncratic. Swing Lo Magellan gives us twelve such songs, one after another.

The album contains some of the biggest choruses of the band’s career (the explosive and anthemic Offspring Are Blank and Unto Caesar), as well as some of simplest and most disarming (the closer Irresponsible Tune). Gun Has No Trigger is a fever dream of ecstatic paranoia, while Dance For You is a song of searching, spiritual depth (“in the language of Gyptian and Ligeti,” Longstreth suggests). The tender love declared in Impregnable Question would have resonated in any musical era of the last hundred years. The title track Swing Lo Magellan is a gorgeous lament to the night sky. Amber Coffman’s solo turn on The Socialites adds a compelling new layer to her persona. Each of these songs is a world unto itself – one that can be explored endlessly. Indeed, Swing Lo Magellan feels so unique in the context of much of today’s music because it is more about its content than about its frame and reference. It’s more heart than sleeve.

RSVP on Facebook

More

If you’d spent the last few years of your life wrapped up in an album like Star Of Love, you’d go looking for a little respite, too. Crystal Fighters’ debut was the product of minds made manic by a deluge of fresh experience, both in the studio and on the road. It was inspired by an opera written by a man whose sanity disintegrated before he could finish it. It seemed to be influenced just as much by traditional Basque music from the 18th century as it was modern-day clubland, and contained residual traces of every genre, scene, style or party that had existed in-between.

But if album one was the sound of haywire electronic loops frantically kept spinning like plates on sticks, then album two is the story of Crystal Fighters mastering control of those rave repetitions, withdrawing from the chaos of the club to carve their music into the shape of songs.

To write the album, Crystal Fighters retreated to the Basque hills that they consider to be their spiritual home. Their music has always born traces of the local sound –traditional instruments like txalapartas and txistus vying in the mix with razor’s edge guitars and percolating techno synths – but the purpose of this mission was different. Immersed in their creative cradle, they wanted to tap into something beyond their immediate experience, to uproot themselves from temporal bounds in order to write timeless songs.

RSVP on Facebook

More

For every song Joseph Arthur has released in a critically acclaimed, Grammy- nominated career that has spanned nine full-length albums and 11 EPs, he's probably kept three others in the vault for safekeeping. Indeed, Arthur has been known to start working on a new album -- or two -- while simultaneously trying to finish another.

It was amid this abundance of riches that the Brooklyn-by way of Ohio-native began molding a collection of music under a single narrative thread: The Ballad of Boogie Christ, described by Arthur as "a fictionalized character loosely based on my own journey."

At first, it was a song here or there, or a set of lyrics with no accompanying music. Then, those songs would get recorded and set aside. They'd get re- recorded and revised. They'd start to make sense in relation to their brothers and sisters, and then they wouldn't. And pretty soon, more than half-a-decade had flown by and Boogie Christ was no closer to coherency.

"For some reason, I've been avoiding finishing this record for a long time," Arthur says with a laugh. "It's been an albatross around my neck. I don't know why, but it has."

RSVP on Facebook

More

AfroZep originated in 2009 with the mission to spread African music to wider audiences while paying tribute to the greatest Heavy Rock band of all time. Some tunes are straight mash-ups of Fela Kuti and Zeppelin, others are Zep tunes but set to original grooves based off the music of artists such as Tinariwen, Thomas Mapfumo and Franco and others are stripped down Zeppelin arrangements injected with the pulse of traditional African drumming.

Wilson (guitar/vocals) Marshall Greenhouse (drum-kit), and Ryan Behling (bass and lead vocals) bring years of road experience with them and a rotating all-star cast of musicians they have met along the way. Members of the project have recorded and toured with Chicago Afrobeat Project, 1000 Vertical Feet, 56 Hope Road, Starrunner, the Motet, Dubconscious, Seneke West African Drum and Dance Ensemble, Chicago Samba and many more.

RSVP on Facebook

More

John Darnielle is a human male and American musician who was born in Indiana.

Alone or in collaboration with others, he has been known as the Mountain Goats since 1991. He grew up in Central California, and has lived in many states, but now lives in North Carolina with his wife and child and at least one cat that I have observed. I visited his home in the year 2011. I took off my shoes when I came in the door because that is my habit. No one made me do it. John Darnielle's house is not rockstar huge, nor rockstar glamorous. It does not have a home theater or rolfing center. It's modest. There is an office packed with shelves reflecting his preoccupations: pulp horror and philosophy and religious study. John Darnielle is fascinated with both death metal and the Holy Bible and speaks eloquently of the dark magic and elegance and grace of both.

Now I am going to tell you that, in the study by the stairs, I stepped in a little bit of cat vomit. I can report that John Darnielle was not embarrassed. Because he knows it is in a cat's nature to vomit, and because he saw an opportunity for kindness. He loaned me some socks, and they were argyle, warm from the dryer and very soft. The house has a basement, which John Darnielle describes as "awesome." The basement is not particularly awesome. (I have seen some awesome basements.) It has some drums and guitars in it but otherwise is a fairly typical basement of a modest, middle-class home. Normal. It is my impression that this may be why John Darnielle considers his basement to be awesome, for such normality was not necessarily going to be his fate.

RSVP on Facebook

More

When electro-rock sensation Lights first hit the music scene in 2008, she was just a songwriter with a synth and a dream. Her name may have been pluralized but Lights Poxleitner was a one-woman show who played and programmed her own instruments and sang her own lyrics.

This admirable self-reliance is rare in pop—in fact, Lights, signed a publishing deal at 16 and began writing songs for other artists—but after her 2008 self-titled debut EP (precocious enough to earn her a best new artist Juno) and gold-selling full-length follow-up The Listening, Lights was ready to open herself up to collaborations on her unexpectedly experimental album Siberia. And by choosing such leftfield collaborators as live electronic outfit Holy Fuck and rising rapper Shad, she also opened up her sound.

“It’s a huge step,” she readily admits. “For a year after my first record, I was confused and searching. I was writing all over the place and not finding anything that was essentially different. But after tour last year I was turned onto dubstep.” The genre’s grimy beats and sonic minimalism influenced the creation of Siberia, if not necessarily shaping the music itself (though she does pay homage with a dubstep drop on “Fourth Dimension.”)

Rather, dubstep led Lights away from the “perfection” of her past work. “Everything was tuned and timed just right. The new stuff is raw and gritty but still pop with a focus on the melodies. It’s the marriage of those two that make it really different and unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” This dirtier direction came from collaborating with Holy Fuck, a fellow Juno-winning, electronic-influenced Canadian act who she met when both played the dance stage at last year’s Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK. Impressed by their “grime and grit,” she decided to see what might happen when she infused her pop sensibilities with their experimental tendencies.

RSVP on Facebook

More

Dan Savage, the author of the internationally syndicated sex advice column “Savage Love” and the editorial director of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly newspaper, turns his sharp wit and keen perspective to some of the most salient issues facing the country today, including marriage equality, sex education, healthcare, gun control, and more. In addition to his frequent appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Colbert Report, Savage is a regular contributor to NPR’s This American Life. His books include the New York Times bestseller It Gets Better, Skipping Towards Gomorrah, The Commitment, and The Kid, his award winning memoir about adoption.

Join Unabridged Bookstore at Lincoln Hall as we welcome Dan and his new book.

Unabridged Bookstore opened in its current location at 3251 N. Broadway in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood on Saturday, November 1, 1980, and while it has expanded since, the vision has remained the same: to promote and sell great books. Unabridged is known for its dedicated, knowledgeable staff, (and their hand-written personal recommendations) an unparalleled sale book section, and an award-winning children's section. It's safe to say that Unabridged is the BEST bookstore in the Chicago area where a shopper can buy the latest issue of a magazine, a copy of children's classic Goodnight Moon, or newest title, and pick up the latest literary fiction & non-fiction sensation, all in one stop.

More

Join us for a special Road to Rise VIP Experience with Skillet. The VIP package includes:
+ Rise listening session with the band prior to the album release
+ Live Skillet acoustic set
+ Meet & Greet with the band
+ Dinner with the band
+ Q & A with the band
+ Viewing of entire Awake & Live DVD with Skillet before it is released
+ Signed Limited Edition silk screened hand numbered poster

BIO:
Since Skillet last hit the studio for 2006’s breakthrough project Comatose, the group’s toured with the likes of Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Seether and Flyleaf, followed by a solo headlining ranking within Pollstar’s Concert Pulse Top 50 Tours for 2008. Along the way, the Grammy-nominated alternative outfit also scored three top 40 singles on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock charts, earned a pair of BMI Songwriting Awards and released its first ever concert CD/DVD combo pack in support of the season called Comatose Comes Alive.

Aside from the commercial accolades, the Grammy-nominated modern rockers are rapidly approaching gold sales status, backed by both public adoration and critical praise, making the brand new Awake (Atlantic) the band’s most anticipated album to date. Not only does Skillet continue in the tradition of bone crunching rockers and melodic power ballads that comprised the last trip to the studio, but there’s a noticeable evolution sure to connect with longtime listeners and open the floodgates of its fan base even further than ever before.

RSVP on Facebook

More

A Chicago-based alternative rock band with electro indie roots is making its way onto the national music scene. Since its launch in 2010, Polarcode has played popular music venues from New York City and Boston to Chicago, Milwaukee, and onto L.A. Creating songs about personal discovery, relationships, worldly matters and the rise of technology, Polarcode draws inspiration from the challenging realities of 21st century life. Polarcode delivers its original songs with layers of synthesizers, keyboards, intricate bass and drum interaction, tribal percussion and soaring vocals. The band’s jazz and classically trained musicians bring a unique juxtiposition of fiery virtuosity and delicate warmth to their music. Polarcode released their debut album, Polarcode, in 2011 and continue to delight audiences with their passionate performances.

RSVP on Facebook

More

More

The VIP ticket includes:
- General Admission Ticket
- Early Entry
- Exclusive Meet & Greet w/ Mike Stud
- Personal Autograph & Photo w/ Mike Stud
- Official Meet & Greet Laminate

The legend of Mike Stud dates back to his days growing up as one of Rhode Island’s greatest ball players of all-time. As a highly touted high school Senior, Stud was named Rhode Island’s 2006 Gatorade Player of the Year, Louisville Slugger Player of the Year honors, and also recieved a full athletic scholarship to Duke University. Mike was selected as an All-American and now holds the lowest ERA in Duke Baseball history after only his Freshman season at Duke.

After the promising start to Stud's collegiate baseball career, Tommy John Surgery put him on the sidelines. Suddenly, making music became an outlet to pass the time for Mike. After only a few public releases of self-composed songs, he began to get notable recognition for his rhyming ability and was encouraged to continue. After graduating Duke, Mike transferred to Georgetown to continue his studies as a Graduate student and to continue his attempt at regaining full-strength on the mound. Needless to say, Mike also continued working on music in his down time. Fast forward 14 months, and Mike is now one of the hottest upcoming musicians on the web, globally. Mike Stud’s rookie mixtape "A Toast to Tommy" debuted at #3 Worldwide, and #2 U.S. on the iTunes Hip-Hop album charts last October. He has since headlined a Sold Out 20-city national tour and has acquired over nearly 10 million YouTube views and counting. His versatility & fun, up-beat style has brought Mike to the forefront of viral artists, and with each new release, he is showing the world that he is about to take it over.

RSVP on Facebook

More

The Bloom and the Blight is the work of a band that has matured and redefined itself, and the album is imbued with a palpable sense of personal catharsis. Opening tracks "Halcyon Days" and "Song of Songs" illustrate the type of build to explosion that's omnipresent throughout the album, and the prowling "My Love Won't Wait" - with a menacing chorus underscored by a pounding backbeat - is an epic, booming anthem. The gentler "Broken Eyes" - all voices, guitar, harmonica, and tambourine - has already become a fan favorite with its rousing, harmony-filled final verses, while the cinematic "Ride Away" soars on Adam Stephens' raspy howl and Tyson Vogel's relentless drumming. The songs have a dark side and a dynamic sonic heft, yet a sense of salvation and resolve courses throughout: an urgent, emotional poignancy stemming in part from Stephens' recovery from a serious van accident in 2010.

Produced by John Congleton (The Walkmen, Explosions In The Sky, St. Vincent), The Bloom and the Blight moves away from Two Gallants' more folk and blues-based past, representing the duo's ferocious live show and their past steeped in punk and grunge. The album simultaneously maintains the thoughtful storytelling and eloquent lyricism for which the band has become known, and contains gorgeous, quieter moments like the finger-picked ballad "Sunday Souvenirs" and the dreamy, unearthly "Decay" (the first Vogel-penned song on a Two Gallants album).

RSVP on Facebook

More

Now we’re born again,” sings Zach Rogue on the closing track of Rogue Wave’s fourth studio album, Permalight.

The dreamy acoustic lament lasts just over a minute but in sound and spirit it neatly sums up everything that comes before it. A punchy, deceptively effervescent set of multi-instrumental pop tunes, the Northern California band’s latest set represents a giant breakthrough for Rogue and his longtime musical partner, drummer-keyboardist-vocalist Pat Spurgeon.

“The record sounds, for lack of a better word, fun,” the frontman says.

It’s an astonishing change of direction, to say the least. Formed by Rogue in 2002 after he lost his tech job and parted ways with the Oakland rock group Desoto Reds, Rogue Wave has a reputation for crafting classic, inward-looking pop songs highlighted with psychedelic guitars, pastoral sound effects and intricate rhythms.

On tunes from the new album like the title track “Permalight” and “Good Morning,” however, Rogue Wave steps away from expectations. Rogue says the former was written as a left-field sequel to Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration,” with synthesizers that simultaneously sound brittle and blissful. “Stars and Stripes” builds on a deep groove before spilling over in a raging chorus. Clubby beats are prominent but the album doesn’t sit still for long. “Per Anger” is a straightforward rock tune that takes its cues from Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud dynamic.

Then there’s the album’s unofficial centerpiece, “I’ll Never Leave You,” a simple acoustic tune that finds Rogue coming to grips with the overwhelming emotions that come with young fatherhood. Like many of the songs on the album it’s rooted in Rogue Wave’s triumph over seemingly constant peril – including the tragic death of a former band mate and constant health issues – and the band’s undying determination to push forward.

RSVP on Facebook

More

Now we’re born again,” sings Zach Rogue on the closing track of Rogue Wave’s fourth studio album, Permalight.

The dreamy acoustic lament lasts just over a minute but in sound and spirit it neatly sums up everything that comes before it. A punchy, deceptively effervescent set of multi-instrumental pop tunes, the Northern California band’s latest set represents a giant breakthrough for Rogue and his longtime musical partner, drummer-keyboardist-vocalist Pat Spurgeon.

“The record sounds, for lack of a better word, fun,” the frontman says.

It’s an astonishing change of direction, to say the least. Formed by Rogue in 2002 after he lost his tech job and parted ways with the Oakland rock group Desoto Reds, Rogue Wave has a reputation for crafting classic, inward-looking pop songs highlighted with psychedelic guitars, pastoral sound effects and intricate rhythms.

On tunes from the new album like the title track “Permalight” and “Good Morning,” however, Rogue Wave steps away from expectations. Rogue says the former was written as a left-field sequel to Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration,” with synthesizers that simultaneously sound brittle and blissful. “Stars and Stripes” builds on a deep groove before spilling over in a raging chorus. Clubby beats are prominent but the album doesn’t sit still for long. “Per Anger” is a straightforward rock tune that takes its cues from Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud dynamic.

Then there’s the album’s unofficial centerpiece, “I’ll Never Leave You,” a simple acoustic tune that finds Rogue coming to grips with the overwhelming emotions that come with young fatherhood. Like many of the songs on the album it’s rooted in Rogue Wave’s triumph over seemingly constant peril – including the tragic death of a former band mate and constant health issues – and the band’s undying determination to push forward.

RSVP on Facebook

More

More