Ten Christmas songs for your holiday

With Thanksgiving only days away and festive lights overtaking Evanston, the time of year has become blatantly obvious. ‘Tis the holiday season — a season for eating gelt and decorating pine trees. But it wouldn’t be the holidays without the right mood music. Here we have collected some great Christmas songs and covers to help [...]

The Smashing Pumpkins celebrate “20 years of burning bridges”

Cover of Zeitgeist

Back in 1988, the Smashing Pumpkins played their first show at the Metro theater in Chicago. This Friday at the Auditorium Theater, the Pumpkins celebrated 20 years of music (or “20 years of burning bridges,” as lead singer Billy Corgan put it) with the third of four shows in their hometown and the [...]

What the world’s nerdiest music did to my wardrobe — and my hair.

In embracing one music genre, our writer doubles his geekiness and hair volume.

Atmosphere paints the Vic

Photo by author.

“How long has it been, Chicago? Three months? My, how you’ve grown. So big!”
Following an on-par opening performance by Abstract Rude, Atmosphere’s frontman, Slug, took the stage; coat on, hood up, gloves donned. “It’s fuckin’ cold out,” he explained.
Atmosphere’s Paint the Nation tour had the potential to be incredibly disappointing. Paint the Nation [...]

Warm sound, artistic covers fuel record sales

Vinyl has seen a 36.6 percent sales increase over the past year.

SPACE: Evanston’s newest venue hopes to create dialogue with NU students

SPACE aims to have two college-oriented shows each week.

Of Montreal at the Riviera

These pictures aint the half of it. Photos by the Spencer Kornhaber / North by Northwestern.

A lot of crazy shit happened at Of Montreal’s show at the Riviera on Monday, but the craziest thing may have been that it all wasn’t, you know, insane. Sure, some may look at 2008 as the year when front [...]

The passe magic of Evanston’s Dr. Wax

The record store was an interesting place to explore, but the magic soon faded.

The RTVF musician balancing classes and a fan base

Chatting with the star of Northwestern’s music scene

The Hood Internet comes to the frat quad

One half of the DJ duo chats with us before their Sigma Chi performance Friday.

Slideshow: The Kooks at the Riviera Theater

Photos by Emery Mathieson.
Brit rockers the Kooks took the stage in front of a diverse audience at the Riviera Theater on Saturday night. The vibe of the concert was a contrast to the more somber sounds of Death Cab for Cutie, who performed the night before at the same venue for A&O Productions’ fall [...]

Deerhoof Offend Maggie review

Video for Deerhoof’s “Fresh Born”
Few efforts in my life have been as futile as trying to turn people on to all-over-the-place rockers Deerhoof. It’s rare for a musical outfit to make sounds so uncommon that I want to tell everyone about them, but even rarer [...]

Stereolab at the Vic Theater

Stereolab / Laetitia Sadier (vocals). Photo by the author.
Without knowing anything else, the name Stereolab conjures images of horn-rims and lab coats in a room full of neon beakers emitting bubbly harmony in stereo. “Experimental” certainly seems to belong somewhere in a description if they are a rock group. So a guess that “Stereolab” might [...]

Despite technical difficulties, Broken Social Scene ends concert with unmatched intensity

Their concert at the Vic finds band more focused than at Dillo Day 2008.

Quick hit: El Guincho’s Alegranza!

The album is stuffed with dance- and afro-beats, chanting, tribal drums, and Spanish and tropical influences.

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