Miley Cyrus Best Weekend Bets because she is a relevant entertainer you might enjoy!
Also, tell all your friends to subscribe to the Chicago mailing list. We gave away tickets to Riot Fest and Lollapalooza to Chicago mailing list subscribers.
We write stuff. Here’s some of that stuff from the last week that may be applicable to your preferences!
- We went to the Iceland Airwaves festival. You should go and skip a day of music to see a day of waterfalls.
- Roy Wood Jr. is our Funny Human of the Week.
- We interviewed Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney.
- We sent a writer to an erotica writing workshop.
- EL VY (a collaboration between The National’s Matt Berninger and Menomena’s Brent Knopf) play Metro tonight with Soren Juul.
- Bluesy southern rockers Natural Child play the Empty Bottle alongside Alex Bleeker and the Freaks (featuring Alex from Real Estate) and the Bones of JR Jones.
- Cold Country is the name recording engineer beloved local Sean McConnell uses to release music of his own. Tonight he celebrates the release of his latest EP at The Hideout, and is joined by fellow locals Arts & Letters and Ty Maxon.
- The Mythbubbas themselves, Jamie (the hat one) and Adam (the hair one), are rolling into Rosemont to bust some DAMN MYTHS once and for all! Mythbusters: Jamie and Adam Unleashed happens TONIGHT!
- “Modern guitar virtuoso” Fareed Haque and his current band His Funk Brothers play a funkified show at the Emporium Arcade Bar in Wicker Park!
- The Burlington hosts an evening of noisy rock for you with sets from Split Feet, Shellshag, Drilling for Blasting, and Blizzard Babies. This is a high quality lineup!
- Sensitive songwriter boy Howie Day “Collides” 😉 into Evanston Space tonight!
- 1st Ward hosts the eleventh edition of the Chicago Culinary Fight Club, which pits some of the area’s best chefs against each other in a live competition. This edition’s theme is “Chitown sammich” so I guess they’re making sandwiches for little babies who can’t say words right?
- Long-running throwback psych rockers The Dandy Warhols are not the band fronted by the dude who Jack White punched in the face that one time, why did I think they were? They headline Thalia Hall tonight with support from The Shivas.
- Mark Kozelek puts the “dour” in troubadour; this hugely talented singer-songwriter knack for crafting uniquely crystaline, story/observation songs has been eclipsed by his outspoken provocation in the music media over the last year or so. Go see him at the Old Town School of Folk Music if you’re curious to learn more.
- Buzzed-about jazz trio Twin Talk and Jonah Parzen-Johnson share a bill at Constellation tonight! This’ll be cool probably!
- Human dose of molly Miley Cyrus and her band of glitter-covered 50-year-old men The Flaming Lips are playing a sold out show at The Riviera Theatre. That’s why she’s our GIFs this week. Smile for the nice people, Miley!
- Lotta people around these parts are big fans of the Dumpster Babies, many of them will probably be at the Empty Bottle tonight, because that’s where they’re celebrating the release of a new 4-way split cassette release that they’re on! Fuck Knights (who are ALSO on the 4-way split), The Evictions, and Fire Retarded are also playing! What a night.
- Santah are a great local band on the verge of breaking through to bigger things in a real way with the release of their new LP Chico. They’re throwing a party at Lincoln Hall in celebration of the birth of Chico, and will be joined by Paperhaus, Divino Nino, and Ida Y Vuelta.
- Garage rock it-man Ty Segall has, at any given time, about 5 projects going on. Fuzz is one of them right now and they play Black Sabbath type stoner rock and you can see them at Thalia Hall tonight if you want to!
- Disoriented Comedy (billed as “the first-ever (mostly) female Asian American stand-up comedy tour”) teams up with local comedy collective Simmer Brown for a mashup show at the High-Hat Club. Looks very good!
- The Teflon Don himself, Rick Ross stops through Chicago tonight as a part of his November to Remember tour.
- The Palmer House Hilton hosts the 144th (!) annual Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony, kicking off the holiday season with music, magic, treats, and family-friendly activities.
- Instrumental desert rockers Brokeback headline a show tonight at the Hideout with support from Brooklyn’s 75 Dollar Bill and locals Health and Beauty.
- Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, which features Nik Turner (formerly of Hawkwind), is one of those contractual workaround touring band name things. Either way Hawkwind rules and you can see some OG folks play Hawkwind tunes at Reggies tonight.
- Jeff Tweedy plays a benefit for the Oak Park River Foreset Food Pantry tonight at Park West. Go spend money on a worthwhile cause and yell out requests for Loose Fur tunes!
- I’ve been waiting literally weeks to see Dangerous Men, a film described by ComingSoon.Net as “a constant, terrifying reminder that God has built the universe wrong” which is seriously the highest praise anyone could ever give a movie. It’s at the Music Box at midnight tonight and tomorrow night.
- Mitski, Palehound, and PWR BTTM play Beat Kitchen tonight for all you fans of Mitski, Palehound, and/or PWR BTTM out there!
- Sometimes big ticket 2015 tours look like someone picked a couple of bands from like Warped Tour 2004 and said “sure, why not” for example Silverstein and Senses Fail playing the BEAUTIFUL and HISTORIC House of Blues tonight.
- Pop punkers The Menzingers top off an eclectic bill at the Metro tonight, supported by MeWithoutYou, Pianos Beocme The Teeth, and Restorations.
- Speaking of The Metro, Metro and Smart Bar celebrate 33 1/3rd years in business with an “All Building Event” with DJs all over the place spinning music for you to dance and party to! Fun times for everybody all over the building!
- Long-running garage rock weirdo collaboration the King Khan & BBQ Show stops through Subterranean tonight! Should be a real cool time, those guys are great. Miley’s going, I hear! Gonna get her tank top signed by the King himself.
- Do some daytime stuff:
- The Empty Bottle’s got an early (relatively) morning show called Retox, a daytime event focused on “beats and brunch,” with DJ sets from Pranas, Fatboy, Redux, and more. Get back into it like a champ!
- The Music Box hosts a screening of The Assassin, Taiwan’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars and the first film in 8 years from the wildly popular Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, today at 11:15am. It’s sposed to be really good so maybe go see it!
- Kick off the holiday season with The Magnificent Mile’s Lights Festival, which has a full day’s worth of activities, from a holiday market in the morning to a parade in the afternoon to fireworks this evening! Holiday hoorays!
- They’re doing the Ringling Brother’s Circus Xtreme at the United Center a whole bunch of days and today is one such one of those days. Clowns and strong mans and tamed tigers that I hope are treated okay!
- The 4th annual Chicago Book Expo, which happens today at Columbia College, celebrates the myriad independent publishers and authors that call Chicago home, with vendors, classes, and readings happening for all u bookheads out there.
- The School of the Art Institute’s annual Holiday Art Sale is a reliably great roundup of all sorts of art and handmade goods from some of the most talented students currently enrolled at SAIC. Real good stuff happening all afternoon at this thing!
- The Chicago Cultural Center hosts a screening of the documentary Autism In Love in conjunction with the WTTW Community Cinema program and DCASE.
- Head to the Alliance Francaise De Chicago for a cooking class centered around the basics of cookign using cast iron for the holidays!
- The Cards Against Humanity office has a nice little theater adjacent to their offices and today the space hosts an afternoon celebration of the life and work of Osamu Tezuka, known as the “God of Manga” in conjunction with the AnimeChicago Symposium.
- The Symphony Center hosts a family-friendly matinee masqueraded as a surprise party where everyone knows it’s happening except the orchestra themselves! Holy cow! Don’t let them find out! Miley, can you keep your mouth shut?
- Then, night stuff:
- Beloved Irish singer songwriter Glen Hansard plays the Chicago Theatre for one night only tonight! Go see this man if you wanna!
- Jeff Tweedy’s not the only one jumping on board the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry benefit show train: Dawes play Fitzgerald’s tonight with all ticket sales going to the Food Pantry!
- ?uestlove DJs tonight at Studio Paris Nightclub! That dude’s the best!
- Weird comedy showcase Desperate Collectors returns to Bric a Brac record shop with sets from folks like Sammy Arechar and Deanna Ortiz. Standup comedy and also free beer!
- The Portage Theater is hosting a dang Lucha Lubre event! Go see some real deal indie wrestling!
- Just like yesterday, The Metzingers, MeWithoutYou, Pianos Become The Teeth, and Restorations all play at the Metro again! Cool beans!
- U.S. Girls, Mayor Daley, and Gel Set play at the Empty Bottle for a night of cool weird music that is worth your time!
- Neo-Jawbreaker/Replacements rock band Beach Slang headline Subterranean tonight with support from Lithuania and Worriers!
- !!! are opening for themselves on this tour as a Stereolab cover band called Stereolad and that’s pretty undeniably great, you know? See em tonight at Lincoln Hall.
- The Empty Bottle’s teaming up with the Logan Theater for the debut Chicago screening of Industrial Soundtrack For The Urban Decay, which is all about the beginning stages of industrial music.
- Omnivorous pop craftsman Sinkane plays Schubas tonight. His last LP, Mean Love, is hugely underrated, check this show out!
- Spend an evening with Laura Marling & her band tonight at Martyrs! She’s hugely popular and for good reason!
- Pretty dang scary looking monster movie set in the Irish countryside The Hallow screens tonight at midnight at the Music Box! Scary movies got me like
- Laura Marling & Band are playing two shows this weekend at Martyrs, and this is the second one! Get over there!
- The Empty Bottle’s got your Sunday afternoon dose of Cajun music and dancing! Bandleaders Jesse Lege and Edward Poullard will be joined by friends and collaborators all afternoon long.
- Stick around after the Cajun dancing for a very cool looking fundraiser for Planned Parenthood presented by the Chicago chapter of #ShoutYourAbortion, with sets from Outer Minds, Lil Tits, Strawberry Jacuzzi, and more!
- Nashville roots rockers Moon Taxi play Thalia Hall tonight alongside Modern Vices.
- Everybody likes goofing on Benedict Cumberbatch’s name, man. Leave him alone you guys! He’s Hamlet in a live broadcast of Hamlet beamed over the ocean from the National Theatre in London England showing today at the Music Box.
- Reptar are named after a cartoon dinosaur but DON’T BE AFRAID! They’re just a band, you’re not in any danger. Go find out for yourself at Beat Kitchen tonight if you don’t believe me.
- Catch a special edition of pop cultural talk show PopGoesAlicia produced in conjunction with media series Tracers at The Nightingale on Milwaukee. This edition’s focuses “specifically on issues of sex, slut shaming & body politics” with panelists Felicia Hoffman, Marla Depew, and Kahlil Wilson.
- There’s probably another thing of circus today. Go to the United Center and find out I guess.
- Mike Marunowski, one half of BYT’s favorite improv duo Feldmanowski, has a new solo sketch show at the Annoyance called Playing the Victim, directed by John Loos. I bet this will be good!
- The 4-5 Bears are playing the 7-2 Broncos at Soldier Field today at noon. Watch or go to that it you want to maybe get bummed out about our local football team.
- City Winery’s Chicago Philharmonic Sunday Series continues with a celebration of music from legends like Nina Simone, George Gershwin, and more.
- Steve Martin and Martin Short are two of those objectively delightful entertainers that they don’t make like they used to. See them tonight in conversation at the Rosemont Theatre.
- Catch Young Buffalo, The Lonely Wild, and Scout Ripley sharing the stage tonight at Township in Logan Square. I wonder if Ms. Cyrus thinks this is a good show. Can someone ask her?
