Yep! this is it! The Who are playing the Super Bowl halftime show and this is official Who Super Bowl t-shirt - Odds & Sods as the backdrop?? That's wacky! You'd think the old Marquee club image with the Townsend windmill would've sufficed! No matter - get ready to hear these four songs at halftime in February - my guesses, these - I Can't Explain, I Can See for Miles and Baba 'O Riley. Whaddya think? Read Full Story

Whew! Billy Idol live and rockin' from a hot Chicago summer night at the Congress Theater. Eagle Entertainment's new DVD release of the punk rock icon's show is pretty fun. I mean, c'mon, how many of us have pumped and waved that fist during "White Wedding" ("Start AGAIN!") or "Rebel Yell" ("She want more, more, more")? Ok, well, I have!This DVD “In Super Overdrive Live” was filmed at the Congress Theater, Chicago for the US TV series Soundstage and originally broadcast in America... Read Full Story

It's been awhile since I wrote about my old fave 80s Chicago hardcore band Articles of Faith and since they had a great 1984 LP titled 'Give Thanks', it seems appropriate to rock it out tonight. Watch the band rock it down below.Plus, it comes right around the release of the new DVD about the nascent Chicago punk scene 1977-1984, in which AOF was part, called "You Weren't There - A History Of Chicago Punk 1977-1984". The DVD looks back on the impact that punk rock had on cold windy city boys.... Read Full Story

One reason I love Chicago (apart from having been born and raised there until my early 20s) is that there are two great rock critics working for the two main papers in town - Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis. Now some may take exception to my use of the word 'great' when describing their work, but like that other great Chicago critical powerhouse - Siskel and Ebert - from years ago, Kot & DeRogatis have always been a consistent, passionate couple of music critics. Last week, both critics reviewed a... Read Full Story

So over the weekend, I watched the new Robert Pollard/GBV retrospective DVD "The Devil Went Home and Puked" and wrote down everything I saw. It's perhaps the ideal way to 'review' such a scrappily-thrown together DVD. There are a lot of fun things in this video, but when you pull back the curtain, there are a few slippery bits. The video is really edited together like GBV's early mix 'n montage LPs that worked so well in audio, but I'm not convinced it's the best format to present a bit of GB... Read Full Story

I'm enjoying some Andrew Belle music tonight. He's got a sweet pop swing and a cool voice, coupled with passion and substance. "Andrew Belle is a Chicago and Nashville-based singer/songwriter whose new CD The Ladder was recorded with Grammy award winning mixing engineer Vance Powell (The Raconteurs). The Ladder will be self-released on February 23, 2010 and Belle will be touring nationally with Ten Out Of Tenn this winter." The tour happens over the next few weeks - the Phoenix date is on Tha... Read Full Story

I was thinking of a few of my NYC pals Kevin & Cindy, who spearhead an '80s cover band called The Fades that played a gig at LES' Fontanas on Thursday. It got me to remembering mainstream 80s music, much of which I have not listened to in a while (exception Billy Idol - never out of style on my record player). In the mid 80s, I was mostly listening to American indie/alt/college rock (REM, dBs, Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum, Talking Heads) or British wave (Bauhaus, New Order, Cure, Smit... Read Full Story

A swagger around the rockblog-o-sphere brings us...- Glorious Noise opines that Jack White is the new Rick Rubin- And then there were Two - Ringo Starr has Paul McCartney guest on a few tracks for his upcoming LP (via Rock and Roll Daily)- MySpace gets Imeem for a steal, writes TechCrunch- I saw Tobin Sprout in his incarnation as EyesinWeasel back in October 2000- Bob Dylan has put out a polka version of "Must Be Santa" in a video - craaaazy! (watch it at the link)- Alkaline Trio is returning... Read Full Story

Punk-garage rockers The Willowz are rockin' - great Jack White-like vocals, rockin' guitars, atmosphere and more. The band had their CD release party for "Everyone" in NYC last night, and they head out on a short December tour. The band's label DimMak has their single 'Repetition' on its landing page. There's also good stuff at the band's blog."The Willowz new album "Everyone" is out today! We recorded it back in January with Grammy award winner Stuart Sikes and it is our best album to date! ... Read Full Story

Dig the raw rockin' sounds of NYC's The Octagon, whose latest EP "Arm Brain Heart and Liver" (released in September on SeriousBusiness) just kicks ass for five straight songs - "You Can Make It On Your Own!" The band wrote on its MySpace blog page: "The title track is my own, featuring my singing and erstwhile classical guitar playing; Zack wrote the others. "...Wizard" features the robust 5AM vocal stylings of Edward Hale, Joseph Petrucelli and Kaben Schwartz. Joe also sang a bit on Reiki. T... Read Full Story