Mako Sica are still in no hurry. On their second, Dual Horizon, the band follow the same path, a slow, meandering path at that, as they did on their debut, Mayday At Strobe, and god bless them for it. In a world of easy pay-offs and cheap thrills, Mako Sica force you to pay close attention to what they are doing. The reward doesn’t come at specific points mind you. Your reward comes with the whole. Dual Horizon is an album, three songs total, that gets inside of the listener as it gently guides from start to finish.
You like choices, don’t you? Well, how about two (that’s right, count them, two) choices for a Daily Diversion today? You have the choice of either having your face rocked at The Bottom Lounge with NovaRoma or spending a sweet, romantic evening to the gorgeous voice of Arthi Meera at Charleston. Decisions, decisions. But, I’ll give you three reasons to consider each of them…
1. You’ve had a hard beginning to your week. To blow off a little steam, you’re looking for a night of ear-melting metal to slam into your friends to. Chicago’s newest Middle Eastern inspired progressive metal band, NovaRoma, will happily devour your souls on stage tonight.
Last weekend, Chicago post-hardcore outfit Gauge reunited after 16 years to perform three shows: one in Milwaukee and two in Chicago. Here’s a clip of the band playing “Autopilot” during their final reunion performance at the Bottom Lounge last Saturday night. No word yet on if the reunion was a one-off or more shows will be booked. The clip was shot by fan Ray Zschau, and you can also buy Gauge’s EP Mints and their 21-song release II at gauge.bandcamp.com right now.
A Sunny Day In Glasgow | Photo Credit: Drew Reynolds More Photos
It was a night filled with offset guitars, otherworldly vocal harmonies and vigorous dancing. If you missed A Sunny Day In Glasgow at Schubas on Wednesday night, then you missed quite the extravaganza.
Two hailed from the east including Brooklyn’s Acrylics and Philadelphia’s A Sunny Day In Glasgow, while Chicago’s Light Pollution opened. And the best part of the whole show? Every single band danced to their own music. Not just bobbed a little, these kids cut loose and really danced.
Going through Wilco withdrawl, Chicago? While it may be a while until the full band plays another windy city gig, enigmatic frontman Jeff Tweedy will perform two solo shows at the Vic Theatre this weekend.
2. You need more than that? Fine. Well, tonight Califone will be playing a live soundtrack to their film, All My Friends Are Funeral Singers. The proverbial double whammy as they say. The film is an official selection of Sundance, but not only do you, dear Chicagoans, get a chance to see it now, you get to see the band play live along to it as well.
Monday Afternoon Quick Fix runs every Monday afternoon to showcase the best of Chicago music news, views and stories from around the interwebs and blogosphere that we might have missed.
Russian Circles, currently on an extensive tour of Europe, linked to some photos by Jana Van Nuffel of their performance last week at De Kreun Kortrijk in Belgium.
In Bonnaroo news, Umphrey’s McGee was added to the line-up which will be their sixth appearance and Wilco is featured on the Music for Action “Best of Bonnaroo” free download sampler.
Americana-alt-rockers Van Ghost in conjunction with Split Red Records released an iPhone app that they’ve made available for free download.
Steve Albani will be the keynote speaker at the NX35 Music Conferette in Denton, Texas which starts this Thursday and runs through March 14.
The first image was released of an animated Kanye West who in May will be featured on the Cleveland Show on Fox.
You like choices, don’t you? Well, how about two (that’s right, count them, two) choices for a Daily Diversion today? You have the choice of either having your face rocked at 
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