Umphrey’s McGee wants a new logo for 2011 and a contest has been created to help aid their search.
The band has teamed with Creative Allies to host each would-be designers’ entry.
All submissions are due by midnight on Sept. 17 with the winner receiving a $200 licensing fee, two VIP passes to a show on Umphrey’s fall 2010 tour and any items sold by the band printed with the winning image.
Whew! Anybody else have a long week? Well, good news, the weekend has finally arrived. Summer is slowly fading away, so better get out there and enjoy the warmth while you still can. But if the heat and outdoors aren’t for you, no worries, there are plenty of great reasons to stay inside…inside one of this city’s many amazing music clubs!
It is so unbelievably fitting that the tenth anniversary gift is metal because Chicago instrumentalists Pelican are celebrating its ten-year with a whole lot of metal.
Per an Earsplit PR press release, the Berlin record label Viva Hate will release a wooden box set of the band’s four full-lengths and three EPs. Only 500 sets will be available for purchase.
Pelican will also return to the Bottom Lounge for a show on October 23 with Kansas City rockers The Life & Times and Chicago rockers The Swan King. Tickets are $13.50 and go on sale Friday, August 13, at noon Chicago time.
However, the best anniversary present of all will be the debut of Pelican’s own brew created by Munster, Indiana, brewers Three Floyds. The not-yet-named Pelican-inspired brew will be a doppelbock (double bock), a dark German lager that is malty and has a reputation for being “liquid bread.” The beer will be available for consumption at the Bottom Lounge show and at other venues around Chicago for a limited time.
Albums have funny ways of revealing themselves. Some bands will front load with their best songs and by track four start to let you down. Some bands take the sneaky approach of a soft intro before hitting you over the head (I’m looking at you, Ride The Lightning). Yakuza’s fifth full length, Of Cosmic Consequences, starts out with “The Ant People”, which is two plus minutes of hypnotically pulsating drums and throat singing. In the natural order of things, Yakuza are a metal band. One would be well within reason to believe this to be in the Ride The Lightning mold of bait and switch, and when the riff heavy “Thinning The Herd” kicks in you definitely might think you are on to Yakuza. You’d be wrong.
Howdy, Chicago! Tis the week before Lollapalooza and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except…oh…Wicker Park Fest! Yeah, a pretty nice prelude to next week’s big enchilada. Our own Audrey Leon breaks it down below.
There’s a very good interview of Cap’n Jazz front man Tim Kinsella by rock critic Jessica Hopper up on Chicagoreader.com right now. We highly recommend it. Of course you know Cap’n Jazz reunited at the Bottom Lounge the same weekend as Pitchfork Festival. Some would say it was the best show of the weekend. If you were S-O-L when it came to getting tickets to the Bottom Lounge shows, fear not. Cap’n Jazz will be back in Chicago this weekend at Wicker Park fest. So to get you pumped for that performance, here’s a clip of Cap’n Jazz playing a rousing rendition of “Little League” at the Bottom Lounge on Saturday, July 17, via Youtuber whalestoe. Enjoy:
It is so unbelievably fitting that the tenth anniversary gift is metal because Chicago instrumentalists 
