Three sometimes-sitting-around-with-old-time-chums-drinking-coffee-and-eating-too-much-is-all-one-needs reasons to not do that tonight but rather head to The Whistler instead:

1. I’m mixing it up again by pointing you toward the Whistler on a Monday night. Free is free. While the Bottle is throwing up 80′s style dance pop (I shan’t waste your time with my feelings on that), our friends at the Whistler are giving us a more classic night of folk rock. To the bands!

2. Chicago’s Fall Fox combine the wordiness of one Bob Dylan with the more quirky vocal stylings of a Violent Femmes. You can take my word on this, or better yet, get over to Fall Fox’s Bandcamp page and download its EP for free. Yes, free! The band seem to offer a bracelet for $1.75, so Fall Fox are something of a Renaissance band.
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Sic Alps

Three I-don’t-mean-for-this-to-always-be-a-weather-report-but-67-degrees-means-I-should-at-least-say-something reasons to dig out those old t-shirts and head over to the Empty Bottle tonight:

1. California’s Sic Alps do that whole crazy garage-y plus psychedelic thing that is spreading like wildfire in the indie rock scene and they do it rather well. The thing that sets them apart is their sheer audacity. Like, who is putting out 22-song double albums worth of this stuff? Sic Alps, that’s who. Their most recent Drag City release, “Napa Asylum” is just that. And it’s not their first double album! I mean, this flies in the face of all logic. This isn’t Yes for crying out loud.

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Cheap Time

Three reasons to grab-a-beer-or-two-and-shimmy-and-shake-away-the-stress-of-Wednesday’s-daily-grind at the Empty Bottle tonight…

1. Psychedelic punk trio from Nashville, Cheap Time, make short and sweet songs that rarely ever hit the two minute mark. The band is the lo-fi punk soundtrack of choice for whenever you want to smash the full force of your body into a group of your (soon-to-be former) best friends.
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Three reasons to see The Moses Gun at the Double Door tonight…

1. If you ever find yourself pining away for the simpler times, those days when grunge rock was king, Chicagoans the Moses Gun can help with that.

2. The trio consisting of Rich Harris, Vell Mullens, and John Marszalek formed in Wicker Park in the mid-1990s and kicked around the Chicago scene in various forms for years until releasing The Strobe Session EP in late 2009. The Moses Gun offers listeners a mix of heavy distortion guitars, sweet vocal melodies and throbbing bass lines. Harris described The Moses Gun as a “African-American Pixies” to former Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis, but The Moses Gun’s music has chunks of desert rock legends Kyuss with Dinosaur Jr. swirling around.

3. Just go. It’s free!

7:00 p.m. Tuesday, 4/27. Double Door. 21+ FREE!

Three short-and-to-the-point-you-deserve-this-after-that-crappy-week-of-cold-and-overcast-weather reasons (yes, 3 solid ones this time, I promise) to saddle up and head on over to the Empty Bottle tonight…

1. Our friends from Minneapolis, the Fuck Knights are back in town to spazz out for your open-mouthed pleasure. I don’t have to tell you that you read my review for their latest 7″. You did. Why wouldn’t you? What I can tell you is that they have a new split 7″ with The Runnies that I’m hoping to get my hands on tonight which brings us to reasons number two…

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Three reasons to see Andrew Bird tonight at the Fourth Presbyterian Church…

1. I was at the first of these “Gazellegheid” shows on Monday, and while that in and of itself is not a reason for you to go, let me give you a quick recap: Bird limped onto the stage at 8:01 (foot injury), took a seat on a stool, and played an hour and a half of gorgeous music, much of it instrumental and written for, or played for the first time, at these shows (a very rearranged version of “Nomenclature” was the only song I actually recognized).

And he used natural amplification through those big horns of his, and, oh, the church’s huge gorgeous stained-glass window served as a backdrop for the whole thing. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, folks. Don’t hate yourself for missing it, and then having to hear people rave about it for years to come.

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Three outstanding reasons to head to Reggie’s Music Joint tonight to see Shadows On A River, the Blah Blah Blahs and God’s Guns tonight:

1.  It’s one of those line-ups that, stylistically, makes no sense. The Blah Blah Blahs bring a late 80′s British pop sensibility while Shadows On A River offer a more subtle and lush vibe and God’s Guns bring a loud, bass heavy approach to straight ahead rock.  See if this is a train-wreck or the work of an evil genius.
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