www.youtube.com/watch?v=03O-gSOYITo

The magazine highlights HoZac’s catalog of abrasive garage rock including buzz kids The Smith Westerns and indie poppers Dum Dum Girls as reason for inclusion on the list.

Also making the list are Drag City (No. 34), which boasts releases with artists such as Pavement, Shellac, Joanna Newsom and locals Cave; post-rock label Kranky (No. 35), home to Disappears, Deerhunter and Godspeed You! Black Emperor; and indie/folk leaning Jagjaguwar (No. 38), home to Bon Iver, Dinosaur Jr and Okkervil River.

There you have it, musicians. No longer must you leave for the sunny shores of Los Angeles, the concrete and steel mecca of New York City or the rainy marshland of Seattle to obtain a record deal.

Mucca Pazza

2. Cave! New album! Neverendless! On Drag City! September 20th! The biggest little psych band are re-emerging from a bit of a slumber it seems. Their last, Pure Moods took awhile to grow on me but ultimately won me over. I haven’t heard any new material so maybe tonight the band will unveil the latest direction they are heading. Or maybe they’ll just do what they always do; rock the fuck out in the weirdest way possible.

3. Happy Birthday, USA!

6:30 p.m. Monday, 7/4. Millennium Park. All Ages. FREE!!!

Stephen Malkmus of Pavement | Photo by Richard Giraldi

Back in July, Chicago saw Pavement headlining the sold out day three of Pitchfork Music Festival 2010. Sure, they rocked the festival, but something was lacking whether it was the fact that Malkmus’ voice was obviously shot from touring or the band shrugging off their best known songs without much care or interaction. But last night at the magnificent Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, Pavement returned a more rejuvenated band in high spirits as they ripped through a two-hour set that was pure ear-candy to those who had stuck with them for nearly two decades.

The stage set up mimicked their Pitchfork Festival set with low strung string-lights, but that’s the only aspect of last night’s Pavement show that recalled the Pitchfork gig. Instead of nearly 20,000 festival-going teens, tweens and hipsters, the light crowd in Millennium Park on Monday night was an odd mix of suited, post-work middle agers and sometimes disinterested young adults.

But Pavement certainly did not entertain as if it were a festival. Instead, last night was clearly a gig for the Pavement faithful. They reached deep into their back catalog rather than a straight “hits” set. Three songs in, Malkmus, who was more smiles than one would expect, mused, “This is the portion of the show where we play our old Drag City songs,” before launching into “Heckler Spray” from their 1991 10″ EP Perfect Sound Forever, which was released on the Chicago imprint. After, the barely minute-long song was over, the band bookended it with the disorganized fuzz of “In the Mouth a Desert” from their 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted.

They indeed delivered the “hits,” if you can consider them that, including “Unfair”, “Cut Your Hair”, “Stereo” and “Gold Soundz”, which was recently named as top track of the 1990′s by the “Pitchfork Consortium” as Malkmus so kindly referred to web publication when he half-heartedly thanked them for their festival booking earlier this summer.

Yet the band spent much of the night reminiscing about their early days as sometimes back up vocalist, sometimes drummer and always otherist Bob Nastanovich joked that Pritzker Pavilion reminded him of the first time he walked into Lounge Axe, the former rock club on Lincoln that the band frequented during their heyday. Later, Malkmus even added, “The next song is called ‘Rattled By The Rush’. It should have been a megahit. Should have been, mother fuckers. It was the beginning of the end,” as they ripped into the nearly-metallic tune from ’94′s Wowee Zowee.

Some of the band’s best moments last night came during takes from Wowee Zowee, often hailed as their most difficult record. “Fight This Generation” opens at barely a snail’s pace, as if the song might seemingly fall apart at any moment, but Pavement turned the barely 4-minute take into a 7-minute epic with a shredding, jam-out section during its driving second half. The twirling, disjointed melody line of “Kennel District” garnered one of the night’s biggest receptions as it was unleashed in the set’s second encore.

One obvious sentiment about Pavement is that they’ve never been the tightest band. Their songs are as disheveled as the band members’ hair. As their Pitchfork Music Festival set began with a botched start, Monday night’s affair ended with a the band having to restart their last song, the tongue-in-cheek snapshot of the alternative era, “Range Life”. But in the end, Pavement gave it their all and smiled and joked throughout, which is about as close as one will ever get to a great Pavement performance.

After “Range Life”, Malkmus said, “See you again. In 10 years?” It was said in jesting tone, but if the band is as comfortable and jovial as they were with each other last night, the Pavement 2020 Reunion 2 Tour should be a real winner.

Pavement – Pritzker Pavilion – Sept. 13, 2010 – Setlist
Silence Kit
Ikea
Heckler Spray/In the Mouth of a Desert
Grounded
Starlings
Gold Soundz
Father to a Sister of a Thought
Unfair
Perfume V
We Dance
Cut Your Hair
Frontwards
Stop Breathing
Trigger Cut
Fight This Generation
Shady Lane
Linden
Here
Stereo
LS II
Rattled By The Rush
_
Spit
Conduit For Sale
Shoot the Singer
Fin
_
Box Elder
Kennel Distrcit
Range Life

Then beginning on June 4 with a show at the Hideout, the band will hit the road for a tour that takes them all the way up into the great white north. The two-month trek will culminate with their appearance at Pitchfork Festival 2010 on Sunday, June 18. If you can’t make those two Chi-town stops, the you can also see CAVE at the Empty Bottle with New Orleans’ Quintron and Miss Pussycat on June 25.

You can find CAVE’s complete tour itinerary after the jump.

JUNE
4 – Chicago, IL @ Hideout w/ Jerusalem and the Starbaskets, Daniel Lutz – PURE MOODS release show
6 – Bloomington, IN @ Russian Recording Studio w/ Pocahaunted
20 – Detroit, MI @ Old Miami w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat
23 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat
25 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Eddy Current Suppression Ring
26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat
27 – Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada @ Royal Albert Hotel w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat
29 – Lethbridge, Alberta Canada @ Henotic w/ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat
30 – Calgary, Alberta Canada @ SLED ISLAND FESTIVAL

JULY
1 – Calgary, Alberta Canada @ SLED ISLAND FESTIVAL
2 – Calgary, Alberta Canada @ SLED ISLAND FESTIVAL
5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
6 – Denver, CO @ FurtherShoppe
9 – Columbia, MO @ Mojos w/ Heater
10 – St. Louis, MO @ Lemmon’s w/ Heater, Skarekrau Radio
11 – East Moline, IL @ Festival
12 – Iowa City, IA @ White Lightning
18 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival

1. Because White Mystery are freaking awesome. That’s why. Oh, you’ve never heard of Chicago’s brother/sister duo of Alex and Francis White? Well, they call themselves White Mystery and play no frills, no bullshit, reverb-heavy garage rock. The kind of stuff the local church would condemn for having a bad influence on the youth. And yes, they’re a brother and sister duo and their band name has White in the title, but don’t go thinking White Mystery is some White Stripes knock off. Their sound is definitely rawer and more punk and psychedelia-influenced, and Alex takes guitar duties while younger brother Francis White plays the drums like a wild animal. Still on the fence? Check out the video of White Mystery getting raucous on Chica-A-Go-Go after the jump.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uw3GJ8iKlo

2. Because headlining tonight’s Empty Bottle show is The Entrance Band. Hailing form Los Angeles, the Entrance Band are keeping the spirit of ’70s arena rock alive and adding their own little twists and turns like forays into eerie psychedelic grooves. And I have to at least mention that the foxy Paz Lenchantin, formerly of Zwan and A Perfect Circle, plays bass for the group. So yeah, that’s a pretty awesome reason to check them out.

3. Because Brooklyn’s Lights are also on the bill. Signed to Chicago’s Drag City record label, Lights play an interesting brand of art rock that walks the line between indie pop, ’70s funk and big guitar riffage. Mix that with their Blonde-esque female vocals and you’ve got yourself a winner. Check out their video for “Fire Night” below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUfjPR4wCqQ

9:30 PM. Thursday, 2/4. The Empty Bottle. 21+. $10.

Additional details from Pitchfork.com:

According to the label, the record is more song-oriented than his excursions into avant-electronics (see: stuff like 2001′s I’m Happy, and I’m Singing, and a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 2007′s collaboration with Merzbow and Carlos Giffoni, Electric Dress). It’s apparently more in line with O’Rourke’s somber instrumental LP Bad Timing than his sly pop records, Eureka and Insignificance.