Time Out Chicago confirms that Canadian DJ Kid Koala will perform with his new project The Slew. Also slated to appear are dubstep guru Martyn, electronica artist and producer Nosaj Thing, Chicago experimental producer The Flashbulb, and ambient techno-poppers Oval, who are signed to Chicago’s own Thrill Jockey.

Get the full schedule and information on Sonar’s film festival after the jump.

In addition to the music, Sonar Chicago will hold SonarCinema during the day.

Per Time Out Chicago:
During the sunlit hours, Sonar By Day will feature film screenings that range from a documentary on the festival itself to a BBC produced exploration of synthesizers and how they influenced popular music in the ’70s and ’80s. In addition there will be audiovisual performances and demonstrations held in the Chicago Cultural Center.

Sonar Chicago is stacking up to be the premiere destination for the world’s hottest electronic music acts. If the current schedule is any indication, there are more acts to be announced for Friday’s show at Pritzker Pavillion. For more information on Sonar artists and schedules, check out SonarChicago.com.

Thursday, September 9, 2010
Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park

12 p.m. Faraón
5 p.m. Bradien
6 p.m. Jimmy Edgar
7 p.m. The Slew, feat. Kid Koala
8 p.m. Martyn

Friday, September 10, 2010
Chicago Cultural Center

3 p.m. Faraón (SonarHall)
4 p.m. Bradien (SonarComplex)
5 p.m. Lesley Flanigan: Amplification (SonarHall)
6 p.m. Nosaj Thing Visual Show (SonarComplex)
7 p.m. Oval (Sonar Hall)

Saturday, September 11, 2010
Chicago Cultural Center

3 p.m. The Flashbub, feat. The New Millennium Orchestra (SonarHall)
4 p.m. bRUNA (SonarComplex)
5 p.m. Huan (SonarHall)
6 p.m. Ben Frost (SonarComplex)
7 p.m. Nicolas Bernier, Martin Messier: La Chambre des Machines (SonarHall)

As previously reported, the festival will take on a bit of different look this year, due to city budget cuts that have forced a smaller scale operation.  Grant Park will host performances on September 4 and 5 with the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park and the Chicago Cultural Center holding shows on September 2 and 3.

As always all of the events are free and open to the public.

Here’s the complete list of scheduled performers:

Thursday, September 2

Millennium Park – Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jazz Presenters / Partnership
12:00 – 12:50    Umbrella Music: Bridging Improvised Music and Dance
1:05 – 1:55    Jodie Christian Quintet
2:10 – 3:00    The MIYUMI Project Big Band: “Trans-Rooted” featuring JASC Tsukasa Taiko
3:15 – 4:00        Jim Wagner’s All Stars featuring Willie Pickens, Ari Brown, Jimmy Ellis, Robert Shy, Frank Russell, Corey Wilkes and Maggie Brown

Friday, September 3

Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph

Randolph Café
12:00 – 1:00    Hector Silveira Septet
1:30 – 2:30    The Grilly Brothers Sextet

Claudia Cassidy Theater
12:15 – 1:15    James Dapogny: “Art of the Solo”
1:45 – 2:45    AACM Experimental Ensemble

Preston Bradley Hall
12:30 – 1:30    Tomeka Reid’s Hear In Now Trio
2:00 – 3:00    Jim Cooper’s Mallet Madness featuring Kathy Kelly and Carl Leukaufe

Millennium Park – Jay Pritzker Pavilion
4:00 – 4:50    Lincoln Park High School Jazz Ensemble and
Noteworthy: CPS Jazz Band Teachers
5:00 – 5:50    James Dapogny
6:00 – 6:55    Mike LeDonne Trio with special guest Eric Alexander
7:10 – 8:10    Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Orchestra
8:30 – 9:30    Ramsey Lewis 75th Birthday Celebration

Saturday, September 4

Grant Park

Jazz on Jackson Stage
12:00 – 12:55    Douglas Ewart Nyahbingi Drum Choir
1:10 – 2:05    Paul Giallorenzo’s GitGo
2:20 – 3:15    Maggie Brown: “A Tribute to Abbey Lincoln”
3:30 – 4:30    Dana Hall Quintet with special gust Nicholas Payton
Presented by Close Up 2 and 87.7FM…
6:00 – 7:30    Corey Wilkes
8:00 – 9:00    Steve Cole

Chicago Community Trust Young Jazz Lions Stage
12:00 – 12:30    Chi-Arts Jazz Combo
12:45 – 1:15    Jazz Ambassadors Combo
1:30 – 2:10    Kenwood Academy Jazz Ensemble
2:25 – 3:05    Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School Jazz Ensemble
3:20 – 3:50    Lincoln Park High School Jazz Ensemble
4:05 – 4:50    Roosevelt University Jazz Ensemble

Jazz and Heritage Stage
12:30 – 1:30    West End Jazz Band
2:00 – 3:00    Cameron Pfiffner’s Marco Polo
3:30 – 4:30    Nicole Mitchell’s Sonic Projections

Petrillo Music Shell
5:00 – 5:50    Chuchito Valdez Afro-Cuban Ensemble
6:00 – 6:55    Rene Marie “High Maintenance” Quartet
7:10 – 8:10    Charisma: “A Lee Morgan Tribute”
8:30 – 9:30        The Either/Orchestra with special guests Getachew Mekurya and Teshome Mitiku

Sunday, September 5

Grant Park

Jazz on Jackson Stage
12:00 – 12:55    Paulinho Garcia Quintet
1:10 – 2:05    Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble
2:20 – 3:15    Brad Goode Quartet
3:30 – 4:30    Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band
Presented by Close Up 2 and 87.7 FM…
6:00 – 7:30    Harlan Jefferson
8:00 – 9:00    Norman Brown

Chicago Community Trust Young Jazz Lions Stage
12:00 – 12:30    Northside College Prep Jazz Combo
12:45 – 1:15    Whitney Young Magnet High School Jazz Combo
1:30 – 2:10    Lakeview High School Jazz Ensemble
2:25 – 3:05    John Hersey High School Jazz Ensemble
3:30 – 4:05    University of Chicago Jazz X-Tet

Jazz and Heritage Stage
12:30 – 1:30    Bethany Pickens Trio
2:00 – 3:00    NOMO
3:30 – 4:30    Saalik Ziyad’s 5 After 7 Project

Petrillo Music Shell
5:00 – 6:00    Brad Mehldau Trio
6:15 – 7:05    Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls
7:20 – 8:15    Henry Threadgill’s Zooid
8:30 – 9:30    Kurt Elling Quintet with special guest Ernie Watts

Photo credit: Patrick Pyszka

2. The Ponys, man. Chicago’s very own Sonic Youth worshiping The Ponys are back. It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from them but they have a new EP out on Matador, “Deathbed Plus Four” (which you may soon be reading a review of here at your favorite big bad music site), and they are preparing to hit the clubs once again. You, however, can see them under the stars as they say. You know, welcome them back and the like. The Ponys, man…

3. Headliners, Besnard Lakes – no, not Barenaked Ladies – come all the way from Montreal. Seeing as it looks highly unlikely the Canadians will be getting past the Flyers, Besnard Lakes might be your best bet to see someone from Montreal in our fair city. Plus, their drony, Beach Boys (I hear it at least) inspired psychedelic tunes are pretty darn sweet. So, really, that’s a better reason than just wanting to gawk at an honest to goodness Montreal-ite (Montrealean?). And reason 3, subset A: Summertime!

6:30 p.m. Monday, 5/24. Pritzker Pavilion. All Ages. FREE!!!!!!

The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Millennium Park sponsored events will take place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion from noon – 1:00 p.m. each Monday starting June 7 through August 30.  There also three Saturday events scheduled for July 3, 24 and September 4.

Toronto based DJ Solvent was chosen as the first artist in this year’s incarnation of the series.   The Cool Kids, Future Rock and Orchard Lounge are a few of the Chicago based groups slated to perform.

Here’s a full line-up and schedule:

Monday, June 7 at Noon – Solvent

Monday, June 14 at Noon – The Cool Kids

Monday, June 21 at Noon – Dosh

Monday, June 28 at Noon – I Am Robot and Proud

Saturday, July 3 at Noon – Green Velvet aka Cajmere

Monday, July 5 at Noon – Nice Nice

Monday, July 12 at Noon – El Guincho

Monday, July 19 at Noon – High Places

Saturday, July 24 at Noon – Chicago Hip Hop–All Headz on Deck

Monday, July 26 at Noon – A Grape Dope

Monday, August 2 at Noon – VHS or BETA Dee Jays

Monday, August 9 at Noon – Javelin

Monday, August 16 at Noon – Juan Maclean DJ Set

Monday, August 23 at Noon – All City Affairs

Monday, August 30 at Noon – Future Rock

Saturday, September 4 at Noon – Orchard Lounge

Remember how you all paid, I believe, upwards of $65 to see them on new years at the Double Door a few years back? Seemed a bit much, but this time around you may get to keep your wallet in your pocket because, according to Hum’s Web site, this reunion show will take place at Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park on Monday, May 31. That means free, right? More details to come.

In the meantime, pull out those old cd’s or buy them again (I’m sure you can find them in the cut-out bins), and remember what it was like to be in your teens. When local bands seemed like gods, and Radiohead hadn’t yet completely blown your minds.

It’s only the new Downtown Sound: News Music Mondays series, which offers free Monday evening performances from up-and-coming national and local acts. Downtown Sound, a renamed and newly time-slotted version of last year’s Audible Architecture music series, joins Dusk Variations: A Chamber Series and Edible Audible picnic as one of three new music series at Millennium Park’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion this summer. It’s the combination of local and national acts, low key Monday nights and early evening start time that makes Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays so appealing to many Chicago music fans.

“I didn’t really expect the Pritzker Pavillion to become a medium for up-and-coming ‘indie’ bands, but it’s an interesting idea,” 26 year-old grocer and music educator Tony Gilbert-Davis says. “I do enjoy seeing shows [at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion]. It’s easy and open to walk in and up towards the stage, and the acoustics are phenomenal.”

Downtown Sound came about this summer because more were funds available this year, although the overall Millennium Park performance budget is in a decline. The Monday night music series has already offered free performances from Pitchfork.com indie-favorites St. Vincent and the Dirty Projections as well as a highly anticipated reunion show from seminal New Jersey punk/rock act The Feelies. Additionally, most performances include opening spots from local Chicago groups such as Alla and The Sea and Cake.

“I feel like Millennium Park should always have one foot in Chicago and one foot outside in terms of constant support of the Chicago music scene,” Chicago Cultural Affairs Senior Program Director and Downtown Sound co-curator Mike Orlove says.

Though this is Downtown Sound’s initial run, contemporary music at the now five year-old Jay Pritzker Pavilion is nothing new. A number of big name acts have rented the facility for shows including Tori Amos, Wilco and Death Cab For Cutie. But when the Department of Cultural Affairs turned down Radiohead’s bid to play two shows at the Pritzker Pavilion in 2005 because it would have conflicted with an orchestra rehearsal, controversy and protests ensued.

Orlove, who co-curates the Downtown Sound series with Mike Reed and is responsible for booking all non-classical music for the park, insists that regardless of that isolated incident, there has never been an aversion towards booking more popular styles of music.

“I think the press in general have a real hard time figuring out what’s popular music and what isn’t. So if it’s labeled as world music, then it can’t be popular music,” Orlove says. “I presented one of the most hard-hitting, loudest, edgiest concerts ever four years ago -- Goran Bregovi? And The Wedding And Funeral Orchestra. But because it’s not written about in Rolling Stone or not on the hipster rock scene, then it’s not considered pop music. We had 10,000 people there, and it’s as punk rock as you’re going to get.”

Downtown Sound: New Music Mondays is currently in it’s mid-summer break but will return August 10th at 6:30 p.m. with performances from African vocalist Rokia Traoré and Texan art-rock trio Shearwater. While Downtown Sound has seen its share of popularity and success already this summer, financial concerns mean that there is no guarantee the music series will return next summer. Orlove hopes that additional sponsorships will help ensure that free concerts remain in Millennium Park’s plans for the near future.

“We’d like to have something going every minute of the day. But there’s a reality check there,” Orlove says. “The goal is that we can continue all the programs that we’re doing that are successful. This has certainly been a big success. We’ve been thrilled with the people coming out, the enthusiasm, the music, the reaction from the groups, everything.”

The Feelies - Photo credit: Doug Seymour

Formed in 1976, The Feelies became known for their powerful layered guitar sounds that became major influences for early underground and indie rock bands such as R.E.M. The band never reached great heights in terms of popularity and disbanded in 1992 after releasing four albums including the critcally acclaimed Crazy Rhythms. They reunited for a tour last summer and are slated to perform Crazy Rhythms in it’s entirety at this September’s All Tomorrow’s Parties in New York City.

Chicago’s experimental-dub out fit Icy Demons will open.

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. and runs until 9:30 p.m. tonight at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Dirty Projectors

New Music Mondays opened its season June 8 with an incredible performance from St. Vincent. This week features more new and exciting sounds eminating from Millennium Park’s beautiful Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Chicago’s own The Sea And Cake bring their heart-warming indie pop to the pavillion in support of their new album Car Alarm, which their Myspace page describes as “…bracing, like the surge of wasabe on sweet sushi, like the slap of cool water on a diving body, like the head-rush of a rollercoaster just leaving summit.”

Dirty Projectors are readying the release of their own new album Bitte Orca due to drop tomorrow. The Projectors’ punchy experimental-pop should work as a powerful contrast against the Chicago skyline-at-dusk backdrop.

The show runs from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. tonight at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. It’s free and open to the public, but get there early for a good seat.

Next week’s Downtown Sound performance features The Feelies and Icy Demons.