Your Weekend Deets

Semi-unlikely Sex Symbol and fellow Chicagoan Charlie Deets recently released this amazing video. You owe yourself a listen and watch.

Charlie's a phenomenal musician and a brilliant photographer, but I was unaware of his talent for being rubbed by portly men.

"People Want This More Than We Do, Actually"

If all Thieves of the Night (comprised of my pals Charlie Deets and Deric Criss) ever put out is this video (above) and this picture (below), they'll still be one of my favorite bands. In fact, that's the best way they can guarantee it. One hundred percent pretense, no music.

Finally, we've reached the logical conclusion of the music industry.

Spacemen 3's Progeny, Music Hall Sept. 22nd

Music Hall (below) will be taking the stage at the end of this month with Spectrum (above), aka Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember of Spacemen 3. I saw Mr. Kember once open a show (under the moniker of Sonic Boom) with a bevy of Speak & Spell voice emulator toys and a mixer. That's it. And he filled the venue with one of the most massive sounds I've ever heard. So I'm looking forward to seeing what gadgets and noises Spectrum brings this time around.

The show details are:
Monday, September 22nd
Darkroom. 2210 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL
$10 in advance, $12 at door, 9pm, 21+

Music Hall goes on first, around 9. Feel free to recommend your preferred b-movie, educational film, or newsreel to be shown over top of whatever it is we end up performing.

Our Innaugural Yelps, Blips, and Clicks

Thanks to everyone who showed up early enough on February 15th to see Music Hall's first foray into live performance. The experiment went better than expected and we're already looking forward to refining our methods and songs for future outings (as to when those shows will be, stay tuned). In the works: the Music Hall web site, new songs and recordings, and, of course, stickers and other needless paraphernalia.

Our thanks to Sara for the pictures and to PK Hooker, that phantasmal third Music Hall member, whose Pusy Gums Johnson masterworks continue with Hole Buncha Cats. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen. Add him as your pal. Add Music Hall while you're at it. We'll give you a sticker. I mean, when they're back from the printer.

The Road Ends By The Lake

As advertised, Arks will be clambering onto the stage at the Empty Bottle tonight, in the last show of our "International" (of the album, not the geographical sense) tour.

We'll be honored to share the stage with our good friends Paper Mice and Sally, in what will be Sally's last performance. If nothing else, come out and celebrate the life and times of one of Chicago's most underrated treasures. Sally is dead, long live Sally.

What the press will report after the brawl breaks out:

Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western Ave.)
Free admission, 21+
Doors: 9pm (Arks on around 11)

Arks
Sally
Paper Mice

(Oh, and we just came across, while driving back home to Chicago, a little write up in New York Press. Thanks for the kind words (and to everyone who came out and yelped at our shows on the road).)

This is (Really) The International

Today, Arks' first full length album, "The International," is officially released. And on Thursday we'll be celebrating with our good friends (and, in my opinion, Chicago's best band) Sally. The night starts off right with a kick to the sonic nuts courtesy Pyrite. Come out (18 and up, so feel free to bring your little sibling, cousin, or questionably immature date) to Subterranean this Thursday.

Far more information than is necessary:

The International Record Release
Arks
Sally
Pyrite

Subterranean | 9:00 PM | $7
Thur. Aug. 16 | 18 & Over

For tickets click here

Arks on Spin, Arks on Stage, Apologies to Nathan

Today Arks is the Artist of the Day on Spin Magazine's web site. The photo used on the site is not by Nathan Keay. My apologies to Nathan (though I had nothing to do with the final photo selection), as Nathan was kind enough to sit through our WLUW recording session, take innumerable shots of us jumping around like idiots in an alley, and eat something calling itself nachos at Hollywood Grill at an ungodly hour afterward.

But Nathan (who took the pictures at the head and foot of this post), and everyone else is invited to our show tonight at Double Door here in Chicago. Though I'm only buying Nathan a drink, the rest of you can fend for yourselves.

We Are Sort Of Live

Somewhere between 6 and 10pm (rumored to be in the 7 o'clock region) Thursday evening, Arks will be playing "live" (in all honesty we recorded it last Wednesday, with plenty of dead time, idiocy, and bickering between... we'll see what makes it in and what gets thrown out) on WLUW's Radio One, 88.7FM here in Chicago. Non Chicago residents or people afraid of those newfangled radio machines can stream the broadcast live here.

Thanks to Nathan Keay for suffering through our banter and noise to take pictures. More on the purpose behind Nathan's long night out soon.

A Darkroom-Red Arks

While I don't typically mix my music with the rest of my life, it's an awful lot of fun (when we're not trying to kill one another over something we won't remember five minutes later). I think Mr. "Kamillionaire" (with whom I've never had the pleasure of being acquainted, to my knowledge) did a good job of capturing some of the fun at the Darkroom here in Chicago a couple Thursdays ago. Wow, do I manage to make some awful faces... but I'm glad he captured the "play-the-guitar-with-the-microphone" idiocy. That was pricelessly moronic on my part. I'll definitely have to do that again.