Dream Council is primarily the work of Sean Michael who splits time between Brooklyn and Chicago. Earlier this summer Dream Council released an full-length LP called Mother Nature. The release blends electronics with noise, samples, and wandering voices. It is beautiful, haunting, and disturbing all at the same time.

You can catch Dream Council with Magicks and Super Hairy at Subt on August 28th.

Owen Ashworth (aka Advance Base) continues to amaze with his new EP The World Is In A Bad Fix Everywhere. The ep is a collection of covers of the early 20th century gospel music of Washington Phillips. A 7" was released by Orindal Records back in June, but an expanded CD edition is coming on Oct. 1st via Caldo Verde Records.

The collection shows how versatile Owen is when compared to his work as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone or his other work as Advance Base. For example, he recently did production for a track with Hannibal Buress ("Honda Civic") for the mixtape Charcuteries and Champagne Vol. 1 by Tony Trimm.

You can catch Advance Base at one of three exclusive solo electric piano show at Hungry Brain (2319 W Belmont Ave) on Sept. 9th.

The Fruit Flies are Molly McCormick and Danni Parpan and together they harmonized folk-pop that reminds me of The Murmurs.

The duo has a string of demo on their soundcloud and a charming video for their single "I’m Sorry". You can catch The Fruit Flies at Lilly’s (2515 N. Lincoln Ave) on Aug. 24th at 10pm.

In the subject line of the email I received from Kendra Calhoun of Names Divine last were these six word: "art damaged drone pop warped blues". These words were attempting to describe the sounds I could expect when I began to listen to their new LP Thankful. The collection of words demonstrate how difficult it is to pin down the wonderful noise Kendra and her six band mates create.

Thankful has an official release date of August 29th and on that date you can catch Names Divine at Empty Bottle with Depth & Current, The Kremlin, and Esso Afrojam Funkbeat.

Looking for something fun to spice up your Friday? How about ’60’s era pop sung in completely in French?

That is exactly what the local band The Ye-Ye’s do and do very well. They’ve released two singles this year, "Gong" (below) and  "Reviens Vite et Oublie (Be My Baby)". Enjoy!

Cameron McGill has released the first single, "Sucker Love", from his forthcoming album Gallows Etiquette due out October 15th.

McGill kicked off his tour schedule last night at The Burlington. However, he has several local shows planned over the next few months including the Lakeview East Festival of the Arts on Sept. 15th and four shows at Schubas as part of their Practice Space Residency Program in October and November. You can find all of his tour dates here.

Recently My Gold Mask stopped by Audiotree Studio to record a full set of songs including their latest single "Dangerous".

The Main Chance is the solo project of Will Gosner from Lakesigns. Gosner has been releasing demos and singles through his soundcloud over the last four months.

He recently allowed Jack Lawrence Mayer of Living Room Sounds to visit his apartment, the same apartment where his new album was written and recorded, and capture this video for "The End is Sweet and Near".

The local cassette label Teen River has released their first cassingle and they could not have picked a better song. The Christmas Bride’s tongue-in-cheek lo-fi classic "(He’s Not a) Mongreloid" is perfect cassingle fodder. The b-side, "D.I.Y. Hi-Skool" is equally great.

You can catch The Christmas Bride on August 23rd at Wally World with Baby Sitter, Big Waves of Pretty, WAD, and Foul Tip.

Late last year the soul band Harris & The Mood released a swinging single called "A Girl Like You".

Recently the band recorded a live session for Sofar Chicago of that very single.

Bloodshot Records will be releasing the 12 album, Gone Away Backward, from Robbie Fulks later this month. This effort continue Fulks’ dominance of the genre of traditional Alt-Country.

You can catch Robbie Fulks at Old Town School of Folk Music on Sept 6th.

The four piece indie rock band The Elements of Style released their sophomore album, Take Care Always and Have A Night Ahead, last month.

The band has been together for seven years, and this polished release is a year in the making.

You can catch The Elements of Style at Subt on Sept 19th.