Wild Belle "Keep You" from the 12" single released by Columbia Records in Feb. 2012.

Penthouse Sweets are back with a new full-length album called It’s Fine It’s Fine It’s Fine, the band’s first since 2006. The album is a mixture of ’90’s indie rock and tinges of ’60’s rock and a few other interesting elements. It is a sound that is hard to pin down because it changes from track to track.

The new album was released digitally on November 26th and the released will be celebrated on January 4th with a live show at Schubas with The Safes and Warm Ones.

Summer Girlfriends "Goth Beach Party" from Shockwaves released in June 2012 on Addenda Records.

If you want to kick off your Holiday weekend the right way than I suggest you head over Tonic Room tomorrow night, Dec. 22nd, for Big Dammit’s Big Damn Christmas Spectacular. This is the 2nd year for this event and this year features music from JT & the Sloppy Seconds, Hollywood Slim, and Clarence Fraher (of The New Messengers) and Ari Vais (of The Campbell Apartment).

However, the night’s very special guest will be Santa Claus himself reading "The Night Before Christmas". There will also be Milk and cookies (from Hoosier Mama Pie Company), presents, carols and holiday fun for all. The goal of the event is "unapologetic joy and Christmas fun for adults".

The interns at SPACE and Aware Records present The Daredevil Christopher Wright for their first performance at SPACE on Thursday, January 10th. The indie folk trio will play alongside local folk rock band The Bears of Blue River and Chicago’s newest folk crooners, The Wild Family. The show starts at 7:30pm Doors will open at 6:45pm. Tickets are $10. Drink specials will also be offered at $3 for PBR and $4 for well drinks.

duck. is our current band of the month and for good reason. You can download the band’s latest ep "Basement Family" for free here, and be sure to check out their video for the ep’s first track "Hi You" below. The trio plays high energy electro-rock and through out their ep seem to be playing faster and harder.

Andrew Bird recently released a new video for his track "Lusitania" that features a contribution from Annie Clark. The track comes from Hands of Glory, Bird’s recent release.

Bird is in the middle of performing three show at Fourth Presbyterian Church Dec 19th to Dec 21st and at the Rock For Kids’ benefit at The Hideout on Dec. 22nd.

Suns are celebrating the release of the "lavishly packaged vinyl" edited of their latest album When We Were Us. The album was released digitally over the summer but the band is self-releasing is new limited edition.

You can catch Suns at Subt on December 28th with Snow Ghost, Court of Owls and Sequoia.

Tom Krell (aka How To Dress Well) has released the video for his track "& It Was U" which comes from his recent album Total Loss. Krell played a local show at Empty Bottle last Friday.

Speck Mountain has released the video for their new single "Slow So Long". The track comes from their forthcoming album Badwater which will be released on Carrot Top on 1/22. The band also had their Daytrotter session posted last week.

Speck Mountain will be celebrating the release of Badwater at The Hideout on Feb 9th with Radar Eyes and Circuit des Yeux.

I had the pleasure of catching Haroula Rose’s set at Schubas this past Saturday. Although the set was brief, as she was the first act of four to play that night, it was clear she was excited to be back home in Chicago. Rose is currently based in LA but grew up in Chicago and had several family members in the crowd including a young nephew. With that and the Christmas lights surrounding the small Schubas stage, it felt like I had arrived at the family Christmas dinner and our talented cousin from LA was playing a few songs in front of the fire.

The set was warm, interactive, and fun. Rose played a few new tracks from her latest ep So Easy, but added in a Waylon Jennings cover and a special Christmastime cover of John Denver’s "Christmas for Cowboys". Rose closed the charming set with the song that started it all "Someday". It is a song about longing, wishing, and waiting for your moment to arrive and for Rose it still seems fitting but it also feels like her moment is coming very soon.

Venna is back with the first single from their upcoming album, Third Generation Hymnals, on February 5 via Broken Circles Records. Husband and Wife Marky and Heather Hladish recently released the video for the new album’s first single, "Married". The album is now available for preorder.