The latest video from the folks at Giant System features Netherfriends.

California Wives’ Daytrotter session went live today and it includes great versions of three of the five songs from their EP Affair which was released back in September.

California Wives play at Lincoln Hall tomorrow, Jan. 12th, as part of Tomorrow Never Knows 2011.

Roommate is partnering with one of Chicago’s newer labels Antephonic (the sister-label to Contraphonic, Inc) to release the band’s third album Guilty Rainbows. The album is set to be released on March 22nd, but early report say that this is the band’s most complete and forceful product to date. You can get a sense of what the album may sound like from the recently released single "Snow Globe"

Roommate will be performing at The Hideout on Feb. 5th with SHAPERS as part of a Coach House Sounds show. The record release show for Guilty Rainbows will be on March 18th at Empty Bottle with Dozens and Algernon.

On April 5th, Scattered Trees will release their full-length record, Sympathy, via Roll Call Records/EMI. In anticipation of the early Spring release the band has released a new track from Sympathy called “A Conversation About Death on New Years Eve”.

The band will also be performing on January 21 at Schubas.

Last month, The Loneliest Monk released a haunting video directed by Rubbish and produced by Hystk for the track "The Ghost and The Silhouette".

The winner of the Best of Chicago Open Poll Submission is Very Truly Yours! We had a lot of great submissions, and had two editors from other Deli cities rank the finalist. Below are the top ten musicians, and all ten of these bands will be added to our year end Best of Chicago Emerging Artists 2010 Poll. However the charming twee-pop sounds of Very Truly Yours won over our editors.

1. Very Truly Yours
2. Está Vivo
3. Julie Meckler
4. Scattered Trees
5. Canasta
6. Chaperone! 
7. Soft Speaker
8. Nathan Xander & Witchouse
9. Gemini Club
10. Unicycle Loves You

Smith Westerns will release their sophomore LP, Dye It Blonde, on Fat Possum on Jan. 18. That night they will kick off a tour in Brooklyn that will stretch across the country and span nearly three months. It will conclude in Austin in March for SXSW. The band will be performing here at the Empty Bottle on Feb. 26th. They have shared another track off of their much anticipated album called "All Die Young"

They’re back! The electro-dance band known as Walter Meego is back with a new line-up, in a new city, and with a new full-length album. The Chicago-natives, now living in LA, released their debut album Voyager back in 2008 through Sony’s Almost Gold label. At the time the band consisted on Justin Sconza (guitar, keyboards and vocals) and Pat Pelligrini and Colin Yarck on production. After Sconza relocated he reformed the band and filled out the sound with Andrew Adzemovic (guitar, vocals), Duncan Thum (vocals, keyboards), Simon Smith (bass), and Tyler Sabbag (drums).

The result is a self-released ten track album called Wondervalley. The result is a bigger sound filled with synth,’80’s pop sounds, and varied of new textures and experiments. Through out the ten tracks you can see how the addition of more live instrumentation, and music perspectives has changed the dynamics, but Sconza’s love of synth-pop is still at the core of Walter Meego’s sound. My favorite track from the album is perhaps the most out of character, "From California". It’s an echoing ballad that documents Sconza’s journey from Chicago to his new sunny home. You can stream the album through the band’s website.

First, we would like to thank all of the bands that submitted to our year-end poll through Sonic Bids. We had a ton of great submission, and it was challenging to narrow the field down. The top three selections from Sonic Bids are Secret Colours, Sad Brad Smith and The Giving Tree Band.

Speaking of Secret Colours, the bands released a new digital single today called "Follow The Drone". The band will be performing on Jan. 8th at Subt with Apteka and We Are Hex.

On January 1st, Netherfriends released a new free digital ep called Alap. Alap is a term used in Indian classical music for a sectin that is improvised and free flowing. The EP contains seven tracks, one for each day of the week. Accompanying videos are being created by the minds behind the Lateral Label, who released Netherfriends’ debut LP Barry and Sherry. They have already released videos for "Saturday" (below), "Sunday" and "Monday".

Netherfriends will be performing his last Chicago show until May tomorrow, January 6th at Subt with The Loneliest Monk, Dozens, and Wolf in a Spacesuit.

I can’t believe I missed Seafarer the first time, they released their debut EP Hiding Places back in May, but I am not going to them this time. The psych-folk quartet is re-releasing the EP on January 18th and celebrating the release on the 23rd at The Whistler. Hiding Places is an energetic seven song array that was recorded at Engine Studios with recording engineer Jake Westermann.

Seafarer is ready for a larger stage and a wider audience for their solid debut EP. They will be performing a free show this Saturday (1/8) at Saki at 7pm, and another free show on January 23rd with A Light Sleeper on the 23rd at The Whistler.

Lupe Fiasco will be releasing his third album, Lasers, on March 8th on Atlantic Records. On Christmas day he released a video for his new track and the albums first single "The Show Goes On".