Are you ready for the 8th annual CHIRP Record Fair & Other Delights, to be held on April 10-11, 2010 at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Union at 1340 West Washington Boulevard. The CHIRP Record Fair is the only record fair in Chicago proper, offering a gathering place for music and art enthusiasts to browse more than 80 tables of vinyl, CDs, posters, ‘zines, artwork and crafts. CHIRP welcomes new dealers as well as returning favorites to this year’s Record Fair. Dealers come from all over the country and range from genre specialists with rare records to generalists with something for everyone’s tastes. In addition to vinyl, dealers will also offer 8-tracks, cassettes, DVDs and other forms of media. An eclectic selection of arts and crafters, ‘zine writers and poster artists round out the vendor lineup, while food and alcohol will be available from local favorites like Chicago’s Goose Island Brewery.

Special guest DJs and live bands such as Judson Claiborne and The Loneliest Monk will perform throughout the weekend. A complete lineup is available here.

This week Coach House Sounds posted three new sessions with Chicago bands. It just so happens that each band will also be playing in Chicago this month. The sessions are with Hollow (pictured above), April 15th @ Reggie’s, Lawrence Peters Outfit, April 18th @ the Whistler, and L’Orchestre Super Vitesse, April 21 @ the Whistler.

Drag City recently announced that they will be releasing the latest EP from Cave next month. Titled Pure Moods, the album is set to hit stores on May 18, 2010.

Cave will be celebrating the release of Pure Moods at Hideout on June 4th. The band will also be playing Pitchfork music festival in July.

On April 1st we sent our photographer, Daniel Bartel, to The Bottom Lounge to photograph the bands This is Versailles and Light Pollution. For more pictures from the show visit Daniel’s This is Versailles page and his Light Pollution page.

Well, Chicago currently holds 5% of the overall 122 bands announced for Lollapalooza 2010. However, four of the six Chicago acts are not main stage acts, but a part of the “Spinning At Perry” section of the line-up. Head over to Lolla for the full line-up and feel free to post you complaints about how Soundgarden, Green Day, and The Strokes are no longer relevant.

The Chicago bands at Lolla 2010 are Company of Thieves, Skybox, Felix Da Housecat, BBU, Flosstradamus, and Only Children.

Here is the trailer for the new split album between out bliss.city.east and Vidulgi Ooyoo. The album will be released on June 21st by Chicago’s Fake Label.

I was recently alerted to the latest album from The Dogs. It’s called Free Write and it was released this past December. The album can be downloaded for free from the bands website. The Dogs is a collective of young and talented musicians that play a soulful brand of jam band folk rock. This is the bands second album, their self-titled debut was released in November 2008.

BBU is blasting off! This is courtesy of the big boys at Pitchfork.

Townie Records announced today that they will be releasing the debut full-length album, Star, from Hey Champ on July 13th. The album will include the popular single “Cold Dust Girl” and the track below “Neverest”, and other details will be forthcoming. You can download both of those track from the trio’s website for free.

Maps & Atlases’ debut album will be called Perch Patchwork and will be released by Barsuk Records on June 29, 2010. Here is the tracklisting:

Will/The Charm/Living Decorations/Solid Ground/Is/Israeli Caves/Banished Be Cavalier/Carrying The Wet Wood/Pigeon/If This Is/Was/Perch Patchwork

Band is currently touring with bands like Drink Up Buttercup and Frightened Rabbit. Their next Chicago show will be on May 8th at Metro with Frightened Rabbit. Here is a sneak peak at the album and the song “Solid Ground”.

The Scissors recently released the first video from their latest album, You Can Make It Dangerous. The track is called “Let’s Go”, and the video is great.

You can catch Scissors at Subterranean on April 24th.

At SXSW this year YAWN caught the eye and ear of a lot of folks. Here is some footage of their performance at Levis Fader Fort courtesy of the WILD honey pie. They will be performing at Abbey Pub on April 13th with Caw! Caw!.