Late Night Bars

Ugh. I've got a bunch of unfinished, saved posts that I need to polish. Just so busy. However, tonight after colluding with Christopher we concluded that it was too late to go out since it was already 1am and where to go?

I've always wondered where all the late night spots are in town. After looking them up on this site (and after cityofchicago.org failed me with lack of robustness), I made a google map of 4am's. Here you go.


View Larger Map

I didn't put some of the spots up as of yet since technically their licenses have expired according to the site (I'm looking at you Estelle's), so I'll update it perhaps later. There aren't too many more around that show up, although I don't know if a particular bar went belly-up with the info from the site. What this map doesn't have is all the late night spots that don't have a liquor license but still operate after 2am, like the Pick Me Up cafe. Maybe I'll make a under-21-friendly version later.

Enjoy! ...especially you iPhone/blackberriers.

New (Rapture)

I haven't heard the mix at all, but Tapes by our favourite post-punk pals The Rapture looks to be quite intriguing. What's funny is that I haven't really read any buzz about it at all. I don't want to say that The Rapture is decaying, but hopefully they'll expand on their past success (man if I hear House of Jealous Lovers ever again...) By the way, it comes from this site K7. They've got some other guys in their DJ Kicks series i.e. Booka Shade, Hot Chip, Tiga, Annie, Erland Oye... oh my. Let's get it!

Here's a sample track via the hype:

Vaughan Mason And Crew - Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll (Part1 & Part2)

If any of you folks know of other mixtape collections like this or Fabric's, let me know.

P.S. Here's another review of it.

Sloan out

Ok, it's time to flush out all those tabs that I've been for all these weeks. I haven't had ANY time lately. Not to brag, but the past couple of weeks I've been going out a lot... even for me. Going to Neo two saturdays ago and Rehab again that Monday turned out to be really draining. Still, Christopher and I met a really cool pair of W Canadiens (at Sonotheque naturally). We literally spent the entire weekend together. Sorry Aaliya's ma; I'm sure your food was excellent, but hey, so was Chicago Diner's.

First off, here's a guy who orchestrated a surprise wedding at his Halloween party and he acts like Beetlejuice during the entire thing (except vows and I Do). Neat.


Next, I was speaking with Larry about festivals. I don't know if we are old, or just that we've been there done that, but Coachella and Lollapalooza just didn't cut it for us the last go around and we need our yearly reunion somewhere, preferably music-oriented. SXSW is a little too long and other ones around the states I think will give a similar experience to what we're used to (Daft Punk set the bar really high. Twice.) So one idea he had was to go to Summerfest in Barcelona. Plus, the fest is only the weekend and we can stay there for a week or so. Winning hand so far.

Lastly is where I got my Mission Control pic for the prior post. Those guys are awesome... they just need more songs out. Hopefully I'll get word which Tuesday their album will exist.

P.S. One more... this copy of the NYTimes.

Oy...

Oh, and I can't hold this back any longer. Yo Majesty's album is alright, even though I plopped the $20 for 2 tickets at the Bottle; it should be a good show. But listening to this track I just need to tell someone that they used a re-organized version of Booka Shade's Body Language for the backing track (or at least the same keyboard patch.)

Yo Majesty - Don't Let Go

Listening to their album Futuristically Speaking, I think they should have spent a little more time outside the studio on this one. Anytime you have a whole TRACK on an album dedicated nowadays to tell people to 'move to the music' or 'get your hands in the air' it makes me think less of the artist. Save it for the live shows honey.
You know every time I listen to music that I think I should like, I feel that later on I actually will like it and I need to give it some time. They've got some good tracks (Booty Klap, Leather Jacket, Don't Let Go, Club Action) don't get me wrong, but I think these guys will fare better in the remix circuit since they have the unique sound of being female, lesbian rappers that hipsters have adopted. They have excellent flows (even hearing when I said that in my head, I'm shaking at my whiteness), but they are trashing the track anytime they try to sing. Just get somebody else to do that; the hard part is the writing and rapping. Hopefully they're not like Chali 2na and take forever to write stuff (my theory on why he only seems to be a featuring on tracks) and they can rap the same way if they're doing a battle. Now THAT would be sweet to see at the show. A Battle!

P.S. They need a new producer.

P.P.S. Reading Pitchfork's review of them at a festival in Norway (Øya), it seems that they're a fan of taking their tops off at shows. Now, I agree with Pitchfork when they say that hopefully people will go to their shows and listen to them for their tunes and appreciate their message/attitude/background/GLBT-friendly ways and not for the tits. Personally, I think I might just close my eyes with the occasional peek like a horny 10-year-old hiding in a closet. Wow... I can't believe how much that summarizes my sex life.

Because it's funny...

And because I'm a stinker.