Kids These Days comes from Chicago but their music comes from everywhere. With three horns, a rapper, a blues-rock trio and a female singer, KTD blends a wide range of influences -- hip-hop, jazz, soul, blues, and classic rock -- into a unique, fresh sound that breaks boundaries while honoring America’s musical heritage.

In Tall Buildings is the title of this record, the name of the band, and the title of a John Hartford song. This "band" is really Erik Hall and his songs. Erik is a natural multi-instrumentalist, equally at home playing electric guitar and percussion in NOMO, fuzzed-out bass in His Name Is Alive, or Motown-inspired drums in Saturday Looks Good To Me. But here we find him, for the first time, in his own element, alone in his home studio, layering track upon track of vocal harmonies, guitars, pianos, and heavy rhythms, to create his solo debut as a veritable one man band.

This is rock music, informed by Erik's array of influences. Imagine a Thom Yorke remix of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, or if Gillian Welch were to sit in with Steve Reich & Musicians. Bubbling synth sequences, driving distorted drum beats, interwoven finger-picked guitars, and pulsing woodwind chorales all find their way into the mix. Erik's lyrics unveil a personal world through stark imagery: a monster's lair, a bed of soft linens, a spilled glass of wine, a shared whiskey bottle, a plummeting star, and a walking man.

Musikanto is the spinoff of the series, Sleeper Car. After touring with the Chicago quintet for 3 + years, Musikanto has established himself as a prolific singer/songwriter. Born Mike Musikanto on Chicago's Northside in 1983 (but performing under only his last name), he grew up listening to his fathers obscure folk and roots rock records like Fraser and Debolt and Jerry Hahn. With a propensity towards heartbreaking ballads and melodic melodrama, Musikanto's songs have the bite of a Chicago winter. Celebrating elements of orchestral music, country and jazz, Musikanto manages to maintain the continuity of the American Folk tradition with undoubting ease.

Hollywood Holt is a star, and if you haven't heard of him yet, you better believe you will soon. Hollywood, self-proclaimed "best rapper alive", spits his smart and funny rhymes at shows all over the world, bringing people back to the more fun (but still innovative) side of hip hop. Hollywood is a friend amongst celebrities, a big name among tastemakers and trendsetters alike, and has created a big buzz internationally surrounding the release of his upcoming album from Chocolate Industries, aptly titled "Hollywood".

Quite possibly the best live rock band on the planet. We've seen them a hundred and sixty seven times, and the Waco Brothers never fail to entertain with their train wreck approach to country. Subtlety is for the weak, so they've chosen the path of optimum mayhem and tomfoolery. In their rollicking career, they have been called everything from the flagship act of the alternative country "movement" to pure butchery. Both are likely to be correct.

Chicago’s explosive and underrated Outer Minds have finally come to the surface after simmering in the underworld in several different incarnations over the past few years, and with unbelievably great results. Sharpening their sound into a legion of 60s pop/psych textures and nuances normally reserved for the baroque set with their impeccable glockenspiel-laden arrangements, Outer Minds weave a rich web of sound around impossibly perfect hooks and deliver an impressive EP worthy of your immediate attention. Lead by Zach Medearis (Black Beauties, Lover!) and A-Ron Orlowski’s (Baseball Furies, Lover!, Dirges) fine assemblage of rough-cut harmonies, the band has gone through more name and roster changes than most, but once the current lineup coalesced into the tight-knit unit performing today, everything fell into place to create this sumptuous wall of sound that will blow your little mind to bits.

Although they’ve regularly been compared to certain lovesick folksingers, Cains & Abels lack any of the helplessness so often present in the classic folk rock oeuvre. Sampson writes songs that are indeed heartbroken—for lack of money, love, communication—but they’re also hopeful and aware of their own strength. Like the ballads born out of the mountains in the Appalachians, Cains & Abels songs tell stories using rich imagery and narrative. Sampson, however, doesn’t tell his tale over an acoustic guitar. This is rock and roll that recalls the sounds that lived inside Sampson’s teenage boom box: from classic soul and Elvis to more modern players like Neutral Milk Hotel and Will Oldham.
Sampson has a galloping, powerful voice, and it glides over the rich, warm guitar chords and spare drum beats of the bands emotive songs like a sermon and, sometimes, like a plea. The songs themselves present that opposition at times. They can be quiet and introspective, and then, at the next turn, booming and bursting with universal themes. Their new album, My Life Is Easy, begins with a soft harmony and a nearly tribal beat, with Sampson’s big voice filling the space with a plea for communication. On paper, this need is simple, something solved by a tiny phone call, but for a Cains & Abels song, the tiny call becomes a battle cry.

Redgrave is Angie Mead (guitar, vox) and Stephen Howard (drums), a rock duo from Chicago.

Mead started writing and recording Redgrave songs in marathon stretches beginning August 2010 from her home in Chicago after furniture was moved into storage and replaced with recording equipment, drums and guitars. What started out as her scratch demos recorded through the audio of the video function from an old iPod Nano has since become a distinctive, cohesive 2-piece rock outfit.

Mead sent these demos to Chicago musician Stephen Howard (Pinebender, Ambulette) after wanting him to be her drummer for nearly years. They've been playing together as Redgrave since January, 2011.

Tim Rutili of Califone/Red Red Meat fame lends his guitar prowess to the track Gone to Wither, featured on the Redgrave debut 7″ (Lovitt Records, 9-26-11 ) with art design by David Yow, produced by Stephen Howard, recorded and mixed by Greg Norman at his studio in Chicago.

In 2010, Unicycle Loves You stripped away the studio gloss of their self-titled 2008 debut and took a large step forward with the release of Mirror, Mirror. Once again handling the roles of songwriter and producer, Jim Carroll has dug even further into his Sebadoh/Guided By Voices-influenced home-recording roots for Unicycle Loves You's latest record, Failure. Due for release on Valentine's Day 2012, their Mecca Lecca debut contains all the pop sensibility of their earlier work but with a rawer, more focused sonic palette.

Loaded with buzzing guitars in the red, highly addictive melodies, and lush boy/girl harmonies, Failure combines the best elements of 90′s indie rock and dream pop for a refreshing Pop Art sound. While it may be the band's heaviest, thrashiest album to date, songs such as "Garbage Dump", "Sun Comes Out (And I Don't Care)", "Bitch Eye", "Piranha" and "Wow Wave Cinema" are also some of their strongest and poppiest moments on record.

Unicycle Loves You are honored to have shared the stage with such acts as Weezer, The Raveonettes, Fiery Furnaces, Telekinesis, Generationals, Art Brut, Tapes 'n' Tapes, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Bishop Allen & Crystal Antlers.

Jim McCann, Jered Gummere, Mike Lust, R. Srini

Paper Thick Walls presents an elegant mix of deep, reflective, and at times haunting music that is littered with small specs of colorful light. Their songs quickly caught the attention of sound engineer Mike Hagler (Neko Case, Wilco) who engineered Paper Thick Walls’ first record, to be released in early 2011 and supported with a strong US tour. This past year, Paper Thick Walls was asked to play at several taste maker music festivals including North by Northeast, South by Southwest, and CMJ Music Marathon.