Disappears have one available press shot. Had no choice but to cut off some faces. Apologies to the band.
We’re previewing Lollapalooza’s best + brightest! Get the scoop here!

Artist: Disappears
Lollapalooza Set: Saturday, August 6th @ 12:45 PM at Bud Light
Proof:This official video for “Superstition,” a genuine rock hit

There has to be something redeeming about being a band from a tiny little North Dakota town. Then, whenever some local music journalist who can’t think of what to write in his monthly column decides to do another “Best local bands” piece, you always make the top. When you’re from a big city such as Chicago, in a music scene constantly evolving, when that local music journalist makes this list, first of all that journalist will be someone badass like Greg Kot and second of all, you’ll be competing under sub-headlines that read things like “I guess we’ll leave Kanye out of the running for some fairness.” It’s not easy.
But for The Disappears, it’s not hard. They top every list with ease, because, despite this being a big, musically-evolving city, they are one of the best.
Their second album Guider out this year proved this is more ways than one. First, when one member left, he was replaced by Sonic Youth’s drummer Steve Shelley. Not too shabby of a replacement. The album was met with rave reviews, and though only a quick six songs, it’s already topping favorite album lists. Plus, I heard when it was first released that all the songs were recorded in one take.
Fronted by Chicago rock veteran Brian Case, who completed our interview below in perfect Disappears-esque form, this is a band who has the most exquisite amount of 90s experience mixed with inevitable future success.
Disappears is without doubt one of the best Chicago groups, and one of the best acts playing at Lolla. We love supporting the local guys playing Lollapalooza and we appreciate when they make it so freaking easy.

Go see this show.

You’re welcome,

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Which Lollapalooza act are you most looking forward to seeing?
I honestly don’t know who’s playing around the time that we are - later that night we’re playing a show with Arctic Monkeys, they’re pretty cool - I’m looking forward to seeing them play.

Cubs or Sox?
Neither, baseball is the worst sport for me, incredibly boring. My son likes the Sox for some reason, even though we live on the north side of the city.

Describe your live act in five words:
“Who is this band playing?” 
“Not much talking between songs”
“Whoa, this is intense bro!”

What are the top five songs in your current iTunes 25 most played list?
Lower Dens - “Tea Lights”
Veronica Falls - “Beachy Head”
Wire - “Madman’s Honey”
Cass McCombs - “Your Mother and Father”
The Clean - “Are You Really On Drugs”

How do you feel about blaming the O’Leary cow for the Chicago fire?
I feel ok about it, someone had to take the fall.

What will you drink onstage?
A bottle of Rosè

What is your favorite festival memory?
At the second Lollapalooza I saw Lush and Jesus and Mary Chain play, that was really great - I grew up in St. Louis and I’m pretty sure Lush never came back. I know JAMC played with Pixies a few years later but I couldn’t go so that remains the only time I’ve seen those bands.

What three emotions are the audience members guaranteed to feel at your show?
Heat irritation, intense thirst, possible buyer remorse 

I am so excited to officially announce our partnership with The Rumble, as Chicago becomes newest city to their venture. Presented by Pabst Blue Ribbon, The Rumble was started by Larry Little (of Future Sounds) and sits at the front lines of emerging talent in now, nine major cities across America.
Each city has a FREE monthly show, featuring three local acts, who are the best and brightest the city has to offer. Along with the artists, Larry builds a team of local bloggers, companies, newspapers, radio stations and a venue and as a group we pick the bands and promote and support the event. When Larry called to pitch the idea to me, I was honored he thought of us to be involved; I felt like The Rumble exemplified every ideal we wanted to build our site upon: being a voice that brings the great to the ears of many.
The beauty of this “new state of the music industry” is that bands/blogs/music companies are sort of forced to embrace the local scene. We aren’t each other’s competition, but each other’s support. It’s not about two bands trying to out-sell each other in ticket sales, it’s about playing a show together for optimal results. It’s about building a community, filling it with talented people, and spreading the word. THAT is what The Rumble is doing.
The first Chicago show, which has impressively come together in a matter of weeks, is April 12th at The Hideout and features The Great Society Mind Destroyers, Pet Lions and Rambos. The Rumble has dominated the West coast, touched base down South and even hit New York, but Chicago is their first Midwest city and I’d like to prove that we have a city of music lovers just as strong as the others.
Please join us, you can RSVP here (remember it’s FREE!) and obviously PBR will be providing some fancy specials all night. If you can’t make it this time, come out next month, we’ll have all the information here as soon as it’s available.

Check out the Chicago Facebook Event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203190076366781
Check out The Rumble here: www.TheRumbleTour.com
Check out the sites of our fabulous Chicago co-partners here:
Hideout Chicago
Cream Team
Eyes & Ears Entertainment
Giant System
Harmon Drive
Loud Loop Press
Reckless Records
Veoba

See you out there!

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We are pretty excited about our new feature for on the verge artists, “Freshman Honors”, and I couldn’t be more excited than to have Chicago natives California Wives be the first “honored”. We wandered upon these guys about a year ago when they played a show to less than a couple dozen people at Schubas. These days they are promoting their EP “Affairs”, touring the Midwest, preparing for SXSW this March and collecting some serious national press (not to mention that they topped every Chicago media outlet’s list of local bands to watch in 2011).
Their electronic, synthesized, pop-rock sound is simple but catchy. Their appearance is that of a disjointed high school band, which- if nothing else- is a testament to them being organically and genuinely talented; nothing feels forced about the image and sound they are projecting.
My favorite off the EP, “Twenty Three”, is the perfect party playlist song and is the type of song that sticks so deep onto the inner parts of your head that days later you start singing it and can’t remember how it got there.
Strong participants in the rising era of the Chicago music scene that’s not led single handedly by Kanye West and pop-punk bands, California Wives are sliding in at the forefront behind bands like Smith Westerns and proving they have the chops to make the same splash.
Chicago folks can catch them this Friday at Subterranean, they also have upcoming shows in Champaign and St. Louis and their music can be streamed from www.CaliforniaWives.net.

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Artist: California Wives
Hometown: Chicago
Show: Friday, January 28th at Subterannean
Album: “Affairs”

What song off the latest EP are you most excited about?
Joe: Guilt hasn’t been talked about much, but it’s my favorite song on the album. After a few listens through the EP it starts to stick in your head.

What is the best thing about Chicago? Worst thing?
Joe: Best thing? Summer. Worst? Winter. You can’t figure out why you live here during the winter, but you can’t think of leaving during the summer.

Will you guys be hitting the road anytime soon? What band or artist would you love to tour with?
Joe: We’ll be hitting Champaign, IL and St. Louis later this month. After that, we’ll be getting ready tour a little bit before SXSW. Bands to tour with? As far as bands we’d like to tour with, there are too many to name, but I imagine touring with the Flaming Lips could never get old.
 
What is the best thing you saw on the internet this week?
Dan: This was a couple weeks ago, but finding out that the coach of the NFL’s New York Jets has a foot fetish and that his wife was a youtube celebrity for foot fetish people. It was also awesome that youtube left these obviously sexual videos up for so long. I wonder if there was a debate there, and one of the guys was arguing vehemently to leave them up because he was a fan of hers.

What was your most played album of 2010?
Dan: Either “Teen Dream” by Beach House or “Gemini” by Wild Nothing. Beach House owned the early months of the year for me, and Wild Nothing the middle summer months. There was definitely music that was just as great or better, but nothing was better suited to me.

Who’s your favorite Top 40 artist?
Dan: Beyonce, pretty easily. Observe: “Halo,” “Single Ladies,” “Irreplaceable,” “Crazy in Love,” and with Destiny’s Child “Say My Name,” “Independent Women Part 1,” “Bootylicious.” There are more. 

Would you rather eat, pray, or love?
Dan: Well, I’ve only done two of those things before, and I’d have to say that eating is my first love.
Hans: It would definitely be eat. It’s a miracle I’m not enormous given how much I like food. my parents always exposed me to different cuisines growing up - Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, German, Japanese… pretty much anything but American food. I love American food too, I’m not a picky eater.
 
California Wives started as a side project, what was the moment that made you realize it was something bigger?
Hans: When the last band exploded haha. People in bands tend to be volatile and emotional - and while that can make people creative it’s not always conducive to interpersonal relationships. I think we realized that we had something promising that was fresher and it was time to move on. I don’t ever think the thought of having something bigger entered into it.
 
What is the most complimentary word someone could use to describe your music?
Hans: Relatable. No matter what genre something is - how far out there something is - when you hear a good song something about it seems like you’ve heard it before. When I heard Frightened Rabbit’s Midnight Organ Fight it felt like it was something I’d known before I ever heard it. If our music ever speaks to someone else like that, that would be the best thing we could accomplish. 
 
If you could hand your CD to one person in the entire world, who would it be?
Jayson: I think music producers have amazing ears when it comes to writing and engineering music. There’s something really special about approaching music from outside of the band dynamic. It would be really awesome if someone like Dave Fridmann could listen to the record. His work with The Flaming Lips and MGMT has been amazing and I’m sure he’d have some great words of wisdom for us.
 
You guys perform with a computer onstage, how does this affect your performance?
Jayson: Right now, we bring our computer on stage to help with sequencing certain parts. When we’re all playing guitars, we just don’t have enough hands to play a background synth part. It really helps us make sure that the live set sounds just as full as the recordings. So other than that, it really doesn’t change how we play our music. It’s really important that the live songs sound like they do on the record. The computer is just a good way to make sure that we don’t lose a synth part that might really bring a song together.
 
Let’s pretend like you’re psychic for a minute. What will be the coolest thing to happen to you in 2011?
Jayson: I think we’re pretty level headed with this business and our expectations. It’s a very tough industry and you should only get involved if you love what you do. It would certainly help us quite a bit to have the support of a label in moving forward as a band. But that doesn’t mean we have any intentions of not releasing new music. For now, we will probably continue to work with EP format until we take that next step. So probably the coolest thing to happen would be to keep increasing our fan base. It’s an amazing feeling to meet people that know our music and care about our progress. We love to play for crowds that are really into the music, so it would be nice if we could keep doing that in 2011.