Saturday night's show had a little of everything we love about Mr. Blotto: some old chestnuts and some newer jams, some tunes that felt squeaky clean out of the rehearsal room and a few numbers that seemed spontaneous and fresh.Brixie's provided an exceptional venue and a was fine gathering place for the first Barn...

After pushing around a snowblower and using a shovel for a makeshift pick-axe for hours yesterday, I just couldn't get Homer Simpson's "Mr. Plow" theme song out of my head.For those not familiar with the episode, Homer's snow-plowing business takes off driven by his low budget advertisement running on local access cable, only to...

More than just about any band (and I'll throw the Beatles, Dead, and Zappa in there too), Talking Heads have provided direct inspiration to the jamband community. Attribute it to their rhythmic ideals, engaging melodies or passion for innovation, but with only 8 studio albums to draw from, the variety of tunes covered and interpretations that...

Every Tuesday in January, The Barn will offer another feature about the incredible music and career of Talking Heads. In addition to a healthy legacy of groundbreaking studio recordings, Talking Heads were a band that, at least in the early part of their career, offered audiences contrasting interpretations of their catalog on stage. Fortunately, these...

Retro Jamming is a new feature in our Audiovisual section. While many of the shows we offer focus on local streams and downloads of recent vintage, these shows reach back to pick some choice recordings from classic Chicago area shows of old.Medeski, Martin & Wood is a band that doesn't make it around these...

Every Tuesday in January, The Barn will offer another feature about the incredible music and career of Talking Heads.2010 was an incredible year for the music video. From the Spike Jonze deliciousness of LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls" and his secret film project with Arcade Fire to wonderful tongue-in-cheek rave-ups like The Black Keys' "Tighten Up"...

We're so glad that Donna has chosen the burbs for their last couple of visits to the area. And why not? Fitzgerald's is the venue equivalent of Donna's music: comfortable and integrity laden (and with beer). The band settled right in and delivered a beefy set of tunes that evoked mountains, back...

This is the 2010 holiday mix and the first in a trilogy. For more Christmas tunage, check out the 2011 and 2012 mixes.There's holiday music everywhere you turn this time of year. While sometimes it might be nice to drown it all out with the occasional 20 minute "Dark Star" or "Tweezer"; we've recently discovered that it's also...

Hometown show. Big Holiday weekend. A historic venue in a great neighborhood. This gig had all the makings of one for the ages.Cornmeal has been playing Thanksgiving shows in Chicago for ten years, and according to our friends at Chicago Jam Scene, they delivered yet again in the big room.I've just got this...

I thought this made a good companion piece to our stream and download of Mike's Lincoln Hall Show in Chicago.Filmed just the day before at 105.5 M in Madison, this video provides superb shots of and access to the band (dig that funky bass), nice sound and unique stripped down acoustic arrangement of the tune "...