duck. is our current band of the month and for good reason. You can download the band's latest ep "Basement Family" for free here, and be sure to check out their video for the ep's first track "Hi You" below. The trio plays high energy electro-rock and through out their ep seem to be playing faster and harder.

Andrew Bird recently released a new video for his track "Lusitania" that features a contribution from Annie Clark. The track comes from Hands of Glory, Bird's recent release.

Bird is in the middle of performing three show at Fourth Presbyterian Church Dec 19th to Dec 21st and at the Rock For Kids' benefit at The Hideout on Dec. 22nd.

Suns are celebrating the release of the "lavishly packaged vinyl" edited of their latest album When We Were Us. The album was released digitally over the summer but the band is self-releasing is new limited edition.

You can catch Suns at Subt on December 28th with Snow Ghost, Court of Owls and Sequoia.

Tom Krell (aka How To Dress Well) has released the video for his track "& It Was U" which comes from his recent album Total Loss. Krell played a local show at Empty Bottle last Friday.

Speck Mountain has released the video for their new single "Slow So Long". The track comes from their forthcoming album Badwater which will be released on Carrot Top on 1/22. The band also had their Daytrotter session posted last week.

Speck Mountain will be celebrating the release of Badwater at The Hideout on Feb 9th with Radar Eyes and Circuit des Yeux.

I had the pleasure of catching Haroula Rose's set at Schubas this past Saturday. Although the set was brief, as she was the first act of four to play that night, it was clear she was excited to be back home in Chicago. Rose is currently based in LA but grew up in Chicago and had several family members in the crowd including a young nephew. With that and the Christmas lights surrounding the small Schubas stage, it felt like I had arrived at the family Christmas dinner and our talented cousin from LA was playing a few songs in front of the fire.

The set was warm, interactive, and fun. Rose played a few new tracks from her latest ep So Easy, but added in a Waylon Jennings cover and a special Christmastime cover of John Denver's "Christmas for Cowboys". Rose closed the charming set with the song that started it all "Someday". It is a song about longing, wishing, and waiting for your moment to arrive and for Rose it still seems fitting but it also feels like her moment is coming very soon.

Venna is back with the first single from their upcoming album, Third Generation Hymnals, on February 5 via Broken Circles Records. Husband and Wife Marky and Heather Hladish recently released the video for the new album's first single, "Married". The album is now available for preorder.

Rabble Rabble releases a brand new song and video. The song titled "Cole's Bathroom" is loosely based off of graffiti about the band/members in the Logan Square bar's bathroom. Check out the video and download the song for free via the band's bandcamp page.

Rabble Rabble will be playing a apocalypse party on Dec.21st 2012 at the Empty Bottle with Magic Milk and Vamos.

Sisters Renee and Grace Kuhl (aka The Kuhls) released the first single from their forthcoming debut full-length album, Holy Rollin' last week. The track is called "Grimjack" and it is a good example of the way these two combine influences from '90's Alt-rock to boozed drenched Country Western. This album with the band's follow to their 2011 ep.

You can catch The Kuhls at Township on December 15th.

Den released a new three song 7" via Retrograde Tapes last week. The noisy and aggressive trio will be working with the local label BLVD Records in 2013 for perhaps a full-length album. The trio is Ian Piirtola, Ray Keenan, and Adam Harris, who is also the founder of Retrograde Tapes.