Best lounge

Best Dive Bar Full of Dummies

by Mike Sula on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Kaplan's Liquors 960 W. 31st 773-890-0588 lotto, package goods, and love reads the sign in the window, and if you kept your eyes level while popping in for a six-pack and some lottery tickets, this would feel like just another well-preserved, tin-ceilinged, old-school Bridgeport bar. But stay a while, sipping your Old Style, and you might get the feeling you’re not alone.

Best Place to Get Drunk With Your Dog

by David Hammond on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Clark Street Ale House 742 N. Clark 312-642-9253 Under the familiar sign that commands passers-by to stop and drink, Clark Street Ale House permits friendly canine companions to join their owners at the bar—indoors and off-leash. It’s cool with the health department so long as no food is served, and apparently free minipretzels don’t count.

Best Dance Party

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Chances Dances chancesdances.org Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean a night out dancing has to involve an overpriced superclub or some Boys Town bar’s attempt at a circuit party. And just because you’re straight doesn’t mean that you have to feel like an interloper at a gay club night.

Best Sporadic Queer Dance Party

by Jessica Hopper on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Jai Ho! at Big Chicks 5024 N. Sheridan 773-728-5511 bigchicks.com groups.google.com/group/Chicago-Trikone In addition to the weekly Stardust at Berlin there’s an ever-expanding roster of monthly don’t-miss queer/trans/GLBTQ dance parties around town (the aforementioned Chances, FKA at Big Chicks)—but the most elusive is also the most distinctive.

Best Nongay Bar in Boys Town

by Justin Hayford on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Joe’s on Broadway 3563 N. Broadway 773-528-1054 Next time you’re in Boys Town hoping to grab a beer without having to be screened for fabulousness, slum it on over to Joe’s. You’ll find no methed-out musclemen or liquored-up twinks here—just unglamourous neighborhood regulars, dumpy sports fans, and crumpled career alcoholics, none of whom can be bothered to check out your junk. Decades of dust-covered detritus—Christmas lights, framed vacation photos, antlers, two stuffed swordfish—clutter the walls.

Best Fashion Watching

by Heather Kenny on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

School of the Art Institute Near 37 S. Wabash Columbia College Near 600 S. Michigan “You can always tell who the students are,” I remember an acquaintance saying at a runway show of student designs a few years ago. “Their outfits are so tragic.” Yes, sometimes, but at least they take chances, which is more than you can say for most of the people you see walking around Wicker Park nowadays.

Best New Musical Group

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Bin Laden Blowin’ Up myspace.com/binladenblowinup foccp.com Bin Laden Blowin’ Up had been lurking on the city’s spoken-word and underground-rap scenes for a couple years when they threw themselves a coming-out party in the form of the killer single “Chi Don’t Dance,” a juke-hop tribute to the city’s indigenous dance styles that became a staple of Chicago DJ sets in 2009. In March BBU released their first full-length mix tape, Fear of a Clear Channel Planet, hosted by local DJ and producer Million Dollar Mano.

Best Old Musical Group

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Joan of Arc joanfrc.com Yeah, Tim Kinsella gets a lot of love in the Reader—or at least affectionate teasing—but there’s a reason music critics love him. You never know what you’re getting into when you go to one of his shows or put on one of his new records.

Best New “Chicago Sound”

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Glammy garage A little more a year ago the Smith Westerns dropped their self-titled debut album on HoZac, a mix of straight-ahead garage rock and swoony, slightly fey stoner pop that sounded like T. Rex reincarnated as a lo-fi basement band fronted by a snotty teenager—basically they’d replaced Marc Bolan’s space-wizard trippiness with brash adolescent energy. Six months later another local band, Mickey, put out a single on HoZac that fused the confrontational punk of the Functional Blackouts (the previous group of front man Mark McKenzie) with the swaggering bubblegum of the Sweet (the band you might know from “Ballroom Blitz” or a ton of even better songs).

Best Metal Supergroup

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Twilight Supergroup is an iffy word to throw around when you’re talking about a bunch of dudes whose main bands are hardly household names in the first place, but to fans of boundary-pushing underground metal Twilight more than qualifies. The current incarnation is a six-piece that includes three members from the group’s 2005 debut, Chicagoan Blake Judd (Nachtmystium) and out-of-towners Neill Jameson (Krieg) and Jef Whitehead (aka Wrest of Leviathan), and adds three new guys: Aaron Turner of the late Isis and two more Chicagoans, Sanford Parker of Minsk and Stavros “Steve” Giannopoulos of the Atlas Moth (see Best Mustache in a Local Band).

Best Michael Jackson Cover

by Peter Margasak on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

“Billie Jean” by Robbie Fulks robbiefulks.com Happy, Robbie Fulks’s album of Michael Jackson covers, had been in the can for almost a decade by the time he released it this spring—previously, in 2004, he’d canceled a planned release because another round of child-molestation accusations had surfaced. The collection takes a dizzying variety of approaches to Jackson’s songs, including bluegrass, power pop, blues-rock, and country.

Best Led Zeppelin Cover Band

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Afro Zep myspace.com/afrozep Led Zeppelin 2 seem like the obvious choice here—they put on a spectacular, spot-on show, they sell out halls as big the House of Blues, they’ve got what might be the best possible name for a Led Zep tribute act, and the guy flashing torso as Robert Plant is Bruce Lamont of Yakuza. But I gotta give it up for Afro Zep.

Best Cover Band That Plays One Gig a Year

by Robert Loerzel on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

The Flat Five Cover bands get no respect, yet even the snobbiest concertgoer enjoys hearing a good cover—especially when a group digs deep into its record collection to remake an obscurity you never thought you’d hear live in any version. The Flat Five do that over and over again.

Best Totally Underground Rap Discovery via MySpace

by Jessica Hopper on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Q Storm myspace.com/qoristorm This local MC’s MySpace page is a parade of LOLZ—for starters, it was recently updated to note that “Probation is OFFICIAL OVER.” Previous bios detailed how some nine years earlier he was in the same room as Kanye; his location is listed as being “SOMEWHERE INSIDE YA GIRL.” But the real reason to hit it is to hear his one song, up since late 2009. “Panties So Wet” is so badmazing it’s instantly carved in your brain, from the screwed-hook sample “Pan-pannies so wet,” repeated ad infinitum in a casual sort of way that transcends standard rap braggadocio.

Best Band T-Shirt

by Miles Raymer on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Loose Dudes The punks in Loose Dudes are heirs to a proud brainlessness that goes all the way back to the Ramones, the original aggressive troglodytes in a scene overrun with art-school twerps. My roommate, Gossip Wolf scribe J.R. Nelson, recently returned to our place after a Loose Dudes gig with a fierce newfound love for the group, their Permanent Sex Vacation cassette, and one of the most perfectly ugly T-shirts I have ever seen.

Best Amateur Music Blog

by Jessica Hopper on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Field Mic fieldmic.com Chicago-based monolith Pitchfork has a profound influence on the gravitational field of the indie-rock universe, not to mention its own festival. But what about the little guys, who don’t pay attention to release cycles and aren’t driving the zeitgeist—the folks who don’t share the blogosphere’s obsession with being the first to cover the next new thing?

Best Musical Use of Dry Ice

by Peter Margasak on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Michael Colligan Michael Colligan earned his reputation in Chicago as a clarinetist, both in ad hoc improvising combos and in regular working groups. In the late 80s and early 90s he contributed to the art-damaged postcabaret mayhem of Quintron’s old band Math, and in the late 90s he joined the free-jazziest lineup of Weasel Walter’s revolving-door brutal-prog outfit the Flying Luttenbachers.

Best Blues Bagpiper

by David Whiteis on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Honey Blo honeyblorecords.com Chicago’s (and perhaps the world’s) only blues/funk bagpiper, Honey Blo studied woodwinds with jazz musician Duke Payne when Payne was his math teacher at Betsy Ross Elementary School. When he saw Payne play the bagpipes during a school assembly, he was hooked.

Best Mustache in a Local Band

by Philip Montoro on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Stavros “Steve” Giannopoulosof the Atlas Mothmyspace.com/theatlasmothband Stavros “Steve” Giannopoulos handles the lion’s share of the lead vocals in the Atlas Moth, a three-guitar metal outfit whose towering roar carries bits of ass-shaking southern rock, misanthropic New Orleans sludge, and narcotic psychedelia the way a hurricane carries bits of aluminum siding. (They’re also the only band to date whose Kuma’s burger has involved collard greens and a waffle.)

Best Rocker Sighting in a Nonrock Setting

by Jessica Hopper on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Nash Kato at Kasia’s Urge Overkill’s main man may not be the rock star he once was, but he still cuts an iconic and unmistakable figure. And seeing him in the daylight, doing normal things in his trademark tinted shades, is truly weird.

Best Experimental Music Presenter

by Peter Margasak on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Andrew Fenchel Lampo lampo.org Andrew Fenchel, director of Lampo, started presenting concerts under that name in 1997 and incorporated as a nonprofit the following year. Early productions were mostly free jazz and improv, but by 2000 he’d moved into a slightly different niche, where he’s since proved invaluable to local fans of avant-garde and experimental music.

Best Place to Sit at the Empty Bottle if You've Spent More Than Ten Years Hanging Out at the Empty Bottle

by Brian Costello on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Back corner by the piano 1035 N. Western 773-276-3600 emptybottle.com Buddy, if you’re someone who has spent more than ten years hanging out at the Empty Bottle, the best place for you to sit is in the northwest corner of the bar, by the piano—you know, the out-of-tune upright the Flaming Lips used when they played the Bottle back in ’94—with the other lifers. You can still hear the bands, you can rest your weary rock ’n’ roll back, and you can use what’s left of your hearing to listen to the tales of fellow grizzled veterans of underground music.

Best Opera Singer

by Deanna Isaacs on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Amber Wagneramberwagnersoprano.com I first heard soprano Amber Wagner on a warm September night in 2007, performing in a Stars of Lyric Opera revue at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. She was starting a three-year stint in the training program at Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center at the time.

Best Lawn Seat at Ravinia

by Deanna Isaacs on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

The LITTLE HILL THAT FACES THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO THE PAVILION Green Bay and Lake Cook, Highland Park 847-266-5100 ravinia.org If your idea of a fine night at the Ravinia Festival is getting soused, carrying on a lengthy conversation, making public love, playing video games, chasing your screaming kids, or staging a reunion, head for the far lawn. But if you’re interested in the subtler pleasures of a lawn seat ($10-$32)—namely the freedom to eat, sip, stretch, roam, or flop flat on your back and stargaze while actually paying attention to the concert—then set yourself up on the little hill that faces the main entrance to the pavilion.

Best Microscene

by Jessica Hopper on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

No Coast Collective 1500 W. 17th no-coast.org Run by a loose roster of some half-a-dozen local artists (currently including Aay Preston-Myint, Alex Valentine, Andrea Fritsch, Dan Dunbar, Reba Rakstad, and Young Joon Kwak), the microshop/multi-arts space offers instant access to the ideas, images, and sounds bubbling up from the Pilsen underground and beyond. In the consignment shop (summer hours: Saturday noon-7 and Sunday noon-6), you can pick up demos and CD-Rs of shortlived bedroom projects, unruly noise acts, and whatever out-of-towners just blew minds last week at a nearby house party, as well as affordable local and international artworks, including video, prints, posters, handmade jewelry, and altered and printed clothing.

Best New Gallery

by Bert Stabler on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Ebersmoore 213 N. Morgan 312-772-3021 ebersmoore.com In May 2009, Dominic Paul Moore and Sara Ebers started showing art in a tiny space above Swim Cafe in Noble Square, and by October they’d moved into a somewhat less tiny space in the West Loop art district. Wherever they’re curating, the luscious array of paintings, drawings, mixed-media, and sculpture they’ve hung is enough to make the most jaded eye drool.The aesthetic of the work they select is remarkably consistent: Alexis Mackenzie’s spare, sinuous collages in which birds and plants form words, Stacie Johnson’s trompe-l’oeil neo-geo paintings on paper, Ryan Travis Christian’s meticulous op-art expressionism, Jonathan Runcio’s translucent zigzag abstractions, Rob Carter’s surreal architectural landscapes.

Best Alternative Comics Artist Behind the Counter at an Alternative Comics Mecca

by Bert Stabler on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Edie Fake ediefake.com As far as I’m concerned, Edie Fake’s crisp, ecstatic clip-art-style graphics are the most compelling reason not to give up on comics as an art form. His haunting zine Gaylord Phoenix offers a magical, polymorphous vision of love, desire, and loss closely related to his transgender identity.

Best Free Movie Series

by J.R. Jones on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Cinema/Chicagoat the Chicago Cultural Center 78 E. Washington tiny.cc/cinemachicago If you live in the north suburbs, the hands-down winner of this title is the Northbrook Public Library’s classic film series on Wednesday afternoons and evenings; unlike most public libraries, which project DVDs, Northbrook has acquired a 35-millimeter rig and often takes advantage of it to present wide-screen classics (David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai screens on June 30). Another free series worth checking out is the Saturday-night DVD screening at Hotti Biscotti in Logan Square (3545 W. Fullerton); the projection here tends toward the other extreme (at one point they were using a bedsheet for a screen), but the schedule is first-rate, favoring substantial art-house and international films.

Best Underground Filmmaker

by J.R. Jones on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Keith Dukavicius keithdukavicius.comIf you spend any time looking at locally produced features, you soon realize the field is dominated by genre movies—mostly romantic comedies and crime thrillers—that offer some hope of commercial advancement. That may be why writer-director-star Keith Dukavicius stands out: the guy will probably never make a dime, but his personal, culturally obsessed, and often hilarious movies are completely idiosyncratic.

Best Web Site for Film Buffs

by J.R. Jones on June 24, 2010 at 4:00AM

Cine-File cine-file.info I seldom worry about other newspapers scooping the Reader on local film events, but it’s another story with Cine-File, the site whose weekly roundup covers the fringe, the fringe of the fringe, and beyond. Launched in February 2007 by Darnell Witt, it began by linking to reviews in the Reader and other pubs, but in the years since then it’s built up a fine stable of enthusiasts who contribute their own writing, including several past and present employees of the Odd Obsession video store (Ben Sachs, Kalvin Henely, Joe Rubin, Ignatius Vishnevetsky).

Chicago Reader

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Underground Wonder Bar

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In This Section:

Best Dive Bar Full of Dummies

Best Place to Get Drunk With Your Dog

Best Dance Party

Best Sporadic Queer Dance Party

Best Nongay Bar in Boys Town

Best Fashion Watching

Best New Musical Group

Best Old Musical Group

Best New “Chicago Sound”

Best Metal Supergroup

Best Michael Jackson Cover

Best Led Zeppelin Cover Band

Best Cover Band That Plays One Gig a Year

Best Totally Underground Rap Discovery via MySpace

Best Band T-Shirt

Best Amateur Music Blog

Best Musical Use of Dry Ice

Best Blues Bagpiper

Best Mustache in a Local Band

Best Rocker Sighting in a Nonrock Setting

Best Experimental Music Presenter

Best Place to Sit at the Empty Bottle if You've Spent More Than Ten Years Hanging Out at the Empty Bottle

Best Opera Singer

Best Lawn Seat at Ravinia

Best Microscene

Best New Gallery

Best Alternative Comics Artist Behind the Counter at an Alternative Comics Mecca

Best Free Movie Series

Best Underground Filmmaker

Best Web Site for Film Buffs

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