CBGB update: It's staying where it is for another year, giving the owner more time to find a new location.

Anonymous sources tell me: Pitchfork and Intonation have "split ways" and realized they are both trying to run their own summer festivals for 2006 when they both attempted to book Feist. Where's the indie rock love?

What's this? Out of nowhere, it appears Chicago has passed a smoking ban!

The big end-of-the-year Tiny Mix Tapes extravaganza is tentatively scheduled to come out Wednesday, December 21, which means it's time for me to put together my top 25 albums of the year. I've got a rough draft 25, but as usual, I feel like I may be missing an album that deserves to be in the 20-25 range more than what I've got now. Hmmmmmmm . . .

Either way, I'll post my top 25 sometime next week.

Let's all hope when I get home this morning that the show recorded successfully, because it's a good one! I've never gotten so many calls inquiring about a song as I did when I played Solvent's "My Radio" from Apples and Synthesizers. Also, Gravenhurst's new album has a song named "Nicole." It's got some strange ship/captain theme to it.

CBGB might be moving to Vegas? Does that seem wrong?

Here's an interesting article from the LA Weekly about blog buzz and bands, with references to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Aracde Fire. Soon these articles will be referencing the Perfect Face for Radio as a major tastemaker, right? Haha.

An interesting little interview up on P4k with Wolf Parade, though not with my favorite member, singer Spencer Krug. They reference the Illinois tollway system and iPass and answer to Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire comparisons, saying what I've always thought, that they come much closer musically to Frog Eyes than to the Arcade Fire.

I think my iPod is making me go deaf. I listen to it every day at work at a very low volume, but still, I'm concerned. I started wearing earplugs to shows to try to prevent deafness from loud speakers, but I'm pretty sure the only way to prevent my iPod from making me deaf is to stop listening to it. But listening to music at work makes the day go by so much better. What to do?

Huh?

Ooof . . . my brain hurts.

Now that I'm halfway towards becoming a certified public accountant, I think I need to find some way to combine my love of music with, you know, being an accountant. Maybe I should start some sort of music club for CPAs. "CPAs for the Advancement of Independent Music" or "Rock n' Roll CPAs" or something. We could have stickers and buttons and tshirts, monthly meetings and club dues. I should put a call out on craigslist.

This is probably just the post-4 hour accounting exam delirium talking, though.

Maybe I should write an article for TMT about the struggle between leading the indie rock lifestyle and having a professional corporate job- no one on either side really gets what you're doing, exactly. I don't think I've even told anyone at work I have a radio show! And once I told some pretentious artist girl I worked in finance and she wrinkled her nose at me. Oh well, I'll just claim I'm being "ironic."

I went to Paul's Club Saturday night, my favorite Madison bar that has the best bar jukebox EVER. I've yet to find a comparably great jukebox in Chicago- please tell me if there is one I should be aware of. The Paul's selection is always evolving, and Saturday's offerings were no disappointment- the new Wolf Parade, M83, Spoon, LCD Soundsystem, Death From Above 1979, the list goes on- I spent more $$$ on songs than I thought I would, thus requiring my group to stay longer than we probably would have waiting for my songs to come on. There's just something so great about hearing your favorite music come on in a bar.

Happy Turkey weekend!

I saw Harry Potter again last night with the family, and it was still great. I still think I need to start a death-metal band called Avada Kedavra . . .

The Long Winters have a new EP out to tide us over before their next full-length comes out in a couple of months, and there's a free download of the song "Ultimatum" available on the Barsuk Records website. It's quite good. I've always claimed singer John Roderick to be one of the funniest men in indie rock, and he doesn't disappoint in this interview with Believer Mag.

Lucky me got to see the new Harry Potter movie at the IMAX theater on Navy Pier this weekend. As a Harry Potter fan (who has yet to read the 6th book so DON'T TELL ME WHO DIES), I must say this is the best movie adaptation yet. It's been a couple years since I read Goblet of Fire, which probably helped me enjoy the movie more than if I had all the book details left out of the movie fresh in my mind. I only wish there had been more of the Weird Sisters band at the dance- a.k.a. Jarvis Cocker and Johnny Greenwood. You heard the singing for about five minutes, but only got a good two-second look at the band. Awesome.

Sad to say, I still watch the Real World, even though I generally despise all the people on it. But since I'm usually exhausted Tuesday nights from the show in the morning, it's nice mindless stuff to watch while vegging out on the couch. This season in Austin the Real Worlders got to make a documentary about South by Southwest, which of course the vast majority of them couldn't appreciate because they'd rather dance half-naked on the tables at the exact same bar every night. Anyhoo, they picked three bands to document, the glorious Enon and two unknown, completely forgettable pop-punk bands named Halifax and Hellogoodbye. Of course, all the cast members minus the indie-rock girl who picked Enon loved the whole bland pop-punk thing, while they thought Enon was weird- go figure- and Halifax and Hellogoodbye got most of the airtime (unsurprisingly, they were also the bands who wanted to get wasted with the cast on air). I wondered when the bands would start to capitalize on their national MTV exposure, and sure enough, both bands have shows at Beat Kithen coming up in Chicago just as the Real World season wraps up this Tuesday.

PFFR New York Correspondent Report:
Maggie O'Meara, chair of the orginal PFFR fan club, celebrated her birthday last night and it was a blast.

Armand Van Helden played a live DJ set at club Avalon this past Sat night. First he played a remix of Franz Ferdinand "Do you want me" then mixed Blur "Song 3" into the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army" into INXS "I need you tonight." It was bloody brillant.

New Rapture material heard live sounds different. Think more experimental electronica (?).

Go Team! played Webster hall live. Lots of running around on stage and great music. Definitely worth seeing.

New Annie single, "Wedding," is excellent live. Should be released very soon.

New Junior Senior song "We are the handclaps" is also excellent. Don't know when it will be released.

Radio Free Chicago is counting down Robyn's top 7 indie albums of the year, kicking off with a lengthy rant about the greatness of Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary. "I'll Believe in Anything"- greatest song on any album, anywhere, in 2005? Quite possibly, yes.

Last night I saw the Plastic Constellations and the Driftless Pony Club at Beat Kitchen. I hadn't seen DPC in at least a year and a half, and they played all new songs I'd never heard before (ok, I'd heard one before, once). They were good. Very good. I especially liked the one that ended with Craig yelling. Meanwhile, I've now seen the Plastic Consty's in a Ukranian Village basement and now one of the smallest venues in Chicago. After their Frenchkiss Records debut comes out January 24 and Pitchfork gives it an 8.5 and a "best new music" tag, they'll be headlining shows at Schubas or the Bottle, then opening for Les Savy Fav or the Hold Steady at the Metro or something. Get on the wagon now.

Pete Doherty of the Libertines/Babyshambles proves to be more and more of a winner every day. Apparently he has two kids, and here's a recent quote regarding one of them, picked up from Salon.com:

"Poor little fucker. My sister sees him all the time, so there's affection as a family for him. I don't really want to go into that because it's not fair on the kids or the mother."

In other news, they're putting the lights up on Michigan Avenue!

Here's an interesting article about Myspace.com and the site's musical ambitions from financial website the Motley Fool. Apparently Myspace was bought by NewsCorp???? How cool can something be if it's owned by Rupert Murdoch?

Arrested Development on Showtime? Let's hope so!