There’s something comforting about driving back to Chicago on Sunday after being on the road on Saturday night. It’s a great feeling to get out of Indiana, head over that nameless bridge, and glimpse our magnificent skyline. Without fail our soundtrack is always set by the King of the Dusties, the Mayor of Bronzeville, HerbMORE

I first heard about How To Dress Well from a FB post by Tarik Moody over at Radio Milwaukee. My interest was piqued from Tarik’s description of The xx meets Mayer Hawthorne. “& It Was U” is heavy on the Prince and Robin Thicke vibe. Very cool, very soulful.

Funk is probably one of the most overused, and poorly applied, words in the music lexicon. So many bands have used it to describe their genre (and have done so inappropriately) that it’s become pretty watered down and lost its meaning. I mean country funk? Really? But then there’s Dumpstaphunk. Now THIS is a funkMORE

Until just a few years ago, Bettye Lavette was a shamefully overlooked soul singer. Her comeback LP on Anti records produced by Patterson Hood and a jaw dropping performance of The Who’s “Love Reign” in 2008 changed that. On “Yours and Mine” she teams up with Charles “Wigg” Walker and his Nashville-based backing band, TheMORE

We’re all getting geared up for a trip out to California this weekend. We are lucky enough to be sharing the stage this Friday with the super talented Fanny Franklin and couldn’t be more excited. Check out this relentless track from Motown’s own Dennis Coffey with Fanny taking the lead.

I can’t get Major Lazer out of my head recently. A collaboration between Diplo and Switch, Major Lazer is about the most fun I’ve had from the gentrification of dance hall reggae. This track is particularly interesting. A remix of Cajmere’s Chicago-house hit “Coffee Pot”, it flips the popping sample into some hip-rocking syncopation. TheMORE

We are super excited to announce that we are opening for seventeen-member disco orchestra Escort at the Metro on November 9, 2012. Our last show at Metro was with Fitz & The Tantrums and fellow Chicagoans JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound in February 2011 and it was one for the books. Escort is oneMORE

  What song do you choose for the first post back after a little break? How about something tongue-in-cheek with a groove to it? I have a hard time not listening to this song on repeat some days. If we’d heard it back when Brendan was letting us abuse his Buick LeSabre, I can onlyMORE

Ooooh, a van jam. An especially tasty van jam at that. Several of us were introduced to The Stepkids when they opened for Dennis Coffey at Lincoln Hall last year. They’d just gotten signed to Stones Throw Records and they put on a hell of a show, including a digital video artist projecting straight ontoMORE

When we recorded Gets Over You in LA last summer, Sergio Rios was probably the first person to bring up the idea of remixing a tune. “Call Girl,” our first stab at disco, was an obvious choice. I reached to Jason Kriv, ex-Tortured Soul bassist and label head of Deep&Disco, and he agreed to putMORE