Xiu Xiu FREE 12:30pm.

Did you miss Xiu Xiu @ Schubas last night? Bummer! But not really. Because come over to saki around 12:30pm to see a FREE in-store performance! Grab a slice and some cold beverages and come hang out with us today. Not the worst way to start a new week. Well, come to think of it, you might feel like the worst after a Xiu Xiu set. But in a good way?

You can also pick up any in-stock Polyvinyl titles for 20% off (today only) in Xiu Xiu's honor!

BV Chicago: Xiu Xiu playing an in-store at saki after Schubas

Facebook Event

Handsome Family, Daniel Knox, Father John Misty, The Orwells to play saki

Some of our absolute favorite folks will be rolling through saki to play free, all ages shows! We are extremely honored.

The Handsome Family + Daniel Knox

Thursday, September 13 | 6:30pm

RSVP on Facebook

Aquarium Drunkard presents: Father John Misty + The Orwells

Monday, October 29 | 6pm

RSVP on Facebook

Read more about the shows after the jump. 

Free Download Card Contest for Bands

Calling all bands!




Our friends at Dropcards are giving away 5,000 free music download cards to a lucky band!




Simply click on this link and fill in your information.




Good luck!

Competition Time!!

Thanks for everyone who came out and had fun at the 2nd CTD DJ night last night...a good time had by all I believe, and some stellar selections of music too.

as promised, I'm now running a little competition based on my set last night...and the prize is any album of your choosing from the vast CTD catalog.

what you need to do to win said prize is to work out the connection between the records in my set, listed below, and also tell me the odd record out.
simple, right?

here's the set:

Crazy Penis - There's A Better Place!
Dinosaur Jr - Just Like Heaven
Sonic Youth - Beat On The Brat
Merry Clayton - Gimme Shelter
Joe Bataan - The Bottle
Jesus & Mary Chain - Vegetable Man
Butthole Surfers - Hurdy Gurdy Man
A Million Sons - Misty Blue (Schmoov Mix)
The KLF - Elvis on The Radio, Steel Guitar In My Soul
Sergio Mendes & Brazil 77 - Superstition
The JAMS - Downtown
Scala - Heart Of Glass
The Orb - Huge Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Center Of The Ultraworld
Ciccone Youth - Addicted To Love
Cud - You Sexy Thing
De La Soul - Say No Go
Laibach - Across The Universe
Lard - They're Coming To Take Me Away

one little tip for you all...it's NOT that they are all in one way or another a cover of someone else's songs...that would be too easy :)

send your answers to me at pete@ctdltd.com
Good Luck!

The Handsome Family @ Daytrotter!

In March, The Handsome Family stopped in to see the fellas at Daytrotter after a weekend of shows in Chicago. During their visit, they recorded four songs that are now available to you for free!! Check out the tunes, along with a cartoon portrait of the band, and a lovely description of Brett's ability to get under your skin with his voice.

"He sings in a way that makes you so wonderfully uncomfortable at times, the kind of voice and verve that you just cannot bring yourself to break from. It's outspoken and dark and it gives the songs something like a cross between gallows humor and a purist's remorse." —Sean Moeller, Daytrotter

Songs featured: "Linger, Let Me Linger," "Little Sparrows," "The Loneliness of Magnets," "Darling, My Darling"

Illustration by Johnnie Cluney // Sound engineering by Mike Gentry

Speck Mountain - KEXP Song Of The Day

The title track to Speck Mountain's newest release, "Some Sweet Relief" will be featured on the KEXP Song of the Day Podcast this Wednesday May 13th!

About KEXP's Podcast:

The KEXP podcasts are available always for free. The majority of our podcasts are distributed through iTunes, though they are additionally available directly from KEXP.ORG and through other podcasting aggregators and RSS feeds like Zune, Firefox Live Bookmarks, and many others. Three of KEXP's podcasts subscriptions are are within iTunes' top 100 podcasts in regard to popularity: Song of the Day (#13), Music That Matters (#37), and Live Performances (#68). The Song of the Day podcasts are featured also the KEXP Blog (http://blog.kexp.org).

This week's songs include:

May 11 The Arch Cupcake - Rubix Dude
May 12 Baby Dayliner - You Push, I'll Go
**May 13 Speck Mountain - Some Sweet Relief**
May 14 Phosphorescent - Wolves (Live)
May 15 Erik Blood - To Leave America

"Some Sweet Relief" is now available digitally, on CD and LP at www.carrottoprecords.com.

Subscribe to the Podcast here!

More Free Stuff for Your iPod

There is a wealth of free, legitimate, licensed content to be had on the web. Yes, you can listen to music, lectures, audio books, news, and radio shows without paying a dime. Most people with whom I've talked about this are not aware of the breadth of all of the cool free stuff out there that people are posting of their own volition.

Here's a few of my favorites:

iTunes U—An oft overlooked, little corner of the iTunes store filled to the brim with amazing, free stuff available from colleges and universities all over the place. Listen in on lectures from MIT, UC Berkeley, museum lectures like The Tate and MoMA, tons more. There's even a free David Sedaris talk and reading! It's crazy what you can learn here will sitting on your ass in your car or trudging through your elliptical routine at the gym.

Internet Archive—Includes an enormous selection of public domain and Creative Commons licensed material including nearly 4,000 audio books—from the Sherlock Holmes mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle and the original Land of Oz stories of L. Frank Baum, to Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy and even the Baghavad-gita—along with large collections of internet only music labels and the Live Music Archive featuring over 63,000 concerts. I am currently enjoying the classical concerts from the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum.

iTunes Podcasts—Sure, you know they're there, but how to wade through all the crap? Unfortunately, I can't answer that question. I do know that I'm in the process of listening to or watching all of their posts from the IDEA Festival and TEDTalks (both audio and video) and so far they are all wonderful and, I think, well worth your time.

NPR Podcasts—Yes, the alluring mysteries of FM radio are still missing from the iPod after all these years, but you can download some of the best content on FM and forget about the weighty extra electronics that a bulky radio receiver would add to your commuting and workout buddy. Just download the best of NPR and start listening to the topics that interest you at your leisure. Why listen to another annoying analysis of the Economy from Hell when you really want to be listening to a talk about setting poetry to Baroque music?