Friend Roundup

We have cool friends and you need more things to do probably.

JIM NEWBERRY :: Official Opening of Improvisers at Elastic Vision Gallery :: December 14, 8pm, FREE

SONNENZIMMER :: Warp and Weft : Poster Contruction by Sonnenzimmer PRE-ORDER :: 400/600 copies are already gone. Get one now! GIFT ALERT GIFT ALERT

SPECK MOUNTAIN :: Concert at The Whistler :: Sunday, December 2nd, 9:30pm, FREE

JORDAN MARTINS :: Official Opening of Grafts & Ruptures at Rational Park (2557 W. North) :: January 19th

CHRIS HEFNER :: The Poisoner film wrap-up party at Kimball Arts Center :: Suggested donation of $25 to record a score by Daniel Knox, pay musicians for hte score, record voice-overs, and festival submission fees. You get Finch's beer, Hoosier Mama pies, entertainment and a guaranteed grand night out. Facebook event.

TAVI :: Tavi interviews Chris Ware for Rookie Mag & we love them both.

What a weekend we had at saki

We could hardly keep up with everything last weekend at saki! Even though we're pretty exhausted today, we have plenty of new memories to kick off our week thanks to ROOKIE, Tavi, Tiny Fireflies, everyone who came out for Creative Control, Joe McAdam, Owen, everyone who participated in the After Hours Concatenating Pedals show, especially Ben from Glad Cloud, Human Elephant, Jack & Ace, and Rob from Numero Group! And definitely everyone who came out to twiddle knobs, zine with us, or take in some music. It was really pretty cool. Read the nitty gritties and check out some pictures after the jump!

Rookie "Road Trip" Stops at saki!

Rookie Road Trip @ saki

Tiny Fireflies & Zine Making

Friday, June 29 3-5pm

Free :: All Ages

Rookie – an online magazine for teenage girls run by Chicago's own Tavi Gevinson – will be stopping by saki this Friday 6/29 from 3-5pm on the Chicago leg of their Road Trip! Come by to make zines with Rookie contributors, see dream-pop duo Tiny Fireflies, and eat some summertime popsicles!

We can't think of a better way to kick off summer than hanging out for an afternoon with some kickass folks. If you're not familiar with Rookie, get on it – even if you're not a teenage girl, or maybe especially if you're not a teenage girl. In my opinion, it's an invaluable and wholly unique resource and we are honored to collaborate with them!

RSVP on Facebook!

Rock n Roll for Girls

FINALLLLLLYYYYYY there's some media material out there encouraging girls to be loud. A few much needed media resources for girls who rock have sprouted up in the past year or so. For girls who don't want to associate with corporate and societal standards of what girls should be interested in, it's hard to navigate in the media world. A lot of girls don't even know that mainstream interests don't have to appeal to everyone. It took way too long of me feeling uncomfortable in malls to realize that I didn't have to be there.

These publications respect girls no matter what age, treat them as mature human beings but provide support and excitement about the fact that they have so much they can learn and do. For some advice on how to rock, be reminded that it's never too early or too late to learn something new or start respecting yourself and your ideas, or keep up to date with what's new with the legitimately cool kids check out these new releases.

Rookie Mag- Tavi's New Online Magazine

While this magazine isn't all about 15 yr old Tavi, she's a pretty important figure in the young-badass-girl section of society these days and the editor of this new online mag. You can read about her here. While Tavi got her name as a young fashion connoisseur, Rookie isn't a fashion blog. As Tavi explains in her editor's letter "Rookie is not your guide to Being a Teen. It is not a pamphlet on How to Be a Young Woman...Rookie is a place to make the best of the beautiful pain and cringe-worthy awkwardness of being an adolescent girl. When it becomes harder to appreciate these things, we also have good plain fun and visual pleasure. When you're sick of having to be happy all the time, we have lots of eye-rolling rants, too." It just kicked off this month and posts are three times a day (after school, dinner time, and late night). So far, a great well-rounded site with no painful "let's-appeal-to-teens" corniness. It's a positive place to explore and be annoyed and learn new things and hear new voices. I'm all about that! While its primary readers-of-relevance are adolescent and teenage girls, if you're not in that age- or gender-frame, not to fret! It's still a great read for a bit of nostalgia, some good new music, or even advice that's refreshing at any age.

Tom Tom Magazine

Tom Tom Magazine began in 2009, and is a magazine that focuses on girl-drummers. I love female drummers, and Tom Tom gives them much needed and deserved visibility in the rock world. Interviews, news, reviews, even a section on kid drummers! Not only are they a badass magazine, they have an awesome online presence, and do tons of collaborative shows, tours, and parties in different cities Some articles are available on their website, but I highly recommend getting a subscription, it's a kickass and very well done publication.

Record Collecting For Girls

New release! I haven't read it yet but I was  excited to see that SubPop put it on their facebook page. Written by a female music nerd for girls with record collections. Hopefully it holds up!

The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom

The title is pretty self-explanatory...DIY ways to tackle all aspects of starting a band from a girl's perspective. Makes it seem easy and takes the fear away of being loud. It's got some first-hand advice from badass women rockers like Patti Smith, Kim Deal, and Kim Gordon and teaches girls a bit about Rock n Roll history along the way. Sweet resource to get girls playing music!

As always, this list could be bigger, and hopefully it'll keep trending in that direction!