What is your only guaranteed shot at a chance to win over strangers as a fan?

One of the first hardcore heavy metal bands I ever became a die-hard fan of has just released their newest video featuring front man Corey Taylor. If you’ve never heard of Slipknot, punch yourself in the face.

Chicago Music Commission’s panel on using social media to market yourself as a musician. The panel covers what sites you can use to upload music to for sale on iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, Reverb Nation, Cd Baby, Tune Core, and more.

Michigan’s finest punk band brought the thunder to Chicago; Oswald Hobbes and Third World Timmy were there.

Ten songs that better represent Fall Out Boy’s pop-punk dominance.

Good news: Editors are back with their third album, and they’ve got a brand new sound. Bad news: They still suck (mostly).

It’s been almost a year since I last had a chance to see Rise Against, but they’re finally coming back to my favorite venue in Chicago, The Metro.

Let’s face it, unless you have a full time person to make your MySpace totally  bitchin, it’s time to look into another platform to use as your main contact point with your fans. I understand MySpace has always been a necessary evil, but when it comes to actually getting a decent return on investment from [...]

America loves a comeback story, and Creed’s is a doozy: after racking up huge sales, conquering the world, and becoming the critical community’s favorite punching bag, the band’s arrogance and stupidity finally caught up with them. After listening to their new album Full Circle (opens in iTunes) for six long hours, I have returned with a verdict…

The amount of enjoyment you get out of any Rammstein record depends on your ability to ignore certain factors that define their sound. First, there’s the whole foreign-language thing: the lyrammrics are almost exclusively in the band’s native German. Second, there’s the creepy cabaret element as a backdrop to all of their tunes. The band can pulverize with some truly explosive riffage, but, even at their most forceful, everything is accented with dance floor keyboards.

There’s plenty of punchy, sugary goodness for the band’s die hard excitable-teenage-girl fan base to latch on to here, but study the grooves closely and you’ll find enough substance to enchant even those over the legal drinking age.

Out of Ashes is a refreshing switch from the uniformly downbeat output of Bennington’s other band, and one that figures prominently in Out Of Ashes overall success – every time a lowly angst-nugget like “Let Down” clogs the record’s flow, a stomper like “Condemned” is right around the corner to blast the proceedings back into high gear.

Daisy is a rare beast in the oft-uninspiring alternative rock genre. It can clobber and caress in equal measures, and at no point does the band consider those qualities mutually exclusive.

From the Broken, a new local Chicago band, have released a 3 song EP, and are playing in your neighborhood this summer.

Assault Shirts is coming to a venue near you! (Assuming you live in Chicago, IL that is) Assault has lined up three events for our “summer tour” beginning this May 31st with the Belmont Sheffield Music Festival.

While my parents would have supported me had I told them I wanted to be a professional musician and not go to college, they surely wouldn’t be paying my rent while I play open mic nights at the Double Door inbetween shifts at my $7.15 an hour barista job. Here’s five careers you may enjoy just as much as music that can also help you achieve your ultimate goal of being a professional musician.

New t-shirt design in the store from Assault Shirts, Peaceful Revolution–inspired by Rise Against.

Rise Against is a constant source of inspiration for many of our t-shirt designs and ideals. Their videos are equally as powerful and moving as most of their music and the new, “Audience of One” video is no exception.

After going to a great show this weekend by a local Chicago band called Seven Day Sonnet, I realized a few mistakes that all indie bands make, that they should avoid at all costs. Here’s a few tips I think all independent, unsigned bands can benefit from.

The most talented unsigned band I’ve seen since Brand New and Thrice.