Roster
Askeleton
Knol Tate [vocals, guitar, casios, bass, yamaha sk-15, synth, electric piano, vibraphone, samples, programming, percussion, drums] Orchestra [all else]
Bio on the way.
Download mp3 | Band Webpage | Label Website
Chalet Chalet
Pete Gray [drums] Mike Renaud [guitar, vocals] Crawfie Ward [bass]
"I think a lot about what new levels we can take punk rock to. It always gets me kind of depressed because I always end up feeling like everything's been done before and there's nothing new, but then a band like this comes out of nowhere and shuts me up real good." --MRR #236
Download mp3 | Band Webpage | Currently Deliberating Label
EXO
Jason Lee [guitar] Doug Meis [drums] Scott Tallarida [vocals, guitar] Noel Arnim [bass, vocals] 
Since their inception in 2000, EXO's goal has been quite clearÉto make music by their own standards and no one else's. All original members were heavily involved in the Chicago music scene before being drafted by lead singer/guitarist Scott Tallarida, who had left Chicago's Trailer Hitch (Man's Ruin) earlier that year on a mission to create his ideal music machine. Consequently, there was a local buzz about EXO before the group ever set foot outside of their rehearsal room. After an immediate onslaught of showcase shows, EXO became uncomfortable with the idea of others trying to define and mold the band before the band had defined itself. So they disappeared, locking themselves in Scott's apartment to make a record and figure out who or what EXO really was. The definition of EXO is simple, as it should be: EXO is from Chicago, EXO is four men, EXO plays rock music. Nothing more, nothing less.
Download mp3 | Band Webpage | Label Website
The Moment
Zach Newman [bass, vocals] Nate Kirschmann [guitar, keyboards] Eliott Porter [drums, programming] 
The Moment combines superbly crafted pop sensibilities with aggressive guitar lines and driving beats all layered atop an electronic backdrop that gives new meaning to the songs that this trio has put together. Their songs get into the head and mindset of where they are as a band. Parting ways with long time friends, taking steps forward while fighting a fear of change. Zach screams, "I won't be here forever tied to the fear of the next layoff and planning steps I'll never dare to take. The must be something out there waiting for me, and I know that I'm not the only one," during the quintessential working man's anthem while attacking his own defeatist attitude with the lines, "Son, pick yourself up cause there's no time for looks or spins or sighs and any of that shit. If you didn't know you haven't lost until you admit it. So forget you thought you knew who you were counting on." Lyrics like this illustrate perfectly the urgency behind their compositions.
Download mp3 | Band Webpage | Seeking Label
Rollo Tomasi
Neil Sandler [guitar, vocals] Matt Fast [guitar] Pete Croke [bass] Chris Insidioso [drums] 
Rollo Tomasi - whose name is derived from the film 'LA Confidential' - concoct dark, pounding soundscapes that make you think there must be something invigorating - yet ultimately sinister - in the air of Illinois' 'Windy City'. Taking their rhythmic alliance cues from the late, lamented sluggers The Jesus Lizard, and admirably mixing it with Jawbox's more obtuse moments, Rollo Tomasi must be the next band on your rock shopping list." --Kerrang!
Download mp3 | Band Webpage | Label Website
The Silent Treatment
Greg Calvert [vocals] Kris Murphy [bass, vocals] Andy Schach [keyboards] Chris Schach [guitar] Brian Ulery [drums] 
Bio on the way.
mp3 coming soon | Band Webpage | Label Website
Viza-Noir
Joe Kaplan [drums] | Dan MacAdam [guitar, vocals] | Mike O'Connell [bass, vocals] 
Viza-Noir cover vast amounts of territory in three minutes. In their five-year history, the Chicago-based trio has evolved from a detail-obsessed punk band into a force of nature. Their incendiary performances scramble over the broken, elastic landscape between pure inertia and maniacal control, leaving a trail of dropped jaws and an exponentially expanding following in their wake. While Viza-Noir keep one foot firmly planted in stripped-down punk rock, they trace their legacy to bands, such as the Minutemen, Burma, the Wipers or MX-80, whose idiosyncracies, broad influences, nerdiness, and musical ambition kept them on the margins of the very music they helped to define. Yet Viza-Noir shun the affectations of the so-called new wave of post-punk. They dash off the blocks, leap hurdles, then charge through traffic, breach the barbed wire and sprint to the finish; all these contortions of meter, tempo, and mood, rather than ends in themselves, are integral to the music's inexorable forward drive. Their songs are direct responses to the immediate surroundings. Viza-Noir map the spaces between the city's walls and the souls that inhabit them to forge a vision that is entirely their own; no mean feat in a town whose very name has dubiously morphed into a musical genre.