WHAT: Anne Clements, William Dicker 
WHERE: The Clark Bar (free)
WHEN: Tuesday, May 15th at 7 p.m.
Another C-U Singer/Songwriter Collective show happens in the usual spot, where we find a duo of rootsy songwriters doing their thing. It’s been a few weeks since I last mentioned these shows, but it’s nice to see a consistent output on a weekly basis for something like this.
EDITOR’S PICK: SUBURBAN LIVING, I AM GOD, KOWABUNGA KID, AN EVENING WITH YOUR MOTHER
Red Herring ($5) — Wednesday, May 16th at 8:30 p.m.
A really great mid-week bill put together over at the Red Herring is my pick of the week because mostly it caught me by surprise. Oftentimes when I’m putting The Overture together, shows like this can easily get overlooked. Glad I checked in to see what this band had going on. Suburban Living is a project based around Virginian Wesley Bunch’s ideas about 80s synthpop music. It’s pretty dreamy to say the least.
Maybe I’m a sucker for this type of shit — the remnants of The Smiths and The Cure with some sprinkles of bands that have emerged in recent years to recreate the ir version of the same sounds. Early M83 comes to mind. Wild Nothing especially comes to mind. Bedroom dream pop that glistens the same whether it’s the first time or the hundredth time you’ve heard it. There’s just something about it for me. But I digress — this C-U Collective show should be a dandy and there are three other locals that are making a name for themselves as time goes on. Quality.
WHAT: Lonely Trailer, Scurvine, Electric Bitters 
WHERE: The Brass Rail ($5)
WHEN: Thursday, May 17th at 10 p.m.
Another solid rock show at The Brass Rail to try to get you through the week. After seeing this poster, I’ve realized that hippos and hipsters totally mix. Anyways, solid follow up to the Comfort Food album release show a few weeks back.
Listen: Lonely Trailer: “Don’t Give In”
WHAT: The Dirty Feathers, Dastardly, The Shams Band
WHERE: Cowboy Monkey ($5)
WHEN: Saturday, May 19th at 8:30 p.m.
This bill just paid a visit to the Sub T in the Windy City last weekend and are bringing it back down to this part of the state this upcoming Saturday. The Dirty Feathers stand out for this one because they are pretty different than the other two bands, where Dastardly plays some fiery folk stompers and The Shams Band is some good old fashion Americana. Either way you look at it, all three have their own way to knock your socks off. The DFs have a pretty awesome new single that you can download that they dropped on Record Store Day back in April.
Slaughter, The Vile Impurity, Upon A Broken Throne, Disaster Case, What Thou Will, We Slayed Hydra, Obi-Wan Kanblo Mi
WHERE: Urbana Independent Media Center ($8)
WHEN: Saturday, May 19th at 7 p.m.
Get yr metal on at this one. I’m not exactly the best resource when it comes to black metal, but there will be enough of it to shake a stick at over at the IMC this weekend. Most of these acts are local and I’ll give some extra points for creativity with the name Obi-Wan Kanblo Mi, I guess.
WHAT: Underscore and the Elitist Hipsters, Itto, Old Fuck, Laughboy
WHERE: Red Herring ($5)
WHEN: Sunday, May 20th at 8:30 p.m.
Underscore and the Elitist Hipsters is a name that looks like it came straight off of Hipster Runoff. It’s a pretty lo-fi project, where the collection of tracks on the Bandcamp page seems like a bunch of rough edits that turn out to be confusing and pretty good at the same time. I can hear small pieces of something worthwhile, but they are scattered, so maybe seeing them in a live setting would help.