One of my favorite things about the city of Chicago is the large number of street festivals, block parties, etc., that take place all summer long. If you can't find something to do on a weekend here, you're probably just not looking hard enough.

This Week in Great Music: 6/7 - 6/13

May was a month for revisiting old favorites. Not too many new discoveries this month, but a lot of good songs got played around here nonetheless.

This Week in Great Music: 5/31 - 6/6

The Low Anthem's album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, came out in 2009 (2008, if you count the album's self-release), but I've only recently discovered it, and now I'm wondering how I managed to miss out on this album for almost a year. This is "Charlie Darwin", the track which kicks off the whole album, which is sad and gorgeous and haunting.

Marcus Mumford has one of the more interesting voices in music right now. It's rough and creaky and weary beyond his years, but it fits the band's brand of folk music. From the very first song, all the way through their encore of "Whispers in the Dark", the band wowed the crowd with their intensity, sheer joy of playing, and, yes, even their dry British wit.

While I'm finishing my show writeup (spoiler alert: AWESOME), have this clip of Mumford & Sons performing "The Cave" at Chicago's WXRT.

From the opening strains of “Crutch & Cane”, it’s easy to see that Peter Wolf Crier, the Minneapolis-based group consisting of Peter Pisano (vocals, guitar) and Brian Moen (percussion, vocals), is on to something special.

This week might as well be known as the Week of Great Shows that I Can't Go to Because I Have to Prepare for People to Come Install New Carpet. Home ownership is not always worth it, let me tell you.

Recently, Regina Spektor released a very beautiful, yet minimalist, cover of Radiohead's "No Surprises", with all proceeds from its sale on iTunes to go to Doctors Without Borders.

There's something creepy about this song. I don't know, I think it's the haunted-looking video.

Bird's newer subject material isn't radically different from his more recent work. He's still playing with ideas and concepts related to natural disasters, and he still relates the macro to the micro, the impersonal to the personal. The word that I think best describes his newer work is apocalyptic, but I can't decide whether it's pre-, post-, or still happening.