Feel-good indie rockers Deer Tick help to set CIMMfest No. 8 in motion with a festival kick-off show at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The Providence, Rhode Island-based five-piece formed in 2004, and has subsequently grown a following for its fol...
Feel-good indie rockers Deer Tick help to set CIMMfest No. 8 in motion with a festival kick-off show at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The Providence, Rhode Island-based five-piece formed in 2004, and has subsequently grown a following for its fol...
What do Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, and countless other alt-rock heavyweights have in common? All of them created music at Smart Studios, the legendary recording facility founded by Butch Vig and Steve Marker. Drawing on never-before-seen arc...
Wednesday April 13, 2016 7:30pm - 9:00pm PDT
Music Box Theatre3733 N. Southport Ave.
Chicago-based music documentarian and frequent Brian Wilson collaborator, John Anderson presents remastered versions of this short doc and concert film commemorating the Beach Boys’ 50th anniversary of one of the greatest recordings in rock hist...
Thursday April 14, 2016 7:00pm - 7:56pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
When a family of Polish musicians encounter two winsome mermaid sisters named Silver and Golden, they do what anyone else would in their situation-- recruit them to join their band. After performing at a neon-lit Warsaw dance club, Silver becomes roma...
Thursday April 14, 2016 7:00pm - 8:32pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Grammy winner and an Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Taj Mahal brings his eclectic mix of blues, roots, and international sounds to the Old Town School of Folk Music. One of the most celebrated American musici...
Sidney is a bisexual, glam rock dilettante trying to make his lofty dreams of becoming a successful musician a reality. By night, he goes full-blown drag queen and takes the stage at seedy dive bars, but his hedonistic lifestyle is put on hold when hi...
Thursday April 14, 2016 7:15pm - 8:40pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
With a sound the band describes as “rock and roll with a touch of soul,” Yoko and the Oh No’s really roll with the soul. This vocal, guitar, and drum trio will surprise you with their youth while showing off their cl...
Thursday April 14, 2016 7:15pm - 9:15pm PDT
Township
Not many bands get to play themselves in their own movie–The Beatles, KISS … Savage Beliefs. The local hardcore heroes take on a serial killer in this unearthed gem of a slasher parody/slice of Chicago punk life that's been collecting dus...
Thursday April 14, 2016 8:00pm - 9:28pm PDT
Martyrs'3855 N Lincoln Ave
Eszter Balint’s Airless Midnight brings eerie yet artful Americana tunes that entice you to listen carefully. The singer, violinist, and actress from Hungary emerged from her eleven-year musical hiatus late last year. She had been keeping busy, ...
Thursday April 14, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Hideout1354 W Wabansia Ave
MyGoldMask's is a unique blend of cross boundary influences with a unifying "dark pop" undercurrent. Founders Gretta Rochelle and Jack Armondo set the tone at the onset for this visually mesmerizing and sonically seductive band. The additions of drumm...
Thursday April 14, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
1st Ward
Storming out of rural Alberta, The smalls were quasi-punks in John Deere caps equally influenced by hardcore, speed metal, country, and jazz. Through the 1990s the quartet carried the flag for culturally overlooked Western Canada, building a rabid fan...
Thursday April 14, 2016 9:00pm - 10:43pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
With more than 25 years of collective musical experience, the Scarbrough siblings are bona fide entertainers that any rock-junkie will enjoy. Pulling from their deep southern roots, they combine classic rock, blues, soul and gospel to create an unforg...
Thursday April 14, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Moe's Tavern2937 N Milwaukee Ave
CIMMfest is proud to present English singer and musician Peter Murphy in a special performance at Thalia Hall. As the lead vocalist of the post-punk quartet Bauhaus, Murphy helped pioneer the gloomy, romantic sounds of the burgeoning gothic rock style...
Thursday April 14, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Thalia Hall
In 1973, Jalal Mansur Nuriddin, a member of the legendary poetry and music group The Last Poets, released an album that changed the face of music and would later cement Nuriddin's status as "The Grandfather of Rap." Released under the pseudonym of Lig...
Thursday April 14, 2016 9:15pm - 10:48pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Grammy winner and an Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Taj Mahal brings his eclectic mix of blues, roots, and international sounds to the Old Town School of Folk Music. One of the most celebrated American musici...
A staple in the hip hop community since the early 2000s, David Banner’s hits include “Like A Pimp,” “Get Like Me,” and “Play.” Banner strives to create “material that [he] hopes lasts in [your] minds for...
Thursday April 14, 2016 9:30pm - 11:30pm PDT
The Promontory
As a teenager in Chicago's Hyde Park, Paul Butterfield broke cultural barriers by traveling to tough South and West Side neighborhoods to learn at the feet of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Little Walter, then carried the blues torch to the predomina...
Friday April 15, 2016 7:00pm - 7:40pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Jamaica is not generally known for a progressive penal system, but at Kingston’s notorious General Penitentiary inmates have access to musical training, a radio station, and recording facilities as part of a program officials credit with signifi...
Friday April 15, 2016 7:00pm - 8:19pm PDT
Comfort Station2579 N Milwaukee Ave
A heart-warming, hard-to-resist, down-home indie blues odyssey about a group of disparate–and broke–souls who come together to save a Mississippi blues club, and themselves. Winningly off-kilter and chock-full of non-actor faces give this ...
Friday April 15, 2016 7:00pm - 8:27pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Twenty-five years before Fela Kuti's life became the stuff of Broadway, this crackling French-made documentary captured the impossibly charismatic Afrobeat king and self-styled "Black President" at the peak of his musical, political, and spiritual pow...
Friday April 15, 2016 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Quick: Which TV music show has won both a Peabody Award and the National Medal of Arts? Austin City Limits. A Song for You makes clear why. Featuring a bevy of pivotal performances by everybody from Willie Nelson and Jack White to Ray Charles...
Tennessee-based, singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb launched his band Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors in 2006 along with his wife Ellie Holcomb, Nathan Dugger, and Rich Brinsfield. Together, the group crafts a soulful mix of Americana and alt-rock which ha...
Friday April 15, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Thalia Hall
Chicago alt-rock favorites Local H return to CIMMfest for two nights of celebration of its 20th Anniversary sophomore album, As Good As Dead. Each Metro show will feature a short set of material from across its catalog, and a headlining perfo...
Friday April 15, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Metro3730 N Clark
Alex White has been punching Chicago (and the world) in the chest with raw, medium-rare and well-done rock and roll since she was thirteen, for the last several years with her brother Francis in White Mystery. She shows no sign of let...
A fresh look into Norway's notorious black metal scene from a striking new angle. While the genre's Norwegian pioneers settle into middle age, wiping off the corpse paint and embracing family life, three obsessive fans from vastly different religious ...
Friday April 15, 2016 8:30pm - 9:43pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
The prolific Montreal-based, avant-songwriter Tim Hecker has produced a range of audioworks that explore the intersection of noise, dissonance, and melody, and foster an approach to songcraft that is both physical and emotive. Following his acclaimed ...
Friday April 15, 2016 8:32pm - 10:30pm PDT
Empty Bottle
Filmed over three nights in London, 'And So Say All of Us' showcases The Ex live celebrating their "33 1/3 anniversary." But this was no exercise in nostalgia: these Dutch underground legends have always looked forward, never back, and this euphoric c...
Friday April 15, 2016 8:45pm - 10:12pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Chicago reedman Ken Vandermark is one of the world's most prolific purveyors of improvised music. Made To Break, one of his many ongoing projects, combines saxes/drums/bass trio with the warped electronic genius of Austria's Christof Kurzmann, whose l...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Burlington
GGOOLLDD's indie take on the electronic pop genre has earned the Synthpop band from Milwaukee a strong following and a reputation "the Pringles of music," because of their addictive quality. Listed as one of six Wisconsin Bands to Watch by the Milwauk...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Township
The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is a family band consisting of seven blood brothers who began their musical training at the tender ages of four and five by their father, jazz trumpeter/band leader Kelan Phil Cohran (Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Sun...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Martyrs'3855 N Lincoln Ave
Formed in NYC (not London!) in 2008, The London Souls are guitarist Tash Neal and drummer Chris St. Hilaire. Their newest album, Here Come The Girls, is a smart and savory blend of 60s mod rock, classic soul and modern New York grit. The glue? Funky c...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Subterranean
Slum Village emerged out of the east side of Detroit in the early 1990s. Comprised of high school friends J Dilla, Baatin, and T3, the trio mixed old school hip hop, soul, and funk with innovative production, and quickly won the heart...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
The Promontory
Opening for music powerhouses such as The Misfits, Hawthorne Heights, Amber Pacific and Real Friends, this progressive pop rock band knows how to amp up a crowd. Hailing from Valparaiso, Indiana stop.drop.rewind is an example of what happens ...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:00pm - 11:30pm PDT
Moe's Tavern2937 N Milwaukee Ave
In the late 1920s, to feed America's growing appetite for music on wax, record companies dispatched scouts to the hinterlands with portable recording equipment. They captured the raw artistry heretofore hidden in rural towns, mountain hollers, and inn...
Doug Sahm started out life as a country music prodigy, then a teenage R&B dynamo who famously caused a riot at his high school. Sahm later emerged as an international rock star as the frontman of the Sir Douglas Quintet. He landed in San Francisco...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:15pm - 10:38pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
RACS–Rami Gabriel, Alex Hall, Casey McDonough and Scott Ligon–present new original songs in the great American traditions of soul and country music. This is a pure Chicago band built on collaboration from a hosts of bands ...
Friday April 15, 2016 9:30pm - 11:30pm PDT
Hideout1354 W Wabansia Ave
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jonathon “Boogie” Long was born with the blues coursing through his veins. He started playing guitar at the age of six, teaching himself old gospel songs. A 2011 Guitar Center’s “King of the Blues&r...
The Mexican-American rapper hails from the south side of College Park in Atlanta, and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the rap game including Fabolous, Wiz Khalifa and Spenzo. Layering his Mexican heritage with African-American cultu...
Friday April 15, 2016 10:00pm - Saturday April 16, 2016 1:00am PDT
1st Ward
A special evening devoted to the musical underground featuring members of Rodan, Lambchop, and Grifters. Half-Cocked, the debut of filmmaking couple Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky, incisively renders the highs, lows, and bored in-betweens o...
Friday April 15, 2016 10:30pm - 11:51pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
The absolute height of '80s chic, The Hunger is largely remembered today for its steamy Deneuve-on-Sarandon action. But the best stuff in this relentlessly stylish vampirotic thriller happens before the famous sapphic interlude – namely...
Friday April 15, 2016 11:00pm - Saturday April 16, 2016 12:36am PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Beyond Tradition: Innovations in Storytelling For Cross-Platform & Transmedia Development
With transmedia and cross-platform development rapidly becoming buzzwords and goals for producers of storytelling content, there is the need to bette...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:45am - 10:16am PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Whether you’re in music, film, or the arts, living the lifestyle of an entrepreneur is never easy. Late nights, long hours, irregular schedules, and the constant search for a paycheck always keeps you on your toes. So, how do you do it? How do y...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:45am - 10:16am PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Greg Corner is a Chicago based DJ, bass player, event producer, music programmer and artist consultant best known for his ability to throw successful events and spin eclectic music that people of all bac...
Saturday April 16, 2016 10:50am - 11:21am PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Every Artist has to learn how to get feedback that actually helps their project, not just their ego. This interactive workshop teaches participants how to ask for and give constructive creative input at two critical stages of filmmaking: the script an...
Saturday April 16, 2016 10:50am - 11:21am PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Hidden Histories is a panel dedicated to discussing how three very different and unique projects use creative media platforms to bring social justice issues to light. Each panelist employs multifaceted media strategies to raise awareness in a unique a...
Saturday April 16, 2016 10:50am - 11:21am PDT
The Whistler2421 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Is licensing for film the only way to break a band now? Traditional means are slow or dead or dying, and panelists discuss what’s becoming a great commercial upheaval where corporations, music, and tv producers hold more power over the music ind...
Join in a musical adventure of animated and live-action short films from around the world–sock puppet back-up singers serenading BB King; an unlikely group of buddies make a perfect Rumba rhythm section for a sleepy bandleader. From R&B, jaz...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:00am - 12:04pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, Yehudi Menuhin would be 100 this year. Menuhin was not only a master classical violinist, but a musical explorer who worked with greats like Ravi Shankar and jazz violinist Stéphane...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:00am - 1:10pm PDT
1st Ward
A haunting story of a secret childhood trauma resurfacing, sixty years later, to unravel the life of Holocaust survivor Sonia Reich. The film follows her son, Chicago Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich, as he journeys across the United States and Easter...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:30am - 12:27pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
In a world where constant innovation is required to produce change, collaboration is essential for any and all creative endeavors. It's a model that values ambition and above all else, a highly effective network of relationships. For years, Incubators...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:55am - 12:26pm PDT
The Whistler2421 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
A small group of Chicago hiphop legends sit down with moderator Teefa and Ryan Brockmeier, director of the upcoming documentary film and archival project Midway: The Story of Chicago HipHop for a conversation on the past, present and future ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:55am - 12:26pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Stephen Collins is a technologist working at the intersection of art,science and technology. Stephen pursued live performance as aDJ and musician and tinkered with radio broadcast technologies with likeminded c...
Jed Enlow is “Of Counsel” at Leavens, Strand & Glover, LLC. Currently, Jed serves as the Production Attorney for the Steve Harvey daytime television talk show, where he handles ...
Chicago-based director John Anderson and producer Maggie Magee capture Brian Wilson and his band's first live US performance of SMiLE in 2004–37 years after the Beach Boys visionary abandoned his orchestral pop masterwork. Originally released as part ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 12:00pm - 12:52pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Dutch filmmaker Ramón Gieling's documentary is less concerned with the history of Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental "St. Matthew Passion" than with the intensely personal response people have to Bach's 3 1/2-hour oratorio version of Christ's f...
Saturday April 16, 2016 12:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Follow acclaimed director/choreographer Bill T. Jones as he and his company create their most ambitious work, an original dance-theater piece in honor of Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial.
Saturday April 16, 2016 1:00pm - 2:26pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Periscope Post and Audio is responsible for 100% of the music for Fox's "EMPIRE". As a result of our successful and well documented work on television's biggest hit, we'd like to take the time to discuss what goes in to producing music for TV with so ...
This panel will focus on grant funds available for local film and digital video makers. Representatives from private and governmental funding agencies will talk about what kinds of projects they fund and how to apply. They will also offer insights int...
Saturday April 16, 2016 1:40pm - 2:11pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
We will explore the future direction of how virtual reality will be used as a new narrative medium within the movie and music industry. This discussion will touch on how VR is being used today, predictions on what it will become in the near future and...
Saturday April 16, 2016 1:40pm - 2:11pm PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
In 1966, fresh off the artistic triumph of Pet Sounds, Brian Wilson began recording Smile, a "teenage symphony to God" that was supposed to establish the Beach Boys as rock's reigning imaginative force. Instead it became the great lost album of the 19...
Saturday April 16, 2016 1:45pm - 3:34pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Latin boogaloo is New York City–a colorful musical expression that blasted straight from the melting pot streets of Spanish Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx in the 1960s as innovators like Joe Bataan, Johnny Colon, and Pete Rodriguez blended mambo and ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 2:15pm - 3:33pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Tao Fei is the Executive Producer of POP Montreal. Our main event is a fiveday music and arts festival presenting 450 bands and 150 multidisciplinary artists (visu...
Saturday April 16, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Urban Video content site 247HH.com hosts a panel of how the new expanding world of video is impacting artists. ;Everything in the digital world is going to video, 90% of what people are going to be consuming on their mobile device, tablet, and compute...
Saturday April 16, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
The Whistler2421 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Neil Stevenson’s fascination with emerging technology and culture started at the age of eight when he began programming his first computer, a Commodore Pet. Now he carries a cellphone which has four millio...
Saturday April 16, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The Tools You Need! Discover how to produce music, get great sounds & mix (even in your home studio), that will compete with your favorite records. Featuring the incomparable Jim Tullio & Shelly Yakus.
Born in Sicily and raised in Chicago, Oriana is a director, producer, and actor. Recent award-winning films include “Lobster fra Diavolo,” “Camp Belvidere” and “Lost...
An experimental doc on a singular performance at Lukas Piano Service on Chicago’s west side where close to 200 musicians, pros and amateurs alike, adults and children played a myriad of scores from Chopsticks to Chopin all together, all at once....
Saturday April 16, 2016 3:00pm - 3:40pm PDT
1st Ward
Set in the streets of Brooklyn, NY, Beatbox follows Pete, an aspiring DJ and musician who makes ends meet by delivering beer for his girlfriend's family business. When night falls, he escapes to his makeshift home recording studio, where he c...
Saturday April 16, 2016 3:00pm - 4:16pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Watching Bill Evans hunched intently over 88 keys and hearing the melodious, miraculous sounds he made, it's easy to agree with Tony Bennett that "nobody played with more feeling." During a short life (he died in 1980 at age 51) marred by drug abuse a...
Saturday April 16, 2016 4:00pm - 5:24pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Returning to Iceland after a world tour in 2006, Sigur Rós did a series of what would now be called pop-up shows, playing for free at village halls, in open fields, at an abandoned fishery, and an environmental protest camp. That unusual jaunt ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 4:00pm - 5:37pm PDT
Lincoln Hall2424 N Lincoln Ave
Often cited as "The Godfather of Electronic Pop Music," Gary Numan was one of the world’s biggest-selling recording artists in the '70s and '80s. Although songs such as "Cars" and "Are 'Friends' Electric?" were massive hits, no one had ever seen...
Saturday April 16, 2016 5:00pm - 6:25pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
The first music documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award, Festival helped launch the career of CIMMfest’s 2016 Baadasssss honoree Gordon Quinn, one of the editors who cut together this synthesis of the 1963 to 1966 Newport Folk Festivals...
In the early 1970s, gangs like the Savage Skulls and Black Spades owned the streets of New York. Setting foot on the wrong block was a ticket to a beatdown or a bullet. But some in this violent subculture sought to channel rage at poverty and police b...
Saturday April 16, 2016 6:00pm - 7:08pm PDT
The Promontory
Million Dollar Mano is a rapper, producer, actor and DJ signed to Chocolate Industries. He is half of the hip hop duo He Say, She Say with singer Drea, and the cousin of rapper Hollywood Holt. Since starting his music career in 2004, he has collaborat...
Saturday April 16, 2016 6:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
1st Ward
Why, she's a 25-year-old part cowpunk, part hard rocker, part singer-songwriter sensation from Columbus, Ohio leading a band full of boys into the belly of the music industry and sometimes liking a drink or two along the way. Is she the second coming ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 6:15pm - 8:41pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Mike Bloomfield first came to national attention in the late-1960s as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, a favorite among the counterculture rock crowd of the era and 2015 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As a session guitarist,...
Saturday April 16, 2016 7:00pm - 7:57pm PDT
Comfort Station2579 N Milwaukee Ave
After a Quebecois woman has a heart transplant, she has visions of her donor's former life. She meets and is befriended by the donor's son, a Malian teenager who believes she is his mother reincarnated, and her life changes dramatically. Marie Brassar...
Saturday April 16, 2016 7:00pm - 8:19pm PDT
Facets1517 W Fullerton Ave
Mortified stars everyday people reading aloud their most embarrassing, pathetic, and private teenage diary entries, poems, love letters, lyrics, and locker notes...in front of total strangers. Witness "personal redemption through public humiliation" in a refreshing show that's equal parts comedic, cathartic, and voyeuristic. The largest and longest running project of its kind featuring a cast of Chicago's bravest souls. Share the shame!
Featuring musical performances + film screenings by: Tim Barnes, Jason Economus, Sam Gruette Hannon, Becca James + Katie Johnston-Smith. Hosted by Shay DeGrandis.
Saturday April 16, 2016 7:00pm - 8:30pm PDT
Lincoln Hall2424 N Lincoln Ave
Ezra, an American writer of Palestinian and Israeli parentage living in Berlin, spends his life clubbing, taking drugs, having pseudo-philosophical conversations, and wanting to be more punk. He wishes he wrote more, but instead spends most of his tim...
Saturday April 16, 2016 7:00pm - 8:32pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
A 40th anniversary screening of the cult classic outlaw country doc featuring performances by some of mid-70s Nashville's finest, including Guy Clark, David Allan Coe, a pre-"Devil Went Down to Georgia" Charlie Daniels, and up-and-comers Steve Earle a...
Springing from the "live fast, die hard" rebel attitude of '50s greaser counterculture, rockabilly isn't just a fashion statement, it's a way of life. It represents the seedier side of a bygone era, filled with bombshell pinup girls, tricked out hot r...
Saturday April 16, 2016 8:00pm - 9:15pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Minneapolis-based, synth-pop/rock project Poliça was formed by producer Ryan Olson and vocalist Channy Leaneagh in 2011. In a live setting, the group is rounded out by bassist Chris Bierden, and percussionists Drew Christophers...
Saturday April 16, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Thalia Hall
Chicago alt-rock favorites Local H return to CIMMfest for two nights of celebration of its 20th Anniversary sophomore album, As Good As Dead. Each Metro show will feature a short set of material from across its catalog, and a headlining perfo...
Saturday April 16, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Metro3730 N Clark
A deep exploration into the art of recording and producing music, Soundbreaking offers a behind-the-scenes look at the birth of both new and classic sounds. Featuring incredible new interviews with some of the most celebrated artists and prod...
Saturday April 16, 2016 8:45pm - 10:30pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
A pulsating documentary charting the extraordinary life and career of James Lavelle, an underground DJ, music producer, and global trip-hop mogul. With exclusive access to personal home footage spanning the last three decades, we experience the rare o...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 10:50pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago natives Monobody are a musical conglomerate who borrow aspects from a myriad of genres including jazz, post rock, electronic, and math rock and creates instrumentals that are as mesmerizing as they are electrifying. While there are no vocals, ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Township
The musicians in this 7-piece Talking Heads Tribute take pride in faithfully recreating the music of Talking Heads entire career. Together they bring the Heads unique live show to the stage. Frontman Jon Braun as a spot-on David Byrne, gives you a roc...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Martyrs'3855 N Lincoln Ave
The legendary Afrika Bambaataa is bringing the party to CIMMfest. Raised in The Bronx, where his early electro-funk experiments helped lay the foundation of hip hop, rap, and myriad electronic styles. Breaking away from violent street gangs that plagu...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
The Promontory
It is mindblowing to find out that there are only two instrumentalists behind The Claudettes’ sound. Johnny Iguana on piano and Michael Caskey on drums come together to create a hypnotizing blend of blues and soul-jazz that forces the audience t...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Hideout1354 W Wabansia Ave
With a growing national presence, the band’s song “War Paint” was featured in radio and TV ads during the Grammys, The Beatles 50th Anniversary, and the CBS TV series, Survivor. Known for their indie pop and electronica sound and the...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:00pm - 11:00pm PDT
Moe's Tavern2937 N Milwaukee Ave
With his poetic heart and soulful voice, Avery R Young combines gospel, blues, jazz and hip hop to create a sound that reaches into the soul. His words and music intertwine to tell stories rooted in Black folk consciousness with lyric and melody aimed...
Iceland's virtuoso guitar hero, Bjorn Thoroddsen leads The Iceland Guitar Festival and hosts a world wide traveling festival; Guitarama, playing with guitar greats from around the world. For Guitarama Chicago, Bjorn is joined by world travelers Rami G...
Abetted by a passel of Nobel Prize-winning economists, a bevy of puppets, an abundance of sprightly original songs, and actor/activist John Cusack, Monty Python's Terry Jones examines the history of financial bubbles – a centuries-old tale that mainst...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:45pm - 10:59pm PDT
Comfort Station2579 N Milwaukee Ave
A touching Indian film about a terminally ill megastar acting in his last movie about an 8th-century legend whose life is a distant mirror of his own. This film’s conventional start opens up to a funny, poignant, unexpected and moving movie with...
Saturday April 16, 2016 9:45pm - Sunday April 17, 2016 12:36am PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
For over a decade Chicago Afrobeat Project has been building on the music pioneered by Fela Kuti with powerful live performances and innovative recordings. Their upcoming release features master drummer Tony Allen (Fela’s Drummer) along with JC ...
Saturday April 16, 2016 10:00pm - 11:30pm PDT
1st Ward
This infamous, rarely screened BBC doc, filmed as David Bowie sloughed off the theatrical gigantism of the Diamond Dogs tour in favor of the sleek plastic soul of Young Americans, captures the star in mid-70s extremis–lost in Hollywood, adrift i...
Saturday April 16, 2016 10:45pm - 11:38pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches wrote, directed, scored, and heads a hipster dream cast–Macauley Culkin, Devendra Banhart, Alia Shawkat, Har Mar Superstar–in this pixilated, sexed-up musical take on the classic Arabian Nights tale of a boy...
Saturday April 16, 2016 11:00pm - Sunday April 17, 2016 12:30am PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
"Our findings demonstrate that women appear very infrequently behind the camera, but women of color are nearly invisible," said researcher Katherine Pieper.So, how do these rare unicorns actually make it? What does the bigger picture of film and...
Sunday April 17, 2016 9:45am - 10:10am PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Moderator: Travis Life, Attorney at Leavens, Strand & Glover, LLC
Travis Life is an attorney at the entertainment, media and intellectual property law firm Leavens, Strand & Glover, LLC in Chicago. Travis represents ar...
Technology has had immense effects in the past two decades on society and the way we live. From efficiencies in business to leaps in productivity and human connection, it has impacted traditional institutions, cultural moors, and displaced many others...
Whether it’s Commercial, Theater, TV, Film, or you just love to act and are compelled to work tirelessly in the efforts you engage in. If you’ve asked yourself what is needed in your acting career to excel in the presence of Casting Direct...
Sunday April 17, 2016 9:45am - 10:16am PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Many artists are so focused on making it to the “next level” that they frequently forget to tackle some of the most important aspects of their business before it is too late. This panel combines the experience of Jeff Becker (Chair, Swanso...
Sunday April 17, 2016 10:50am - 11:12am PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Storytelling is more than a buzz word. It’s an approach that short-circuits the often vacuous marketing-speak that we culture makers and chroniclers fall back on to describe the art we love. We’ll look at how Latino-heritage artists, journ...
Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb was launched into the limelight in 1994 with her platinum-selling Number 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites. Since then, she has enjoyed a successful career encomp...
We discuss how filmmakers choose already-recorded music, ranging from stock music to top hits. We’ll also look at the licensing process, working directly with musicians vs. their managers, and the Editing Process when it comes to integrating the...
Sunday April 17, 2016 11:55am - 12:26pm PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Stephen Collins is a technologist working at the intersection of art, science and technology. Stephen pursued live performance as a DJ and musician and tinkered with radio broadcast technologies with...
So your band is taking off, now what? Before you sign anything, make sure you know what the contract says. For example, your Band Agreement determines: the structure of the band, its decision making process, division of costs and profits, leaving memb...
Sunday April 17, 2016 11:55am - 12:30pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
A “hip op-era” musical drama follows a young Haitian immigrant and his family in Montreal, and through the years becomes the proud leader of a hip hop group. He takes over his brother’s enterprise, using the illicit gains to record a...
Sunday April 17, 2016 12:00pm - 1:33pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Keith Richards, Lucinda Williams, Robert Cray, BB King, Sam Carr and Joe Perry share their stories and their love for Mississippi bluesman, David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
This history of the blues–its roots and personal accounts o...
Sunday April 17, 2016 12:00pm - 2:52pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Interviews with–and lots of music by–Chicago blues artists that follow the remarkable 30-year history of the Chicago-based Earwig Records, and offers a unique perspective on the Chicago blues scene. Based around a 2009 Blues concert on the...
Sunday April 17, 2016 12:00pm - 2:52pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
On the edge of Israel’s Negev Desert lies Sderot, a city of factory workers and rock musicians–the children of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East. Despite being pummeled for years by homemade missiles, the people of Sderot pers...
Sunday April 17, 2016 12:15pm - 1:48pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
How do artists and entrepreneurs fund their creative ventures? Should you bootstrap, rely on family and friends, or seek outside investors? And what are investors looking for? Please join entrepreneur and musician Justin Sinkovich, film producer and f...
Documentary director Dinesh Sabu and film composer Joshua Abrams offer an inside look at the scoring process behind their collaboration on the forthcoming documentary feature Unbroken Glass. The film follows Dinesh as he unravels a troubled fami...
Sunday April 17, 2016 1:40pm - 2:11pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
Chicago is quickly becoming a hotbed for music technology. This is your chance to get a pulse check on the music tech startup scene as we spotlight a number of local founders.
For over 30 years Norm Winer has been at the forefront of radio programming in the Midwest. His experience in the rock world has no parallel and in this discussion with current XRT DJ Ryan Arnold sits with Norm to talk about his life in music, the peo...
This companion piece to the documentary series American Epic (two episodes also screening at CIMMfest) replicates the atmosphere of seminal 1920s field recordings down to the smallest detail, with a world-beating cast of artists recording str...
Sunday April 17, 2016 2:00pm - 3:30pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
In a region full of turmoil and instability, a generation of progressive, creative young Arabs struggle to express themselves freely and promote more liberal attitudes within their societies. Yallah! Underground follows musicians, rappers, an...
Sunday April 17, 2016 2:15pm - 3:39pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
What can music actually contribute to a film? When is the absence of music more powerful than music could ever be? When is the best time to bring a composer onto a film? And how the hell *do* you talk about music?!? Just a few of the questions we&rsqu...
Your recorded music constructively critiqued by award winning pros!!! Shelly Yakus, Jim Tullio and an award winning EARS panel! Be anonymous or not, but bring the recording you want constructively critiqued on a CD or thumb drive.
Shel...
Sunday April 17, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Tom is the founder of StageBloc, a direct to fan platform and artist network that was recently acquired by Fullscreen and rebranded to Fullscreen Direct and is curr...
Sunday April 17, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
The Radler2375 N Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL 60647
It doesn't matter what part of the process you are at, filmmakers are always pitching someone: investors, actors, programmers, distributors. Your pitch can make or break your film. Learn the essentials elements of a pitch by watching two Chicago-based...
Sunday April 17, 2016 2:45pm - 3:16pm PDT
East Room2354 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The legendary Maxwell Street market-Chicago's fabled kaleidoscope of races, religions, bargain hunters and street musicians-is captured in all its grit and hot-dog mustard glory in this cult classic of cinema-verite filmmaking; an early example of Gor...
Sunday April 17, 2016 3:00pm - 3:50pm PDT
Comfort Station2579 N Milwaukee Ave
Follow a year in the life of a legend, Ton Koopman. A virtuoso harpsichordist and organist, he is the founder and director of famed Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir. His beginnings were of an anti-establishment figure who performed at Vietnam War...
Sunday April 17, 2016 3:30pm - 5:00pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
On July 3, 1973, David Bowie closed a year of nearly nonstop touring with a show in London. But it wasn't just the tour Bowie ended that night at the Hammersmith Odeon, known to only a few of his closest associates, he planned to retire his extraterre...
Sunday April 17, 2016 3:45pm - 5:15pm PDT
Lincoln Hall2424 N Lincoln Ave
Touted as an "unromantic comedy about extinction" is exactly what you get in this wonderful and wacky tour of Toronto's urban angsts, imponderables, and sexual borderlands. It has a winning hey-gang-let's-all-make-a-movie quality that gives depth to t...
Sunday April 17, 2016 3:45pm - 5:25pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
When guitarist and composer Robbie Basho died in 1986, he was so little-regarded that all his records were out of print. In the 30 years since, a small but fervent cult has coalesced around Basho's mystic air; his masterful synthesis of country-blues ...
Sunday April 17, 2016 5:00pm - 6:23pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Gingger Shankar is a singer, composer and only woman to play the Double-Violin. Working with Katy Perry, Smashing Pumpkins and co-composing 'Passion of the Christ’. NARI is the unsung story of Lakshmi and Viji Shankar, extraordinary artists who broug...
Sunday April 17, 2016 5:00pm - 7:00pm PDT
City Winery
Releasing only a dozen-odd recordings, but profoundly shaping the course of indie music, record labels Fast Product and Postcard Records formed in late-70s Edinburgh and early-80s Glasgow respectively, launched several key bands including Gang of Four...
Sunday April 17, 2016 5:15pm - 6:45pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Music meets the Mob in this biography of '60s hitmaker and 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bert Berns. A prolific songwriter ("Twist and Shout," "Piece of My Heart," "Hang on Sloopy") and producer (Solomon Burke, Van Morrison) with an output ...
Sunday April 17, 2016 6:15pm - 7:49pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
“No decent man sitting in public and listening to music should get sexually aroused,” explained an Iranian religious scholar to composer Sara Najafi on why her plan to hold a concert of women singers in Tehran violates Islam. But this pass...
Since the 1920s, when photos of country music's founding fathers and mothers "looked as if the Old Testament had come to life" (as Marty Stuart puts it), the genre has never been shy of iconic looks. Drawing on the archives and observations of great N...
Sunday April 17, 2016 6:45pm - 8:13pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
With a focus on melody, synergy, and the rhythms of his native Mexico, Gustavo Cortiñas is a slick drummer and composer rooted in the jazz tradition. Play jazz? Bring your instrument and jump in. This event is an Open Jazz Jam.
Sunday April 17, 2016 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Moe's Tavern2937 N Milwaukee Ave
With a focus on melody, synergy, and the rhythms of his native Mexico, Gustavo Cortiñas is a slick drummer and composer rooted in the jazz tradition. Play jazz? Bring your instrument and jump in. This event is an Open Jazz Jam.
Sunday April 17, 2016 7:00pm - 9:00pm PDT
Moe's Tavern2937 N Milwaukee Ave
Grammy®-nominated singer/songwriter Lisa Loeb was launched into the limelight in 1994 with her platinum-selling Number 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film Reality Bites. Since then, she has enjoyed a successful career encomp...
A fabulous excursion into Latin jazz with all-star pianists Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdes, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba narrating the story and playing the music of the renowned, revered Cuban composer and pianist Ernesto Lecuona. Singers Ana Belen and Omara ...
Sunday April 17, 2016 7:15pm - 9:09pm PDT
The Society for Arts1112 N Milwaukee Ave,
Future Thieves’ debut album Horizon Lines boasts the precision and artistry that comes with years of experience, but Future Thieves managed to harness it within their first two years. Performance is at the root of their songs, these blues infuse...
Sunday April 17, 2016 7:30pm - 9:30pm PDT
Subterranean
Moonface is the moniker under which Canadian artist Spencer Krug currently produces, releases, and performs his music. Whether it be solo or collaborative material, Moonface could generally be described as dark, introspective, slightly absurd, simulta...
Sunday April 17, 2016 7:30pm - 9:30pm PDT
Lincoln Hall2424 N Lincoln Ave
Don’t let the name fool you. California Wives are most definitely a Chicago band. The four-piece emerged in 2009 and have since impressed audiences far and wide with their hook-driven, dreamy indie pop. In 2015, the group released its synth-soak...
Sunday April 17, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
Township
Gingger Shankar is a singer, composer and only woman to play the Double-Violin. Working with Katy Perry, Smashing Pumpkins and co-composing 'Passion of the Christ’. NARI is the unsung story of Lakshmi and Viji Shankar, extraordinary artists who broug...
Sunday April 17, 2016 8:00pm - 10:00pm PDT
City Winery
After being buried alive as a heretic in the 17th century, Carmilla awakens from her grave to seek revenge in rural Iowa, but spares the life of a beautiful biker girl. A haunting bluegrass score in gorgeous black and white with shadow animation.
Sunday April 17, 2016 8:15pm - 9:29pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
The operatic story of Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson is told in intertwining threads in what A.O. Scott of The New York Times called a "smart, compassionate, refreshingly unconventional biopic" that "explores the mental world and the artistic...
Sunday April 17, 2016 8:30pm - 10:31pm PDT
Logan Theatre2937 N Milwaukee Ave
