Chicagoist

The holidays are quickly approaching and if you haven’t marked off every good girl or boy on your shopping list you might just be freaking out right now. Have no fear, the Chicagoist staff has put together a handy list of inventive gifts that will wow every recipient on your list.

For Your Entire Holiday Card List
Still haven’t gotten around to this year’s holiday cards? Why not send a unique seasons greeting designed by a local artist instead of grabbing whatever’s left on the shelf at Walgreens. Chicago-based illustrator Jacob Elijah has designed a new line of twisted holiday cards called Oddly Greeted, and if you enjoy reading our site, these cards are probably right up your alley. There’s a skull and crossbones card made up of cookies and candy canes, a gingerbread man coup, a snowman losing his snowballs and more. A little snark, a little dark and all fun, the cards are available in four different packs for purchase. READ MORE…

8 Inch Betsy was a shining light in the Chicago music scene, so the community was caught off guard with singer and guitarist Meghan Galbraith’s death earlier this year. The band went on hiatus in 2012 when bassist Eli Burke moved to Tucson, where the band originated. But work on what would become their sophomore effort, The Mean Days, began in 2009. And today the LP is finally being posthumously released on 307 Knox Records, a label run by the band’s final live drummer Melissa Thomas.

The Mean Days is a ferocious blast of pop-punk, filled with raw emotion balanced an ear for melodies that will have you shouting along with the choruses within seconds. It’s filled with love, lust, raw emotion, fury, laughter—it’s a spectrum of emotions ground up and funneled through Galbraith’s unique sensibility. LISTEN HERE…

Chicagoist features Puppy Grenade artist Jacob Ellijah’s new set of twisted holiday greeting cards as the first item in their “Holiday Gifts Your Friends Will Actually Want” list

8 Inch Betsy teamed up with the Chicagoist for a full album stream of The Mean Days