Playlist: Local Greats You Need to Know

Music is art-form that is championed whether it is accomplished or not. Chicago is a land that features accomplished artists that don't come to mind as quickly as they should. Here are a few bands that quite simply rock.

Smith Westerns – Their name makes no sense, they put on notoriously average concerts (I can attest, but I will still pay to see them every time), and, in this video, they appear to be the coolest kids the Chicago suburbs have to offer…but not one of them is 22 yet, and they rock.

Wilco – Jeff Tweedy and bunch have been Rock and Roll's underdog since the 2000 documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco came out (synopsis: Wilco struggles to make an album, gets dumped by their label, releases the album, the album is a hit). They blend alt-country, experimental, and rock to sound like, well, something that doesn't sound as awful as that amalgamation SHOULD sound like.

Ezra Furman and the Harpoons – By far my favorite Chicago band, based simply on the accompanying video. The fact that I once modeled (http://www.ezrafurman.bigcartel.com/product/ezra-furman-the-harpoons-t-shirt-ladies-gentlemen) for the band's website has nothing to do with it.

Dwarves – A wildly inappropriate punk rock band (whose album covers almost always include 1.) Naked women and 2.) a little person) walk the tight-rope between hardcore and just plain ole' punk.

Cool Kids - Rarely do I have the urge to dance at all, but when the teeth-chattering bass that accompanies every Cool Kids song starts bumping, I simply cannot help myself. Cool Kids is the future of hip hop, or at least the good sort of hip hop (i.e. devoid of celebrities, auto-tune).

Liz Phair – Liz Phair has the distinct privilege of having one of the highest scores given by Pitchfork Media (9.6 for her album Exile in Guyville), and one of the lowest (0.0 for her album Liz Phair). She's a grungy sounding girl who sings about real-life (not Taylor Swift's "real life"), and whose songs are completely devoid of pretentiousness, almost to the point of mocking themselves.

Naked Raygun – Legends of Punk Rock (and its spawn: that crap that came out in the early 2000's that pretended to be Punk Rock…that we all listened to), Naked Raygun rocks.