Springfield house venue and some of our best buds The Radon Lounge have announced that they will be having a killer indie-rock show on Saturday, February 1st featuring touring Toronto band The Strumbellas. The Radon Lounge site says that this is the show that you shouldn’t miss in 2014, so if you ever plan on going to a Radon show, go to this one! This is also the first Radon show to feature a band from outside of the country! You can check out some music by The Strumbellas below. Also playing this show is Alex & The XO’s– a pop band from Normal, Illinois.

This show will start at 7:00 pm and costs $5. If you head over to the The Radon Lounge’s show page you will see that they also have a open mic night and some sort of a cover show also lined up. The Radon Lounge has also done a neat little list of their 13 favorite things of 2013 that happened at the Radon this past year. Check that out here. Also check out our Springfield shows page for a better look of what is coming up around town outside of Black Sheep.

Today we are bringing you a brand new song by Springfield shock rock band Epsom. The song was released as a Christmas present to Epsom’s fans. From the band’s facebook:

Merry Christmas from Epsom!!! No matter what fabulousness you find under your tree this morning, we’re sure you’ll agree that it can’t hold a candle to the gift of a brand new Epsom studio cut (albeit one with “adult themes” and a few NSFW lyrics). “Animal” has been an audience favorite since the band’s very first show and this version marks the studio debut of the Sgro-Zander-Two-Guitar-Onslaught (patent pending). Download it or stream it here for free – unless you are filled with the spirit of giving, in which case, pay to your heart’s content! And never forget: Epsom loves you – at Christmas and every other god damn day of the year!

The song is called “Animal” and you can stream it on the player below. Head over to Epsom’s bandcamp to download the song at a pay-what-you-want price. Epsom released a 2 song 7″ last year that you will be able to pick up at Dumb Records once we are open in one week.

We have a crazy bunch of shows coming up! January is loaded with action and February is sure to follow suit, so here’s something to look forward to. On February 16th we’re going to host a show dripping with electric excitement. It will feature local wrestle mongers Table Drama, the band known for keeping the grimy gears of hardcore grinding. Then coming from Chicago will be the progressive Carnivores At Grace. They’re sure to give us a raw set, so come out and support them! Local power poppers The Science Of will have then some energetic tunes to make you want to jump around and local punkers The Oswalds are sure to give an exciting set as well, so this show should be rad.

Come at 7:00 pm, pay $5 and check out these bands! Here’s a facebook event for this and make sure to check out all the stuff we have coming up!

Welcome to 2014, year of the spooks. Tonight we’re bringing you an incredibly remarkable show to get things started off RIGHT. The local sewer punkers of Soap Scum are going to play a set so grimy that their songs will stick in your ear drums no matter how much you try to scrub them out. Thank goodness for that. Then the band Falter is coming all the way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin tonight to play some grinding riffs that are sure to rattle your bones harder than the brittle, midwestern winter winds. Local wrestle-heads Table Drama are also playing tonight! They’re sure to grind everyone’s gears- plus- rumor has it they have something new to offer this year, so come find out at tonight’s show. Nos Bos is a slimy punk band that will be slither crawling here all the way from Belleville to grace us with creepy ooze-grind jams. Asthma is a new local band featuring members of Mildred and Looming. Supposedly they’re going to get heated and heavy with some grinding grooves so check out these guys, it’s their FIRST show.

All these sets are going to be great. Come check them out at this show tonight- it’s going to be at 7pm, bring $5 to slam! Also try to support the touring bands with anything you can muster. Travelling in this clean, pure, snowy season can be really hard for slime balls so have a heart! Support the grime. Also make sure to check out other shows we have coming up in this fine, fresh month of January because we have A LOT of things happening this month that you won’t want to miss. Happy New Year!

Our Dumb Records Grand Opening and Art Show is coming up here in a few weeks, and it’s surely going to be a South Town extravaganza you won’t want to miss! One, you’ll get to experience our rad record store in all of its shiny new rays of glory. Two, you’ll get to hear some spoken word from our local folks and see some art pieces by them. The celebration and art show will be taking place from 12:00 to 9:00 pm that day, and Dumb Records will open at 10:00 am. There will also be a soft opening at Dumb Records on Friday the 10th from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. Here’s a list of who exactly will be throwing down for all of this and the location and time slots they will be performing.

Dumb Records Acts
12:00 pm – Brandon Carnes
1:00 pm – Jess Knight
2:00 pm – Jared Small
4:00 pm – Lovecow
5:00 pm – Montagh
6:00 pm – Kamila Glowacki
7:00 pm – Good Times

Black Sheep
2:30 pm – Mike Tirehaus
3:30 pm – Matt Hill
5:30 pm – Clare Frachey
6:30 pm – Paqui
7:30 pm – Mario Cannamela
8:30 pm – Aubrey Puyear

Artists
Brian Galecki
Tater Cronin
Mike Tirehaus
Amanda Aulich
Kamila Glowacki
Clare Frachey
Nathan Shepard
Martin “Lumpy” Meyer
Emily Johnson
John Mechana
Angelea Cooke
Kristin Walker
Mario Cannamela
Matt Hill
Heidi Abegg
Vince Merriman
Julia May
Jess Black

We still have a few open time slots for acoustic acts and spoken word artists! Email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com if you are interested. Try to make it out to see these acts and pieces of work as well as the opening of Dumb Records! This event will have no cost, however you may want to bring a few bucks for all the cool stuff Dumb Records has to offer. A facebook event for this whole enchilada is right here so make sure to check it out and come if you can!

It looks like Skeletal Lightning have announced their first wave of bands for “Skeletal Lightning Fest Two,” happening in April of 2014. Last year was the first year the festival happened in Champaign/Urbana, Illinois focusing on DIY music of the Midwest. You may have seen clips of last year’s festival in the Dither documentary, which had a screening at Black Sheep this past fall.

This year’s festival is happening over the course of three days- from April 11th through the 13th. Notable acts playing include Weekend Nachos, The Reptilian, Cloud Rat, Northless, and Thou, but there are plenty more acts that you can see on the flier above or here at the Skeletal Lightning site. There are still more bands and venue information to be announced later on in January, so keep a heads up for that!

We hope you all are ready for 2014 because it is going to be packed with shows and records. This show is going to happen on Friday, January 17th and it is going to rock. We have the Springfield super pop band Looming, who just played a show at Black Sheep the other night. This show will feature the five-piece indie rock band The Flips from Chicago. We have some of their music streaming on the player embedded below. Also on this show is a newer Champaign band called Bookmobile. What could they be about? Come find out at this show! If you are a fan of post-rock, come to this show because local post-rock band Meredosia will also be playing. We have new Champaign band Bookmobile playing this show, but we will also have an older and recently re-united Champaign band playing. Bad Catman will be making their first Black Sheep appearance since 2011! Bad Catman feature members of Dino Bravo, Orange Soda, Wolf Luv, Gnargoyle, The Diamond Stretch, Planet Farm, and probably a ton of other bands we are forgetting.

This show will start at 7:00 pm and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also be sure to check out our shows page to see what other great shows we have coming up in the new year at Black Sheep.

Black Sheep is wishing you and all of your friends a happy Halloween! Be safe and lookout for any moshing basement clowns! If you missed our Halloween Show/Hobgob this year you can find photos from the show right here.

Our next show is this Saturday, where we will be showing a screening of the documentary Dither: The DIY Sound. We will also have performances by Springfield bands War Magic and Caterpillar Club. That’s at 7:00 pm Saturday and admission is $5 so see you then!

The local emo jammers Our Lady are going on a west coast tour, ladies and gents! Check out the places they’ll be venturing to on the awesome tour poster posted above. So far, here are the set destinations they’ll be playing at:

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11/07 St. Louis, MO- The Livery Company (event)
11/08  Nashville, TN- The Owl Farm (event)
11/12 Houston, TX- Super Happy Fun Land
11/14 Denton, TX- Macaroni Island (event)
11/18 Pheonix, AZ- The Trunk Space
11/23 Reno, NV- The Holland Project
11/24 Salt Lake City, UT- The Shred Shed
11/25 Denver, Co- Seventh Circle Music Collective (event)

For all the other dates, the venue status is TBA, so if you are from any of those TBA areas (or know someone in the music scene there), give Our Lady a hand by contacting ourladyband@gmail.com and helping them book! Here’s their facebook page as well.This band is so rad and the people in it are swell so make sure to check them out at any of these shows if you are able to go.
Below is their album Dawning, which they have been revamping whilst recording a few new hits! Check out their other emotional and heartfelt tunes on bandcamp.