The Ponys

Lady Gaga

Chicago is second to none when it comes to the quality and quantity of its summer music festivals. A weekend doesn’t pass without a street or park being rocked supreme. Our five favorites for this summer make us sweat just thinking about them.

Chicago wunderkinds The Ponys have been relatively quiet these past few years, but this summer finds them shaking off hibernation and banging out fiery, sonic garage rock in support of a new EP from Matador Records. Their sparked lives shows are not to be missed.

Equal parts James Brown groove, Northern Soul rave-up and garage-rock twang, this Chicago seven-piece outfit (complete with horn section!) is blowing up with a tight soul revival that recently landed them in the pages of lauded UK tastemaker magazine MOJO. Head to Taste to hear the sound that’s shaking Britain down.

Co-founder of avant-garde hip-hop label Anticon and former member of their flagship act, cLOUDEAD, Yoni Wolf (aka Why?) is an enigma whose rapid-fire lyrical associations and equally sharp, off-kilter, orchestrated pop defies categorization. Though eschewing some of his earlier hip-hop proclivities for a more guitar and piano-based indie rock approach with this full-band incarnation of Why?, Wolf still maneuvers words through sound unlike any other.

The Wicker Park Fest folks have really outdone themselves this year by bringing two of the most talked-about metal bands on the circuit to this year’s fest. Hailing from below the Mason-Dixon, Savannah’s Baroness and Miami’s Torche are masters of a Southern brand of sludgy “stoner” metal that both booms molasses thunder and shreds with precise ferocity. Top it all off with monster hooks and you have electric perfection.

Lady Gaga is everywhere. You can’t turn on a radio, TV or even cellphone these days without being bombarded with her insanely catchy dance-floor hits and asymmetrical, out-of-this-world costumes. So why give the already ubiquitous more of your time?

Because in a day when pop princesses come manufactured straight from the record company, Lady Gaga is the real thing — a strong songwriter whose infectious tunes are rivaled only by her wild and dangerous stage persona. Not since David Bowie has an artist so smartly balanced pop music and pop art. Catch Gaga Stardust while her world-dominating iron’s still hot.