One of the weirder, more vibrant scenes up in Chicago seems to be centered around Permanent Records, a vinyl shop in the Ukrainian Village owned by two Columbia, Missouri, transplants who used to work at Slackers (pretty good article about them
here). One of the more accessible bands associated with that crowd is Brain Idea, which plays reverb-y, jangly pop in the mold of the Clean. Have a listen
here. They're at Union tonight with Lazy and Umberto, and at the Replay Saturday, with
Cave and Lazy.