I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but most weeks the Reader previews 14 artists in Soundboard, not counting the exhaustive festival coverage we do in the summer months for Pitchfork, Lollapalooza, the World Music Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, and others. Altogether, that’s roughly 728 different artists annually (though of course Thee Oh Sees, who release 11 albums a year, mess up the count by touring so relentlessly that they warrant something like four previews all by themselves). I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed that we live in Chicago, the third most populous city in the U.S., home to a thriving scene of monster ballrooms and theaters, divey neighborhood holes in the wall, and DIY basement dumps. So when a band drops a new album and starts packing up the van for a cross-country haul, chances are it’s heading this way.