bad credit
not paying your bills
shitty jobs
art that isn't pretentious
bands that don't suck
thought provoking writing
barely making rent
finding loose change
dive bars
broke writers, musicians, artists, photographers, editors, designers to help get this started
Chicago bands:
Plane
Office
Walter Meego
Curtis Evans
Tom Schraeder
The Changes
Berto Ramon
Lying Delilah
Healthy White Baby
Andrew Bird
Shellac
Canasta
Big Buildings
Healthy White Baby
Inch Worm
Hanalei
The Collection
Chin Up Chin Up
My Were They
Sky Box
Catfish Haven
Sleeper Car
Them Vs. Them
The Ponys
Tortoise
Wilco
Alphabet
Sleeper Car
Owen
The 1900s
Autumn Defense
Malcolm Palmer Band
Also:
Bob Dylan
Death Cab for Cutie
Sigur Ros
Sparklehorse
Cracker
Bright Eyes
Ella Fitzgerald
Animal Collective
The Books
Xiu Xiu
Zero 7
Iron & Wine
Calexico
Uncle Tupelo
Ryan Adams
Grateful Dead
Bill Fay
Tom Waits
Brian Jonestown Massacre
Neutral Milk Hotel
Paul Simon
Mocean Worker
Velvet Underground
The Pixies
Spoon
Dandy Warhols
Gotan Project
St. Germain
Blonde Redhead
Atmosphere
Jedi Mindtricks
The Eels
Damien Jurado
Damien Rice
Sufjan Stevens
Radiohead
Ryan Adams
Saul Williams
Tom McRae
Belle and Sebastian
Modest Mouse
Moly Peaches
Jens Lekman
Jose Gonzales
Ray Lamontagne
Butch Walker
Cary Brothers
Catpower
Clap your hands and say Yeah
The Clientele
Nouvelle Vague
Hot Chip
Silversun Pickups
Drive by Truckers
Sun Kil Moon
Silver Jews
The Faint
Violent Femmes
Flaming Lips
David Gray
Nick Drake
Wes Anderson
Arronofsky
Gus Van Sant
Coen Brothers
Stanley Kubrick
Fellini
Cameron Crowe
Tyker
too skint for TV
italo calvino
saul williams
mattilda AKA matt sycamore bernstein
jt leroy (despite it all)
charles bukowski
stephen chbosky
bret easton ellis
chuck pahlaniuk
bernard schlink
t.s. eliot
leon uris
kurt vonnegut
sylvia plath
david sedaris
milan kundera
jean paul sartre
pablo neruda
walt whitman
ezra pound
e e cummings
david foster wallace
edwidge danticat
hunter s thompson
augusten burroughs
tom wolfe
dylan thomas
mary karr
herman hesse
daniel quinn
nick hornby
michael chabon
dave eggers (sometimes)
charles baudelaire
anais nin
henry miller
simone de beauvoir
allen ginsberg
jack kerouac
ken kesey
lawrence felinghetti
gregory corso
frank mccourt
franz kafka
paolo coehlo
vladmir nabokov
fydor dostoevsky
leo tolstoy tsoy
kahlil gibran
mark richard
jd salinger
william golding
and we can't forget haruki murakami
Chicago Innerview, Stop Smiling, and Alarm Magazine