Rejoice, Chicago! New York no longer considers us a flyover city. At least, that's the late-to-the-party, "hey-kids-have-you-heard-about-Chicago?" message we get from the New York Sun's article claiming that the calming sounds of locals The Autumn Defense, The Sea and Cake and The Zincs are making our town "the capital of the budding New Mellow." It's not that we disagree. It's just that we could have cited those examples two years ago, back when The Autumn Defense already had two (now three) albums in stores, The Sea and Cake had six (soon to be seven), and The Zincs released their debut. (The band put out the follow-up, "Black Pompadour," last week on local label Thrill Jockey.) Are we "the capital of the budding New Mellow"? Maybe. Why didn't New York notice before? Who knows. While you ponder that, check out our interview with The Autumn Defense.

So The Police added a second show at Wrigley? Snore. There's only one 80s act we want to see reform--the Smiths. But since Morrissey has said that he'd rather "eat my own testicles" than do that, we're not holding our breath. (Yes, we know it's ironic: the Extrovert is a Morrissey fan.) Tickets for Moz's May15 Auditorium Theatre show officially go on sale Saturday. But true-to-you.net, the semi-official house organ for Mozzer, Inc., released a secret code to get in on today's 10 a.m. presale. As we desperately typed GREATESTHITS over and over into Ticketmaster's web site, our hopes for seats were repeatedly dashed. A few lucky souls, however, posted to Morrissey-Solo.com that they've managed to eke out a few tix--lousy as they may be. Hope remains, however: WXRT is sponsoring a presale at 10 a.m. tomorrow, with a new presale password; all you have to do is sign up for its VIP Lounge  to get it.

In the meantime, here is some footage we found on YouTube of Morrissey performing --appropriately enough -- "Disappointed" at the Aragon last Novemeber:

We just updated our New on the Scene column with spots that are scheduled to open in April. That list includes Alhambra in the West Loop, Hop Haus in River West, Fleur de Lis in South Shore, Anteprima in Andersonville, Crust in Wicker Park and Gage in the South Loop. What do these spots all have in common? All were scheduled to open in February or March. Of course, it always takes a looong time for restaurants in Chicago to get that those final inspections and licenses (particularly liquor licenses), but The Extrovert cannot remember seeing so many new spots standing on deck at the same time--and for so long. We wonder if the recent controversy regarding city building inspectors is adding to the delays. Whatever the reason, we can't wait until these places actually open their doors; we're hungry!