Contest Win tickets to The Sea And Cake or Stornoway

The A.V. Club has a pair tickets to give away to two upcoming shows. Nov. 27, Chicago’s very own The Sea And Cake, along with Brighton, MA, will be performing at Lincoln Hall. Nov. 28, the clever Britons of Stornoway will be at Schubas with the distinguishably mustached former keyboardist for The Hold Steady, Franz Nicolay. To win, interested parties should e-mail ochicago@theonion.com and include either “The Sea And Cake” or “Stornoway” in the subject line. Please include your full name in the body of the e-mail.

Chicago’s The Sea And Cake has done what every indie band continues to reach for—fresh, smoothly complex music that’s effortlessly abstract and pretty. The Sea And Cake umbrellas skittering moments of fusion, bubbly electronic beats, and melodic and eccentric hooks with spaciousness. Despite the band’s indifference toward its reputation of being “jazzy,” it’s the softness of that element which makes The Sea And Cake something more. The band’s consistently successful discography collection dates back to 1994, but it hasn’t released anything since its eighth album, 2008’s Car Alarm.



Stornoway exists because songwriter Brian Briggs asked fellow Oxford University freshman Jon Ouin (keys/banjo/electric guitar/cello) if he liked Teenage Fanclub. The two started writing music together and shortly after felt confident enough to enter the college’s talent competition. They were runners-up to a group of Norse singers, but they walked away with a consolation prize of a large bowl of fruit. This triumph inspired Briggs and Ouin to start recording and place an ad in the paper for a bass player. There was only one response, and it was a remarkably formal application from a sixth form student named Ollie Steadman. Despite arriving to his audition with a screwdriver in case his potential bandmates happened to be some badass thugs, Steadman got the job. The final addition to the band is Steadman’s younger brother Rob on drums. The band spent five years recording its only studio release, 2010’s Beachcomber’s Windowsill, although the band has been playing songs from the album since 2006. During the five years of production, the band has gained the popularity to play at Glastonbury festival twice and make an appearance on Later…with Jools Holland. Those five years of recording Beachcomber’s Windowsill apparently paid off, for some say that these are the 11 most pure and perfect pop songs.