If you are looking for a great outing, come see Dracula: The Musical in Palatine, the Midwest Premier of Frank Wildhorn’s (composer of Jekyll and Hyde) Dracula opened October 7th and runs till November 6th. Groups of ten or more get a discount. Check out the details at www.draculathemusical.net

At Cutting Hall in Palatine, 2 blocks from the Palatine Metra station.

CHICAGO (July 25, 2011) — The hit HBO vampire drama True Blood will feature a song by Chicago Americana group The Spares in its July 31 episode, officials from the show announced today.

“The haunting twang and dark sexiness of The Spares mixed very nicely in the world of True Blood,” says Gary Calamar, the show’s Grammy-nominated music supervisor. True Blood was also nominated for four Emmy Awards earlier this month.

Calamar chose the song “Mexico” to include in an episode entitled “I Wish I Was the Moon” (Season 4, Episode 6). The track was written and recorded by The Spares in 2005 for the group’s first CD, Hand Me Down. “Mexico” was also named “Country Song of the Year” in 2006 by the Independent Artists Company.

“’Mexico’ is about someone who is frustrated with day-to-day life, and who dreams of making a dramatic change to shake up that routine,” says Steve Hendershot of The Spares, who wrote the song along with lead vocalist Jodee Lewis. “What I had in mind at the time was wanting to quit my job at Northwestern University to be a musician. But I can see how it would apply equally well to the people and vampires of Bon Temps, Louisiana.”

The Spares have released three CDs since Hand Me Down, including Beautiful and Treacherous Thing in 2007 (a finalist for “Americana Album of the Year” in the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards) and 2010’s Everything Is Easy, released last August at a sold-out concert at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music.

True Blood’s Calamar was introduced to The Spares by Brooke Blocki of KMA Licensing (http://www.kmalicensing.com), a Chicago-based music licensing company that helps musicians gain television, film and advertising placements.

“We’re thrilled to be able to introduce the Spares to millions of people worldwide,” says Blocki. “This will also draw national attention to the great independent music that comes from Chicago.”

The Spares’ original acoustic music has been described as “hauntingly gorgeous” (Maverick Magazine), “simple, aching and hearty” (NewCity Chicago), and “somewhere in heaven between Gram Parsons and Alison Krauss” (Smother Magazine). “Their sound kind of tracks their personal journeys in encompassing the range of the American heartland,” says Alison Cuddy of WBEZ (Chicago’s NPR affiliate). “That may be why, in spite of the literal spareness of their music, it can be hard to categorize.” Indeed, The Spares’ songs fuse country, folk, blues and rock. The lyrics are thoughtful and honest, just as the music is raw, beautiful and compelling.

Listen: ”Mexico” is available for purchase via iTunes, Amazon MP3 and other Internet music retailers. The song is also available for streaming at http://www.thespares.com/listen/ 

Upcoming Performance by The Spares: The Spares’ next Chicago performance is Friday, Aug. 19 at the Biograph Theater (2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago). 9:30pm, all ages, $15, tickets at thespares.com. 

About the Spares: Jodee Lewis and Steve Hendershot formed The Spares in 2005. They write and sing twangy, bluesy, roots music about characters who are desperate and hopeful, buoyant and brokenhearted—sometimes all at once. The stories hint at love and truth in ways that the characters themselves don’t always recognize. For more information, visit www.thespares.com.

About Gary Calamar: Gary Calamar, True Blood’s Grammy-nominated music supervisor, runs Los Angeles, CA-based Go Music Supervision.In addition to his work on True Blood, Calamar also handles music supervision for House and Dexter, and hosts a radio show at Los Angeles NPR-affiliate KCRW. ( http://e2ma.net/go/10560456752/3791026/108010378/5445/goto:http://www.gomusicsupervision.com/ )

About True Blood: True Blood, the latest hit series from Emmy Award-winner  Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), delves into the meticulously crafted world of novelist Charlaine Harris. The show tracks the lives of vampires and humans who coexist uneasily in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The show, which stars Anna Paquin as waitress Sookie Stackhouse, was nominated for four Emmy Awards earlier this month. (http://e2ma.net/go/10560456752/3791026/108010379/5445/goto:http://www.hbo.com/true-blood/ ) 

CONTACT:
Steve Hendershot, The Spares
773-209-7333; steve@thespares.com

Brooke Blocki, KMA Licensing
847-529-7638, brooke@kmamanagement.com

WildClaw Theatre unleashes female vampires upon the DCA Storefront stage in this world premiere of a new adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Victorian horror story. A young English woman living in a remote castle in Eastern Europe becomes intrigued by a mysterious house guest, the enigmatic Carmilla. As the neighboring countryside and villages fall victim to a series of unexplained grisly murders, young Laura finds herself swept up in a whirlwind of forbidden desire quite extraordinary for a 19th-century woman. Open now until February 20th. For more info check out WildClaw Theatre’s website – http://www.wildclawtheatre.com. For tickets - http://www.dcatheater.org/shows/show/carmilla/

What: September Chicago Vampire Meetup
When: Friday, September 3, 2010 9:00 PM
Where: Only Disclosed to Chicago Vampire Meetup Group Members
RSVP to this Meetup

What: August Vampire Meetup
When: Friday, August 6, 2010 9:00 PM
Where: Only Disclosed to Chicago Vampire Meetup Group Members
RSVP to this Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/vampires-21/calendar/zpdbpynlbjb/

We have a HUGE set of photos from Saturday night’s Vampire on Ice and Daybreakers events:

View 140 more photos (courtesy of Chad Hawks) in the Photo Album.

We’re encouraging anybody attending Vampires on Ice and Carpe Noctem at Neo on Saturday night to post tweets and photos from the events! If you are able to post to Twitter from your phone, add the hashtag #chicagovampire so Dark Chicago homebase can find and re-tweet your posts.

If you can send photos from your phone, send pics to photos@darkchicago.com and we’ll post them!

ChicagoVampire.com is pleased to announce that your Host and MC for the night will be none other than Mr. Chad Hawks from ChateauGRRR.com – one of our favorite local vampires and one helluva fun guy.

Details about Saturday’s Daybreakers/Vampire events

ChicagoVampire.com is pleased to announce a night of vampire-fueled fanged fun courtesy of the new Lionsgate movie DAYBREAKERS on January 2, 2010.

We’ll start with VAMPIRES ON ICE at the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink in Millennium Park starting at 7:30 pm: Come out and meet Kitty Zombie dressed as your favorite vampire (or type of vampire) and get great DAYBREAKERS shwag, photos with Kitty and other Chicago vampire fans and enjoy the general merriment that ensues when the Undead Take Over the Ice!

Then head north to Club Neo for DAYBREAKERS NIGHT from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am. There’ll be vampire-centric music, vampire drink specials, Daybreakers giveaways and passes handed out for a SPECIAL SCREENING of DAYBREAKERS on Monday, January 4.

Vampires on Ice is ALL AGES. Daybreakers Night is 21+.

DAYBREAKERS This January, Lionsgate takes vampires in a new direction with the futuristic sci-fi thriller, DAYBREAKERS.

The year is 2019. A mysterious plague has swept over the earth, transforming the majority of the world’s population into vampires. Humans are now an endangered, second-class species – forced into hiding as they are hunted and farmed for vampire consumption to the brink of extinction.

It’s all up to Edward Dalton, a vampire researcher who refuses to feed on human blood, to perfect a blood substitute that might sustain vampires and spare the few remaining humans. But time and hope are running out – until Ed meets Audrey, a human survivor who leads him to a startling medical breakthrough. Armed with knowledge that both humans and vampires will kill for, Ed must battle his own kind in a deadly struggle that will decide the fate of the human race.

Stylish, provocative and action-packed, DAYBREAKERS stars two-time Academy Award® nominee Ethan Hawke (Supporting Actor, TRAINING DAY, 2001; Adapted Screenplay, BEFORE SUNSET, 2004), two-time Academy Award® nominee Willem Dafoe (Supporting Actor, PLATOON, 1988; Supporting Actor, SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, 2000) and Sam Neill.   Make-up Effects were created by WETA Workshop.   DAYBREAKERS is written and directed by the Spierig Brothers.

Northwestern University’s Medill Reports weighs in on the current (and past) popularity of vampires:

This sexual predator is not cruising chat rooms or walking into a sting operation with “To Catch a Predator’s” Chris Hansen.  For centuries belt buckles and bra clasps have unfastened at their  whim.  These long-toothed, porcelain hemo-fiends bit their own chunk out of the fleshy literary almanac.

Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist at DeSales University, a Catholic school in Philadelphia, prefers her vampires with  a bit more bite.

She is the author of more than 35 books, an Anne Rice biographer and “vampirologist,” who has studied vampire culture for more than 20 years. She likens the worldwide phenomenon known as “Twilight,” to prolonged heavy petting, less the classic appeal of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Read the full article at http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=152517

Editor’s Note: The reporters gave me way too much credit in this article. I’m flattered and embarrassed.