Decoy Prayer Meeting 
Comprised of Eric on guitar and vocals, former Bon Mots' drummer Jason Styx, Brian Stout  (Organ Wolf, Le Concorde) on bass and vocals, and the masterful Ken Champion (Jim O'Rouke, Smog, John Rice's Buckfest, etc.), just killing his pedal steel guitar.  Crawling from the wreckage of modern country music and other suspect bastards, Decoy Prayer Meeting takes on classic country, country swing and rockabilly styles; in addition to their own tunes, DPM plays chestnuts by Webb Pierce, Faron Young, Carl Perkins, Charley Pride, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and numerous other luminaries.  Fiery vocals, seamless harmonies, a swinging, stomping beat, and some of the finest melodic embroidery in any idiom, period, by Mr. Champion. Contact Eric@TheBonMots.com for bookings and information.

Light FM
Chris plays keys (and has also played bass) for this very good, very loud Chicago rock/pop band. Light Fm has an excellently recorded and produced album of wonderfully catchy tunes, just out, entitled "This is the Beginning of My Golden Age."

The Amazing Letdowns
Ex-Bon Mot Kevin moved to Texas to find God. Instead he founded The Amazing Letdowns. This 8- legged, unstoppable, rock-n-roll machine was formed over a dare and a square in an orange, overstuffed chair. The Amazing Letdowns want to serenade you into a sweet, harmonious, blissful state of existence. Check out the latest Letdown mp3's here.

The Wes Hollywood Show
Jason plays drums for this fine Chicago pop band. While theoretically Chicagoans, the Wes Hollywood Show players actually live among us in name only. Spiritually speaking, they are inhabitants of London. (Specifically, near-north London, if you must know). Their third full-length record, "Moonraker," was produced by Balty from Menthol, and is quite smashing. As they say in England: "Brilliant!"

Analog Radio
With songs that would make Teenage Fanclub, Sloan and maybe even Jan and Dean proud (or jealous, depending on your viewpoint), Analog Radio has been getting their sizable Chicago audience dancing around with percolated pop stylings for some time now. We've shared several bills with them to our mutual musical satisfaction, and we're sure to do so again. They even went so far as to lend us Mr. Brian Royer for an evening of quite good keyboard playing, for which we are grateful.

The Ladies and Gentlemen
Gentleman-about-town Skid Marks fronted Box-O-Car, a rather natty Chicago outfit for several years, and though Box-O-Car is now defunct, Skid still has it going on in spades — as evidenced by his new outfit, The Ladies and Gentlemen.  Featuring Mike Zelenko of Material Issue on drums (and how!) and Lenny Deitch of Verbow on bass.  Great songs, great band

Parasol Distribution
Venerable down-state Illinois distributor, mail-order, and label group; home to fantastic acts like Kevin Tihista's Red Terror, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, and The Velvet Crush, among others. Parasol has always had excellent taste, which is evidenced rather neatly by the fact they distribute our record.

Klaus Kinski
Perhaps the greatest actor of all time. Perhaps? You better hope Klaus didn't sense any equivocation in your voice when you said that.

CD Baby
You can hear (and buy, if you please) tons of independent music at this user-friendly virtual music outlet.

Stickfinger
While you couldn't hope to be half as well informed as this, you can help yourself to Stickfinger. Observations from Greenpoint Brooklyn by way of Prague.

Independisc
Hey, "le Main Drag" is Independisc's Disc of the Year for 2003! And, it's a cool website for independently released music. Of course we're linking to it!

The Its!
Debut record just came out - and these guys were ripping it up live when we played with them at the Viaduct. They've got a less-specifically "ska" sort of Specials sound, with a bit of Richard Hell and Voidoids mixed in. Great fun and a must hear.

Tommi Zender
Master guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Tommi Zender has recently joined us on stage at Schubas and the Metro, and will be providing some keen-eared, fresh-fingered chops on our second record (which we're recording presently). We're quite pleased to have him on board in the capacity of lead and rhythm guitarist, as well as on some very smooth backing vox. For several years now, Tommi's been bringing his musicality to bear for the benefit of Chicago mainstays such as Dag Juhlin (The Slugs), Ralph Covert (Bad Examples) and Justin Roberts (the last two whom he plays drums for - nice versatility), at Schubas' "Hoot Nights," and, truth be told - way too many ace outfits to mention. A multi-instrumentalist, Tommi has a surfeit of students whom he teaches everything from fingerstyle guitar, rock and roll, jazz and even ambient guitar -- all the way over to drums. His band Trinkets of Joy (please hyperlink as above) has an excellent record out, "Just Like Mom Used to Make" (on Hear Diagonally), and is finishing up their second long player, "Will Work for Harmony." See him with us, see him with area luminaries, AND see him solo! As Jim De Rogatis put it, Herr Zender is "a talented craftsman with an appealing wit and energy," which sounds pretty damn accurate hereabouts. Thanks for the gumball, Tommi!

B Side Audio
Neal Ostrovsky's sonic playground, located just where it should be. Aside from us, he's used said ears on The Webb Brothers, Hushdrops, Ness, and several other worthy recipients of his considerable talents.

Brighton Int'l Film Festival
Who says you can have a successful independent film festival in Brighton, Michigan? The guy Eric starved through Europe with, that's who.

NESS
You need to see it and you need to hear it to feel it, people. YES, you must hear NESS' "Up Late With People." That is, unless you don't care to know "Where the People Kick It." And in that case, just g'head and crumple, won't you? Featuring John San Juan, the ever-lovin' Rick Ness, Phil Young and Bill Swartz. Real, real good. See them perching lordly as soon as you get a chance.

Urge Overkill
Chris is playing keys with UO at their first shows in seven years. Click above to see if there will be some long lounge hair swinging in your town, okay?

Le Concorde
Eric and Chris both played bass on songs for Stephen Becker's new project, Le Concorde. Recently signed to NYC based indie March Records, the hotly anticipated debut album, "Universe and Villa," is slated for a fall release. The album features three tracks with Eric on his vintage Hofner. Stephen has masterminded (there is really no other way to put it) a slab of exquisitely filigreed pop, featuring John Ashton and Mars Williams of the Psychedelic Furs, Steve Gillis of Filter, Kevin Tihista, Mark Ruggiero of Light FM, Carla Prathers of Poi Dog Pondering, and Phil Agnotti. The album was produced with panache by Ellis Clark (Kevin Tihista, Chamber Strings) and Ed Tinley (Liz Phair, Ike Reilly), and mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge NYC. The sounds of Le Concorde suggest to us here at Bon Mots HQ that Stephen never did get around to trading in his Prefab Sprout and Aztec Camera records, which - to point out the obvious - can only make the world a much cooler place. A limited edition EP charted on CMJ, without any label support and has been making critics drool. You heard it hear first.

WXRT Local Anesthetic
Richard Milne's Local Anesthetic has been providing an increasingly rare service to local musicians and music fans for many years, and . . . uhm . . . lately, he's been playing the hell out of our record.

Q101 Local Show
Chris Payne's solid local show, spinning some Bon Mots, natch.

WLUW
University of Loyola's radio station, and a fine example of what college radio can still do in the face of the corporate giants.

WHPK
University of Chicago's radio station; also a fine one . . . but with a bit less juice, thus bit hard to pick up unless you're on the South Side.

Mitch Speaks
You don't want to know. Or maybe you do? People from all over the world have been writing missives to this philospher-of-the-people, and he's been letting them know what's on his mind in return. Now you can finally join them.