Everyone knows that the University of Illinois' library is one of the best in the country, but this month, we got to see that personified, as a "new" (read: previously unreleased) H.G. Wells story was discovered in the depths of the University Library's shelves.

The new story, called "The Haunted Ceiling," goes into print in next month's edition of The Strand Magazine, and was discovered by the magazine's Managing Editor Andrew Gulli, and is perhaps one of the most surprising discoveries surrounding H.G. Wells

To  listen to the NPR story on the find, check out the stream below and read their full story here.

Champaign-Urbana's very own Polyvinyl Recordings has just released their Polyvinyl plays Polyvinyl compilation for streaming on their Soundcloud page.

The compilation, which is set to be released this Friday, November 25th, features Polyvinyl bands covering other Polyvinyl bands and is sure to be a treat for fans of the prominent indie label.

For more info, check out this tidbit from Brooklyn Vegan, and stream the full project below:

"This Friday (11/25), Polyvinyl Records will release its Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl compilation, which has Polyvinyl artists covering other Polyvinyl artists for the label’s 20th anniversary. There’s Beach Slang covering Japandroids, of Montreal covering Jacco Gardner, Braid covering Alvvays, Tancred covering Owen who covers Rainer Maria who covers Owen’s cousin/American Football bandmate Birthmark, plus American Football being covered by The Dodos, and still more."

Erin Fein, formerly of C-U's Absinthe Blind and Headlights, has released her new album under her project Psychic Twin — Strange Diary. It is out now on Polyvinyl Records. There are plenty of places to check it out, iTunes being one of them.

Watch the video for "Lose Myself" here. Congrats all around, to Erin and Polyvinyl.

Jay Moses has dropped a new EP, The Thirst Vol. 1, via TheGr8Thinkaz Soundcloud page. The project runs seven songs long, features production from TheGr8Thinkaz' own Rokmore on five songs and frequent collaborator H. Kal-El on two songs, and guest vocal appearances by Gr8Sky  and Klevah of TheGr8Thinkaz and Cii La'Cole. The new EP's title track, The Thirst, was released last fall to praise from our own Boswell Hutson, and last summer's Champaign Dreams: 1999 also found a spot on this release as the closing track. Check out the music video for Champaign Dreams: 1999, directed by local videographer FlyShotz, here on the FlyShotz YouTube page.

The album details the personal struggles and triumphs of Jay Moses's life as an aspring rapper. The production style throughout is spacey and chill, with lots of Rokmore's signature jazzy style and boom-bap drums providing a fitting canvas for Jay's smooth vocal flow and sometimes introspective lyrics. 

Earlier this year TheGr8Thinkaz' member Gr8Sky released his own EP, 5 pts, and TheGr8Thinkaz' member Klevah teamed up with T.R.U.T.H to release Mother Nature, the self titled debut LP from that duo, out on vinyl via Heirship Records. The trend of hip-hop's growing cache on the local scene seems to be going strong through 2016.

Withershins are hanging it up as a band on Friday, performing their last show at The Accord with some friends. After seeing some commentary on Facebook, I revisited some of my favorites from their albums over the years. 

It's no secret that I enjoy the shit out of this band. I've written about them on several occasions over the past five years.

Aeriel was released when I was a Music Director at WPGU — a really introductory dive into local music in C-U back in 2009. I remember having both the title track and "Falling Waltz" in rotation at one point. 

Thanks fellas. It has been a good run.

Food is the 5th album by local hip hop artist Don Con. You may know him as Landon Stark, barista and coffee artist at Aroma Cafe. He's the one sporting the Chicago Bulls gear all of the time and pouring up some super cute foam art in your cappuccino. He's more than that, though. He also slays the mic on the reg and he's got an album that's just released and it's all about food. The track list is below. Listen to the whole album for free in the post below or at this link: Food | Don Con

1. Donald Nuggets 02:54
2. Mac and Cheese (Let it Sizzle) 02:35
3. The Rule of the Law of the Land 02:20
4. Pepperoni 02:40
5. Wieners Interlude 00:54
6. White Bread 03:40
7. One Wash 02:34
8. Eating Store Brand Cheese Crackers 00:30
9. Bacon and Ham 01:48
10. RUBADUBDUB (Yo So Thug) 03:44
11. Chug Break 00:26
12. King of the Cookie 02:13
13. Eating What I Want 02:50
14. Pizza Rolls 02:28

Image artwork by Andrew

Urbana's four-piece indie/emo group Euriah have announced the release of their sophomore album, entitled Passenger. They have set up a Kickstarter page for pre-ordering the album, which also features a stream of the first single from it, called "Hesitation (Whirlwind)." The official release date hasn't been set yet, but the ballpark time looks like fall. Check out the pre-order and new single here.

No Champaign-Urbana hip-hop act has had a bigger year than Mother Nature, who you are almost certainly familiar with if you spend time in our Music section.

After taking C-U by storm, the duo are now set on playing some exciting out of town dates and releasing more of the music that gained them acclaim in the first place. Yesterday, they presented "They Shootin," featuring Sunny Ture and the same advancing lyrical and provocative style that we have come to expect from MN.

Stream the track below:

It's not too often that I get fired up for a music release — especially from a relatively new artist — but CJ Run has just done that for me.

Hailing from C-U, but originally from the UK and Germany, CJ mixes progressive production with important lyrical flow. We just caught wind of their Listen to the Kids project, which came out on Monday, and it's absolutely phenomenal. It's hard to imagine where the ceiling is for this 18 year-old rapsmith, but with such a strong debut as this, the future looks bright both for them and for Champaign's hip-hop scene as a whole.

You can stream Listen to the Kids in full below, and also stream an interview with CJ to get a little more familiar. Hopefully, you'll be able to see them out performing soon, as well.