A few choice regulars braved the storm Thursday night to see New Ruins, The Championship and Tractor Kings play an intimate show at Mike ‘n Molly’s.

I was branded on the way in as an underage infidel and headed up the treacherous stairs to Mike ‘n Molly’s dimly-lit attic. Caleb Means of New Ruins thanked everyone for braving the elements, and the band began playing their energizing set. Roy Ewing’s lanky arms slammed into the drums, and they played so hard a glass fell off the table. New Ruins played a wide mix of old and new material including a personal favorite “I’ll Sleep in Your House”. Means and Elzie Sexton’s gruff vocals rang through the steamy attic, and they played an extra song at a friend’s request.

Thanks to student organization, Starcourse, the Toronto super group Broken Social Scene will be making its way to Champaign-Urbana this Sunday, October 19. Brendan Canning, co-founder of the band, took time out of his busy schedule to chat with Smile Politely over the phone.

Smile Politely: So, you guys are coming here in a couple weeks. How do you feel about Champaign-Urbana?

Canning: To be honest I really don’t know. Last time we were there it was a rainy night, and we only saw about two blocks of the town. The band the Poster Children in the ‘90s were from Champaign.

SP: So was REO Speedwagon…

Canning: Yeah, I like those guys too. I could probably sing you an REO Speedwagon song before I could sing you a Poster Children song.

A law school student and a maker of dental bridges seems like an unlikely pairing for an ethereally hypnotic band. Then again, Common Loon isn’t your run-of-the-mill pair. Their band is only one piece of a cryptic life puzzle for two of Champaign-Urbana’s most reserved men.

Matthew Campbell and Robert Hirschfeld are the guarded duo behind the band Common Loon. The two have spent years together and apart, and worked odd jobs in odd places along the way. They balance life, school, work, significant others and are working on their first full-length album. And you thought econ was hard.

Campbell and Hirschfeld met at the ripe age of 5 in kindergarten. The two can’t remember the exact moment destiny brought them together, but I bet they shared a blue crayon or bonded over bologna sandwiches. They spent summers together in Champaign-Urbana, Sandlot style. Campbell attended Centennial High in Champaign while Hirschfeld was shipped away to Marmion Academy, an all boys Catholic-Benedictine college prep school in Aurora.

There’s not much more that Radio Maria could do to coax in guests. If you’re not stricken by the smooth ambiance, variety of Spanish tapas and exquisite fusion food, maybe you should check your pulse (just in case).

Wednesday open mic nights with Jake Fleischli from The Tractor Kings and Jared Roberts of Zero-Base give everyone just one more reason to mosey over to downtown Champaign and celebrate hump day.

The crowd throbs and vibrates with Kevin Barnes’ tightly packaged package. One shining beam of glitter on my right is dry humping my leg, and the person to my left’s nylon wing is obscuring my view from the hypersexual spectacle on stage. I’m wearing the person behind me like a furry, sweaty coat as the crowd methodically sways and grinds to the prog-pop fury of Of Montreal.

Of Montreal has become synonymous with a musical parade of sparkle, ecstasy and a traveling clan of alien-esque androids. Their newest album Skeletal Lamping , coming out on October 7, doesn’t drop the ball far from their shiny pedestal.

Olney, Ill., (pronounced ull-knee) is the undisputed home of albino squirrels. The chummy police officers sport chalky white rodent patches on their sleeves and wear clear jelly shoes. Without this hairy claim to fame, Olney could just be mistaken for a spot on a map. It was that seemingly insignificant spot that molded and formed New Ruins into the band, and the men, they are today.

New Ruins formed in 2004 with Caleb Means and Elzie Sexton both on acoustics. They created their first album, and The Sound They Make came out on Hidden Agenda Records (a subsidiary of Parasol Records) in April of 2007. In 2006, Means and Sexton played a show at Aroma Café in Champaign. There they met Roy Ewing, previously a drummer in Braid, and Paul Chastain of Velvet Crush who completed the package. This summer New Ruins worked on their second full-length album titled We Make Our Own Bad Luck.

I made the mistake of labeling Oceans a “local” band. It’s a mistake you only make once. The charming boys of Oceans spent the afternoon explaining why the Champaign-Urbana scene is not what it seems, how they’ve grown as a band and why they adore Ohio.

“I think the term ‘local artist’ in C-U can be a damning label,” Ryan Martin, guitarist, explained. “People seem to just get stuck in a cycle of doing the same thing all the time.” The boys aren’t accustomed to getting stuck in a rut. Martin, along with Nick Wakim on drums, Keith Marek on guitar and Mike Parkinson on bass, have come a long way since high school days of beer swindling and lady chasing (not that those two options ever ceased). Word on the street is that Parkinson ditched their high school band, The Break In, for the biggest pop band in school, and he will never hear the end of it.