Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

In case you hadn't realized already, the Mike N' Molly's beer garden is truly the place to be for live local music in downtown Champaign these days. It's spacious and inviting, the PA won't destroy your eardrums, and it's got a good beer selection to boot. This is all fine and dandy on most days, but when the weatherman cries "precipitation," everyone starts to get a little worried about playing outside.

This didn't stop Ryan Groff and Mike Ingram from performing their duet rendition of Radiohead's The Bends in support of Nashville's Parachute Musical and Heypenny last Tuesday, however. Amid reports of a storm, the two local rockers pushed all doubt aside and told the crowd just what they wanted to hear: "It doesn't matter if it rains — we're playing anyway!"

One gallon of gas north of Champaign-Urbana is Backbeats, a used records and books store situated inconspicuously on the main strip in Rantoul. It is, in a literal sense, a mom-and-pop shop. Don Boskey runs the used record store, and his wife, Rebecca, sees to the used books, art and other eclectic collectibles that line the walls of the store.

The pair has been at it since July of last year, when Rebecca closed up her antique store and moved a few doors down the street. She consolidated her shop’s inventory to shift focus away from antiques and toward books, and Don added a hefty selection of LPs to the mix.