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Kilo Wattson writesThe First Album I Ever Bought: “Run-D.M.C.” by Run-D.M.C.
I bought my first album around the time that music as I knew it was changing. Bought, however, is an inaccurate representation of this acquisition.
One glorious afternoon in 1984 I walked into the Rose’s Department Store in High Point, North Carolina with my mother and emerged with Run-D.M.C.’s self-titled first record stuffed in my corduroys. Cassette. Weird plastic holder and all. My grade school friends and I were in awe of the sounds that were emanating from North Carolina A&T’s WNAA at that time and I raced home to listen to this cassette in its entirety, especially “Hard Times” which I had heard so many times on late night college radio that year.
Cassette in the deck and earphones on… I was disappointed. Why didn’t this music sound like when I listened to it on the radio? Was there a problem with the cassette, my father’s old stereo or had my ears suddenly become incapable of hearing this music? I was disappointed and thought my break dance dreams were over.
Kyle Whelliston writesCHIRP Radio Welcomes Destroyer to The Old Town School of Folk Music on Thursday November 7!
Please join CHIRP in welcoming Destroyer, a/k/a the 17-year musical project of Vancouver-based Dan Bejar, to the Old Town School of Folk Music's intimate Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall. It's a special solo acoustic show scheduled for Thursday, November 7 at 8 pm. Iranian-American experimental musician Azita, also a voice and piano teacher at Old Town School, will open the show as a special guest.
Before announcing this 12-city tour, Mr. Bejar announced that this would be the last time Destroyer would play live until at least 2015. This is, at least in some part, due to commitments related to a forthcoming album by The New Pornographers, the CHIRP-beloved supergroup in which he shares vocal duties with A.C. Newman, Kathryn Calder and Neko Case. If the audience is supernaturally kind enough, he might add N.P. cult classics like "Silver Jenny Dollar" or "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras" to the set list... but honestly, he's more likely to play "Barricades in the Morning", the unwritten song-with-in-a-song referenced in 2004's "Notorious Lightning."
E. Malcolm Martinez writesThe Midwest Independent Film Festival’s Screening of “Sole Survivor” Is This Tuesday!
The Midwest Independent Film Festival’s First Tuesdays series returns to Landmark’s Century City Theatre (2828 N. Clark) on November 5th with the screening of the acclaimed documentary Sole Survivor.
Directed by local filmmaker Ky Dickens, who will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion, the documentary presents the stories of four sole survivors of commercial airplane crashes. They speak for the first time of the tragic events that they, and only they, survived and the questions and feelings that arose from their experience. It has been recognized by PBS as one of the most anticipated documentaries of the coming year and CNN Films is scheduled to release the film in early 2014.
The evening begins at 6pm with a pre-show cocktail reception and a Producers Panel at 6:30 p.m. Sole Survivor screens at 7:30 p.m., followed by a post-screening reception. Sole Survivor is co-presented by the festival and Women In Film Chicago. You can watch a trailer for the film and purchase advance tickets ($10 General Admission, $15 for Premium Reserved) at www.MidwestFilm.org.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Calvin Johnson Edition
Today we wish a happy birthday to a major figure in American indie rock, Calvin Johnson. Johnson is probably best known for his band Beat Happening, one of many bands that he founded, along with K Records. Johnson, his bands and the artists on his label, had a low-fi sound that was twee and rudimentary. It wasn’t just DIY, it was anybody could do it. They were extremely influential. Johnson has worked on other interesting projects, like the dance oriented Dub Narcotic Sound System and The Halo Benders, a collaboration with Doug Martsch of Built To Spill. In honor of Calvin Johnson, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 songs that come up.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesWeekly Voyages: Friday November 1 to Thursday November 7
(Weekly Voyages is CHIRP Radio's listing of concerts in Chicago at select venues. Information about tickets can be obtained from the venues' Web sites. Do you have corrections or updates for this list? Send us an e-mail.)
Friday November 1
Tony, Aaron & Rebecca of The Tossers
Abbey Pub 9:30pm 21+
Ballroom Boxer
Beat Kitchen 9pm, 21+
The 17th Annual Halloween Bash
Double Door 9pm, 21+
The Hoyle Brothers
Empty Bottle 5:30pm 21+
Bear Mountain, The Belle Game, Hawaiian Lion
Empty Bottle 9:30pm, 21+
Summer in Pain Festival
Hideout 21+
The Limousines, Mona, Dresses
Lincoln Hall 9pm, 18+