Now Playing
Current DJ: Kevin Shields
Instigators The Israelites from The Best of Instigators — Auckland Ska Punk 1981-1982 (Leather Jacket/Ripper) Add to Collection
The CHIRP Blog
Entries categorized as “Rediscovering Our Record Collections” 39 results
Josh Friedberg: Music Historian's Corner writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “The Band” by The Band
For this edition of Rediscovering Our Record Collections, I am examining one of my favorite albums of all time, a classic rock and Americana milestone.
An almost all-Canadian ensemble, The Band emerged in the late 1960s with a blend of older and newer sounds associated with the American South and gained a wide audience in the process. Their second, self-titled album is often considered their best work, and as of June, 2013, the statistically compiled website Acclaimed Music ranked it as #40 on their list of the most acclaimed album of all time.
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.
Josh Friedberg: Music Historian's Corner writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “Tracy Chapman” by Tracy Chapman
For today's Rediscovering Our Record Collections, I'm examining one of my on-and-off-again favorite singer-songwriter albums, the 1988 self-titled debut by Tracy Chapman.
Chapman came from the coffeehouse scene on the East coast, seemingly out of nowhere, as something of an oddity: an African American female folk rock singer-songwriter at a time when most black female music stars were associated with R&B, pop, and the emerging hip hop scene. Chapman, originating from Ohio, gained a sizable audience with her haunting voice and the acoustic hooks in songs like "Fast Car" and "Talkin' Bout a Revolution." I read in an essay on the album and its success that somewhere Chapman was contrasted with Madonna as "The Anti-Material Girl," which, for the album's lyrics alone (if not always its impact), seems fitting. Chapman was tackling contemporary issues of poverty, domestic violence, and political turmoil at a time when pop music seemed far away from such concerns.
Kyle Whelliston writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “Slanted and Enchanted” by Pavement
None of us get to choose when we turn 19 years old, that magical year when we're free from mandatory schooling, (hopefully) out of the house, and unburdened from the requirement to ask permission for the opportunity to enter the difficult matrix of actions and consequences. Nineteen hundred and ninety-one, I guess, was as good a time as any. That was "the year that punk broke", as some still call it, a major before-after landmark in the history of rock.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “Homogenic” by Björk
When Pitchfork Media announced earlier this year that Björk Guðmundsdóttir would be performing at this summer’s annual music festival, I scratched my head a little. Not because it would be weird to have Bjork there – I was trying to figure out why she hasn’t performed there yet. If there were ever a music event and an artist made for each other, these two would be it: eclectic, reveling in their originality, and possessing the kind of persona that invites obsessive behavior from fans.