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Beermiscuous
2812 N Lincoln
Chicago
,
IL
60657
This month CHIRP Music Trivia is being served up Chicago style, celebrating all the great music the Windy City has to offer! Join Thursday afternoon DJ Alex Gilbert at Beermiscuous for a night of Chicago-centric trivia. From Buddy Guy to Beach Bunny, Cheap Trick to Chaka Khan, Sam Cooke to Serengeti — we're covering them all! Bring a friend and test your local music knowledge!
Metro
3730 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60613
Chicago
,
IL
60613
(773)-549-4140
18+
CHIRP is pleased to welcome Ana Tijoux to the Metro on Thursday, March 21st!
Tijoux is the Chilean hip-hop protester who Rolling Stone called "the best rapper in Spanish," The New York Times referred to as "the Latin American response to Lauryn Hill," and Newsweek has ranked as the most important Latin American rapper on the international scene.
Before her birth in Lille in 1977, Tijoux's parents went into exile during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile, creating in her a special sensitivity to political and social issues. A feminist and activist in her lyrics, she denounces social and cultural deficiencies.
Ana is a global artist. About to publish her first book of poetry and release her fifth studio album, she dares to go through all the creative processes: she composes, writes and arranges both her own themes and those she develops for different audiovisual projects, from films to documentaries.
Metro
3730 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60613
Chicago
,
IL
60613
(773)-549-4140
18+
On Sunday, March 24th, CHIRP welcomes Lee Fields and Y La Bamab to Metro.
In an age when the shelf life of an artist largely depends on posturing and trends, Lee Fields has proven to be an unassailable force of nature. His prolific, decade-spanning career continues to reign supreme on the modern soul scene.
In addition to twenty albums and over forty singles, he has taken the stage at almost every major festival and relevant venue on the planet, including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Newport Folk, Roskilde, Outside Lands, Rock en Seine, Carnegie Hall, the Olympia in Paris, and the Paradiso in Amsterdam.
His body of work continues to garner the attention of pop artists and producers via samples by hip hop heavyweights: J. Cole, Travis Scott, Rick Ross, A$ap Rocky.
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60614
(773) 525-2501
18+
CHIRP is happy to welcome San Fermin to Lincoln Hall on Wednesday, March 27th!
San Fermin is the brainchild of Brooklyn's Ellis Ludwig-Leone, an artist with a broad musical background who pursued musical studies at Yale and sharpened his teeth working with avant-garde classical composer Nico Muhly (Björk, Grizzly Bear, Antony & the Johnsons).
Emerging in 2013 with their stylistically diverse eponymous debut, the collective's sound has evolved over the years with electronic pop and experimental rock adding new colors to their distinctive modern chamber pop.
Their new album, Arms, comes out on February 16, 2024.
Old Town School of Folk Music
4544 N. Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60625
(773) 728-6000
All Ages
CHIRP is proud to welcome Andrew Sa to the Old Town School of Folk Music on March 30!
An actor and vocalist, Sa has earned the title of Chicago's premiere queer country crooner. His career was rooted in songwriting that highlighted his easy and elegant voice, but when he met mentor and pioneer Patrick Hagerty of Lavender Country, “Lonesome Andrew” was born.
Diving headfirst into this new persona, he explored the catalogs of his heroes Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, and other classic singers that defined his childhood. Sa found a home for this new character in The Cosmic Country Showcase, an instant smash hit camp-country revue in Chicago where he blew away contemporaries like Cassandra Jenkins and Honey Harper. Andrew's next step was to take his larger-than-life voice and turn to his own music.
“Dark Phoenix” and “Little Lamb” came to life out of a writing retreat with fellow crooner Liam Kazar. Both songs find Sa addressing his queer identity. “Dark Phoenix” is a journey of queer awakening, a passion with his first boyfriend. Taking notes from Lavender Country, “Little Lamb” is Andrew's way of inserting his art into the honky tonks and bars often dominated by straight white men.
Opening for Andrew is Jake Blount. A powerfully gifted musician and a scholar of Black American music, Blount speaks ardently about the African roots of the banjo and the subtle, yet profound ways African Americans have shaped and defined the amorphous categories of roots music and Americana.
Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60622
(773) 276-3600
21+
CHIRP Radio 107.1FM welcomes Chicago's own Ovef Ow to the Empty Bottle on Saturday, March 30th!
Ovef Ow (rhymes with “Woah, Jeff, wow!”) formed in the spring of 2015. The quartet built a following in the Chicago indie-music scene around their artsy post-punk multi-vocalist sound. They draw influences from the surf-pop of the B-52s, the driving intensity of Sleater-Kinney and Sonic Youth, and the unconventional art rock of bands like Talking Heads and Electrelane.
Their sound’s wide appeal has led them to sharing bills with everyone from Big Thief to Meat Wave. The band’s lineup features Marites Velasquez (bass/vocals), Sarah Braunstein (drums/vocals), Kyla Denham (synth) and Nick Barnett (guitar).
Their full-length debut, Vs. The Worm, is out now on What's For Breakfast? Records and the band's own Oort Cloud Records.
Schubas
3159 N. Southport
Chicago
,
IL
60657
(773) 525-2508
21+
Step into a realm where the music takes center stage and vinyl records reign supreme.
Introducing Both Sides Now: A CHIRP Vinyl Listening Bar -- a monthly oasis for music aficionados and introverts alike. Nestled in the cozy upstairs room of Schubas Tavern, this unique event happens every first Wednesday of the month.
Join us upstairs at Schubas! The decks start spinning at 7:30pm.
This month's menu comes from DJ Joanna BZ: "Don’t Give In to the Gloom".
How does a conscious artist address current and looming crises in their work without being preachy, pedantic, pandering, or pessimistic? These artists knew how by (mostly) not finger-pointing and above-all holding themselves accountable, giving a sense of ease to the music: we’re all in this together and can then surmise— we’ll get out together.
Curtis Mayfield - Curtis (1970)
Being damned to hell never felt so enchanting, as on the opening track “Don’t Worry (If There’s a hell below we’re all gonna go)” on Curtis Mayfield’s solo debut Curtis. Lyrics, delivered with his gentle high tenor and falsetto, expressed Mayfield’s anger that percolated throughout the Civil Rights era and upbringing in Chicago’s Cabrini Green. He situates damnation alongside calls for unity, positivity, swoony love and romance, and celebration of Black pride. God bless Miss Black America. Amen.
Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair (1985)
The album title is a reference to the movie Sybill which is about a woman diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. The title character feels safe in the “big chair” of her therapist’s office where she sorts through her trauma. The band’s name itself conjures healing and catharsis. And the album opener, “Shout,” is a nod to primal scream therapy developed by Arthur Janov (and made popular by John & Yoko in 1970). Aside from being a beautifully composed, produced, and orchestrated album, it’s also a political one. Through synth-pop and guitar-rock sheen, this record acknowledges the anger and fear from living in a violent world, but through sing-along chants of “la la la la la la, la la la la la”s and lyrics like, “holding hands while the walls come tumbling down, when they do I’ll be right behind you.” Maybe we’ll be OK after all.
Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising (2019)
Weyes Blood/Natalie Mering apparently used to watch the movie Titanic a lot. This isn’t speculation, it’s written in her Bandcamp page. She also wrote that it’s “symbolic that the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and now that iceberg is melting.” Yowch. Listening to this record is kind of like being on the Titanic (the movie imagery of it anyway): a string quartet plays a beautifully haunting “Nearer My God to Thee” while the passengers scramble to save their lives, as bit by bit the ocean swallows the ship. Topics range from the chaos of a changing climate to the chaos of romance and intimacy to the chaos of modern technology. Mering paints an ethereal and gauzy world where she comes into her own and wants everyone to know, “…I hope you can smile during the apocalypse.” Maybe a tall order, but if I’m listening to this record, I will likely oblige.
Noname - Sundial (2023)
SIDEBAR: this isn’t an easy record to find on vinyl. The record store guy and I agreed it’d be worth it to spend double the bucks buying it from Noname’s website, since it’s such an incredible record. In it, the Chicago artist, activist, performance poet, and lyrical gymnast (Noname, nee Fatima Warner) calls everyone to task, including herself. Much like her predecessor Curtis Mayfield, she herself is implicated in the “hell below.” She calls out Superbowl performers (by name) for participating in the “war machine” and then castigates her own decision to give in (“…fell in line…”) by performing at Coachella. She’s critical of American culture, which feels even more pointed when we know she’s such a strong activist herself (Noname Book Club, for example). I admittedly need a lyrics sheet and repeated listens to catch the poetic images. But it’s easy to see that Noname is fed up, and she too is right here, self-interrogating, as we ought to do too.
Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60622
(773) 276-3600
21+
On Thursday, April 25th, CHIRP Radio 107.1FM welcomes Owen, the solo project of Mike Kinsella, to the Empty Bottle!
Spanning more than two decades, Mike Kinsella's widely influential songwriting has steadily sharpened and evolved with each new chapter. In his solo vehicle as Owen (in addition to his roles along the way with American Football, Cap'n Jazz, the more recent LIES, and other collaborative ventures), Kinsella’s ability to seamlessly stitch jagged emotional currents into crushingly beautiful songs has remained at the forefront of his art. This contrast has become more distinct as Owen expanded from unassuming acoustic beginnings into more ornate production, reaching new levels of complexity and clarity by the release of 2020’s The Avalanche.
The Falls of Sioux, Kinsella’s newest Owen full-length, levels up even further. As much as these nine songs represent a type of reinvention, they also feel like the natural next step in Kinsella’s growth, both artistic and personal. The album perforates an established sound to explore unlikely musical ideas, while the songs document a time of moving through life-altering turmoil into brighter days. Heavy themes are turned over with a gentle hand, and Kinsella inhabits the deeper perspectives that come with hard-earned life experience.
Schubas
3159 N. Southport
Chicago
,
IL
60657
(773) 525-2508
18+
On Monday, April 29th, CHIRP welcomes Land of Talk to Schubas!
Indistinct Conversations is Land of Talk’s fourth LP, and the first after the intensely turbulent creation of 2017’s Life After Youth, during which singer and guitarist Elizabeth Powell's father had a massive stroke and Powell contemplated giving up music entirely.
The new album is a dreamier, more acoustic-driven work than prior Land of Talk releases; it was produced with drummer Mark “Bucky” Wheaton and bass player Chris McCarron in Wheaton’s home studio, and has the intimacy of a private document. The songs were created as a therapeutic space where Powell could retreat from the world.
This process included embracing their identity as a non-binary femme, who uses the pronouns she/they. Powell describes the album’s first single, “Weight of That Weekend,” as “a recognition of having been on the receiving end of a lifetime of sexual coercion, assault, boundary violations, and subsequent gaslighting.”
That radical self-acceptance, the ability to speak in one’s own voice, is the hallmark of Indistinct Conversations.
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60614
(773) 525-2501
18+
CHIRP is thrilled to welcome Brazilian indie rockers CSS back to Lincoln Hall for the first time in eleven years on Wednesday, May 8th!
When the members of CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy) slowly started drifting away from the project in 2014, it wasn’t due to a lack of passion. Rather, they decided to pursue other projects because the band had become a job—an ironic twist considering its members started the group to get out of the monotony of day jobs.
Fast forward 20 years and the band is bringing its vaunted live show back on the road—a decade after they decided that playing shows nine months out of the year wasn’t sustainable. Armed with a revived live show, CSS is bringing their signature hits back to venues across the world, getting back on the road because there’s nothing better than globetrotting and partying in new cities with your best friends.
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60614
(773) 525-2501
18+
CHIRP is happy to welcome Chastity Belt to Lincoln Hall on Sunday, May 12th!
Chastity Belt’s energy is like a circuit, circling around the silly and the sincere. Tongue-in-cheek shit-shooting and existential rumination feed into each other infinitely.
Theirs is a long-term relationship, and that loop sustains them. That’s a creative thesis in and of itself, but isn’t that also just the mark of a true-blue friendship?
The band talks a lot about intention these days—how to be more present with each other. The four piece is nine years deep in this, after all. It seems now, more than ever, that circuit is a movement of intentionality, one that creates a space inside which they can be themselves, among themselves.
It’s a space where the euphoria of making music with your best friends is protected from the outside world’s churning expectations. It’s a kind of safe zone for the band to occupy as their best selves: a group of friends who love each other.
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60614
(773) 525-2501
18+
CHIRP is excited to welcome Mount Kimbie to Lincoln Hall on Saturday, May 25th!
Mount Kimbie just keep evolving; they can’t do anything else:
First they were young stars of the London electronic underground, turning the breakout success of a pair of EPs into a lasting album statement, 2010’s Crooks & Lovers.
Later they were Warp-signed shapeshifters, changing coordinates across a pair of albums, between electronic duo and band, and between a rich constellation of influences.
At each moment they could have stuck with a formula they knew worked. Instead they explored and experimented, looking for the next spark of inspiration and the freshest ideas.