Now Playing
Current DJ: Andy Vaso
Daft Punk Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger from Discovery (Virgin) Add to Collection
Requests? 773-DJ-SONGS or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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 is excited to welcome Chicago's own Ovef Ow to the Empty Bottle on Saturday, March 30th along with Bloodhype and System Exclusive!
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.
Lincoln Hall
2424 N Lincoln Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60614
(773) 525-2501
18+
CHIRP Radio 107.1FM is excited to welcome Chicago's own Minor Moon to Lincoln Hall on Friday, April 19th!
At the heart of Minor Moon’s open-ended and knotty country rock songs is an undeniably inviting lightness. While the Chicago-based songwriter and bandleader Sam Cantor writes impressionistic songs about the end of the world, they’re wrapped in such a warm blanket of lush guitars and pastoral twang that they always leave a hopeful spark. On their latest LP, The Light Up Waltz, Cantor sings of the fantastical in magical traveling bands, swaying bridges, and aquamarine metamorphoses. Still, he’s concerned with fundamentally human questions about who we are and how we reinvent ourselves when everything crumbles around us.
Cantor produced The Light Up Waltz, which was mixed with Dave Vettraino, and he’s joined by a new backing band of bassist Jason Ashworth, pedal steel player Max Subar, drummer and percussionist Sam Subar, and guitarist Chet Zenor. Minor Moon has been consistently one of Chicago’s most thrilling live acts and here, the freewheeling immediacy of their stage show comes first. At its best, The Light Up Waltz finds the band settling into a stargazing groove and never letting up. It’s persistently disarming and danceable.
The band is joined by a rotating cast of Chicago collaborators including V.V. Lightbody, Sima Cunningham, Dustin Laurenzi, Elizabeth Moen, Macie Stewart, Hunter Diamond, Lia Kohl, and Andrew Sa, creating an ornate and lively context for these songs to live and grow. “I was feeling really connected to a lot of musicians that I look up to after being here for seven years,” says Cantor. “I took building musical community and camaraderie by playing with people more seriously than ever for this album.”
There’s an enveloping sense of rejuvenation throughout The Light Up Waltz. On “Under Beyond,” Cantor optimistically sings, “Look now we’re carvin’ it out / Pickin' through the ruins layering the underground.” It’s all you can do when things fall apart: slowly pick up the pieces and build them back for something better.
“This is the kind of record that I've been writing towards from a personal spiritual perspective as well as a musical perspective for a long time,” says Cantor. “This feels like a culmination for Minor Moon.”
Empty Bottle
1035 N. Western Avenue
Chicago
,
IL
60622
(773) 276-3600
21+
On Thursday, April 25th, CHIRP welcomes Owen, the solo project of Mike Kinsella, to the Empty Bottle!
Spanning more than two decades, 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. Heavy themes are turned over with a gentle hand, and Kinsella inhabits the deeper perspectives that come with hard-earned life experience.
The Whistler
2421 N. Milwaukee
Chicago
,
IL
60647
(773) 227-3530
21+
On Sunday, April 28th, CHIRP Night at the Whistler returns with The Curls and The God Awful Small Affairs!
Every last Sunday of the month is CHIRP Night at the Whistler — an evening where you can enjoy the music of CHIRP-curated local artists, the Whistler’s take on classic cocktails, and the good feeling of supporting independent radio.
This April, we're excited to welcome Chicago's own The Curls and The God Awful Small Affairs to the Whistler stage. As usual, there is no cover for this 21 and over event, and The God Awful Small Affairs kick it all off around 8:30pm.
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.
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 Alex Gilbert: "Scene Change: Moments of Evolution".
Aretha Franklin once said, "Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it." But sometimes it's the change itself—in circumstance, in location, in relationship, in life—that helps to make the music what it is. This will be a reflection on several artists, focusing on specific moments in their careers where they embraced (and encouraged) notable changes within their life and their music. These albums are documents of those specific times; like photographs, they're snapshots of one stage in their evolution.
Rickie Lee Jones - Girl at Her Volcano EP (1983)
In 1979 Rickie Lee Jones released her breakout self-titled debut to critical acclaim, following it up in 1981 with Pirates, partially chronicling her difficult break-up with Tom Waits in the wake of her unexpected success. Two years later, Jones self-produced (and drew the cover art for) this EP of mostly jazz and pop standards, featuring both live and studio recordings of songs about relationships and lost love. Obviously there was some personal processing still happening then, as seen by the post-breakup song "Hey, Bub" (the one original track), and the decision to include a cover of Waits' "Rainbow Sleeves," recorded in 1978 when they were still together. Jones needed a change. That would come in the form of her kicking an intense drug habit, then promptly moving to Paris to work on her next full album and get her life back together. Girl at Her Volcano gives us a peek into a moment of immense growth, both artistically and personally, and the result is beautifully bittersweet.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - Keyboard Fantasies (1986)
Upon initial release, this self-produced, cassette-only album sold just a handful of copies. At the time, Canadian (though born and raised in Philadelphia) musician and singer Beverly Glenn-Copeland had released two albums of bluesy folk music, and had a job writing songs and performing for children's television programs. Partly in reaction to the restrictions of writing for kids, Keyboard Fantasies went in an intentionally drastic new musical direction. Glenn-Copeland combined his burgeoning passion for new technology (only using a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and Roland TR-707 drum machine) with his love of the serene Canadian landscape in which it was written. The result is an ethereal new age electronic album that calls to mind the peacefulness of Ontario's woods and lakes, the meditative positivity of Glenn-Copeland's Buddhist practices, and the soulful rhythms of a parent trying to lull their child to sleep. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Keyboard Fantasies is that it didn't gain widespread recognition until 30 years after its first release, only beginning to garner acclaim in late 2015 when an influential Japanese music collector drew attention to it— introducing it to a welcoming new audience. This album was not only created during a period of marked musical change, but has had a huge change in how it's been received over the years, as has Glenn-Copeland himself, coming out as a trans man in the early 2000s. It's exciting to see an artist's career being refreshed and reignited, prompting further evolution for a musician who, now at 80, still has more to offer the world.
Sam Prekop - Sam Prekop (1999)
Local musician Sam Prekop may still be best known for his tenure with Chicago post-rock mainstays The Sea and Cake. He put out four albums with them in the 90s before releasing his self-titled solo debut in 1999. This is an album that couldn't have been made at any other time, blending the jazz-leaning indie rock of TSAC with breezy hints of Brazilian pop and mellow arrangements that foreshadow Prekop's decidedly more ambient solo work yet to come. It's a reminder that change (in this case, striking out on your own) can be fruitful. And I have to mention the players— it's a who's who of local heavy hitters: Prekop's TSAC bandmate Archer Prewitt, Chad Taylor (Chicago Underground), Joshua Abrams (Town & Country, Natural Information Society), Rob Mazurek (Chicago Underground, Exploding Star Orchestra), and Jim O'Rourke on production. Prekop has made a lot of great records over the past several decades, but this one holds up as one of his finest.
Joni Mitchell - Shine (2007)
A singer-songwriter with a longer and more acclaimed career than most, Joni Mitchell got her start in the 1960s, performing in small Canadian nightclubs and coffee shops. She achieved widespread fame starting in the late 60s with a series of iconic folk albums, embraced jazz and an expanding roster of collaborators throughout the 70s, explored more pop-oriented and electronic sounds during the 80s, and experienced a resurgence in the 90s, releasing celebrated albums that called back to her early work. In 2002, Mitchell officially retired from music, frustrated about the state of the industry, which is why her release of 2007's Shine was such a surprise. Her first album of original music in a decade (and her last to date), Shine provided an outlet for a restless soul to say her piece about the environment, the war in Iraq, and to find a bit of solace in a tumultuous world. With Joni Mitchell's recent resurgence back into the spotlight, it seems only appropriate to revisit this lush, late masterpiece from an artist who's been a true changemaker over the past half a century.
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.
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 Paul Anderson: "We’re Here, We’re Queer: Queer Artists of the 21st Century".
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics (2023)
Karin Dreijer (they/them) deconstructs gender and love, then attempts to put them all back together again through masterful usage of vocal modulations and synths on one of CHIRP’s top ten albums of 2023.
Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues (2014)
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of this landmark record, Chicago’s Laura Jane Grace (she/her) releases her angst, fear, and rage in a glorious blaze that puts cis punk to shame.
Shamir - Heterosexuality (2022)
Don’t let the title fool you, Shamir (he/him) presents this electrifying record that uses lo-fi indie rock, R&B, and a dynamic voice to explore the margins of language, labels, and beyond.
Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters (2004)
Still just as sleazy, fabulous, and daring as when it first hit the airwaves twenty years ago, this debut from the Scissor Sisters puts the glam back in glam rock.