We're seeking new members for our 2025 Board of Directors, as well as our founding Associate Board for young professionals 35 and under. Details and application at each of the links above.
The CHIRP Blog
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesThe Week That Was and Will Be: What’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (5/4/15)
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The next edition of CHIRP’s Factory Sessions will debut on Wednesday, May 6 at 11:00am Central. This session features Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt of The Sea and Cake. Join our Event Reminder page on Facebook to make sure you don't miss the on-air debut, and look for it on the blog this week!
NEW MEDIA:
- Story Week Festival: Turning Issues Into Story
- First Time: First Lie
- In Rotation: Ghastly Menace
- MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday, Darcy Wretzky!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
- CHIRP Radio welcomes Vetiver & EDJ to the Old Town School of Folk Music on Friday, May 8
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday D’arcy Wretzky Edition
Today is International Workers' Day, a day designated to aknowledge working people across the globe, and originally meant to commemorate the Haymarket Riot that happened in Chicago in 1884. It's also the birthday of D'arcy Wretzky, the original bass player for The Smashing Pumpkins. Although she has kept a relatively low profile recently, Wretzky's place in the annals of Rock history is secure through her work with Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlin during a time marked by artistic brilliance and inner turmoil that saw both the peak of Alternative Music's popularity and also its waning years as boy bands and Brittney Spears took over the charts.
Let’s wish D'arcy a Happy Birthday and give a salute to working people everywhere by taking your MP3 player, pushing the Shuffle button, and sharing the first 10 songs your hear…
Greg Kantowicz writesIn Rotation: Ghastly Menace
Fresh off their performance at Kansas City's Middle of the Map Fest, local band Ghastly Menace are currently in rotation on CHIRP Radio. Their debut album, Songs of Ghastly Menace, was recently released by Kansas City label The Record Machine. Despite their fearsome moniker, it is easy on the ears and full of hooks and power pop harmony.
Ghastly Menace began as Andy Schroeder and Chris Geick and has since blossomed into a six person operation with their first release. According to Schroeder, the process of making the album helped to define everyone's role in the band. Check them out for yourself at ghastlymenace.com and on CHIRP Radio.
SKaiser writesThe Week That Was and Will Be: What’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (4/27/15)
NEW MEDIA:
- Story Week Festival: Young Adult Fiction
- Shawna Kaiser interviews J Fernandez
- The Variable Why is In Rotation
TOP OF THE CHIRP CHARTS:
1. Beat the Champ by The Mountain Goats (Merge)
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: The Variable Why
Lean back and close your eyes. But don't fall asleep, because you're going to miss something quite extraordinary. Nick Sherman, the Chicago artist who operates under the moniker The Variable Why, weaves together sounds that some might file under Ambient but would not entirely or properly describe what he's doing. Like his contemporaries Juliana Barwick and Ken Camden, there's not really a name to summarize the effect of music that's felt just as much as listened to. Hypnotic? Transcendental? An oasis of grace and beauty in a world saturated by harsh reality? The truth is somewhere in there.
Sherman's new record Looking at the Triangles is now in rotation and available by request on CHIRP Radio.