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Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: Andrew Bird
Are You Serious is the 13th studio album from Andrew Bird, not counting EPs, live records, numerous guest appearances, and his stint with Squirrel Nut Zippers. Dude is busy, and continues to be busy writing and performing music for records and the TV (He wrote music for The Muppets and the score for the FX cult hit Baskets). It seems too early to call Bird a Chicago institution since that word implies a person who is nearing the end of a career, while he seems to have a long musical road ahead of him. Suffice to say, this is the latest chapter in a prolific career that continues to produce some of the most skillfully beautiful Pop music that will come through your speakers. Songs from the new album are available in rotation and by request on CHIRP Radio.
SKaiser writesWhat’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (Week of April 18)
UPCOMING EVENTS
- All ages join CHIRP Radio and welcome Robbie Fulks to the Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 N. Lincoln Avenue) on Saturday, April 23
- CHIRP Radio welcomes Dengue Fever to Schuba's (3159 N. Southport) on Sunday, April 24 | 21+
NEW MEDIA
- The polls closed yesterday for Round Three of CHIRP's Battle of the Bands. Stay tuned for this year's winner!
- Friday mp3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Besse Smith!
- First Blood - David Maher
- In Rotation: DJ Rashad
- Cher Vincent interviews KING at SPACE before their show in Evanston
- First Blood - Atalee Judy
TOP OF THE CHIRP CHARTS
1. Tacocat – Lost Time (Hardly Art)
2. Bibio – A Mineral Love (Warp)
3. Parquet Courts – Human Performance (Rough Trade)
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Besse Smith Edition
(photograph by Carl Van Vechten)
Today is the birthday of Bessie Smith, now and for all time “The Empress of the Blues.”
As the most popular female Blues singer in the 1920s and 1930s, she had a glorious voice and was a fearless force of nature with a temper as big as her pipes (in the segregated South, she once chased a group of Ku Klux Klansmen away from one of her shows at a time when Black folks wisely avoided such confrontations). Bessie Smith’s recordings have influenced untold numbers of Blues and Jazz singers. Rockers and rappers, too - Janis Joplin not only appreciated her music but also helped pay for a tombstone for her as-then-unmarked grave, and Queen Latifah recently portrayed her in a 2015 HBO bio-pic.
Bessie Smith’s impact continues to be felt throughout American music. In her honor, let’s play the MP3 Shuffle. Take your MP3 player, press the "shuffle" button, and share the first 10 songs that play:
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: DJ Rashad
Chicago Footwork pioneer DJ Rashad left us much too early. Growing up in a community that continues to face Herculean challenges, he was a victim of overdose at the age of 34. But his influence continues to be felt by fans and collaborators. Teklife, the crew of artists and dancers Rashad helped found, has just released Afterlife, a collection of tracks that feature his collaboration with different musicians and of the sound he helped create, a world of digital soundscapes frenzied and lightning-staccato one moment and languidly surreal the next, the sound of a community on the edge that cannot be stopped from making art. Tracks from this compilation are now being played in rotatio and by request at CHIRP Radio.org.
Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesCHIRP Battle of the Bands 2016: Round Three
Congratulations are in order for Flesh Panthers. Those scuzz-rock fiends are the only band to from last year's third round to make the trip again this year. They're joined by seven newcomers from across Chicago's music scene, including a boatload of fellow DIY firebrands (Lil Tits, Ego, Swimsuit Addition), some radio-ready power-poppers (The Kickback), a cerebral hip-hop assassin (Psalm One), and Chicago's greatest living soul singer (Mavis Staples).
Only half of these would-be titans can become this year's Last Four. Which ones, you ask? Well, that's all up to you. Voting for Round Three closes on Sunday, April 17 at 6 p.m. You know what to do; now do it.
The Wilco Regional
#5 Seed: The Kickback
Third Round Song: "White Lodge"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: The mighty South Dakota Coyotes.
#6 Seed: Psalm One
Third Round Song: "Voyeuristic"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: Florence Griffith Joyner. Get it, because she can flow? FloJo? I'll see myself out.
The Kanye Regional
#8 Seed: Lil Tits
Third Round Song: "Were Werm"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: Ronda Rousey, but less good-natured.
#6 Seed: Flesh Panthers
Third Round Song: "Elevator Girls"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: The living embodiment of the crowd at Disco Demolition Night.
The Chance Regional
#5 Seed: Ego
Third Round Song: pick one.
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: That squirrely kid in the jean shorts who hangs out at the one neighborhood basketball court in your hometown that still has a chainlink net.
#3 Seed: Tortoise
Third Round Song: "Prepare Your Coffin"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: Fellow esoteric oldster Phil Jackson.
The Mavis Regional
#1 Seed: Mavis Staples
Third Round Song: "You Are Not Alone"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: Fellow Chicago institution Ernie Banks.
#6 Seed: Swimsuit Addition
Third Round Song: "I Turn To Art"
Sport Figure We Think of When We Hear Their Music: A murderous gang of Baseball Furies from The Warriors.