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The CHIRP Blog
CHIRP DJ writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Liz Smyth)
Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2011. The next list is from Liz Smyth.
(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members’ picks.)
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PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (Vagrant)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This album is beautiful in its quiet grace, and the honesty of its lyrics. Even 9 months after its release these songs still get happily stuck in my head. -
The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar (Atlantic/Canvasback)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This group is very easy to listen to (beware of spontaneous sing-alongs). Their accessible rock/pop mixes lilting verses with grungy, crunchy choruses. -
The Weeknd – House of Balloons (XL)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
The title track is great, and the rest of the album is filled with solid, lush night music. -
Timber Timbre – Creep On Creepin’ On (Arts & Crafts)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
I love the inventiveness of this group, and especially on this album. It’s like the melancholy love-child of a crooner and a folk-rock band, with atonal influences. -
Blind Pilot – 3 Rounds and a Sound (ATO)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This album is perfect for quiet mornings. I appreciate the detail given to every song, from the lyrics to the subtlety of its chord and voicing changes. -
Radiohead – The King of Limbs (Ticker Tape Ltd.)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This is another album that contains a ton of musical detail. I’m probably in the minority, but I really enjoy the electronic and jazz influenced direction Radiohead has gone lately. -
Likki Li – Wounded Rhymes (LL)
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Lykke Li portrays her vulnerability with such passion on this album. “I Know Places” is one of my favorites. -
Adele – 21 (XL)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
I and every person in America love this album, but who can deny the pull of “Rolling In the Deep” or “Someone Like You”? -
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 (Capitol)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This album makes me feel like a bad-ass, which is hilarious. I especially like the first half of the recording. -
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
Does anyone else feel like Fleet Foxes are our generation’s Simon and Garfunkel? The title track is one of the best on the album in my opinion.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy (Early) Birthday Joe Lally
Well, December 2 simply isn’t a great day for rock related birthdays. The big names? Britney Spears and Nelly Furtado, neither whom I felt like saluting. So let’s give a shout out to another member of Fugazi, who turns 48 tomorrow, Joe Lally. It’s a good time to do so, as Fugazi is releasing just about every scrap of every concert they have ever played. Lally has held things steady on the bass, and has even carved out a nice solo career. Let’s salute Lally by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Bobby Evers writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2011 (Bobby Evers)
Throughout December CHIRP Radio presents its members’ top albums of 2011. Our first list is from CHIRP DJ Bobby Evers.
(Click here to get the complete list of CHIRP Radio members’ picks.)
In making this list, I realized 2011 has been a year of “Don’t Miss” albums. Like, you should absolutely make it your business to listen to “The King is Dead” “21” “Watch the Throne” and “Bon Iver, Bon Iver.” The word “epic” gets thrown around a lot, but 2011 seems to have turned out to be a pretty important year albums-wise.
First, The Honorable Mentions: Artists whose Albums I regret not listening to more that likely would have made the list had I gotten around to it: Peter Bjorn and John, Bill Callahan, Fleet Foxes, Radiohead, Tapes N’
Tapes, The Joy Formidable, Feist, Death Cab For Cutie, Beyonce, Fruit Bats, Mister Heavenly, Saves the Day, Wilco, Bjork, St. Vincent, BOBBY, Eleanor Friedberger.
And now, the top 10…
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The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (Capitol)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
The first #1 for Pacific Northwestern indie folk troupe The Decemberists saw them stripping away 100% of their theatrics to get back to their roots and do what they do best: simple, sweet folk songs with an alt country bent. Play to your strengths, Meloy.
Recommended Tracks: Rise to Me, January Hymn, June Hymn, This is Why We Fight
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Bon Iver – Bon Iver (Jagjaguwar)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
At first I was listening to it over and over again because I was trying to see what all the hype was about. It charted at #2 on the Billboard 200 and everyone was talking about it. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but eventually I was listening to it over and over again because I couldn’t stop. It had become the film-within-the-book in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest that renders the audience incapacitated.
Recommended Tracks: Holocene, Michicant
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Wye Oak – Civilian (Merge)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
“I still keep my baby teeth, In the bedside table with my jewelry, You still sleep in the bed with me, My jewelry, and my baby teeth. I don’t need another friend, When most of them I can barely keep up with. I’m perfectly able to hold my own hand, but I still can’t kiss my own neck. I wanted to give you everything but I still stand in awe of superficial things I wanted to love you like my mother’s mother’s mothers did…Civilian…”
No explanation needed.
Recommended Tracks: Civilian, Holy Holy, Doubt
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Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah (Kill Rock Stars)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
What started as a tour together between Kill Rock Stars darlings Thao Nguyen (of her assembled Get Down Stay Down) and Mirah Zeitlyn of Mirah quickly turned into collaborative songwriting and the world was made better for it. The album was produced by Merrill Garbus (see #5).
Recommended tracks: Eleven, Teeth -
tUnE yArDs – W H O K I L L (4AD)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
This is the year Merrill Garbus exploded with her musical project tUnE-yArDs, a collage of multi-instrumentation and sound effects. The album is bombastic, fun, and incredibly original. I seriously didn’t understand what I was listening to the first time I heard it streaming on NPR.
Recommended Tracks: Gangsta, Powa, Bizness
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Nicole Atkins – Mondo Amore (Razor & Tie Music)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
The follow-up to her debut Neptune City, singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins is moody and soulful and dark. Taking inspiration from Ennio Morricone, a lot of the songs give you the unsettling feeling you’re living a David Lynch movie. It was actually her poster hanging at Subterrenean the night after she performed there that made me listen to this record, making me immediately regret missing her there.
Recommended Tracks: Cry, Cry, Cry, Hotel Plaster, This is For Love, War Is Hell
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Adele – 21 (XL)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
Another #1 record, this is the sexy, soulful followup to her debut album 19 (I hope she titles all of her albums the age she was at the exact moment she wrote them, like a diary). It is all at once empowering and heartbreaking soul pop.
Recommended Tracks: Rolling in the Deep, Rumor Has It, Someone Like You
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Tennis – Cape Dory (Fat Possum)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
Ridiculous album cover aside, this is a record by a married couple who traveled the world and then made an album about it. It is dumb, fun twee pop and one that I listened to over and over again at work, alongside Bon Iver and Civilian. Unfortunately I missed them at Lollapalooza, but I could still hear them.
Recommended tracks: Take Me Somewhere, South Carolina, Cape Dory
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Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck (Merge)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
2011 saw a return-to-form for John Darnielle’s songwriting project The Mountain Goats after a dissappointing response to 2009’s Life of the World to Come. It is driving, full, and dripping with the cleverness audiences come to expect from Darnielle.
Recommended tracks: Damn These Vampires, High Hawk Season, For Charles Bronson -
Jay-Z and Kanye West – Watch the Throne (Roc-A-Fella/Roc Nation/Def Jam)
BUY: Insound / iTunes
Another collaboration that once it came together seemed fairly obvious with fantastic results. An annoying ad campaign for a pretty brilliant hip-hop album that is dark and fun and has a cornicopia of special guest stars including Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Mr. Hudson and a polarizing use of an Otis Redding track. The songs that have “featuring” credits are the best ones on the album. This album is kind of a big deal. If you haven’t heard this, you’re basically out of the loop.
Recommended Tracks: Otis, No Church in the Wild, Lift Off, Made in America, That’s My Bitch
P.S. I also made a Spotify playlist that is accessible to anyone with Spotify that has a lot of the aforementioned recommended tracks.
Erin Van Ness writesHelp CHIRP Finish Strongly in 2011!
Well, kids, it’s official. The first of December brings us into the last month of the year. Here at CHIRP, 2011 has given us our ups…and then more ups! You voted, and The Chicago Reader awarded us “Best Overall Radio Station” in Chicago. Shortly after, Chicago Magazine also named us Best Web Radio Station. We have an Android app in beta testing as we speak, and our listenership is higher than ever (and continues to grow).
Yep, 2011 has been great for CHIRP, well, with the exception of the station flooding back in July that caused $15,000 of damage to the station. But thanks to the support of generous members, we’re recovering, and that instance aside, we’ve made incredible progress and have no intention of slowing down in 2012.
Help us to finish 2011 strongly and ensure that 2012 is even better! Just visit chirpradio.org/donatenow and become a member of CHIRP Radio today. Your tax-deductible contribution will help us keep up the pace, so that we can continue to provide you with the best in local, independent, community radio into 2012 and beyond.
Thank you as always for your support!
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesDecember Means It’s Time for CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2011!
2011 has been a tremendous year for CHIRP Radio, and now it’s time to wrap things up strong as we look back on the best music the year had to offer. Starting tomorrow and continuing throughout December we will present our volunteers’ lists of their favorite music from 2011.
At the end of the month (aka the end of the year) we’ll present our combined list of what we feel are this year’s outstanding records. So check back here regularly and get ready to add a bunch of items to your wish list…and Happy Holidays from all of us at CHIRP!