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[photo from Drag City]
Today we wish a very Happy Birthday to Lætitia Sadier. She emerged into prominence singing and playing guitar with the French experimental Pop group Stereolab, a band that operated on creative and political wavelengths well outside the MOR norm while pointing the way forward for untold numbers of artists and bands working in the ‘90s and ‘00s (their sounds helped lay the groundwork for what we know today as Post-Rock). For the past few years Sadier’s been a solo act, crafting music that has a lighter and more romantic but no less expressive touch, not unlike a 21st century torch singer.
To wish her a bon anniversaire, take your MP3 player, press the "shuffle" button, and share the first 10 songs that play:
CHIRP Radio is celebrating its Factory Sessions live performance series with a special screening night at The Owl. The event will showcase two of the series’ recent episodes with long-running art-rock collective ONO and Chicago post-punk trio Luggage. In addition to the screenings, the night will feature a special live performance by the band ADT (feat members of ONO).
The event will take place at The Owl (2521 W. Milwaukee.) on Wed May 4th and is FREE to the public (21+). The organizers of the series and members of its production team, along with the featured artists, will be on hand to discuss the project.
More event details can be found here.
[picture from the Tommy James web site]
In boxing and pro wrestling, the “mid-card” is the slate of competitors who aren’t the superstar headliners. They may be talented and even accomplished, but they spend most of their time a notch below the main events. In the storied history of Rock and Roll, one of the most successful mid-card pop bands of the British Invasion era was Tommy James & the Shondells, a band from Niles, MI.
For about five years starting in the mid ‘60s with their chart-topper “Hanky Panky,” a garage-Pop ditty very much in the spirit of the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie,” the band produced a succession of FM Radio stalwarts that remain in rotation today, including the smoky and sensual “Crimson & Clover” (later covered by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts); a second “Louie Louie” descendant called “Mony Mony” (later covered by Billy Idol); the testosterone-injected bubble-gum Pop track “I Think We’re Alone Now” (later covered by '80s teen-Pop sensation Tiffany); and the psychedelic blue-eyed soul of “Crystal Blue Persuasion” (recently used to great effect in the TV series Breaking Bad). [James also had a hit with the folksy-funky “Draggin’ the Line” as a solo artist in 1971].
You would probably have to wait a little bit to see their name appear on most folks’ lists of the greatest groups of the ‘60s, but few bands managed to put together as impressive a collection of durable, radio-friendly songs. It’s Tommy James’ birthday today, so celebrate by taking your MP3 player, pressing the "shuffle" button, and sharing the first 10 songs you hear...