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The CHIRP Blog
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesComing This December: CHIRP Radio’s Best of 2013!
The past 12 months have rocketed by, and that means it’s time to take stock of music made in 2013. Our DJs and volunteers have been closely listening to the hundreds (thousands?) of albums, EPs, and singles that have come in to the station this year.
Starting tomorrow and throughout December, we will post our volunteers’ lists of the music that made the biggest impressions on them over the past 12 months. It’s not our goal to be comprehensive or definitive, but to share with you the sounds that made us move, think, emote, or whatever great music makes us do.
Some albums are sure to pop up several times, and when they do we'll use CHIRP's patended mathmatical formula to incorproate them into a final station-wide Best of 2013 list that will appear on this blog on New Year’s Eve. UIntil then, check back regularly to discover and rediscover some great '13 albums!
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesWeekly Voyages: Friday November 29 to Thursday December 5
(Weekly Voyages is CHIRP Radio's listing of concerts in Chicago at select venues. Information about tickets can be obtained from the venues' Web sites. Do you have corrections or updates for this list? Send us an e-mail.)
Friday November 29
Left Setter Viceroy, Waiflike, Fire It Up
Abbey Pub 7pm 21+
Eric Prydz
Aragon Ballroom 7pm
Departure, Red Jr., The Pipe Dreams, Blackbridge
Beat Kitchen 8:30pm, 21+
The Werks
Bottom Lounge 9pm
The Steepwater Band, The Muggs, The Nick Moss Band
Double Door 8:30pm, 21+
Brent Shaw Duo, Phil Jacobson
Elbo Room 21+
The Hoyle Brothers
Empty Bottle 5:30pm, 21+
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Little Steven Edition
Steven Van Zandt was a Jersey rock ‘n’ roller, who helped found Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. Then, in 1975, his old buddy Bruce Springsteen called, needing help on coming up with a horn arrangement for “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”. Van Zandt, a soul music junkie, did his job there and then helped The Boss come up with the main guitar line for “Born to Run”. After those contributions, it wasn’t too long before Van Zandt joined the E Street Band on tour, where he has become a constant beside Bruce on his full band tours. Steven is not just a sidekick, releasing two fine albums as Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul in the ‘80s. Anyone who can write a reggae tune good enough that Steel Pulse covered it (“Solidarity”) has some talent. And beyond that, Steven became an icon as Tony Soprano’s right hand man on The Sopranos and keeps garage rock alive on his syndicated radio program. Just recently, he put together a theatrical show that reunited the great blue eyed soul band The Rascals. Little Steven has been a big man in rock history. Let’s pay tribute to Steven by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesTake Two: “Our Lips Are Sealed” (The Go-Go’s vs. Fun Boy Three)
Can you hear them? They talk about us
Telling lies…well, that’s no surprise
Can you see them? See right through them
They have no shield, No secrets to reveal
It doesn’t matter what they say, in the jealous games people play
Our lips are sealed
The First Version: A fun, punky-Pop single by a band that briefly took over America thanks to a great album (1981’s Beauty and the Beat) and the influence of MTV. The song is a perfect sample of the group’s energy and spirited attitude, propelled along by upbeat rhythm guitars, a slithering melodic bass line, and the strong, confident vocals of Belinda Carlisle, one of the more underrated singers to come out of the ‘80s Pop scene.
The Other Version: A dark, moody anthem for all the soon-to-be “Goths” suffering their way through high school. The driving drum beat from the first iteration is pushed into the background by a timpani, and the guitars (except for one that nervously picks a single string all the way through) are swapped out for chamber instruments, including a cello and grand piano. Throw in a ghostly chorus of background singers to accompany the sensitive beta-male lead vocals, and the song sounds like it might have been recorded in a dark cathedral on Halloween night.
The terms “original” and “remake” don’t apply to these two songs since the versions were created around the same time. Jane Wiedlin, one of the Go-Go’s guitar players, was dating Terry Hall, the lead singer of The Specials, when their bands were on tour together, unbeknownst to Hall’s girlfriend back in England. The two wrote the song together as a reaction to the inevitable sideways looks and reactions that must have resulted from band mates and others. Wiedlin’s version was released first, with Hall’s arriving a couple of years later ( on the 1983 album Waiting) after he had formed Fun Boy Three. The contrast in styles is telling, and amplified by the songs' respective videos – the guy’s version is all indigo and violet, while the gal and her pals are skip-dancing in a fountain in the California sun, would-be scolds be damned.
Although the Go-Go’s version was the bigger hit, both versions hold up very well today, a testament to how well-written the song is. It’s one of the few pop tunes that the cheerleaders driving around in their convertibles and the Emos smoking cigarettes in the park can get into with equal verve.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesWeekly Voyages: Friday November 22 to Wednesday November 27
(Weekly Voyages is CHIRP Radio's listing of concerts in Chicago at select venues. Information about tickets can be obtained from the venues' Web sites. (Do you have corrections or updates for this list? Send us an e-mail.)
Friday November 22
Common Shiner, Rocketboat, The Dead Hands, In Threes
Abbey Pub 21+
Fitz and the Tantrums
Aragon Ballroom
Yakuza, Scientist, Liquor Mortis
Beat Kitchen 9:30pm, 21+
Mono plus Mick Turner
Bottom Lounge 8pm
Birds of Chicago, Chicago Farmer, Simpleton & Cityfolk
Double Door 8:30pm, 21+
Kevin Leeds & Global Cooling, Space of Mind
Elbo Room 8:30pm 21+
The Hoyle Brothers
Empty Bottle 5:30pm, 21+