CHIRP is building an Associate Board for young professionals 35 & under. Interested? Please fill out this form.
The CHIRP Blog
Mike Bennett writesFriday MP3 Shuffle - Happy Birthday Sly Stone Edition
[originally published March 2013]
By the age 11, Sylvester Stone had mastered piano, guitar, bass and drums. All the better to eventually lead a large band that mixed soul, rock, pop and funk in the most sublime combination. He got the nickname Sly in grade school (after a classmate misspelled his name as Slyvester), and grew up to be a popular DJ in San Francisco. He went on to produce The Beau Brummels, The Mojo Men and Grace Slick’s first band, The Great Society. Finally, he formed one of the greatest bands in American history, Sly and the Family Stone.
Over the course of six albums and many singles, Sly Stone and his band showed incredible breadth, putting out classic after classic. Of course, Sly is a recluse and eccentric now, but his legacy is staggering. Let’s pay tribute to the legend by sharing the first 10 songs that come up on your iPod or MP3 player.
Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesCHIRP Battle of the Bands 2015: Round One, Part One
Spring is here. The birds are back, the snow is melting, and, in gymnasiums from Greensboro to Anaheim, college basketball teams are fulfilling their destinies. It's NCAA tournament time again, the most wonderful time of the year for fans of basketball and bracket-based competition alike. Here at CHIRP, we fall into both categories, which got us thinking: what would a tournament of current Chicago bands look like? After a little thinking, we came up with this:
Joy Merten (Into the Void) writesIn Rotation: ONO
ONO have been a Chicago institution since they formed in January of 1980, mixing experimental noise, industrial, and what the band calls “avant gospel,” surely a reference to frontman Travis’ operatic voice and the band’s tendency to incorporate performance art into their live shows. The band's importance to the history of experimental music in Chicago is undeniable, and they can also be considered within the context of their contemporaries in No Wave bands in New York City.
Lady Amelia writesSláinte! Great Music to Pair With Your Whiskey
by Amelia Hruby
With St. Patrick's Day a week away and the remnants of the third snowiest February in Chicago history still on the sidewalks, we imbibing Chicagoans surely have whiskey on the brain. In honor of the upcoming holiday and the one time each year the Chicago River is as green as a bottle of Jameson, we've dug through our archives for our favorite songs about whiskey. There's a track here for your first shot, the height of the party and that nice little cry you might have after. Cheers!
Beck, "Whiskey Be Your Lover" from Don't Get Bent Out of Shape (1988)
Primitive Beck at his best. This track is off his first cassette and showcases Beck's early minimal-folk aesthetic with a twangy accordion thrown in for good measure. It sings like a ballad, so you'll be joining in with the chorus by the final verse: "Whiskey be your lover, but who's gonna be your man?"
Mike Bennett writesFriday MP3 Shuffle — Happy Birthday Mark E. Smith Edition
[originally published 2010]
Since the late ’70s, The Fall has been the crap that talks back. As the late, great John Peel so aptly put it, The Fall always sounds different, the Fall always sounds the same. This is because of the sole constant in the band, the man who seemingly says “unh” after every phrase in his hectoring Mancunian accent, Mark E. Smith. Whether it’s careening off-kilter rockabilly or heavily electronic music, Smith’s torrent of acidic observations and musical adaptability have made The Fall one of the greatest bands ever, whose influence is immeasurable. In honor of Mr. Smith, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first ten tunes: