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The CHIRP Blog
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Lætitia Sadier Edition
[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:
SKaiser writesWhat’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (Week of May 2)
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Join us tomorrow at 8 PM! The CHIRP Factory Session Screening Night is Wednesday, May 4th, at the Owl (2521 N. Milwaukee Ave) and will feature our two recent episodes with legendary punk collective ONO and post-rock trio Luggage. In addition to the screening, we'll have a special live performance by the band ADT, featuring members of ONO! | 21+
- CHIRP Radio welcomes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard to Lincoln Hall (2424 N Lincoln Avenue) on Sunday, May 8th at 8:00 PM | 21+
NEW MEDIA
- In Rotation: The Dave McDonnell Group
- Dylan Peterson interviews Julien Baker
- CHIRP Battle of the Bands 2016: The Last Four
- Amanda Roscoe Mayo interviews Michael Vallera
- First Time: First Blood with Jenna Chapman
- Friday mp3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Tommy James!
TOP OF THE CHIRP CHARTS
1. PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project (Island)
2. Parquet Courts – Human Performance (Rough Trade)
3. Sturgill Simpson – A Sailor's Guide to Earth (Atlantic)
Rubbed in Dirt, Dipped in Sugar writesJoin Us for a CHIRP Factory Session Screening on Wednesday May 4th at The Owl!
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.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Tommy James Edition
[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...
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesIn Rotation: The Dave McDonnell Group
One of the great errors perpetrated by Ken Burns’ (in)famous PBS Jazz series lies in how it dissed the future. According to the documentary’s small group of talking heads assembled to explain to the audience what’s relevant and what isn’t, all the great, important Jazz happened between 1920 (the height of Louis Armstrong) and 1960 (the height of Miles Davis). The stuff that happened later, the stuff that doesn’t sound like Satchmo and goes off on as-yet uncharted musical adventures, is just so much noise.
This attitude has permeated through to the casual music fan to the point where Jazz is considered a dead language. Which is a shame, because the art form continues to thrive in the 21st century, especially in Chicago, home of a huge amount of gifted musicians fiercely expressing themselves. One of the most recent examples is the Dave McDonnell group, featuring Midwestern Jazz heavyweights Jason Adasiewicz on vibraphone, Joshua Abrams (of Natural Information Society) on bass, and Quin Kirchner (of Wild Belle and NOMO) on drums. With McDonnell’s sax leading the way, the music is very much of the here and now – if it doesn’t sound like the past, that’s very much the point.
Tracks from The Dave McDonnell Group’s new album Eidetic, released on Whistler Records, are now playing in rotation and by request on CHIRP Radio.