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The CHIRP Blog
Sophie Holtzmann writesAlbum Review: “Tough Times on Oakwood Demos” by Grumble
James Chunga, who you may know as the bassist from another Chicago band, So Pretty, has released a solo album under the name Grumble. Tough Times on Oakwood Demos, released this month, is funky, folk punk that warrants your full attention, because the songs are just so damn pleasant to listen to both in the musical quality and witty lyricism.
Ironically, one reason his sound is so unique is that it revitalizes older components of folk punk. A lot of the themes of introspection, battling demons, and finding meaning in an unraveling life are themes that gave folk punk so much traction as a rallying point for the disenfranchised from The Pogues to Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains.
Nick Ammerman: Loose Diamonds writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2017: Nick Ammerman
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2017. Our next list is from DJ Nick Ammerman. In alphabetical order: |
Mike Scales writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2017: Mike Scales
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2017. Our next list is from Assistant Music Director Mike Scales. These are 10 of my favorite records of 2017 in no particular order! |
Disco Ball Dance Hall writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2017: Sarah Brooks
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2017. Our next list is from volunteer Sarah Brooks. |
Jack Ryan writesThe Other Davy Jones
The Internet is an incredible thing. You have more access to information at your finger tips than your ancestors did at any other point in human history, rendering research in in music trivia easy and making any mystery surrounding your favorite artists is pretty much non-existent. That’s not the case when it comes to Davy Jones.
If you're scratching your head at the that statement, you should know I’m not referring to the lead singer of the Monkees. I’m also not referring to David Bowie’s career before he was famous. The Davy Jones I’m referring to is beyond obscure, with a Wikipedia entry that barely stretches past one sentence and no reference or articles published about him on any music website, magazine or blog.
Depending on whom you ask, Davy Jones was either a black American or Canadian soul singer who got his break on the British music scene in the early ‘60s. It’s anyone’s guess as to how he ended up in England. Maybe he was a soldier who was stationed there as part of the NATO military build up in Western Europe during the height of the Cold War. Maybe he was just an average black man who was sick of being kept down because of stateside racism and decided to look for opportunities.
His biggest hit was “Amapola,” a rocked-up version of a popular jazz standard from the late 1930s. While he never became a huge star, he had a minor following that led him to playing packed dates at concert halls around the UK, including some dates in Liverpool in 1961, where a little known beat combo by the name of “The Beatles” were his backing band.
