Kyle Whelliston writesJoin CHIRP for Kelly Hogan and Mark Eitzel at the Old Town School on Thursday, November 14!

CHIRP is overwhelmingly pleased to welcome Kelly Hogan and Mark Eitzel to the Old Town School of Music on Thursday, November 14. The show will be held at the Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall (the one on the western side of Lincoln Avenue), and will begin promptly at 8 pm.

Mark Eitzel, "America's greatest living lyricist" according to London's The Guardian newspaper, has been active since 1980 and first came to prominence as the leader of American Music Club, a group that peaked with aching slowcore classics Mercury and San Francisco in the early 1990s. During a decade-long AMC hiatus, Mr. Eitzel built up a solo career with relentless touring and collaborations with members of Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and the Arcade Fire.

More recently, he penned the most ornate and thoughtful "open letter" to wayward pop star Miley Cyrus, in which he quoted King Lear and invoked Joseph Mallord William Turner's painting The Field of Waterloo. "You didn’t turn the world on with a smile - so to speak," he wrote. "You just hung above the dead and dying like some eerie apocalyptic firework."

Kelly Hogan, perhaps best known as Neko Case's backup vocalist and comic foil during her concerts, is one of our city's greatest musical treasures. After relocating from Atlanta's Cabbagetown neighborhood, where she was a member of the Rock*A*Teens, she worked as a bartender at The Hideout by night and sang there on her nights off. During the 2000s, she made music with local favorites Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Mavis Staples, and Andrew Bird (who called Ms. Hogan "a national treasure"). She's also appeared on tens of, and maybe even over 100, alt-country and post-rock albums recorded by others.

Late in 2012, she released her first solo record in just over a decade, I Like To Keep Myself In Pain. It features songs written for her by such indie luminaries as Mr. Bird, M. Ward and Robyn Hitchcock; we’ve been playing "We Can't Have Nice Things” and “Daddy’s Little Girl” on the station throughout the year.

So kindly join us for an evening with a pair of our nation's finest songsmiths. Also make sure to stop by the CHIRP Radio table in the front hallway and say hello.