Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2024. Our next list is from CHIRP DJ (Saturdays, 9-Noon) and board member emeritus Mike Bennett.
As is often the case, my number one album hit me pretty instantly. I listened to about a couple hundred more LPs this year, and still know I missed some things, but I only have so much time. Here are my ten faves.
CHIRP Radio Posdcast contributer Josset Yarbrough recently sat down with Kathy Patino, who creates music as Girl K, to discuss her latest release My Future. You can listen to their full conversation here.
Josset Yarbrough: I'm here with Kathy Patino, the mastermind behind Girl K. Her most recent release, My Future, is a pop album that tugs at your heartstrings with its vulnerable lyrics, and has music that makes you want to dance and scream in the best possible way. So without further ado, welcome Kathy. How are you? Kathy Patino: I'm good. Thank you for having me.
JY: So you describe My Future as the black swan of your releases. This album has a stronger pop focus compared to your previous releases, which has more of an indie rock feel. So what led you to that sonic transition and what have you been able to express more now that you've expanded your musical horizons? KP: Yeah, I definitely had been listening to a lot more pop music in my life. For the longest time I was very anti-pop. I don't know where that drift happened, because I was raised on Disney Channel people like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. Then indie rock took over my life and now it's back to being way more pop; I really only listen to Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande right now. I really like playing around with synths and Logic to write my demos and, and I feel like this has allowed me to explore more of what I could create musically because there's only so much I felt I could do playing guitar and staying in that indie rock vein.
Matty G of CHIRP Radio recently spoke with Ari Levin and Nate Dorian of Chicago-based indie rock group Billy Joel Jr. Their most recent EP, Rubberhose, was released in April 2024. You can catch them opening for Modern Dairy at Schuba's on December 19th. You can listen to their full interview HERE.
Matty G: You guys are still relatively fresh in the Chicago music scene. Do you want to take a second and tell us a little bit about your band and its members? Ari Levin: I'm the singer-songwriter for the band. Nate Dorian: I also play the electric guitar in the band and I sing in the background sometimes. AL: We've got two other members. We've got Charlie Dykstal, who plays bass, and then Karl El Sokhn, who plays the drums. We're all normally recording together, so we'll record live and then do any kind of overdubs or tracking with all of us together. We have a couple of other folks that kind of come in and out. As you probably know, there's a huge community in Chicago of artists and musicians that are making music and we try to collaborate wherever we can. So a lot of other folks like Blake Sokoloff, who is a good friend of ours and who runs a studio that we work out of, will sometimes do some overdubs on keyboards with us. Other friends like Cima Kale will do bass and different string instruments, and then vocalists and friends of ours like Syd Kamuda from Big Kid, will add additional vocals here and there.
Throughout December, 
CHIRP Radio Posdcast contributer Josset Yarbrough recently sat down with Kathy Patino, who creates music as Girl K, to discuss her latest release 
Matty G of CHIRP Radio recently spoke with Ari Levin and Nate Dorian of Chicago-based indie rock group Billy Joel Jr. Their most recent EP,