We're seeking new members for our 2025 Board of Directors, as well as our founding Associate Board for young professionals 35 and under. Details and application at each of the links above.
The CHIRP Blog
SKaiser writesThe Week That Was and Will Be: What’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (5/25/15)
NEW MEDIA:
- Story Week Festival: Chicago Classics
- Katie Owens interviews Hologram Kizzie
- MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday, Johnny Gill!
COMING UP THIS WEEK:
- CHIRP Night at the Whistler with Varsity and Zigtebra: May 27 at 8:30 PM
- CHIRP Fifth Anniversary Party! Moxee Restaurant and Mad Mouse Brewing May 28 at 7:00 PM - BUY TICKETS
TOP OF THE CHIRP CHARTS:
1. Nosaj Thing - Fated (Innovative Leisure)
2. Blur - The Magic Whip (Warner Bros)
3. The Sonics - This is the Sonics (Revox)
Click here to see the full CHIRP list!
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Johnny Gill Edition
Today we say Happy Birthday to Johnny Gill, one of the biggest names in '90s-'00s RnB both as a solo artist and member of the group New Edition. While he wasn’t an original member, Gill was the key to the band accomplishing something other groups rarely achieve: a successful second act. Having fired lead singer Bobby Brown for reasons known to anyone who was watching “Inside Edition” or reality TV in the 2000s, the remaining New Edition members decided they needed to recruit someone of comparable skill and charisma up front. With Gill (the only member of the group not from Boston) on lead vocals, they transitioned from a fresh-faced bubble-gum boy band to legit RnB stars, developing a more mature sound and releasing their biggest-selling albums Heart Break and Home Again. Despite splitting up from time to time to pursue solo careers and the consummate New Jack Swing experience that was Bell Biv DeVoe, all six current and former members have remained in each other’s orbit and continue to tour together.
Wish Johnny Gill a Happy Birthday and play the MP3 shuffle by taking your MP3 player, pressing the "shuffle" button, and sharing the first 10 songs you hear:
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesThe Week That Was and Will Be: What’s Up at CHIRP Radio (5/18/15)
Special Announcements:
You can win tickets to the 2015 Pitchfork Music Festival! Tune in this week for your chance to win.
New Media:
- Dylan Peterson interviews Beat Connection
- First Time: First Lie
- Top Five Music Videos Starring Puppets
- MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday, Brian Eno!
Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop Five: Music Videos Starring Puppets
This fall, the Muppets return to television for the first time since Muppets Tonight, and if the trailer released this week is any indication, the gamble may actually pay off. While Kermit, Piggy, et. al. prepare for their big return, we can tide ourselves over with five music videos starring the Muppets (or puppets like them). Or, as Kermit might say, "It's a top five list! Yaaaaaaay!"
1) The Housemartins, "Five Get Over Excited" (1987)
For all of their artful applications, puppets are really just toys. In the video for the Housemartins' 1987 classic "Five Get Over Excited," they're treated as such. The whole video looks like the end result of giving 12-year-olds a modest budget, a song, and a camera. That's not meant as an insult. In under three minutes, the lads ride go-karts, sneak beers, and screw around with puppets designed to look just like them. The likenesses aren't as on point as other entries in the band-as-puppets genre (with Genesis's "Land of Confusion" taking this to its logical, disturbing conclusion), but the glee with which Paul Heaton and the boys operate their felt doppelgangers more than makes up for any quality issues.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Brian Eno Edition
Today is the birthday of Brian Eno, one of the most prolific and influential musicians of this or any era in music. His talent for production is not just displayed on his own albums (of which he has over 40) but his numerous collaborations with a who's-who of Pop and Rock icons, from John Cale to The Talking Heads to David Bowie to U2.
Eno also helped create the music genre called Ambient. At a time when Punks dug in with noisy simplicity and Progressives were getting grandiose and complicated, Eno and a few others went in a different direction, fashioning gentle, atmospheric music that blends into surroundings as much as it commands attention. His album Ambient 1: Music for Airports floats by at a glacial pace, but if you listen to it a few times it might permanently change your perception of music. Over the decades, Eno's innovations and curiosity have paved the way for musicians of the acoustic, electric, and electronic variety to express themselves in new ways. To celebrate the occasion of the godd Mr. Eno's birth, take your MP3 player, press the "shuffle" button, and share the first 10 songs that you hear: