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The CHIRP Blog
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/mP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Blake Schwarzenbach Edition
Jawbreaker was a groundbreaking emo band, and their legend has only grown over the years. Indeed, when their sole major label effort, Dear You, came out, a lot of folks felt they had sold out. Now, the album is pretty beloved (at least that’s what I’ve heard). The voice of Jawbreaker was Blake Schwarzenbach, and his sore throated vocal delivery (and he had throat surgery before, by the way) is real distinctive. He went on to form Jets To Brazil, and I personally think Four Cornered Night, the band’s second album, is a classic. Blake has tried two other bands since Jets dissolved and he now teaches English at Hunter College in New York. Let’s pay tribute to this emo godfather by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
- Nicole Atkins — War Is Hell (Mondo Amore): The new Nicole Atkins album is pretty darned good sophomore release, as she tries to expand her stylistic range while making sure she plays to the strengths of her debut. This song falls in the latter category, as its a beautiful ballad that could have fit well on her wonderful debut, Neptune City. Atkins has a terrific voice and a classic songstress sound.
- Robyn — Include Me Out (Body Talk, Pt. 2): I’ll be the millionth person to say it: Why isn’t Robyn a big star? There is nothing non-commercial about her dance pop. Her songs are hook filled, have great beats and she has a bit of personality. Hmm…maybe that’s the problem, having personality. Well, she goes over gangbusters in Sweden and if she keeps turning out great songs like this slamming electro number, she’ll break through.
- The Jim Jones Revue — Big Len (Burning Your House Down): Jones used to be in Thee Hypnotics, and now leads a traditional garage rock band that definitely comes across as a descendant of Jerry Lee Lewis and The Sonics. Jones shouts pretty well and the band plays with a lot of fire. Their live show is already legendary.
- Ann Peebles — Until You Came Into My Life (The Complete Ann Peebles): My wife did not know the original song when she suggested that we use this for the first dance of our wedding this past October. She had heard a cover by Joe Henry. That was nice, but it didn’t have the magic of Ms. Peebles’ version. Willie Mitchell’s Hi Records crew gives this just the right groove, and Peebles, best known for “I Can’t Stand the Rain”, penned an incredible live song.
- The La’s — Feelin’ (The La’s): One of the great one shots of all time, The La’s just wrote great ’60s styled pop songs. This number is a bit Beatle-y, especially in the little guitar hook at the end of every verse, which is sounds like George Harrison could have played it.
- Henson Cargill — WIldflower (A Very Well Travelled Man): Cargill had a crossover country hit in the ’60s with his anti-racism song “Skip A Rope”. He had a low key style, but his records were produced to ring every bit of drams out of his baritone delivery. Here, a wildflower is used as a metaphor for not falling in love with a prostitute (“I know I can never own her…never take a wildflower home.”).
- The Clash — Koka Kola (London Calling): A lesser track from what may be the best rock album ever. Of course, The Clash were so on top of their game at this point, that this less than two minute track is still energetic, has interesting lyrics and really cool middle eight.
- June & The Exit Wounds — Hey Hey Hey (“A Little More Haven Hamilton, Please”): This Parasol Records release is a hidden soft pop gem. The album is littered with ’70 AM gold styled songs that conjure up the best of Bread, Todd Rundgren, Danny Wilson and other like minded artists. It’s a shame that the band never followed this up.
- Kid Creole & The Coconuts — Imitation (Tropical Gangsters): This was the album that made Kid Creole a star throughout Europe. It was the first of his albums to finally capture both his mastery of mixing up everything from funk to Broadway to R & B to salsa to calypso and beyond, with production that fully made the grooves sound great. Three more top notch albums followed this one.
- Supergrass — Eon (Supergrass): The third Supergrass album is really underrated, as the band further delved into softer sounds. Gaz Coombes is a master of conjuring melodies that are wistful and sad, yet still a tad hopeful. This song has the grandeur of ’70s Who without the bombast. Lovely stuff.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio Reading List (week of May 16th)
After 22 years, Chicago has a new mayor. What does this mean for the local music scene?
Vinyl record sales are going up (very slightly), which is good news, even in Utah.
Meanwhile, live music is faltering…or is it just peaking?
The RIAA wins a few bucks from LimeWire. Artists don’t hold their breath waiting for a cut of the loot. And ultimately, it may not matter that much, anyway.
Every year dozens of outdoor festivals around the country succeed in bringing music to the masses. SuperTwang is not one of them.
It survived hair bands, pop imitators, and even Rap-Rock. How Heavy Metal is keeping us sane.
(The Reading List is a weekly collection of interesting, important, and thought-provoking articles about music from around the Web. Click here to suggest an article.)
Karin Fjellman writesTonight! Don’t miss Cloudbirds and Angel Olsen at the Whistler!
Even if you’ve only got an hour or three free tonight, you’ll kick yrself later if you don’t end up going to this:
The May edition of our CHIRP-curated series features the lovely strums of Cloudbirds and the sweet croonings of Angel Olsen. Starting at 9pm tonight, stop in for free music and merriment, and buy a drink while you’re there — a portion of bar sales will benefit CHIRP! After the artists, CHIRP’s own DJ Beach Party and DJ Salinger will be spinning the finest in mid-century teen idol, lounge, and sunshine pop. As usual, we’ll be hosting a cheap raffle for some stellar prizes. Be there!
THE WHISTLER
2421 N Milwaukee Ave
21+
No cover
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder Edition
When he burst on the scene in the early ’60s, he was called “The 12-year-old Genius,” an obvious nod to another blind soul singer, Ray Charles. Amazingly, Stevie Wonder managed to grow into the genius label. After a string of ’60s hits that established him as a pop singer of the highest order, as he reached adulthood, he took charge of his music. In the early ’70s, he unleashed a run of albums that President Barack Obama told Rolling Stone magazine, might be the best five album sequence in the rock era. Obama knows what he’s talking about. Albums like Talking Book and Songs Of The Key of Life, just to name two, are multi-dimensional works that fuse R & B, pop, rock, jazz and funk all propelled by stellar songwriting and musicianship. Wonder is still an amazing performer and tireless advocate for social causes. Let’s give Stevie a birthday shout out by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle, and sharing the first 10 songs that pop up.
- Jay Reatard — Screaming Hand (Matador Singles ’08): One of my favorite songs from Reatard’s final singles compilation, which was my introduction to his recorded work. I had seen Jay play in the rain at Pitchfork, where he played an intense set that belied the increasingly fizzier touch of his recordings. What I loved about Reatard was how he could go from loud garagey power chords to breezier stuff in the vein of Buzzcocks, The Undertones and LMNOP. This song is about having a crazy father, and is typically hook filled.
- Kevin Tihista — Situation Vacant (MOJO: The Modern Genius of Ray Davies): This comes from a MOJO Magazine CD that paid tribute to Ray Davies of The Kinks. Chicago’s very own Tihista does a fairly faithful rendition of this great piece of sprightly pop from the classic Something Else album. This would be a hard song to rearrange, as Davies did such a great job of tying the lyrics to the rhythm of the song.
- The Jesus Lizard — Until It Stopped To Die (Blue): On the latter day Jesus Lizard albums, the band sometimes toned down its approach, while still constructing songs where the rhyhtm section and guitar parts interlocked in sophisticated post-punk fashion. This song has a bit of a jazzy gloss, but also touches upon some of the spy movie intrigue of bands like Portishead. Of course, with David Yow singing, it can’t be anyone but The Lizard.
- Little Richard — Keep A Knockin’ (The Georgia Peach): This song was a staple in the repetoire of countless garage bands during the ’60s. It’s careening rhythm and Little Richard’s manic piano playing take what is a New Orleans styled romp and turn it into primal rock ‘n’ roll.
- Ed Kuepper — It’s Lunach (The Butterfly Net): After Ed Kuepper left The Saints, it eventually became clear that the reason he and Chris Bailey could not co-exist in the band was not because of major artistic differences so much as they each had too many of their own ideas to comfortably pursue in the same band. That being said, compare Ed Kuepper’s solo work with the latter day Saints, and they aren’t too far apart. Both Bailey and Kuepper are rooted in R & B and then add pop and rock elements, with a seething intenstiy always present. I could hear Bailey sing this elegant swirling number.
- Tahiti 80 — Memories of the Past (Wallpaper For the Soul): Before Phoenix became all the rage, I thought this French pop band might hit it big. A great mix of ’60s pop influences, ’70s R & B and modern dance music, with a photogenic and talented front man, I don’t know how they didn’t grab the brass ring. This is a slower number from the band’s second, and, in my opinion, best album. This is a lush tune with faux strings and a mellotron that is sunny ’60s styled pop bliss.
- Fugazi — Promises (13 Songs): Logically, since Ian McKaye founded Dischord Records, his band defined the classic Dischord sound. They flew the post-punk flag for years, always probing new wrinkles in their style. That being said, I don’t know if they ever topped their earliest work, where the playing is so good, the songs are so focused, and they announced themselves as a force, while only charging five bucks a ticket to see them live.
- Lyle Lovett — She’s No Lady (Pontiac): As in “she’s no lady/she’s my wife.” On his second album, Lovett quickly shed the confines of country music to incorporate jazz, blues and pop for his skewed look at life and love. In some respects, he balanced country’s love of clever turns of phrase with observational songwriting in league with Randy Newman and John Prine. This is a nifty mid-tempo jump blues effort with superb horns.
- The Stone Roses — I Wanna Be Adored (The Stone Roses): When Brits are polled about the best British albums of all-time, this album consistently lands in the Top 10. And American writers consistently question this. While the Roses didn’t end up having a career on par with other legendary Brit bands like The Jam and The Smiths, they built on their work and pushed it forward, with epic scope (as on this classic album opener) and by mixing it with dance elements. There are so many classic songs on this album, and its influence was tremendous.
- Fujiya and Miyagi — Uh (Lightbulbs): Krautrock is an adaptable form, as this British band demonstrates, mixing the repetition and tonality of the form with low key funk rock. At times, they remind me of a friendlier Shriekback. This song is one of the best on the fun Lightbulbs album.
Erik Roldan writesCHIRP + Coach House Sounds Session With The Hit Back
The Hit Back are a new group in Chicago comprised of Seth Weidman and Jesse Hanabarger. Their piano-based rock recalls a young Ben Gibbard, with more atmospheric instrumentation. Their debut album, “Who Are These Weird Old Kids” came out on April 26th with gorgeous pacaking by Chicago’s Sidedown Audio, and it was partially produced by Swedish producer Lindefelt.
Coach House Sounds will release The Hit Back Session on May 10th, 2011. Stream it at coachhousesounds.com and check out their in-store performance at Saki, 3617 W. Fullerton, on May 14th at 4pm.
What the dumbest thing you’ve ever done in a basement?
One of the dumbest things I ever did in a basement was try to start one of my first bands with some friends in high school. There were five of us, and we called ourselves 5 Card Stud. We built our first and only song on a riff I had come up with. We were pretty proud of ourselves until the end of the summer when we starting hearing the song “Right Now” by SR-71. Turns out we pretty much wrote that song. I can field questions later about the hip hop crew I also had in a different basement.
Can you tell me about one time when you realized this was YOUR city?
Growing up just north of Chicago, in Evanston, I always felt a strong connection with the city. I would even claim it as “my city” when I lived up in Minnesota for a few years in college, but it probably wasn’t true at that point. I’d say that a couple years ago, once me and my sister and my parents all ended up here in different and wonderful neighborhoods of Chicago, that’s when it was truly my city. It’s full of so many people and places that I love, too many to name. It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else.
Describe a scenario where The Hit Back could be someone’s life coach and the top 2 life lessons you’d teach them.
First of all, we would call our life coaching seminar Learn to Hit Back: Jesse and Seth’s Approach to Treating Life’s Obstacles as a Punching Bag. We would probably lecture from a boxing ring in the middle of the room, or at least have a mic hanging from the ceiling.
Then the lesson we would teach is that people should surround themselves with other people that they trust and respect the hell out of. The Hit Back is a good example of that. A lesson about regularly using a sinus rinse or neti pot would probably follow.
Tell me about your CHS session—what did you like about it? Was there anything that surprised you or was spontaneous that came out in the recording?
The Coach House Sounds experience was all positive. Matt and his crew are doing such a great job with this project. Doug, Mike and Neal are all crazy good at what they do.
We ended up recording our session a few days before a show, so it was a nice little rehearsal opportunity for us. We basically just ran through a shortened version of our set, trying out a couple new things for some of the songs.