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The CHIRP Blog
Mike Bennett writesJanuary 10, 2014 iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Jim Croce Edition
Today we pay tribute to one of my first favorite singers, Jim Croce. I got an AM clock radio (with a light up dial!) as a first communion present and it was tuned to the Top 40 stations and on a lot. Which meant I heard a lot of Jim Croce. He had a nice voice and could alter it to fit the mood of his song, singing with tenderness on love songs like “Operator”, while jiving on the song I loved, such as “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”. His Life and Times album was my favorite of my dad’s 8-track tapes, where I heard his mix of love songs and story songs, often from a working class perspective. This perspective was earned – he did a stretch in the National Guard to avoid going to Vietnam and worked various trucking and construction jobs. And he drew from that environment in his music. Moreover, as I revisited his music as an adult, buying a 50 song compilation that had pretty much all of his studio work, I appreciated his facility with country, blues, pop and classical music. Songs like “Time In a Bottle” and the amazing, non-single “These Dreams” show a composer who combined directness and economy with subtle sophistication. His death in a plane crash in 1973 robbed pop music of someone who still had scads of untapped potential. Thankfully, his recordings still have the warmth and vitality they had 40 years ago. In honor of Mr. Croce, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle, and share the first 10 songs that pop up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday George Martin Edition
Today, let’s celebrate one of the most important producers in pop music history, Sir George Martin. (NOTE: If you haven’t read the new Tune In book about The Beatles and want to do so, this post will reveal a key fact from the book. So Spoiler Alert!). Martin had musical inclinations, and after serving his country, became the top assistant to the head of Parlophone Records, learning how to produce records with a label that was an afterthought in the EMI Music empire. While working on a wide variety of genres (and excelling at comedy records with The Goon Show with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan), he developed an experimental bent. This served him well when, after originally turning The Beatles down, the head of EMI assigned the band to Martin and Parlophone as a form of punishment – the boss found out George was having an affair with his secretary. Martin quickly warmed to The Beatles on a personal level, but wasn’t sold on the material. But the success of the Fab Four’s first 45, “Love Me Do”, proved him wrong. But he soon found Lennon-McCartney material up to par and forged a new type of producer-artist relationship. Instead of finding material for the band, he helped them cultivate their own songs and sound. Basically, Martin and The Beatles were perfect for each other, because they both were innovators. He helped them accomplish any wild sounds they wanted depicted. Yet, one of the things I love about Martin is that in documentaries, as he sits at a mixing desk playing parts of Beatles tracks, he still is amazed that he was a part of it. And an essential part. So let’s pay tribute to Martin by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Josh Friedberg: Music Historian's Corner writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Today's Rediscovering Our Record Collections examines my reaction over time to Michael Jackson's 1982 landmark, Thriller. By all accounts a milestone in the history of popular music, Thriller cemented Michael Jackson's status as a central figure in late-20th century popular culture, becoming the biggest-selling album of all time worldwide; hitting #1 on the album charts in six (!) continents; breaking the color line on MTV with its groundbreaking music videos; and enabling a gigantic crossover success for Jackson, uniting audiences of all racial and ethnic backgrounds for a common cause of celebration.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesWeekly Voyages: Friday Jan. 3 to Thursday Jan. 9
(Weekly Voyages is CHIRP Radio's listing of concerts in Chicago at select venues. Information about tickets can be obtained from the venues' Web sites. Do you have corrections or updates for this list? Send us an e-mail.)
Friday January 3
Sexy Ester, redLYON, Sorry, Charlie, Cousin Dud
Abbey Pub 8:30pm, 21+
Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, Light Years, Sudden Suspension
Beat Kitchen 7pm
Zaramela, Best Friends, Marykate
Bottom Lounge 8pm
The Alder Kings, The Buckshot Hounds, Stolen Silver, The Race To Space
Double Door 8:15pm, 21+
Sam Russell
Elbo Room 8pm 21+
Foolish, The Wild Torching Spree, 28th North, The Beginning
Elbo Room 8:30pm 21+
The Hoyle Brothers
Empty Bottle 21+
CHIRP DJ writesCHIRP Radio’s Top 15 Albums of 2013!
The votes are in, the numbers have been counted, and we are pleased to present CHIRP Radio’s top 15 albums of 2013!
In expressing their favorite albums of the year, our volunteers cited over 200 albums from over 160 labels (including the most popular outlet, “Self-Released”). The records cover the width, depth, and breadth of the music spectrum. And in a CHIRP Radio end-of-year-best-of-list first, we have a tie for the top spot, with one album from arguably Chicago's biggest and most controversial musical force and another from Rock legends bringing another sonic mastepriece two decades after their previous album.
Here’s to another great year of music and many more to come. Happy New Year from all of us at CHIRP Radio!