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The CHIRP Blog
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Roy Wood Edition
Today let’s celebrate the birthday of Roy Wood, an innovator in the ‘60s and ‘70s with The Move and the original Electric Light Orchestra. Wood came out of Birmingham, playing in a forerunner of The Idle Race, a band later led by Jeff Lynne. Wood then formed The Move, who had a hit with their first single, “Night of Fear”. The Move song “Flowers in the Rain” was the first track played on BBC Radio 1. They also had classics like the psych-pop wonder “Blackberry Way” (their sole UK #1) and the proto-glam rock of “Wild Tiger Woman”. Later, Jeff Lynne joined The Move, which led to classics like Lynne’s “Do Ya” and two songs that later loomed large for Cheap Trick, “California Man” and “Brontosaurus”. Eventually, Lynne, Wood and Bev Bevan formed Electric Light Orchestra, at the time more prog than pop. Wood then left to form Wizzard, a fascinating band that alternated poppy glam singles like “I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday” with arty albums. Roy eventually went solo and resurfaces with odd things like front a nine-woman all-saxophone backing band. In honor or Mr. Wood, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 songs that come up.
Josh Friedberg: Music Historian's Corner writesRediscovering Our Record Collections: “The Band” by The Band
For this edition of Rediscovering Our Record Collections, I am examining one of my favorite albums of all time, a classic rock and Americana milestone.
An almost all-Canadian ensemble, The Band emerged in the late 1960s with a blend of older and newer sounds associated with the American South and gained a wide audience in the process. Their second, self-titled album is often considered their best work, and as of June, 2013, the statistically compiled website Acclaimed Music ranked it as #40 on their list of the most acclaimed album of all time.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesWeekly Voyages: Friday November 8 to Thursday November 14
(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 November 8
Four Star Brass Band
Abbey Pub 21+
Pretty Lights, Blood Diamonds, Paul Basic, Supervision
Aragon Ballroom 7:30pm, 18+
The Flips, The Return Fight, The Missingjays, Mathew Ferris Band
Beat Kitchen 10pm
The 151s, Martian Agriculture, Void the Light, Shades of Indigo
Bottom Lounge 6pm
Oran Etkin Quartet
Bottom Lounge 8pm,
Chicago Afrobeat Project, Sidewalk Chalk, Ayodele, Trio Mokili
Double Door 8:30pm, 21+
Jolly Korea, Noah Noel, The Plastic Rebellion, The Del Christies
Elbo Room 8:30pm 21+
The Hoyle Brothers
Empty Bottle 5:30pm, 21+
Kilo Wattson writesThe First Album I Ever Bought: “Run-D.M.C.” by Run-D.M.C.
I bought my first album around the time that music as I knew it was changing. Bought, however, is an inaccurate representation of this acquisition.
One glorious afternoon in 1984 I walked into the Rose’s Department Store in High Point, North Carolina with my mother and emerged with Run-D.M.C.’s self-titled first record stuffed in my corduroys. Cassette. Weird plastic holder and all. My grade school friends and I were in awe of the sounds that were emanating from North Carolina A&T’s WNAA at that time and I raced home to listen to this cassette in its entirety, especially “Hard Times” which I had heard so many times on late night college radio that year.
Cassette in the deck and earphones on… I was disappointed. Why didn’t this music sound like when I listened to it on the radio? Was there a problem with the cassette, my father’s old stereo or had my ears suddenly become incapable of hearing this music? I was disappointed and thought my break dance dreams were over.
Kyle Whelliston writesCHIRP Radio Welcomes Destroyer to The Old Town School of Folk Music on Thursday November 7!
Please join CHIRP in welcoming Destroyer, a/k/a the 17-year musical project of Vancouver-based Dan Bejar, to the Old Town School of Folk Music's intimate Gary and Laura Maurer Concert Hall. It's a special solo acoustic show scheduled for Thursday, November 7 at 8 pm. Iranian-American experimental musician Azita, also a voice and piano teacher at Old Town School, will open the show as a special guest.
Before announcing this 12-city tour, Mr. Bejar announced that this would be the last time Destroyer would play live until at least 2015. This is, at least in some part, due to commitments related to a forthcoming album by The New Pornographers, the CHIRP-beloved supergroup in which he shares vocal duties with A.C. Newman, Kathryn Calder and Neko Case. If the audience is supernaturally kind enough, he might add N.P. cult classics like "Silver Jenny Dollar" or "Jackie, Dressed In Cobras" to the set list... but honestly, he's more likely to play "Barricades in the Morning", the unwritten song-with-in-a-song referenced in 2004's "Notorious Lightning."