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The CHIRP Blog
Amelia writesOur Music My Body Promotes Safe Spaces & Consensual Interactions at Local Venues and Festivals
Have you seen a consent button-making table at a concert recently? Did you read Riot Fest's or Kickstand Production's anti-harassment statement? If you answered yes on either account, you might have run into Our Music My Body.
Our Music My Body is a campaign by local non-profit organizations Between Friends and Rape Victim Advocates that promotes fun and consensual music experiences for all music lovers and concert- and festival-goers in Chicagoland and beyond.
CHIRP volunteer and DJ Amelia Hruby recently met up with Our Music My Body organizaer Matt Walsh to chat about the campaign.
AH: For people who aren't familiar, what is Our Music My Body?
MW: Our Music My Body is a collaborative campaign between Rape Victim Advocates (RVA) and Between Friends. Rape Victim Advocates is a rape crisis center that advocates for survivors of sexual assault in hospitals and court systems and also does education work. Between Friends is a domestic violence agency in Rogers Park that does court advocacy counseling as well as prevention education in middle and high schools.
AH: How did it get started?
MW: So in 2011, when Odd Future played at Pitchfork, Between Friends and RVA came together to protest the group's hateful lyrics. They caused a big storm, and they were given a booth at the festival. And this was the moment when people realized that these things need to be talked about in the non-profit world.
Then a few years passed, and I came onto the Between Friends team and did a small campaign about Riot Fest in 2014 (#GetConsentAtRiotFest). I reached out to RVA and said that I wanted to do this a lot bigger in 2016. I got put in touch with Kat Stuehrk and we started working collaboratively on a campaign that included a Huffington Post article, booths at Pitchfork and Riot Fest, and a panel on safety, sexism, and harassment in the music industry that included Corin Tucker (of Sleater Kinney), Britt Julious, Jes Skolnik, and Monica Trinidad.
Mike Nikolich writesThe Present Elders Heal and Inspire Through Live Pop-up Performances
[from the Present Elders Facebook page]
The Present Elders is an electronic music duo with a hip hop foundation that specializes in unforgettable live performances where all of the music is composed and manipulated through synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines and FX. Featuring Brother El and Radius, two veterans of Chicago’s electronic and hip hop scenes, the duo has been playing pop-up street shows throughout Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and now in Portland, Oregon.
Formally trained as an audio engineer and graphic designer, Brother El runs The Beat Bank, an independent record label. His unique style has been described as “Chicago’s pulse, the breath of hip-hop, and the clashing fusion of South Side meeting ancestral roots.”
Radius started crafting beats in 2001 with a focus on multi-dimensional “post-genre” based compositions. After producing tracks for local rappers, he began to hone his skills as a producer/live performance artist by winning Chicago area beat battles and later performing in various hip hop and electronic showcases with Moment Sound Crew (Garo, Lokua & Slava). Radius runs ETC Records, a forward-thinking, progressive label for Chicago artists.
The two artists became a duo after Radius was inspired by one of Brother El’s performances at Chicago’s Oakwood Beach to coin the name. He felt like Brother El was a present elder unlocking jewels of the universe with the wisdom of the ancestors and representing progressive cultural movements now. As The Present Elders, the duo’s goal is to heal and inspire by tapping into the frequencies of their audiences.
Amelia writesIt’s CHIRP Night at the Whistler With Pool Holograph and Courtship on Febr. 22!
Local bands Pool Holograph and Courtship are playing CHIRP Night at The Whistler this Wednesday, February 22nd!
Pool Holograph was started as a bedroom project by Wyatt Grant and now includes bassist Zach and brothers Paul and Jake (who are also in local band Varsity). Their 2016 EP Town Quarry features the single "Lone Star" which builds on the band's rock sound with light alt-country vibes. Town Quarry is the first album they worked on as a four-piece, and you can learn more about the making of that EP and their musical inspirations in their recent CHIRP Podcast interview.
Courtship is a psychedelic indie-rock group from Avondale fronted by Tyler Olsen. They'll open the night with laid-back vibes that you can hear in advance on their single "Nothing."
CHIRP Night at the Whistler is every third Wednesday of the month, so be sure to add it to your calendar and come hang with CHIRP-approved bands and DJs!
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writes@CHIRPRADIO (Week of February 20)
Upcoming Events
- Wednesday, Feb. 22: CHIRP Night at the Whistler with Pool Holograph and Courtship
- Saturday, Feb. 25: CHIRP Radio & Kickstand Productions present LVL UP at Beat Kitchen
- Sunday, Feb. 26: The Chicago chapter of Classic Album Sundays gathers at Saturday Audio Exchange for a listening party featuring John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
New Media
- Dylan Peterson catches up with Cloud Nothings at Thalia Hall
- Amelia Hruby talks with Pool Holograph at CHIRP’s studios
- Rediscovering Our Record Collections: Josh Friedberg re-examines Joan Osborne’s ‘90s breakthrough Relish
- Friday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Billie Joe Armstrong Edition
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Billie Joe Armstrong Edition
Today on the MP3 Shuffle we say Happy Birthday to Billie Joe Armstrong, lead singer, guitar player and songwriter for California pop-punk band Green Day.
Formed in 1986, the band broke through to the big time in February 1994 with the massively successful album Dookie, a record that took full advantage of the new world Nirvana made safe for groups armed with loud guitars and 3-chord DIY attitudes. “Longview” and “When I Come Around” were essential ‘90s-era song staples, just as much at home on Top-40 radio as blasting through the earphones of skateboarders and sensitive loners.
Historically, if a pop-punk band sticks around long enough it will end up working mainly on one side of the street: Your No Doubt’s and Blink-182’s will go full-on commerical pop while your Buzcocks and Dead Milkmen continue to keep it real on the left end of the radio dial. Over the years, Green Day seems to have managed to have it both ways while inviting constant scrutiny as to whether they are/were a “real” punk outfit. These questions persist despite the fact that, for example, they were one of the few A-list rock bands of the 2000 decade to get explicitly political with their work and not apologize for doing it (2004’s rock opera American Idiot).
For now, judgements about Green Day’s place in rock history will have to wait, because the band is still going strong in its fourth decade. Help celebrate Billie Joe’s birthday by taking your MP3 player, pressing the “shuffle” button, and sharing the first 10 songs that you hear: