Radio Free Chicago

Flashback Friday: More Than Melting With You

 

Progressive synth-pop band, Modern English, found instant fame with the overly catchy 80s anthem, "I'll Melt With You." The romantic quintet from Essex, England released three albums on 4AD Records in a five-year period in the early 1980s. The band's early works were heavily influenced by post-punk melancholy artists such as Bahaus and Joy Division. On it's sophmore album, After The Snow, the band sold a solid 500,000 copies, due mainly to its modern hit, which was featured in the movie, Valley Girl. Critics described the song as "A dreamy, creamy celebration of love and lust" and "suburban amateurism at its most unrewarding." However, Modern English's third record, Ricochet Days was a commercial bust. Despite it's flat sales and unfavorable reviews, the album went virtually unnoticed; its underrated charm featured  accessible new wave stylings that leaned more towards Echo & The Bunnymen, Simple Minds or Gary Numan. While not earth-shattering in creativity or content, Ricochet Days, is still a rewarding and easy listen.

 

Rainbows End

Hands Across The Sea

Chapter 12 (12 Inch Mix)

I am a Bot I am a Bot I am a Bot I am a Bot

No, seriously. My character in my retro-spooky space punk band, the Earth Program is a half-woman half-robot who was reconstructed after a UFO from the Outer Twilight crash-landed on top of her. Or so the story goes...

I suppose it is time to introduce myself to RFC readers, since I began writing on here at the beginning of the month, with no explanation. I wear no veil. My goal on RFC is to provide readers with a weekly update on live events in Chicago. Sometimes I write about friends’ projects that deserve attention, sometimes I seek out shows I think are worth writing about. No matter what, my focus is live music in Chicago and community. And I would love to hear from you!

I see myself as serving several functions in the scene: blogger, promoter, friend, musician, and most recently, an actual music stand for Johnny of Johnny and the Limelites at the White Mystery 2010 Party (more to come on this matter). My latest project, the Earth Program is a multi-media affair, and that means none of my other pursuits shall conflict with my alliance with the Program. We are a group of hardworking individuals with a universal desire for a lasting creative project that incorporates and brings together a community, all in the name of music.  

If you’d like to check out our debut DIY album, “Invade!,” you can listen to it here. More importantly, I encourage you to come out to our Album Release Party at Ronny’s on Friday, January 29. I personally promise a good show and great time. 

If you see me and have been enjoying some of my posts, or just genuinely like my purple pants or shoes (I wear a lot of purple these days), please come shake my bionic hand, and let’s talk about the future— of sci-fi and music, of shoes and ships and sealing wax... of cabbages and kings... (and why the sea is boiling hot... or whether pigs have wings...)

 

Earth Program Album Release Party @ Ronny’s Bar 

2101 Calfornia Ave. on January 29, 2010 @ 10 p.m. $5

Eat Your Makeup

Mawkish

Invasions

Louis is on the Hunt... For Love

Chicago songwriter Ryne Estwing (of Scattered Trees and Horse in the Sea) is performing with a rotating cast of  friends and musicians with his new tribe, Louis & The Hunt.  Though none of the band members are named Louis, evidently a work of fiction, the songs are mysteriously relatable and eerily autobiographical, reflecting a sense of searching and sorting by way of lovelorn lyrics and delicate melodies.

Louis & The Hunt will be  releasing its first EP in the next few months, but until then, listeners can get a preview of several of the songs included on MySpace. 

And, for your viewing pleasures, a gorgeous video for the lovely song Day Trip has been put together by JM Harper, a gifted Chicago filmmaker:   

Louis & The Hunt - Day Trip from jmharper on Vimeo.

They Saw Those Lights

The Wolf and I

Footprints on a Bed

Louis & The Hunt is performing Tuesday, January 26 at Lincoln Hall. Get tickets now! 

Flashback Friday: Kickin' It Old School Style with Da Fat Boys

Weighing in around 750 pounds, Brooklyn-based hip-hop trio, The Fat Boys, were pioneers of old school rap back in the mid 1980s. Originally called Disco 3, the gimmicky, comedic act was comprised of Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales, Damon "Kool Rock-Ski" Wimbley and Darren "The Human Beat Box" Robinson. Disco 3 quickly changed their name to The Fat Boys after the band's manager paid a hefty $350 bill for extra breakfasts at a hotel while touring in Europe. The group's self-titled record released in 1985 still ranks as a hip-hop classic that blends R&B, rock and reggae centered around killer beats; including a synthetic drum machine and a more organic percussion, using The Human Beat Box's mouth as a secondary beatmaker. This unique sound worked for the trio as did the cheesy word play between rappers Prince Markie Dee and Kool-Rock Ski, which often satirized the group's love for late night fast-food binges, husky waistlines, and a willingness to just chill. Novelty or not, The Fat Boys were always entertaining and instrumental to the early roots of hip-hop.

Human Beat Box

Fat Boys Disco

Jail House Rap

Can You Feel It

Freelance Whales Take Over Schuba's

Last week, Freelance Whales conducted an amazing performance to a sold out show of die-hards and newly joined fans. The band, consisting of Judah, Kevin, Doris, Jake and Chuck are well on their way to making huge waves in the 2010 edition of the indie music scene. Their debut album Weathervanes, drops on March 16 in time to kick off spring.

I Have an Idea... Let's Have a Party!

Actually, that wasn’t my idea… it was White Mystery’s.  And it goes down this Saturday at Flo’s Algiers Lounge.

If you haven’t heard of the bro and sis duo from Chicago, you should know, front woman Ms. Alex White and her brother Francis flounce like a furious firework display on stage, and they also play a mean tambourine. With all the energy around, you might think for a second you’re at a pyrotechnic display, maybe it’s their bodacious locks.

White Mystery by Yuri Alexander © 2009

But White Mystery is more than its good looks and lusted-after tambourine techniques. It’s psychedelic, stripped-down bluesy garage rock with killer vocals and lovable stage banter to boot. Ms. White, on guitar, spills spit and vinegar and sass and sweetness all over, while Francis dances on his kit like a fire-spinner.

Batten down the hatches, ya’ll.  I predict White Mystery is taking town like a storm, with no inkling of disaster. Come whoop it up with White Mystery Saturday for the official White Mystery 2010 Party at Flo’s Algiers Lounge!

Flo's Algiers Lounge: 5436 W. Montrose Avenue

14 Trance

Hideout Benefit for Haiti

Even if you can't make it to tonight's benefit at The Hideout with The Waco Bros. and Eleventh Dream Day, you can still help support the cause by purchasing the poster above here.

CHIRP Launch Party; Release Doves.

CHIRP is throwing an official launch party at the Empty Bottle tomorrow, Saturday, January 16 to celebrate its two-and-a-half year undertaking to launch an independent radio station. (You can officially stream it online at chirpradio.org on Sunday, January 17 @ noon.)  The party will feature special guests (and some fantastic Chicago bands!),  Hollows, Rabble Rabble, and the Yolks.

CHIRP is an independent radio project that promises a format that relies on variety and diversity of both genres and eras, with a focus on new and local music. It is committed to giving listeners a snapshot of Chicago’s musical land(city)scape, without commercialized programming or repetitious broadcasting. Nods from the New York Times, the Chicago Reader, along with mention in several grassroots sites in the blogosphere, have acknowledged the hard work CHIRP volunteers have put in over the last two-and-a-half years to get this operation underway. Now it's your turn to thank the volunteers in person by coming out to the Bottle Saturday to enjoy a night of fine tunes and boogie the night away while Chicago kicks off a new community station.

Thanks and hats off CHIRP!

Flashback Friday: Year of the Bush-This Woman's Work

 

British sexy chanteuse Kate Bush bewildered and mystified listeners with her haunting and poetic crooning back in the mid 1980s. Her eerie and exquisite voice caught the eye of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour in 1975 at the age of 16, and three years later she topped the U.K. Singles Chart with her self-written debut song, "Wuthering Heights." Two of her highly praised works, Hounds of Love and Sensual World, showcased her theatrical ability and eclectic approach to blend various musical styles, including alternative, classical, folk and ethnic influences. Some 30 years later, Bush's voice resonates louder and stronger as if a new generation is calling for a renaissance of a gifted genius, a remembrance of an exposed heart, tender and true. Listeners hear it echo in Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes, Sarah Assbring of El Perro del Mar, Karen Dreijer of Fever Ray and The Knife, and Victoria Bergsman of Taken by Trees.    

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With

Hounds Of Love

Love And Anger

This Womans Work

Free Local Label Comp

Check out the latest sounds from local mind expanders Flingco Sound Sytem via this FREE digital comp: 

http://www.mediafire.com/fss 

Full track listing follows after the jump...

Monday Mix: Four Tet - Much Love to the Plastic People

Much Love To The Plastic People (DJ mix December 2009) by Four Tet

Check out Kieren Hebden (aka Four Tet) live at the Empty Bottle on 2/19.

Emergency Broadcast: Rosen Association Develops Infectious Songs

Photo by Rory O'Connor 

A team of dedicated scientists and engineers has started making music, and they are calling themselves the Rosen Association, a contagious dark wave inspired pop collaboration, designed to lift you into another realm, let you float on clouds made of synthesizer and settle in the subtle frequencies of an ambient trip hop trance. The alliance of atmosphere, electronica and dream-pop leads one to having selective, but involuntary visions of the outer twilight. Come get whisked away into the ethereal undertones of the Association… because, after all, we are living in someone else’s dreams...

Be the first to peep this Chicago-based four-piece at the Bottom Lounge on January 15, 2010 and on February 26, 2010 at the Metro, and check the Rosen Association calendar for exciting, upcoming events. Get tickets for the Bottom Lounge and Metro now!  
 

Emergency Broadcast

Drones

Visit the Rosen Association Online.

Flashback Friday: Shower The New Year with Some Shoegazey Pop

Dream pop power trio from South London, Kitchens of Distinction (KOD), combined early shoegaze and straight-forward Brit-pop melodies with some of the most clever lyrics to surface in the early 1990s.The band hit the U.K. indie scene with the album Love is Hell, featuring "Prize," a track New Order might have written if they teamed up with Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine in 1989.Their second album, Strange Free World, which showcased the band's brilliant tender tongue and cheek, bass driven, shimmering guitar-laden jams like, "Drive That Fast." Other sonic gems included "Polaroids" and "Quick As Rainbows," that had listeners swooning for more modern day love tales. KOD finally hit stride with alternative American radio in 1992 with Death of Cool, featuring "Smiling" an instant classic that ponders the depths of beauty and relationships.The band's fourth and final album, Cowboys and Aliens, got lost in the shuffle in the States. But it's like the band is still singing out its soul with, "Now It's Time to Say Goodbye" and taking their last buoyant bow and knowing that this is it.

Prize

Drive That Fast

Smiling

Now It's Time To Say Goodbye

Geoglyphs and Gypsies and Soul, Oh My!

 

Drawing on the style and wisdom of neo-soul, world, experimental pop, and at times, theatrics, Vanessa Upson (as Violetness) brings a tribal-vibe with smart pop sensibilities that keeps you clapping, swaying, and turning your feet with the step and swagger of the beat.

A mystical earth-mama, Violetness’s heavenly jazz-rasp, reminiscent of vocalists such as Bjork, Emilani Torrini, or Erykah Badu, dresses the layers of R&B, blues, soul, and world-music that tremble just below the surface. In songs such as “Perfect Love Flow” and “Nazca” (a reference to a geographical region on the southern coast of her native Peru), the emotion in Violetness’s voice and notions of pulsing percussion, convey the eternal human desire for purity and paradisaical unification.

Come to the Hideout Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 8 p.m. to dance like Kokopelli and embrace the divinity of Violetness as she joins forces with friends (Stefan Clark and Teddy Rankin), performing at the record release show for My Gold Mask, a bitchin' crunk art-noveau outfit, on stage to bring you a perfect flow of light and love and gypsy-esque rock, while allowing you to warm in the redundancy of winter. Get tickets now!

Nazca

Perfect Love Flow

New Year, New Blog Project

For anyone who made a New Year's resolution to be more environmentally sustainable this year, I've got a new blog project I'd like to introduce to you. I'm calling it Urban Simplicity and its aim is to offer "practical tips on how to simplify your life by consuming less, without sacrificing the essence of what makes city life great." The site was born out of a final project I did for a grad school class last term and this month I'm going to be giving it a public test run as a companion to the main RFC site. Add it to your bookmarks and RSS feeds and let me know what you think. (drop me a line at radiofreechicago(at)gmail.com with "Urban Simplicity" in the subject line)

Would love to hear all your feedback and ideas as the challenge of such a site is going to be in actually connecting with a community of people and presenting content that is entertaining and engaging enough to actually inspire action. I don't want to just preach to the converted here, my motivation for this experiment is to see if we can translate the power of social media discourse into actionable results off-line as well.   

Urban Simplicity Homepage

Urban Simplicity RSS feed