The Chicago Independent Radio Project is working to secure a broadcast license for a new community radio station in Chicago that is committed to local, independent programming, and generally furthering the causes of localism, diversity, and independence in broadcasting. We are working to convince Congress and the FCC to remove existing barriers to the granting of low power FM radio licenses in urban areas, including Chicago. We hope you'll join the fight.
According to a new study from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh:
Indie: Devotees have low self-esteem and are not very hard-working, kind or generous.
However, they are creative.
My experience has been a little different.
A good commentary on mainstream radio appeared in today’s Diesel Sweeties Web Comic.
Rest assured, Mr. Radio does not speak for CHIRP.
Life can’t always be rocking out and feeling good. Sometimes you need a sad song. Here are a few songs then never fail to make me sad.
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When I was a wee one, I remember Judy Collins on Sesame Street. Over the years, there has also been Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, En Vogue, Mahalia Jackson, Queen Latifah, R.E.M., Nina Simone, and tons of others. My goodness! Who has not been on Sesame Street?
If you were going to say Feist, you’d be wrong:
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Ten years ago, Chicago performer Tom Dunning decided to create a Kate Bush tribute album. The result, I Wanna Be Kate, covers a wide gamut of approaches to making a cover. Perhaps the most surprising cover is the J. Davis Trio’s reinvention of “There Goes a Tenner”.
When Dunning approached his friend Julio “Stuart” Davis about taking part in the project, Davis said “yes” immediately, even though he’d never heard of Kate Bush. Dunning gave him a selection of songs on a mix to chose from, but steered him towards “There Goes a Tenner”.
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Kate Beaton is a new webcartoonist in Canada who writes funny, breezy comics in her spare time. Her specialty is comics about history. She doesn’t write about music much, but check out the second comic on this page.
Don’t quite get the joke? Maybe you should read up on the original Decembrists, the rebels in a Russian uprising in December of 1825.
I suppose it was only a matter of time until someone combined the MMPORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, for you non-geeks) with music festivals. That’s right! To attend the New Music West festival in Vancouver in a scant 9 days, you’ll just need an Internet connection and a Windows-based PC (take THAT, Mac fans). I’m thinking it’ll be something like World of Warcraft with indie rock t-shirts.
So, if you’ve been avoiding Lollapalooza for fear of heatstroke, or germs or what have you, the good folks at Virtual Vancouver have your solution.
Ok, it’s redundant – web comics are by nature independent – but they do share a lot in common with independent music. These are cartoonists who channel their creative urges into self-published work, and gain popularity mostly via networking and word-of-mouth. And it’s probably not surprising that a number of them have an interest in independent music which shows up in their comics.
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This week Chicago Public Radio’s Sound Opinions talked about the differences in sound quality between vinyl and CD. It’s something I’ve heard before: hardcore audio enthusiasts say that vinyl’s analog sound is warmer and richer than a CD’s digital recording. But can you really tell the difference?
First, a brief explanation of the difference. Analog means that the actual sound wave is reproduced exactly in the recording medium – the grooves on the record are reproductions of the original sound wave. Digital means that the wave is translated into numbers, which are then used to recreate the wave. The advantage of digital is that it doesn’t break down; it takes quite a few smudges on a CD to affect the sound, whereas every piece of dust on your record will affect that sound wave. The disadvantage is that whereas analog is an exact reproduction of the sound wave, digital recreates the sound wave, and so looses some detail. The detail lost is supposed to be so fine as to be imperceptible.
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Collecting vinyl is an addiction. You’re on vacation, you walk past a record store: you have to go in. I was always searching for some pretty obscure stuff, and you never knew where it might turn up. Is it really practical to buy a record I’d have to carry back from Montreal to Providence to Chicago? Who cares! It’s the Flying Lizards! This is not an every day find! I may never see this again.
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Photos by John Schroeder | ©2007-2008 CHIRP