Broken Social Scene - Halfway Home

The Million Year Trip 8/29 Show Highlight: "Lifeline" by Spandau Ballet

When cassettes were a thing, this was the first track on side B. The whole album is pure New Romantic pop, but it holds up well from its ‘80s heyday.

Listen to my radio show Sundays from 2-4pm Central Time on CHIRP Radio!

The Megaphonic Thrift - Interlopers

Great Music: Major Murphy - Oceans

A thoughtful, gently driving psychedel-ish track that opens up nicely from intro to 2nd verse.



Major Murphy | On & Off Again | self-released

Great Music: Nadine Shah - Out the Way

A growling, rough-edged pop declaration. Appropriate for these continued garbage times.



Nadine Shah | Holiday Destination | 1965 Records

Great Music: Sly & the Family Drone + Dead Neanderthals - Ghoul Whispers

Fun fact: Sly & The Family Stone are the only band to have performed at Woodstock and the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969...

Charles.A.D. - Hot Sea

Dreamy, thumping House music for a winter's day...



Charles.A.D | 熱い海 (Hot Sea) | Dream Raw Recordings

Take Two: "Faith" (George Michael Vs. Limp Bizkit)

This article was written for the CHIRP Radio blog.

There is a chance that you have come across a song (or two, or so many more) that you enjoy and did not realize that it's either been covered by someone else or is a cover itself. We hope that this series allows you to appreciate both the original and the covers they have inspired, and to seek out and enjoy new music in the process.

The Original: From the album Faith (1987)

Around the mid-’80s George Michael split from his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley and successfully proved he could make it as a solo act. The title track to his debut album is a fun, flirty pop number that channels ‘50s Elvis-style rockabilly through a solid Bo Diddley-esque rhythm.

The song was cemented in ‘80s lore by the iconic video of Michael working his guitar and his hips in sunglasses and a leather jacket, a stark contrast to the day-glo bubble gum image he was known for in his old band. And at a time when the music industry was still reluctant to have a star openly declare that they’re gay, the song used just enough vague, gender-neutral lyrics to keep the tabloids and morality police guessing.

This track became one of a string of hits for Michael, including “Father Figure,” “I Want Your Sex,” “One More Try,” and “Kissing a Fool” (one of the greatest pop vocal performances of all time, BTW). “Faith” went to #1 on the Billboard charts, where it stayed for four weeks.

The Cover: From the album Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ (1998)

If there was ever a case of a cover song openly mocking its source material, it’s this one. Limp Bizkit, the band best known for its single “Nookie,” had been playing a version of “Faith” live on tour before eventually deciding (presumably between bong hits) to put out their own take on George Michael’s song. The sound fits the band’s persona, basically a series of loud, crunchy riffs and a howling chorus.

Delivering the lyrics with all the nuance of a drunk groomsman at a karaoke mic, Fred Durst leads the band with the kind of boring swagger that put them on top of the American pop music hill for a hot minute. While G. Michael hated this version of the song he wrote (and it’s not hard to hear why), Durst was very proud of how his band was able to get more exposure and make more money by putting it out. In doing so, they gave the world another taste of the kind of bro-tastic cis hetero white male aggression that would define much of American culture during the 2000s.

Kedr Livanskiy - Ariadna

A bumpin' and groovy extended mix of electro dream-pop.



Kedr Livanskiy | Ariadna | 2MR

"Summer of Soul" and "Woodstock 99"

This article was written for the CHIRP Radio blog.

by Clarence Ewing

What’s the point of a music festival? The answer depends on who you ask: To make money; To perform your art in front of crowds while also getting paid; To see bands, hang out with friends, enjoy the weather, and maybe have a transformative experience..

The festival that still stands out in history is the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. It’s not just a touchstone in American music, but American culture. The electrifying performances and peaceful gathering of hundreds of thousands of fans remain an ideal image of what festivals can be.

Two new documentaries highlight two other major milestones in music festival lore, one of them lost to history until now, the other one something a lot of people would rather forget.

"Flood and Fire" by Gunn-Truscinski Duo

Some sweet psychedelic jazzy jamming.

Gunn-Truscinski Duo | Bay Head | Three Lobed

Shabazz Palaces - When Cats Claw

Psychedelic rap with a gangsta beat.

Shabazz Palaces | Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star | Sub Pop

“Rejected Remix for a Norwegian Pop Star” by Kornél Kovács

This is a track put together by Norwegian producer Kornél Kovács of the Norwegian Pop hit “I Went to Far” by AURORA. It’s a tight electronic groove that has energy but is subdued as well. I could see myself jamming to it in a velvet overstuffed chair at the back room of a club as much as the dance floor. It’s got some of that Euro-dance squareness to it, which gives it character.

"Have Fun" by Smerz

An intriguing track and video by Smerz that features a woozy, drug-addled pop music vibe and unintelligible lyrics. There's something going on here, but I'm not sure I know exactly what. But I think I do.

Currency" by The Black Angels

'80s post-punk meets '70s stoner rock in an indigo swirl with some timely social commentary.

The Black Angels | Death Song | Partisan Records

"Happy Up Here" by Röyksopp

Here's an amazing video from the band Röyksopp - they are the guys whose "Remind Me" track fit so well into that Geico caveman ad.

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

8 Themes That Defined Popular Music in the 2000s

[This essay was originally posted on Jan. 11 2011]

Whether it really started in 2000 or 2001, we can all finally agree that the first decade of the 21st century is over. What will be remembered about popular music from this last decade? Forty years from now, when music fans look back at 2000-10, what will they see that made this particular ten-year stretch unique?

Here is my completely biased and woefully incomplete list of what I think are the major themes to come out of the first decade in music in the 21st century:

1a. and 1b. The musical Tower of Babel fell, thanks to technology. More than ever before, there's a huge amount of music out there from every genre, time period, and country, with has at least a few hundred outlets (mainly Web-based) available for listening to and talking about it. Along with the unleashing of all this music came the complete splintering of listener tastes, or, it's probably more accurate to say, music fans' ability to fully indulge their own idiosyncrasies.

Because of this, I think it would be almost impossible for another Beatles or Michael Jackson to emerge on the American music scene. Not only are there a myriad of other choices to pay attention to, as soon an artist becomes popular, there's always a legion of people lined up to tear them down by loudly deriding their talent or authenticity. Of course, one should never say never, but it seems like that task is more daunting than ever before.

Technology made all this possible. And by technology I mean the MP3 audio format, music-making equipment, and the Internet, which is now a million-channel jukebox, nickelodeon, fanzine, and record store. Maybe that could be its new motto - "The Internet: It's Not Just For Porn!"

Audio purists still get upset about MP3s (something about lacking "warmth" compared to a turntable – I stopped listening to the explanations a couple of years ago), yet there's no question that billions of people, even music fans with perfectly good hearing, are willing to trade audio fidelity for portability and ease of use.

In years past it wasn't playing the music that was the problem, but getting it recorded and distributed, a function almost completely locked up by your friendly neighborhood record studio. Today, someone who really, really wants to get their sound out there can do it with relative ease. Anyone could go to Radio Shack right now and get enough equipment to produce and distribute their own record. I don’t think we, as a society, really get just how powerful that is.

A Review of “TNT” by Tortoise

[This is an article I wrote for CHIRP Radio’s “Rediscovering Our Record Collections” series.]

I had been living in Chicago for a few months after relocating from Boston (where I lived for 8 years) with a short stint in Omaha, where I grew up. Not knowing anything about Chicago’s city’s neighborhoods, I had landed in the community of Edgewater, on the North Side right by the lake. It turned out to be a great place to get started as it was starting to feel the effects of the surge in commerce and urban renewal renovation resulting from the Dot-Com Era.

My apartment was a block away from Dominick’s grocery store (a local chain) and the CTA Red Line. Downtown was a straight shot south on Lake Shore Drive, and there were plenty of places to explore close to home. I had recently discovered the Village North movie theater, which showed a lot of excellent classic films, and The Atomic Café coffee shop right next door. I had never been a regular coffee drinker until that time, but after a few trips there as well as Café Boost, a wonderful independent shop a few blocks west on Clark Street, I started a romance with caffeine that continues to this day.