Author Archives: Pat David

The blues rock scene is quickly and steadily gaining momentum amidst the pop rock and punk music of today, and honestly I couldn’t be happier about it. Some bands today forget to pay tribute to the bands that started it all but Ben Ripani Music Co. certainly is not one of them.

With lyrics comparable to the country stars of old, and rock licks as beautiful as tunes from the late ’70s, this is a band you certainly don’t want to miss.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival a few months ago, and while I was really hoping to just enjoy some great music, discovering Ben Ripani Music Co. was an excellent bonus. Fused with blues and rock sounds, Ben Ripani brings a musical sound that has to be heard to believe and luckily that chance is available to you this upcoming weekend at Reggie’s Rock Club.

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Supporting their self-titled debut album as well as their upcoming sophomore record, set to release this summer, John Lennox’s new Chicago-based project, Panoramic & True, will be taking the stage this Friday at The Empty Bottle with Maritime and The Minor Leagues.

John Lennox has released solo albums in the past, but it is with Panoramic & True that some amazing mastery has come forth. The band features all the instruments that could you want in a musical group, including the violin, guitar, bass, cello, viola, and more.

Each member, under Lennox’s direction, uses their talents and instruments to their fullest abilities. This is more than apparent on tracks like “California” from their debut self-titled LP.

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Queens of Vinyl is a series where we explore the sounds, styles, and impact of some of the most incredible and influential female artists ever pressed to vinyl.

This week: Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris has been making music since 1969. Forty-three years later, she continues to be one of the most sought-after guest vocalists in the music industry. With 12 Grammy Awards and twice as many albums, this power-house musician has earned herself a spot in our Queens of Vinyl series.

Born into a military family, Emmylou spent her early years bouncing around North Carolina and Virginia. It was in college, at University of North Carolina at Greensboro, that she began to seriously consider music as a career and lifestyle. Learning the songs of Pete Seegar, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez led her to drop out of college and pursue a musical career.

While working as a waitress in New York, she cut her first album Gliding Bird. Sadly, this record would not be the one to catapult her to fame, and with a newborn by her side, she returned to her parents’ home in Washington, DC.

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Last Saturday, 2/11, Chicago Mixtape celebrated their 1 year anniversary of sharing amazing free music from local Chicago bands. On Saturday, Casey Meehan the founder and creator of Chicago Mixtape, brought four of the Chicago’s best together for one night. The lineup included Architecture , The Damn Choir, Elephant Gun, and headliner The Shams Band.

While the rest of the city froze in temperatures lower than 18 degrees, TVD-CHI was at the Subterranean enjoying an open bar and some fantastic music.

Opening the show was the female trio, Architecture. Their nostalgic psychedelic-pop sound and echoing rock was an amazing dynamic to start off the night. Playing through a few new tracks alongside their debut release, When We Were Young, Architecture put on a truly hypnotic set.

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Queens of Vinyl is a series where we explore the sounds, styles, and impact of some of the most incredible and influential female artists ever pressed to vinyl.

This week: Julie London

She is seductive and sultry. She’s smoky and mysterious. She’s gorgeous and talented. These are only a few of the phrases that describe the amazing Julie London. An accomplished actress and legendary torch singer, London toured all over the world during her 35-year career, and solidified her place in our Queens of Vinyl series.

Born straight into the show biz lifestyle, London was the daughter of two vaudevillian actors and was introduced into the acting and singing world at the early age of 14. Coming out of the Hollywood Professional School in 1945 with an already slowly blossoming acting career, Julie London began to take the world by storm. While attempting to get work and part-timing as an elevator operator, she was “discovered” and immediately put on the starlight path.

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It’s time again, all you bargain hunters and crate-diggers! The Chicagoland Record Collectors Show (previously covered) is headed back to Hillside to grace us with its presence.

Vendors from all over the state will be packaging up some of their best stuff, so if you’ve never been to this show before, then this is the perfect chance to go. Every other month, the “largest vinyl show in the Midwest” kicks into gear, and this Sunday, January 15th, is your chance to come out and see what it’s all about.

What if it’s your first time at a record show of this magnitude? Or even a record show in general? Have no fear because TVD Chicago is here to help.

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Saying goodbye to 2011 with a list was downright therapeutic, so why not welcome 2012 with one?

While the iTunes playlist was tempting as the means to provide backing music for TVD Chicago’s New Years Eve bash, it just would not have been proper. Instead, we looked to our personal record crates, and rang in the New Year as only vinyl records could.

While there was plenty of music to go around, a few records just seemed to keep ending up on the turntable. So we figured why not share the top 5 records that helped us ring in 2012.

Fitz and the Tantrums – Pickin’ Up The Pieces

A 2010 masterpiece, Fitz and the Tantrums lit up 2011 with their tour and album promotions as well as amazing singles taking over the nation. Amazing soul and funk sounds helped us rock out all night. Tracks like “L.O.V.” and “Rich Girls” might have been played more than once.

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Even though we have only been writing behind the TVD Chicago name for 4 months, we have been lucky enough to interview some of the most talented artists to come in to or out of Chicago this year. We talked about everything from the music scene to the revival of vinyl, and even philosophies on life.

So without further ado, here are, in no particular order, the top 5 quotes from Chicago TVD interviews this year and why we picked them. Enjoy.

Carter Hulsey (Official | TVD Interview)

Carter was one of Chicago TVD’s best interviews of 2011. Overly personable and friendly and an artist who truly was grateful for a vinyl-based interview, he provided us this amazing quote on what inspired him to go the vinyl route.

“For me, when I get out an LP, it’s so personal. You take it out, and you’re holding a record. You put it on your turntable; you bring the needle over to it. You don’t just download it on your phone. You have to have a connection with this record to play it. I wanted to put out something that was more of an experience; that people didn’t just buy a song on iTunes.”

With a vinyl philosophy that is 100% Vinyl District-approved, it was no contest that this quote had to be in our top five. Carter was able to sum up nicely what the experience of listening to a record really is.

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The secretive Chicago venue known only as The Hideout will once again be hosting their annual Holiday Sale. This is a chance for local and independent vendors to get together and sell their homemade and vintage goodies.

Amongst the handmade jewelry, soaps, guitar straps and art, will be Chicago’s Bloodshot Records. They will be onsite selling a selection of swag and vinyl records from the 40+ active artists they represent.

Bloodshot Records was started in 1994 and have always supported the punk, country, soul, pop, bluegrass, blues and rock bands that have little to no regard for the proper method of music and just want to make amazing tunes.

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On Black Friday, after some pretty intense shopping, your TVD Chicago writers headed out to the Subterranean to check out multi-talented musician and rapper, K.Flay.

Kristine Flaherty, AKA K.Flay, has played shows all across the country and shared the stage with groups like 3OH3!, Snoop Dogg, and MC Lars. Taking the stage with a live drummer, and a small stand of equipment, K.Flay put on an incredible show that featured a mix of music from across her discography.

Before the show, we got a chance to sit down with K.Flay and chat about vinyl records and her upcoming EP.

Mp3 or Vinyl?

I think it depends on the occasion; on the daily, obviously mp3. If I had a record player in my Honda Civic I might utilize that, but I think vinyl is great for when you’re at home and you’re trying to create an atmosphere because there is something very old fashioned about the way a record plays and the fact that you can’t skip a song super easily after twenty seconds. I think it promotes more of “album as concept and experience.” It’s like being home and making dinner, and then mp3 is the after party.

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Soft Speaker, made up of Joe Daley, Blair Douglass, Paul Foreman, and Nick Rocchio, have crafted their sound straight from the recesses of psychedelic, indie rock, to give us yet another amazing example of what the Chicago music scene has to offer.

Soft Speaker (or Sanftsprecher to the “purists”) are bringing their A-game to the Beat Kitchen on November 19 to celebrate the release of their second full length album, Vortrobos.

Soft Speaker | (He Wore A) Lion’s Hide

Soft Speaker has been rocking the Midwest and surrounding areas since 2008 when they released their first album, The Great Brick Mosque & I. From there it has been non-stop music leading to their 2011 LP, I’ll Tend Your Garden, which began to garner some attention for the group.

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I see London, I see France, I see… Australia? Australian quartet The Jezabels will be landing in Chicago on 11/19, to play Lincoln Hall.

Hailing from Sydney, and originally from Byron Bay, The Jezabels have been lighting up the world with their impressive sounds and theatrics, quickly gaining an international fan base.

The Jezabels | Endless Summer

Celebrating the end of their EP trilogy (The Man is Dead, She’s So Hard, and Dark Storm), The Jezabels are welcoming their latest creation, Prisoner, to their growing discography.

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If you have any love for the early punk style, garage band, mix tape, one mic recordings like I do, then you better take two minutes to discover The Front Bottoms. This New Jersey duo has the roots and sound of ’90s pop-punk with no need for the driving electric guitar of that era. They instead, swap it out for just simple drums and an acoustic guitar.

Gaining a national fan base, and attempting to spread out from their New Jersey following, The Front Bottoms’ music is beginning to find its way into everything. They are currently being heard in more than 30 radio ads everywhere from Philadelphia to Chicago. As the music spreads, so does, as this TVD writer will call it, the Front Bottoms feeling.

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What is next for the world of music? Are we doomed for a time where auto-tuned atrocities are all that we can find on the radio waves, or is there still hope? Ladies and Gentlemen, that hope is the The Loom, and they bring the saving grace of folk.

Out of Brooklyn, The Loom is currently on tour for their debut album Teeth, due out November 1st, from Crossbill Records. This five-piece band promises to take you on a journey as they sings songs of the depressing, but hopeful, transition into the thing we all fear most: Adulthood.

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With their driving rhythms, and ragged vocals, Champaign / Urbana’s New Ruins are without a doubt one of the bands to watch this year. Founded by Illinois natives Elzie Sexton and Caleb Means, New Ruins have blazed through three albums to get to their latest release, This Life Is Not Ours To Keep.

New Ruins was born in 2004 as a self-recording and self-producing duo. With the addition of new members Dave Samuel on the keyboard and guitar, Roy Ewing on the drums, and Andrew Davidson on the bass, New Ruins has managed to build upon their previous endeavours, and found that complete and driving sound that can’t be stopped.

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