WBEZ | Music

The Encyclopedia Show Presents Series 5, Vol 9: The Origin of Life

Thu, 02 May 2013 12:45:00 -0500

The Encyclopedia Show is a live literary variety show with unrivaled nerd-core charm. Commissioning exceptional local talent, nationally touring artists, and renowned thinkers that have included Lynda Barry, Sonia Sanchez, Paul Sereno, Bill Ayers, and Marc Smith, The Encyclopedia Show features spoken word, monologues, storytelling, live music, comedy, and yes, even actual experts.

This month's installment is an especially specially special show because we are partnering with the Emory Department of Chemistry and the National Science Foundation to discover The Origin of Life! With a diverse, brilliant line-up of music, writing, and miscellany on topics such as creation myths, arsenic based life, artificial chemical life and interstellar clouds, the show is out of this world.

Recorded live Thursday, May 2, 2013 at The Vittum Theater.

Tuning in: why 'headphone culture' signals a change in living in public

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:30:00 -0500

Privacy is a luxury. Outside of one’s home and especially in an urban environment, finding privacy has become increasingly more difficult. Whereas before we were content to find and create privacy in our own homes, the greater invasion of personal space online has bred and will continue to breed a culture of self-imposed seclusion, if only through the form of a song.

My office is a vast and inviting space full of young and hardworking individuals. It is also full of headphones large and small. Everyone is listening to something to not listen to the sounds around them. It is not that the office is particularly loud. Rather, it is the silence that facilitates a need to escape from the public work environment.

I worked in a museum for a year and wearing headphones to listen to music never crossed my mind. I worked in a small office with three other women. Listening to music when they were just beyond the cubicle wall would have seemed strange, perhaps even rude. But in an open environment where the privacy of a cubicle prohibits a collaborative work environment, using music to escape and focus on one’s individual tasks becomes normal and accepted.

The small office environment creates a greater and easier form of intimacy. It does not feel invasive or public. In contrast, the larger office environment feels more like the outside world: surrounded by people, but not knowing any of them personally. Wearing headphones then becomes a method of creating personal and private intimacy with the things we already love and cherish: our music. In a story for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson wrote, “Headphones did for music what writing and literacy did for language. They made it private.” We can not be home, but we can create that sense of a “space of one’s own” through music, an art form that is both social and deeply personal.

Music is now mobile intimacy. Most people’s music taste caters specifically to their wants, loves, and curiosity, and backgrounds. As much as I resist, I continue to define myself through the music I listen to. Perhaps you do as well. I can trace my interest in electronic and dance music to the r&b, funk, and disco my parents listened to when I was a child. This was the only music I knew and in time, it became the music that built everything I love today. Music is personal and deeply felt. It is a form of intimacy in that it connects us to other people and to ourselves. In that same story, Thompson wrote, “Headphones give us absolute control over our audio-environment, allowing us to privatize our public spaces [...] But it also represents nothing less than a fundamental shift in humans' basic relationship to music.”

With the birth of the iPod and the use of other mobile devices such as cell phones, people can now literally take that intangible form of intimacy with them. In a world that can feel both connected and impersonal, transportable music is a way to connect to something that feels real to one’s life. Listening to dance music at the office makes me feel – if only for a moment – like I am still at the club with my friends. The dance floor is one of the most invigorating and life-affirming spaces in the world to me. To transport that sense of space, that feeling of transcendence, to a space that is entirely different is a gift born only out of the advancements in technology.

And as this new listening culture has grown, larger and more precise headphones are increasingly more valuable as they perfect our method of immersion. By seeking out the most precise and best quality headphones, we are actively engaging in the escape and immersion that had thus far not been explicitly communicated. There have always been music listeners who craved perfect headphones that blocked out the world around them. However, it is the growth in the number of regular listeners using large, noise-canceling headphones that marks an important shift. My first pair of earbuds for my iPod died quickly. For a year or so, I purchased equivalent pairs. However, besides their poor quality, they also never fulfilled my true need: to block out the world around me.

The growth of headphone culture has created a sense of paranoia in the media. Numerous articles wonder whether or not our need to listen is making us anti-social. Perhaps this is true. But as a listener that has grown with newer and more intimate forms of technology, I find these changes representative of our secret desires. This technology is not changing who we are, only highlighting what we have always wanted, felt, and understood about the world around us. The desire to escape continues to grow as the way we interact with each other in the world changes, but this was not born out of nothing. We are now living more public lives. We are now seeing and interacting with greater numbers of people, strangers and friends alike. Headphones in general and better quality headphones in particular provide us with the opportunity to escape this constant public world, if only for a moment.

Britt Julious blogs about culture in and outside of Chicago. Follow Britt's essays for WBEZ's Tumblr or on Twitter @britticisms.

Rocking under 21

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:00:00 -0500

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, the onetime teenagers of Chicago glam-rock band Smith Westerns are suddenly all grown up. The baby-faced trio surfaced on the local music scene with a self-titled LP in 2009, then catapulted to indie stardom with Dye It Blonde in 2011.

Today, the boys of Smith Western have matured into full-fledged adults: settling into apartments in Logan Square, toning down their hard-partying ways and delving into more personal and lyrically-reflective themes on their third album, Soft Will. Their songs are less cheeky this time around, and written with the awareness that every action has a consequence—some of which may have come back to haunt them.

"The main goal for us was to have an audience, and that we'd grow," said Smith Westerns frontman Cullen Omori. "And, you know, we want to make sure that our parents still like us."

Up-and-coming Chicago band Twin Peaks may follow a similar course, as a strong showing at SXSW and a newly-inked deal with Autumn Tone Records could also mean a fast-track to fame for these 19-year-old rockers. They name the Smith Westerns as one of their biggest influences, along with youthful compatriots The Orwells and Windy City stalwarts White Mystery.

"Alex White [the female half of White Mystery] was one of the first people to really support us," said Twin Peaks lead singer/guitarist Cadien Lake James. "That's what the DIY scene is about."

The four-piece outfit (which also includes guitarist Clay Frankel, bassist Jack Dolan and drummer Connor Brodner) has been playing together for years, but their high school graduation was a critical turning point in the band's trajectory. They tried college in the Pacific Northwest; but after just one semester, ultimately decided to return to Chicago and focus on their music.

"Chicago is home to us," Dolan said. "This is where we should be."

The momentum behind Twin Peaks has grown exponentially in the past year, so it would appear that they made the right decision in putting college on hold. In addition to their lightning-in-a-bottle talent (Autumn Tone will be reissuing their stunning debut EP Sunken on vinyl in June), the group is lucky enough to have parents who support them, older musicians who look out for them and legions of young fans who regularly fill up the basements, backyards and other pop-up spaces where under-21 rockers can legally play.

Because most Chicago music clubs have a strict 21-and-over policy, young bands are usually forced to rely on an underground network of DIY venues in order to draw a crowd. Twin Peaks found this out the hard way at SXSW as well, since most of the shows that they wanted to play and see there were off limits.

Luckily, The Orwells were in Austin at the same time to throw an epic house party for the under-aged (themselves included). The "flower punk" band from Elmhurst, Ill. exploded on the hot-new-music scene last summer with the release of their debut album Remember When, garnering high-profile exposure from Pitchfork, Spin and MTV.

Orwells lead singer Mario Cuomo dropped out of high school before his senior year, while the rest of his band mates (guitarists Dominic Corso and Matt O'Keefe, bassist Grant Brinner and drummer Henry Brinner) finished early. Backed by Autumn Tone Records and the popular audio blog Aqarium Drunkard, the notoriously debaucherous group has toured the U.S. numerous times and, for better or worse, officially steeped themselves in the hard-partying lifestyle.

Whether the Orwells will continue their meteoric rise or burn out just as quickly remains to be seen. But with their impressive songwriting chops, thrilling onstage antics and a plum set at this year's sold-out Lollapolooza festival, I'm betting on the former.

Twin Peaks has an East Coast tour in the works for this summer, but tonight you can find them at Animal Kingdom with fellow Chicago bands Siscrys, Esoteric Tapioca and Big Colour. Also, check out their music video below for "Stand in the Sand," the first single off the upcoming Sunken reissue:

Twin Peaks - Stand in the Sand from RYAN OHM ▲ on Vimeo.

Leah writes about popular culture for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @leahkpickett or join the conversation on Facebook.

The seedy underbelly of oldies music

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 08:33:00 -0500

When I was a kid there were only two FM radio stations I could have on when my parents were driving me around: oldies or classical. I chose oldies.

I've found myself listening to the oldies channel on Pandora when hanging out with the baby, based on nostalgia and the songs' basic sing-a-long formation. Maybe it's been a while since I listened to these tunes, because I'm a little shocked now by some of the old songs that have always been my favorites.

Obviously with pinning, going steady and sock hops, oldies evoke charmingly retro, bygone era. I used to see these as innocent tunes, ideal to listen to as you and your main squeeze drank a milkshake via two straws. But now I realize the tableaus these songs paint aren't always so rosy, at least if you're a woman. To wit:

Runaround Sue is about slut-shaming:

Dion's cautionary tale about a cheating girl is certainly enjoyable, with its nonsense word chorus. But what's the theme, exactly? Telling everyone on earth that not only did his ex-girlfriend cheat on him, she did it with "every single guy in town." Hyperbole much? Later on in the song Dion sings, "Sue goes out with other guys." Well, that makes things more complicated. Maybe Sue didn't realize that she and Dion were an exclusive couple. Maybe they were on a break, like Ross and Rachel. And now Dion's ruining her image. You know who Sue needs? Her boyfriend to come back to town to save her reputation. (Haha, just kidding. Sue doesn't need a man to save her reputation. She's not helpless.)

"The Wanderer" glorifies an almost psychotic level of sexual promiscuity:

Oh look, it's Dion again! Seriously, if you look at the lyrics to this song it's like this guy gets a kick out of being a complete a-hole and practically hates women.

I kiss 'em and I love 'em 'cause to me they're all the same/
I hug 'em and I squeeze 'em they don't even know my name

Then, when these poor dumb girls ask him who's his favorite, he seems to get a sick pleasure out of informing them that it's not them – unless they happen to be Rosie. What the hell is wrong with this guy? Maybe this is why Sue didn't want to stick around.

Judy gets victimized when Johnny is the true villain:

This is a song by Lesley Gore, who actually sang one of the few feminist songs of the era. But in this song, which is a sequel to "It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To)," the buck gets passed to a gal when the guy is just as – if not more – guilty. In "It's My Party," Lesley Gore's crying because at her birthday party, her boyfriend Johnny sneaks off with Judy and returns, having given his ring to Judy. Some friend, Judy! What an ass, Johnny! You couldn't have done this at any other time? Now you've broken Lesley Gore's heart, embarrassed her in front of all her friends and ruined her birthday! In "Judy's Turn To Cry," though, Lesley brags that Judy's upset, now, because Johnny took Lesley back – not because he realized he made a mistake with Judy but because he saw Lesley kissing another guy. Johnny punched Lesley's new flame and took her back. So why is Judy the villainess here? Johnny's the insensitive cad with jealousy and anger issues. Who would even want him? You're both better off without him, Lesley and Judy.

Chubby Checker really milked "The Twist" for everything it was worth, didn't he?

OK, this isn't really in line with the previous observations, but I happened to subscribe to the "Let's Twist Again" channel and here are the Twist-related songs Chubby recorded:

"The Twist"

"Let's Twist Again"

"Slow Twistin"

"Twistin Round the World"

"Twist It Up"

"The Twist (Yo, Twist!)" (with the Fat Boys, naturally)

I mean, let someone else have a turn with that dance, Chubby, dang.

Follow me on Twitter @Zulkey.

Pondering some of my favorite concert double bills

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:39:00 -0500

When WBEZ listener and blog-follower Patrick Gallagher found himself wondering about the best double bills ever hosted on our local concert stages, like many a stumped Chicagoan before him, he turned to the fine folks at the Curious City project. But this query is a bit different than others about hidden missile silos and long-gone amusement parks, because there really isn’t a definitive answer.

For one thing, no master list exists of concert pairings on the city’s many stages from the last seven decades—and that’s if we’re restricting ourselves to the rock ’n’ roll era. Sure, we could go to the library and comb through a century of dead-tree media, looking for concert listings, ads, and reviews. But that’s assuming every show made the newspapers, not to mention it’s a heck of a lot of obsessive research, even for a fact-finding super-heroine like my colleague Jennifer Brandel.

Another, even bigger problem is who gets to define “best”? All any music lover can do is talk about the shows that meant the most to us—the ones we saw that moved us most deeply, to the point that we still recall them with a vicarious thrill 10, 15, 20, or more years later.

For me, this sometimes was a pairing of artists who shared similar styles and influences, but not always; on occasion, complete opposites made for the most satisfying experiences. (Think chocolate and peanut butter.) I have not limited my list to only two bands; if a great double bill is worth celebrating, what about one with three, four, five bands or more? In some cases, the two artists were of equal stature, though this was not always the case. On occasion, the artists collaborated before, during, or after touring together—though, again, that didn’t always happen.

I told you this Curious City query was a tough one! This blogger will take part in a segment devoted to the topic today on The Afternoon Shift. But here’s an early look at some of the multi-band bills that stand out for me during 21 years on the pop-music beat in Chicago, listed in chronological order.

• The Rollercoaster Tour at the Riviera Theater, Oct. 24, 1992.

Obviously inspired by the second year of the original day-long touring Lollapalooza, which they had been a part of through the summer of ’92, Scottish noisemakers the Jesus and Mary Chain extended their stay in the U.S. that fall and headlined their own more intimate package tour with Curve and Spiritualized, presenting three different but equally amazing takes on modern psychedelic rock.

• Lollapalooza at the World Music Theatre, ~~July 3, 1993~~ July 16, 1994**.

For my money, year three of Lollapalooza was the strongest of the festival’s original incarnation, with main-stage acts the Smashing Pumpkins, the Beastie Boys, George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, the Breeders, A Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the Boredoms and second-stage performers the Flaming Lips, the Frogs, Guided by Voices, and Shonen Knife. One factor was the incredible breadth of musical diversity; another was the impromptu collaborations that occurred either on tour, as the artists shared each other’s stages, or afterwards.

Snapshots I’ll never forget: watching Billy Corgan play basketball backstage with the Beasties, and standing beside the Flaming Lips in a mostly empty arena as they saw the Boredoms for the first time and had their minds well and truly blown. (The Lips later would record with the band’s drummer and pay tribute to her with the character in and title of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.)

** Corrected for the right date. You know what they say about the ’90s: If you can remember them, you weren’t really there!

• Bob Dylan and Patti Smith at the Beacon Theater, New York City, Dec. 11, 1995.

Sadly, this show never came to Chicago show—the two only did a handful of East Coast dates—but it was too great not to include, and reviewing it was one of my few proud moments during a brief and miserable stint as deputy music editor at Rolling Stone. (A Dylan fan site has transcribed and posted that review here.) On one hand, we had two giants from two different musical movements and two different eras, both of them children of the Beats. On another, we had two defiant nonconformists determined to avoid easy nostalgia: Dylan was at the height of his mid-’90s guitar-slinging powers, rewriting his classics onstage every night, while Smith was in the full flush of her early comeback, reintroducing herself as a still fiery though obviously older godmother of punk. And it all ended with a killer duet of “Dark Eyes.”

• The Area: One Festival at the Tweeter Center, July 25, 2001.

As the original Lollapalooza tour petered out into mediocrity in the early days of the new millennium, that lovable techno-pop imp Moby revived the concept of a bounty of musical diversity in one day-long traveling jaunt. This one featured the Roots, Outkast, the Orb, and the man behind Play presenting dramatically different but equally rewarding takes on the power of the groove.

Unfortunately, Moby lost his shirt as the concert-going public began to embrace the new model of massive “destination festivals” with a hodgepodge of acts booked with little rhyme or reason… and that of course is how we got to the new Grant Park-based Walmart on the Lake.

• Radiohead with the Beta Band, Hutchinson Field, Grant Park, Aug. 1, 2001.

Speaking of shows that paved the way for Lollapalooza Mach II, this was the one that convinced a formerly recalcitrant city bureaucracy to let the rockers into Grant Park again. Performing on a stage refreshingly devoid of corporate logos, our Oxford-bred art-rock heroes delivered pristine sound while upping the intensity of their recordings and challenging a mass audience with their enigmatic soundscapes. It was the perfect set in the perfect setting, and the Beta Band opened by snarling at promoters who hassled fans for bringing their own water, as well as entrancing us with their hypnotic grooves, just like in that scene at the record store in High Fidelity the year before.

• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Neko Case at the Chicago Theatre, April 26, 2002.

Touring with the Bad Seeds, one of the most subtle bands in rock, in support of the stellar No More Shall We Part, Cave transformed himself into the characters in his songs, acting out their tales of murder and mayhem. There’s nothing like two hours of gore from the master of dark and literary mood music to leave you feeling giddy and cheerful… especially when it comes after a beautiful and uplifting set from alt-country chanteuse Case. Nothing beats that mix of sweet and sour, and Cave and Case later would collaborate on a cover of “She’s Not There” by the Zombies for the soundtrack of True Blood.

• Beck and the Flaming Lips at the Chicago Theatre, Oct. 18, 2002.

This was an unusual pairing in many ways: Where alt-rock icon Beck always shielded himself behind a cloak of irony and an affected cloud of angst, the Flaming Lips celebrated their sincerity in voicing the joys of being alive. The two brought out the best in each other as they shared the stage throughout the show, with Beck providing the Lips a forum for showing the depth of their talents as musicians, and the Lips giving Beck a welcome antidote to the cathartic material from his dark but wonderful Sea Change album. For Generation X, this combination was the equal of Neil Young pairing with Crazy Horse or Bob Dylan joining forces with the Band.

• Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige at the United Center, April 26, 2008.

The idea was obvious: Bring together the top talents in hip-hop and R&B for a triumphant arena tour that raised the bar for the concert experience in both genres, with one artist who really speaks to the ladies, and another who all the fellas emulate. The Heart of the City jaunt with Hova and the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul rolled into town for two nights at the United Center with exquisite staging, a kicking big band, and the two headliners performing at the peak of their abilities, together and separately, just as they have numerous times on record.

Have you got a favorite double bill or a pairing for the ages? Let me and Curious City know by commenting below.

List: Three songs I love that are each about a girl named Annie

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:25:00 -0500

Follow me on Twitter @Zulkey

Music and the brain

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:36:00 -0500

Music surrounds us — but why does this art form take such a dominant role in our lives? What happens in our mind when we hear music and how does it effect our emotions? Even with passive listening to music, specific parts of the brain can show activation or increased “neural” activity. What is it about music that can so dramatically affect brain activity? Are there things that we can learn from music, and its effect on the brain that can help treat people with neurological and cognitive disorders? These are questions that our panel addressed on . Panelists include Neelum Aggarwal MD, Associate Professor of neurological sciences, Rush University Medical Center and KV 265 Board member; and Dr. Hans C. Breiter, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Scientific Director of the Warren Wright Adolescent Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

This event was recorded March 13, 2013 at Northwestern University's Hughes Auditorium.

The Teddy Wayne Interview

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:51:00 -0600

I bet if an even younger version of Justin Bieber came along, everyone would be incredibly annoyed, but in fictional form he's poignant and sad, as written by today's interviewee, the author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine.

The novel examines the insular life of a little boy who has to grapple with the knowledge that the millions of people who love him have no idea who he his while coming of age as he's being raised by a tough mom-ager. Wayne is a frequent contributor to other publications (including The New Yorker) and is also the author of the novel Kapitoil. You can learn a lot more about him here.

How did you ensure a level of believability for an 11-year-old kid (aside from marketing speak?) What changes did you make throughout the process to make sure that it was accurate?
In the earliest pages, his voice was a touch too infantile—an overreliance on slang like “fav,” for instance. Instead of focusing on a wholly diminished vocabulary, I decided to make Jonny’s grammar and sentence structures more kidlike; run-on phrasings, consistent (and subtle) syntax errors, as well as specific diction that he returns to.

What were some alternate covers suggested for the book? How did the current one get decided?
The current one is all I saw at first, though my publisher later floated a few alternates. But I was sold from the start on the reflective holographic foil, which is a perfect tongue-in-cheek self-critical design: a novel about the glitzy packaging of art is itself wrapped in a glitzy package.

Similarly, were there other names you considered for Jonny Valentine?
The book’s first germ of inspiration was as a parody of pop-star autobiographies, and in that version (I wrote one chapter, which later became the New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs piece Jonny reads about himself), the protagonist is named Tyler Beats—which would eventually become the megastar whom Jonny attempts to emulate. Once I threw out the parody and started over as a novel, Jonny Valentine came to me early on.

What other research did you do for the book? Did you read any child star biographies?
I read a number of autobiographies—from Drew Barrymore’s and Tatum O’Neal’s—as well as biographies and critical books on Jackie Coogan (the first American child star in movies) to Michael Jackson. And then I read the more superficial pop-star autobiographies I was initially trying to parody, such as Miley Cyrus’s and Justin Bieber’s, along with celebrity gossip publications, both teen- and adult-oriented.

What did you learn along the way about the relationship fans have with their pop idols? Did you hear from any Beliebers (or recovering adults who would have been Beliebers in their day?)
A number of adults reminisced about being crazed fans of David Cassidy and the like. And owing to the confusion and strangeness of the Internet, a few Beliebers started following Jonny’s Twitter account, @TheRealJonny, and some Tweeted at me, asking, for example, if I love chocolate as much as they do and telling me they’re passionate about my music. It’s unclear who is being pranked.

Either from a musical perspective or just because you like them in general, who are some of your favorite teenybopper acts now or from yore?
I confess to liking One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA.” If you go back further, I like a lot more, especially from the 1950s—Frankie Lymon, to name one, is as good as it gets.

Have you considered setting any of Jonny’s lyrics to music? I wonder, though, how much music like his starts with a hook and then the lyrics come in as an afterthought.
I recorded a version of his hit song “Guys vs. Girls” and posted it at The Morning News. Fortunately, I also asked Alina Simone, a real singer-songwriter (and novelist), to do her own, superior version as well.

What posters did you have on your wall when you were a kid?
I’ve never been much of an interior decorator, so my room was fairly poster-less, save a New York Mets poster. I didn’t really get into music until I was about 17, when I started listening to, among others, the Clash (which Jonny is exposed to by his opening band), and then I ranged much further afield in college.

What were some of the biggest surprises you encountered during your time at the Grammys?
I went with nominee Hunter Hayes and wrote about it for Rolling Stone, and I was impressed by how deftly he handled the constant scrutiny, particularly the interviews. The red-carpet gauntlet has dozens of TV crews looking for sound bites, and it requires tremendous fortitude and grace to negotiate it well. I couldn’t do it.

What do you listen to while you work?
Music I know well, so that I’m not distracted, but I’ll sometimes use Pandora. A lot of Bob Dylan, historically.

What’s the process like when it comes to publishing humor in the New Yorker? I’m about whether the editing/revision process is similar to nonfiction or fiction or if it’s a whole different ball of wax.
Generally, with publications anywhere, there’s not much editing when it comes to a humor piece, because if it’s not working, it’s simply not working. They might ask me to tighten up a thing or two, but it’s always accepted after the piece has already been written, and if it requires too much revision, it probably means it’s not meant to be.

What does one do with a fellowship?
You just hope someone will quote Young MC to you: “Come sit next to me, you fine fellow.” And it never happens.

How does it feel to be the 341st person interviewed for Zulkey.com?
Exactly how it feels to be a cast member of the movie “300” and to be George H.W. Bush, whose nickname within the clan is “41.” I feel sorry for whoever is 343, since they’ll be more like W.

Editor's note: Wayne is actually 340, due to my problems counting. D'oh. Don't let that take away from the cleverness of his first answer.

Mixtape Flashback

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:33:00 -0600

Last week I was dancing to my friend Nora’s mix at Dance Dance Party Party and had to marvel that I’ve been listening to her music for over 20 years. I’ve known Nora since second grade, and once we were old enough to appreciate and make mix tapes, her tapes were especially influential because she had something I didn’t: older siblings. I’ll never regret the fun I had dancing to Milli Vanilli or singing to En Vogue, all the B-96-style pop that was cool as we came of age, but thanks to Nora plumbing her siblings’ tapes and CDs, I also learned about groups like R.E.M. and the B-52’s and enhanced my musical horizons.

After DDPP I went home to my tape stash, which I keep in a Marshall Field’s box in my basement. Sadly I don’t have all the tapes Nora gave me anymore (or if I do, I haven’t found them yet) but I was able to dig up one, although the liner notes were long gone. For fun, I listened to the tape (it’s been a really long time since my stereo played a tape, and it needed a little bit of warming up and dust-blowing to get used to it) and wrote up the list of songs and sent them to Nora, who shared her memories of the songs she chose (we estimated this tape was made around 1996 or so.)

Incidentally, Nora is a better friend than I am because she kept the tapes I made for her (see: the images at the bottom of this post). Looking back over these relics, I know technological progress is always good but I’m sad that teens and young adults of today don’t have a cheap way of expressing care and love that was found in dedicating a couple of hours of choosing songs (especially how you opt to begin side A and side B!), pressing play, record and stop, writing out the songs and maybe decorating the notes. It was a very specific pop culture labor of love that just isn’t the same with creating a CD or handing someone a flash drive. I enjoyed reviving these tapes and may do another one of these or more in the future if I can find other old friends willing to go down this walk down musical memory lane with me.

Take it away, Nora!

The Cranberries: “Linger”
The Cranberries will always make me remember my first "boom box." I got it for Christmas when I was a freshman in high school. It was slightly smaller than a Buick, and had the coveted double tape deck/cd player/radio combo that was essential for premium mix tape creation. The wiring in our 100 year old house was a little suspect, and the outlet closest to the only place said stereo fit in my tiny bedroom wasn't able to power the musical beast. I was devastated, but my dad called my uncle, and together they somehow managed a work around that finally allowed me to play the CD I had gotten with the boom box: The Cranberries.

10,000 Maniacs: “Candy Everybody Wants”
This is a big musical risk here, opting for the lesser known “Candy Everybody Wants.” Every other mix tape made by a high school girl this year contained “These Are Days,” but I was always looking to branch all the way out to the second or third most popular track on a CD.

The Pretenders: “2,000 Miles”
Oh man, this song. I remember listening to it over and over, thinking about how I had never been as sad about missing anyone as Chrissie Hynde was in that song. There were several songs on Isle of View that I would listen to on repeat (especially “Hymn to Her” and “Kid”) but this was at the top. That repetitive hook or riff or whatever the musical term is for the 12 notes that lilt through the entire song was enough to keep me hitting the back button on my boom box that, for all its size, didn't have a 'repeat' function.

The Police: “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”
When I got to grad school, about 10 years after this mix was made, a more advanced student in the program commented on the fact that I knew all of the music that she grew up with, even though we were about a decade apart, age-wise. I immediately credited my older siblings' musical influence. This song is an example of that, for sure.

Indigo Girls*: “Hammer and a Nail”
Hammer and a Nail was practically the fight song of my all-girls Catholic high school. It was played at many a mass or service-minded assembly, and I think I even remember our Latin teacher and two students performing it at a Variety show. I entered high school ahead of the Indigo Girls curve compared to the rest of the Class of '97, as I had two older sisters who had already begun my indoctrination. The musical duo were casually referred to as "The Girls" around our house, so familiar were we with their acoustic guitar and tight harmonies. They may have been the first exposure I had to openly gay performers or public figures, I can't really remember. I DO remember when my dad made this realization, remarking over dinner one night, "Did you know....that 'the Girls' are not into 'the Boys??'" That's a line we still quote in our family with alarming regularity.

Toad the Wet Sprocket: “All I Want”
This was definitely from my 6-years-older sister Meg, who sent me a mixtape for my 13th birthday ("Teenage Tunes," artfully rendered in red and black sharpie on the cassette label/liner notes) that had 90 minutes of COLLEGE MUSIC on it. It's amazing that I didn't destroy that cassette, given how much airtime it got in my room. She sent me several mixtapes throughout her college career and beyond, but that one stands out among them. I remember looking at the songs/artists when I unwrapped it and thinking, "Toad the what now?" The weird name made me wonder if Meg might be stretching my musical maturity just a little too much, and if this music might just be too bizarre for the Nora that still enjoyed rocking out to Salt n Pepa and Boys 2 Men with her 8th grade friends. The song was approachable and catchy, though, and my anxiety was unwarranted.

Peter Gabriel: “Mercy Street”

The Farm: “All Together Now”
I think I can draw a line directly from my sister Ann to the inclusion of this song on the mix for you. I remember listening to this song while she drove our big Dodge Ram Van. I believe it was on a mix tape from her friend Laura, demonstrating the incredible inefficiencies of our music sharing back in the late 90's. I'm sure that copied that mix tape for myself and then copied this song from my copy onto the tape for you. Today I think you can wave your phone at someone and send them an entire music library.

Journey: “Faithfully”
Bodeans: “Closer to Free”

These Days: “Wedding Song”**
I really do like this song! I'm sure you'll have more to say about it than I will, though.**

Peter Gabriel: “Secret World”
My older sisters and their friends took me to my first concert in 7th or 8th grade, and I can still remember Peter Gabriel's slow build of "Secret World," and just being blown away by the theatrics of it all. It doesn't really translate on a mixtape, but that's what I was trying to share with this one. I love the memory of that concert. I had gone expecting to listen to some music that I was sort of familiar with, but being most excited about being included with my sisters and their friends. I ended up probably forgetting who I was even there with at some points during the night, as I got so caught up in the show.

The Farm: “Groovy Train”
This song brings me back to my high school cafeteria, which was transformed four times a year into a "social" which allowed throngs of teenagers (in what I seem to remember was about a 3:1 girl:guy ratio) to dance sweatily to a DJ for a few hours on a Friday night.

INXS: “Beautiful Girl”
I love that this song is on here, since it's the song that for some reason jumped out of my iTunes as the perfect song to kick off my most recent DDPP appearance. This is another one that came from my sister in college.

Talking Heads: “And She Was”
Sting: “Why Should I Cry For You”

Grateful Dead: “Uncle John’s Band”
I have no idea who in my life introduced me to this song, because it's really the only Dead song I remember knowing. But it appealed to me immediately because of the harmonies. If there's anything I love more than singing along with the radio in the car, it's singing along to the harmonies on the radio in the car. This song is full of them.

The Beatles: “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da”
This was almost definitely a result of one of my favorite TV shows in Junior High, “Life Goes On.” You were savvy enough to know and love the Beatles outside of their connection to current pop culture trends, but not me. I learned about the song because I liked the show, and it only registered later that it was by the Beatles, and that they had had other success aside from being selected to create the theme song for this awesome show about the Thatcher family. I miss that family. I hope Corky's doing okay.

James Taylor: “Fire and Rain”
Van Morrison: “Into the Mystic”
Samples: “Taking Us Home”

Everything But the Girl: “Apron Strings”
Retreats were a big part of attending a Catholic high school, and they often included a lot of music selected by student speakers. I really can't remember what retreat context this song would have had, but I'm almost positive that I heard it for the first time while sitting on the floor at Techny Retreat Center in Northbrook, probably while journaling about the most recent friend drama occurring in my life. There was certainly plenty of that to go around in that female only environment.

The Lemonheads: “Frank Mills”
The Lemonheads are another band that Meg introduced me to. I remember buying the CD after she included their remake of Mrs. Robinson on a mix for me. I liked this song, but, to be honest, I probably included it on this mix because it was so short. Timing was so crucial on these 90 or 120 minute cassettes!

Modern English: “I Melt With You”
The Cranberries: Dreams

*[Ed. note]: I’d just like to say that the first pop concert I ever attended was the Indigo Girls with Nora at the Arie Crown Theater in 1994.

**[Ed. note]: Yes. So for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who wrote this song--typing the lyrics into Google didn’t help, neither did Shazam, neither did playing the song to Nora over the phone. I eventually downloaded a recording program on my phone, recorded it from the tape playing over my stereo, uploaded it to Google and then shared the file on Facebook. Nora’s sister’s husband finally realized it came from a small but popular in its time Iowa City band. It’s a good song! And that video is a ‘90’s time capsule if there ever was one.

Here are some of the tapes I made for Nora way back when:

Talk to me about your old mixtapes in the comments or on Twitter.

Now it's a winter storm warning

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0600

BUT -- BUT -- WE STILL HAVE SOME LEFT OVER FROM LAST WEEK! And yet, more snow's on the way.
* Up to 10 inches by midweek?
* A bad week for this nine-day headache on the CTA.
* Still, it's better than tornadoes.
* In Washington, the Post blogs on "snowquester."
* New York Times shuts its Green blog.
* Is climate reporting slanted?

THAT GROUPON SIGNOFF? A company spokeswoman insists Andrew Mason wrote his own goodbye note, praised by a Chicago Tribune editorial as "the gold standard for farewell letters."
* "Even a truncated list of the company’s failures borders on breathtaking," the New Yorker's Matt Buchanan writes.

CHICAGO'S MUSIC SUMMIT. Chicago doesn't have an official "Office of Music," but has two guys planning an event that aims to assemble 500 musicians, singers and music industry execs in September.
* Music site illustrates Killers review with Lego figures.

'LISTEN, I SPEAK ENGLISH.' John Boehner defends his use of the phrase "get off their ass" to criticize the Senate.
* But he would not abide dress code violations.
* Obama's new strategy: "Take no prisoners."
* In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday over the weekend, a tribute to the sequester -- in rhyme.

'THAT WAS A REAL MISTAKE.' In his first public interview since losing, Mitt Romney tells Fox News his campaign failed to connect with minority voters.
* Ann Romney: "I'm happy to blame the media."
* Newt Gingrich: "We were kidding ourselves."

QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ANSWERED WRONG IN FRIDAY'S NEWS QUIZ.
* No. 2: Complete this quote from a "Daily Show" interview with journalist Steven Brill: "The _________ industry takes in more money every year than Hollywood." (As of early this morning, 73 percent of quiz-takers had answered incorrectly.)
* No. 5. The publisher of a North Carolina newspaper criticized for seeking the names of gun-permit holders wrote to readers to do what? (52 percent wrong.)
Take the quiz now, and get the right answers.

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