Get Ready for Nine Days of Musical Thrills: The CHIRP Record Fair and CIMMfest

CHIRP
CHIRP
CHIRP
CHIRP

Get Ready for Nine Days of Musical Thrills: The CHIRP Record Fair and CIMMfest

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Above and beyond the always-vibrant offerings in the clubs (Savages at Metro tonight!), the next two weeks offer a bonanza of interesting happenings for Chicago music fans as the 14th annual Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) Record Fair takes place on Saturday and the eighth annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival (CIMMfest) kicks off next week.

As the intrepid and devoted music lovers at CHIRP move ever closer to augmenting their impressive online presence at chirpradio.org with a good old-fashioned terrestrial radio station at 107.1 FM, the Record Fair remains not only a potent fundraiser for a worthy cause by a joyful celebration of the city’s musical community. Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington, will as always be filled to overflowing with thousands of crates of vinyl records as well as DVDs, CDs, posters, and other musical collectors’ treasures.

General admission starts at 10 a.m. and costs $7; early admission from 8 to 10 is $25, and the fun lasts until 6 p.m. Tickets and more information can be obtained here.

Meanwhile, looking ahead, CIMMfest starts on Wednesday (April 13) with a screening at the Music Box of the new documentary about Butch Vig’s celebrated recording studio, The Smart Studios Story, followed by a performance later that night from the reunited Catherine at Metro. (Local H is also on the roster, performing its classic As Good as Dead at Metro next Friday; ah, the ’90s nostalgia continues!) The fun continues through Sunday April 17 at various venues in Logan Square, Wicker Park, Hyde Park, Lakeview, and Pilsen, with individual event tickets priced at $8 for concerts and $12 for films, and festival passes ranging from $79 to $149.

The full roster of movies and musical offerings can be found on the festival’s web site, but at the top of the list of the films I heartily endorse (having screened it in advance) is Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove, a loving and insightful documentary portrait of the brilliant if chronically underrated Texas musician Doug Sahm and the Sir Douglas Quintet by music writer turned filmmaker Joe Nick Patoski. The movie screens on Friday at 9:15 p.m. at the Logan Theatre.

Among the other highlights: Desire Will Set You Free, a look at the queer and punk scenes in Berlin; Savage Beliefs: The Movie, a slasher parody starring the legendary Chicago punk band; Hustlers Convention, which examines an untold tale from hip-hop history; Blackhearts, a fresh look at Norway’s notorious black metal scene; Fela Kuti: Music Is The Weapon; Sigur Ros: Heima; Gary Numan: Android in LaLa Land; a tribute to Brian Wilson on the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds featuring the films Pet Stories; Pet Sounds: Live from London; Beautiful Dreamer: Brian Wilson and the Story of Smile, and of course last year’s celebrated biopic Love & Mercy; a David Bowie retrospective with Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the vampire flick The Hunger, and Julien Temple’s Jazzin’ for Blue Jean, and a whole heck of a lot more, all of which, once again, can be found here.

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