New Guidelines for Submitting Music
As you may have noticed, we've moved away from soliciting music submissions as we've switched gears and began focusing on other endeavors. While we're still very supportive of all Chicago artists, music solicitation isn't our game anymore. As the saying goes, "It's not you, it's me." With that said, we would like to introduce you all to our new affiliate, Chicago Music. Chicago Music is slowly building itself up as Chicago's premier music destination where you can purchase tickets, read the latest music news, and with your help, listen to some amazing songs from the city's most talented musicians. Make sure to also follow Chicago Music on Twitter (@_ChicagoMusic_).
Moving forward, we will begin to send all music submissions over to our friends over at Chicago Music. Similarly, you can save yourselves an extra step by sending all of your submissions over to submissions@chicagomusic.com. Chicago Music will be accepting music submissions from all genres of music, so whether you're a rapper, producer, play in a band, or anything, as long as you're creating amazing music in this beautiful city, Chicago Music would love to feature you and your work. We ask that when you submit music, fill out the subject like this: "ARTIST NAME + SONG TITLE (GENRE)".
[RH First Look] Sidewalk Chalk
Sidewalk Chalk embodies Chicago. As much as the recent Vice "Chiraq" documentaries have done the opposite as of late, the eclectic eight piece band from the Second City pulls from both their hometown's past and present while focusing on writing it's future. The immediately soulful feelings of their latest project, Leaves, released February 24, is the result of an penchant for a sound that came off less polished and more gritty, capturing the sensibilities of both vocals and instrumentation that can be lost in post-production. The result is a fully-formed album that can keep you listening from the first to the last note. Long established in their hometown, Sidewalk Chalk has been making a large push around their latest album, and after playing a pair of album release shows over the weekend at Double Door in Chicago and Drom in New York City they will head off on a national tour in support of the new material. I had a chance to catch up with keys player Charlie Coffeen around the time of the release, check out or Q+A below.
Jake: So, the album is out in the world now. What has the process been like just readying this project to get out there?
Charlie: We're really excited to put it out. The process was a bit different from our first album, we kind of played a lot lot harder on this record we let the music be what it is a little more. We did a few takes of the tunes of the tunes with keys, bass and drums and once we were happy with it we just kind of let it be instead of tweaking things and making everything perfect. We kind of embraced the imperfections of it and I think that was the right move for what we wanted this record to be: raw and gritty and kind of just sound like us. The first album, we wanted everything to be perfect and for everything to be polished and I think we achieved that but on this one we wanted to push the boundaries a little bit and see how far we can stretch ourselves and our sound to the point where we had a finished project.
Jake: Was that something that was a conscious decision from the get-go, to let everything kind of ride on this project?
Charlie: Yeah, that was certainly our goal from the moment we stepped in the studio or even began thinking about how these songs were going to fit on an album. We knew we wanted them to be raw and we wanted them to sound real, like us. That was really our primary goal.
[Songs of the Day] 2/24/14 (Feat. Young Thug, Tyga, Big Boi & More)
Monday brought about a bunch of new songs from all corners of the music world. We gathered all the best releases from the weekend and today. Meek Demeo's track "Paper Birds" featuring Kendrick Lamar got a remix from Galimatias that takes the song up a notch higher than it already was, Young Money teased their upcoming collaboration album with "Senile" by Tyga, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. A Billion Young appropriately tapped Brian Fresco for his latest single, "Fresco" while Young Thug continued on a tear of singles, the most recent of which is "Ouch". Romeo Santos got with Nicki Minaj as well, tapping her for his hit "Animales" while Taylor Bennett got together with Loyale Soule to pay homage to a good friend in the soulful "Brother Man". A$AP Ant became the latest of the A$AP Mob to emerge on the public sphere, this time with his single, "Zaytoven" while Koda kept things moving in his latest, "Invitation to Love". Alex Wiley and Closed Sessions continued a powerful start to 2014 with another fresh new song in "Own Man" which pairs him with talented Chicagoan Mick Jenkins and Big Boi continued his "Mash-up Mondays" series with a collab with none other than Phantogram, which resulted in the ridiculously funky, "Objectum Shalamar". Also, Joell Ortiz reminds folks he still has "Bars". All this and more, below!
Track of the Day: Big Boi: "Objectum Shalamar" (Feat. Phantogram)
Meek DeMeo: “Paper Birds” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar) (Galimatias Remix)
Tyga: "Senile" (Feat. Nicki Minaj & Lil Wayne)
A Billion Young: "Fresco" (Feat. Brian Fresco)
Young Thug: “Ouch”
Romeo Santos: “Animales” (Feat. Nicki Minaj)
Taylor Bennett: “Brother Man” (Feat. Loyale Soul)
A$AP Ant: “Zaytoven”
Koda: “Invitation To Love”
SEVEN1: “Hiigher” (Prod. By Retro Ren)
DebonairStatus: “GoIN” (Feat. Kami de Chukwu)
Alex Wiley: “Own Man” (Feat. Mick Jenkins)
Big Boi: "Objectum Shalamar" (Feat. Phantogram)
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Joell Ortiz: “Bars”
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[Video] The O'My's: "Sweet Love"
The O'My's are easily one of the most soul-packed bunch in Chicago. Led by Maceo Haymes and Nick Hennessy, the band has seen its stock grow since releasing their latest album, A Humble Masterpiece late last year via RH and playing a host of high-energy sets around their hometown and beyond. Yesterday, playing on the "love is in the air" vibes of mid February, The O'My's crew dropped their latest visual for the song "Sweet Love" off their latest release. The video, directed by Dan Moraru, details what it's like when a friend of yours falls in love, worse yet, a roommate and what that means for everyone he was friends with. Check out the full video below.
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[Video] ShowYouSuck: "Flip Phone"
Clinton Sandifer, affectionately known in many circles around Chicago as ShowYouSuck, knows how to turn a party up, and has proven that much at just about every show he has played in and out of his hometown. Mixing punk and hip-hop aesthetics, Show very well have the most live hip-hop set in the city. On Valentine's Day though? Show's a little more mellowed out, as he demonstrates for us on his latest video for the track "Flip Phone" off his 2013 project One Man Pizza Party 4: Slices After Death. Directed by Chris Beauchesne and animated by Benjamn Marasco, the video is wildly entertaining as the animations coincide with the lyrical content and the simple shot of Clinton by himself in a love seat, in what is becoming his trademark white dotted shirt, as the cartoon world wreaks havoc on him. ShowYouSuck has proven himself a capable artist in myriad situations and he's one artist we should see get his due in 2014. Check out the awesome video for "Flip Phone" below.
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[Video] Justin Bieber: "Confident" (Feat. Chance The Rapper)
Welp, it's here. Chance and the Biebs got together on "Confident" at the beginning of December and it was just a matter of time before the collaboration got a visual component. Shot in Los Angeles while Chance The Rapper was in the midst of a move, Justin Bieber does his best impression of Michael Jackson in the somewhat-theatrical music video that tails Bieber as he lusts after a girl buying Takis. "Takis? I'd like to Takis to you on the phone." Smooth Justin. He then dances after her and she jumps on a motorcycle, but then gets out of a car. I don't know. Anyway, great timing for Chance to link his name with Bieber, now that the Canadian heartthrob has found himself on the front of every website and news outlet for his egg-tossing and speeding that has led him to hideout in Panama with Usher. Crazy. Anyway, check out the video below.
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[Video] ShowYouSuck: "80s Boobs"
Chicago's own ShowYouSuck meant business in 2013, and followed that up by releasing a gang of projects, the last of which, Dude Bro may be his most polished to date. The Closed Sessions' release dropped its latest video in support of the project, this one for the highly-anticipated "80s Boobs". The J. Arthur-produced track appropriately calls to mind the decade with the high synth use and the black and white visual is a simple affair, with translation subtitles rolling across the bottom while bras seem to be stocked in front of Show. The neon camera flares add a subtle 80s aesthetic to the video, shot by Addison Wright and J. Frank. In the end, the only nipples in the video are Show's, and he burns a bra. See it all for yourself, streaming below.
Chance The Rapper: "Interlude (That's Love)" Live
Back in November, Chance The Rapper took a few days off of his headlining "Social Experiment" tour to play a pair of sold out shows at The Riviera in his hometown of Chicago. The dates, sandwiched around Thanksgiving were a milestone in the young artist's career, a full year almost to the day since he had first played his first sold out show at The Metro in support of his upcoming Acid Rap tape that eventually launched him into rarified air. The performances at The Riv were a quintessentially hometown experience that oozed Chicago from the get-go with Stunt Taylor opening things up with a run through of his street banger "Fe Fe on the Block" before turning the show over to Chance and his band, made up of Donnie Trumpet, Nate Fox, Greg Landfair and the tour's Music Director Peter CottonTale who re-arranged the tracks from Acid Rap to fit subtly into a live atmosphere. 2013 was the craziest year to date of young Chancelor Bennett's life, and he wrapped it up appropriately, as you can see in the video below, shot by Bryan Lamb (FragDFilms) and myself at the first show. It's a little late, but these days who can get enough Chance?