#88.7

89X was one of my favorite radio stations in the Metro Detroit area until a few years ago, they changed formats to another genre of music 😭

On Sunday mornings, Cristina hosted the Time Warp which was several hours of older alternative music 💜 It was my favorite 🥰

I'm so happy I found this playlist and now I'm sharing it with you 😊💕

Made of Nothing by The 92s

May 14th, 2015 Join us for our weekly show featuring all Chicago music, Thursdays from 6-8pm on 88.7FM WLUW or streaming online at wluw.org!

Colin Morris – 6:00pm

Akron, OH native and current Chicagoan Colin Morris is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter who’s been composing melodic, alternative rock since childhood piano lessons gave way to experimenting with guitars and drums. Being the only kid in the house required playing and recording all the instruments himself, and Morris has stuck to that method on his 2015 debut EP, Could Be Anything.

“There’s nothing like being in a band and creating something new with your friends,” Morris says. “But sometimes a song just comes together in your head and you know where all the pieces fall.” That certainly was the case for Could Be Anything. Clocking in at just under 12 minutes of thrashing pop/rock, the debut EP was an experiment in minimalism for Morris, whose earlier works were more intricate.

“I put my effects pedals away and didn’t touch the piano,” he says. “That’s for next time. I stripped this one all the way down, on purpose. Just kicked up the gain on the guitars and beat my drums until I thought I had something.”

Colin Morris will open a stellar bill at Chicago’s renowned Martyrs’ next month. Details below:

THURS 4/23 @ Martyrs‘, 3855 N. Lincoln (Chicago, IL) w/ Shadow of the Titan with The Runaway Five 9pm // $7 // 21+

Draft Week – 6:30pm

Many bands who claim to wave rock’s gnarly, pedal-to-the-metal flag forget the intricacies and innovation that go along with it. True: Sometimes a great rock and roll song can be just four chords, but rearrange them all you like and they can only get you so far. What’s refreshing about Draft Week’s style is that they incorporate rich dynamics and throw a wrench in atypical song structures, while still remembering to keep things consistently hooky with fervent energy and back-alley cool.

Though Kevin McNamara (vocals, guitar), Mike Zevin (bass, keys, back-up vox), Mikey Plahm (drums) and Chad De Leon (lead guitar) all performed in rival bands in high school, they eventually started Draft Week together in 2009, during their college days. Through two national tours and three self-released EP’s, the band has racked up prized opening slots for the likes of Taking Back Sunday and Motion City Soundtrack. Locally, they’ve played some of Chicago’s most renowned venues (Metro, Congress Theater, House of Blues) as they continue to build a solid fan-base throughout the second city.

Taking the Hill by Draft Week

Tony Baines – 7:00pm

The Tony Baines Experience is a merge of producer and artist resulting in a musical climax of gargantuan proportions. Drums and snares herald a processional that immediately draws you into a state of anxious anticipation, waiting for what’s to come next. The crisp cries of a childlike voice shouts out “Tony Baines!” his signature seal of approval, clearing a pathway for snares, horns, and an array of sounds to emerge. Drama evoked from each signature beat seduces one and all into the arms of the song’s embrace indiscriminately. This is the essence of Tony Baines music.

Each track produced by Tony Baines is artist-specific, meaning that the sound is individually customized on the spot for that artist. In doing so, a bond between the musician and the music is forged at its conception. Tracks are tailor made to an ideal fit thus suiting the artists’ needs for the occasion. This attention to detail with every encounter, along with the consistency of the superior quality is what has become the coveted Tony Baines experience. With kicks like the re-coil of a .30 06 and grooves that increase your respiration, Tony Baines gets the mercury rising.

Baines’ crisp, diverse sound is not tethered to one discipline of music. By catering to the individuality of the artist he collaborates with, he is able to draw from his diverse musical background to branch out into the genres of Rap, R&B, Neo-Soul, Pop, Rock, and a cornucopia of other styles. In each instance he conceives a classic sound on a variety of canvases. His music channels the emotion and personality that both he and his artist exhibit. Tony Baines delivers us from monotonous tunes and returns us to the element of music that transcends the box it’s packaged in. The end result is a sound that is classic, timeless, and seductively intoxicating.

 Miss Chiff – 7:30pm

“When did following your dreams become when you’re gonna stop?” It’s one of about a zillion thought-provoking lines on Chicago MC Miss Chiff‘s new mixtape Bloom Later: The Mischievous Memoirs (her third release in as many years), which deals almost exclusively with two major themes: living for perfection and the rubble of crumbling relationships, both of which feel at home for the artist (aka 26-year-old upstate New York native Marilyn Reles) and those of her age group. The two worlds intersect at times – both on record and in real life – but what’s clear is that in Miss Chiff’s world, she’s overcoming obstacles from her youth and within the city’s own male-dominated rap scene on her own terms.

Having lived in Memphis, Atlanta and Virginia previously, Reles moved to Chicago immediately after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a bachelors degree in acting, with the goal of auditioning for Broadway. After deciding to take a break from that aspect, Reles was “simultaneously being adopted into the underground music scene. I was introduced to the life of an independent musician through the friends that I made upon my initial move to Chicago. They were all writers and musicians, specifically hip-hop artists. I remember absolutely loving attending their shows. The scene was very welcoming and motivating. I have always actively written poetry and short stories. I remember being quite unnerved (still am to this day) about the lack of female presence at these hip hop shows. I thought it was strange how few women there were in rap, if any.”

Comparing acting and rapping, Reles says “Music gives me a voice. It allows me to express myself in ways I never thought possible. Where with acting I found myself constantly asking permission to make art, with music I am on my own schedule. I can choose when and how to create a project and I no longer have to ask people for permission to be me. It’s a lot of work but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. I owe it to myself to be Miss Chiff.”

Part of Reles’ determination stems form a gymnastics accident at age 14 that left her with a broken back and the possibility of being paralyzed. Covered in depth throughout pounding new track “10.0” – with mentions of Adderall addiction and eating disorders to boot – not only did this life event not stop Reles’ relentless resolve for personal fulfillment, but if anything, it increased it.

Which leads one to correlate a potential through line between Reles’ gymnastics past and her present and future in rap. “Rapping isn’t hard for me, but writing rap is,” she admits. “I don’t know if it’s the actress in me, but I never had a problem getting up on stage and spitting a rap to an audience. Writing rap, however, does not come easy to me at all. And that’s why I do it. I think that when I created Miss Chiff, I was feeling bored with acting and everything else that was going on in my life so I was like: ‘Hey, here’s something challenging and scary – I’m gonna try it.’ Rap is one of the only genres of music that has a very competitive underlying tone to it. Guys are always trying to ‘prove themselves’ or ‘be on top’ or prove that their story about how they went from rags to riches is the most authentic and legit, and everybody should give them mad respect.” Unsure where her career will take her, she states “All I know is, as weird as it may seem to the mainstream, and as progressive as my approach to self-expression may be, it has been nothing but a natural extension of myself and I can’t wait to continue down this path.”

Musically, the gritty title track is buoyed by the phenomenal cut-and-paste repurposing of the Tom Jones classic “It’s Not Unusual,” and the mechanical, propulsive beats and bass-heavy chorus of “Drive” showcase Reles’ singing and her search for “what keeps me alive.” These are tracks where Miss Chiff puts herself on display – wounds, worries and all – to masterful and completely relatable effect.

“Toxic Relationships” covers the weighty topic of emotional and physical abuse in a down-to-earth manner, and sports a video filmed at Chicago landmarks such as Cloud Gate and Navy Pier’s Ferris Wheel and Stain Glass Museum. Reles her self-described “addiction” to creating videos (she has five under her belt currently) thusly: ” Ever since I was little I remember listening to music and imagining images in my head and ways in which the songs story could play out. I remember telling my mom that I want to be a VH1 music video director… But, making music videos is incredibly stressful. It’s also terrifying. I always always always get cold feet before I release a video. Even though I’ve performed in front of people my entire life, there’s just something so permanent about putting yourself out there on the internet. It’s a free forum, and once it’s up there, you can never take it back. People can do whatever they want with your video or say whatever they want about what they think of it. I’ve learned not to take YouTube comments seriously. I love putting out music videos because I always learn so much about myself and art in the process. I’ve never stepped away from a video thinking ‘That was 100% what I wanted.’ I usually walk away going ‘This is what I’m going to do differently next time.’ It’s kind of like a tattoo addiction: Tattoos hurt like hell, but not so much that people don’t go back for one or 30 more.”

Elsewhere on Bloom Later, “Earthquake” also finds Reles in an honest and open aura, getting over a shattered relationship by telling her antagonist that she’ll “put you in my wordplay” to avoid further pain. It’s a remarkable peak behind Miss Chiff’s creative curtain, as we assume that real-life instances make their way into an artist’s work, yet few will admit it so boldly. Though the majority of Bloom Later finds Miss Chiff working solo, guest rapper Wellium joins Reles on “Quarter Life” in her autobiographical coverage of her intro to the Chicago hip-hop community. Over a wonderfully manipulated version of Husky Rescue’s “My World” as the backbeat, Miss Chiff wonders allowed “Why do I see vividly as darkness approaches me?,” as if to say that no matter what the obstacles, Reles will only thrive, as she has throughout gymnastics, acting, rapping and life.

  FRI 5/15 @Lilly’s Tavern, 2515 N. Lincoln (Chicago, IL) 9pm // 21+

Bloom Later, The Mischievous Memoirs by Miss Chiff

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