Some first and second listens on this week’s show with Doves, iDKHOW, and Whitney along with Big Beat Chicago Artist of the Week White Mystery. The entire playlist is below and online and you can check out playlists to past Big Beats here.

I mention every week because it’s so important – support the artists you hear on the Big Beat and WXRT by buying their music from, wehever you can, a local, independent, or family-owned music store and, when you head out crate diving, wear a mask and let me know what you find! Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My handle on all three of ’em is RyanArnoldRocks.

Your pal,
-Ryan A.

Click here to see the full article!

Click Here to stream the playlist on Spotify.

Gossip Wolf first caught wind of local producer-rapper Montana Macks in 2015, when his work appeared all over the Rich Jones EP Pigeons & Waffles. Macks has been a little quiet for the past couple years, but he’s had his hands full working on an instrumental album called Arrivals & Departures. He tells Gossip Wolf that he began working on it when Jones suggested he compile his unreleased material for a beat tape—but because Macks has been recording for around a decade, he has a whole lot of unreleased material. “We collectively went through over 2,500 beats to make these selections,” he says. The tracks collected on Arrivals & Departures have a soulful, sophisticated, and thoroughly relaxing vibe; the album drops Friday, August 7.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Anni Rossi left for New York in 2010, but Gossip Wolf will always consider her a Chicagoan. After all, her outstanding 2009 full-length, Rockwell, is still the best (if not only) album named after the start-and-stop street that runs north-south the whole length of the city. For the past few years, Rossi has been releasing mixtapes of what she calls “strange pop experiments, curiosities, comedy and characters.” Last week, she dropped the latest installment, a charmingly homemade video mix called House of Rossi. “Most of these songs and videos were captured on my iPad and DV camera in restaurants, airplanes, trains, on tour, with friends or at home,” she says. The mix is streaming on Spotify and YouTube, and Rossi is already on to new projects—including an EP due later this year and a 2021 full-length produced by Bobb Bruno of Best Coast.

 The audio portion of House of Rossi is streaming on Spotify.

Last week local arts nonprofit Quiet Pterodactyl dropped the all-star compilation SituationChicago, which benefits 25 of the city’s music venues. It contains tracks from Jeff Tweedy, White Mystery, Big Silky, Ric Wilson, Girl K, Dee Alexander, the Twilite Tone, and 18 other amazing local acts!  

Click here to see the full article!

These records are being smashed for a good cause. They’re for a new benefit album called, “Situation Chicago” with all proceeds going to 25 Chicago music venues.

Those venues are: Beat Kitchen, Cafe Mustache, Cole’s, Dorian’s Through the Record Shop, Emporium Arcade Bar, Empty Bottle, Fulton Street Collective, GMan Tavern, The Hideout, Liar’s Club, Lincoln Hall, Martyrs’, The Metro, Moe’s Tavern, The Promontory, Reggie’s Rock Club, Schubas Tavern, Silver Room, Sleeping Village, Smartbar, Subterranean, Thalia Hall, Tonic Room, Uncommon Ground and The Whistler.

Started by Trey Elder of nonprofit, Quiet Pterodactyl, the multi-genre album features 25 Chicago artists. Those artists are: Dee Alexander, Ang13 ft. Shockwave, Big $ilky, Bumbac Joe, The Cool Kids, Girl K, Anthony Gravino, Justice Hill, Hood Smoke, Rich Jones, Quinlan Kirchner, Lowdown Brass Band, The Oh Yeah’s, OKGO, Ovef Ow, Poi Dog Pondering, William Steffey, The Streets on Fire, Sam Trump & Acoustic Audile ft. Harold Green, Jeff Tweedy, The Twilite Tone, White Mystery and Ric Wilson (feat. Kiela Adira).

“We’re all in this bizarre situation,” Trey Elder said. “By calling it ‘Situation Chicago,’ we are all in this situation, but this project is how the music industry and how this situation in Chicago how we’re all going to get through this together.”

The project is sponsored by Chicago businesses like Smashed Plastic. The record plant says they’re doing their part to keep the city’s music community alive.

“I look at this music community as an absolute ecosystem,” Andy Weber, co-founder and owner of Smashed Plastic, said. “We can’t have one of those arms break down. It’s essential to be helping the venues because it works for all of us. A lot of the bands that press here, those guys also bartend at these venues and obviously play there as well. It’s also where they sell a lot of their records.”

Proceeds from “Situation Chicago” will go toward local music venues in the city, like Dorian’s. They’re a part of the Chicago Independent Venue League and say they need all the help they can get.

“A lot of you know independent venues owners say ‘first to close last to open.’ It’s not a cliché term,” said Zack Eastman, owner and operator of Dorian’s Through the Record Shop. “It’s the reality. A lot of our space, pretty much all of our spaces don’t have patios, don’t serve food and we don’t have many ways to pivot. It’s independent venues that gives folks a shot is really important.”

The artists involved aren’t getting paid to be on the album. But Justice Hill, one of the featured artists featured on the album, says support between musicians and music venues is synonymous.

“Personally, I feel happy about it,” Hill said. “But I know it’s going to do a lot to support people, so how could I not be behind it, you know.”

While the impact is unknown, Elder says he’s grateful to have created an opportunity to help the future of Chicago’s music scene.“I recognize no matter how many records we sell, I’m not necessarily saving any individual business. But I think we could have a really big impact on helping them get through this time when they’re not.”

Situation Chicago drops Thursday at midnight. Visit the album’s website for more information, including how to buy it.

Click here to see the whole article!

When: Fri., May 8, 5 p.m. and Fri., May 22, 5 p.m. 2020 
Price: $5 suggested donation 
www.hideoutchicago.com/e/lp-s-happy-hour-103957467584

Musician and Hideout luminary Lawrence Peters hosts a two-hour Happy Hour with special guests and music. Free to view, $5 donation suggested. May 22’s guests are musician Alex White of the band White Mystery and Public Media Institute (Lumpen Radio, Quarantine Times) and Marz Brewing’s Ed Marszewski.

Press release: Massive Online Festival SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!

Bands from Goner, Burger, and Slovenly!

Full Schedule below. *** All set times are Central Standard Time Zone****

Tune in to

sofa-king-fest.com 

SUNDAY 11am-11pm!

Stream it to your speakers for outside jams if you can’t watch the whole thing!

What a lineup! Zac’s playing records at 11AM, and Eric O is providing inspirational thoughts at 8:15 and 9:15PM. Quintron & Miss Pussycat are “the audience” during the later afternoon. With Nobunny, Jack Oblivian, King Khan, Mark Sultan, Bloodshot Bill, Sean Spits, The Zeros, Human Eye, Blag Dahlia, Wes Coleman, Gino & No Goons, Paul Collins, White Mystery, Optic Sink  (NATALIE from NOTS!), Chai, Choke Chains, Aquarian Blood, The Sueves, Benni, Thigh Master, Saba Lou, Hash Redactor, The Lemons, Red Mass, Michael Beach, The Archaeas, Craig Brown and tons more!

Great poster by St. Francis Elevator Ride.

Support these bands – and have a blast doing it.

NOTE: We post the newest livestreams in a new post every day. Make sure you’re reading the newest edition of our roundup – check the livestream tag HERE for the latest.

LAST UPDATED: 5/24 at 12:01 AM ET

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in America, the live performance industry has come to an unprecedented halt, with concerts, stage performances, festivals and sporting events all cancelled or postponed indefinitely amidst an uncertain future.

DoStuff Media specializes in event listings, working with promoters, venues large and small, local and national artists, bars, restaurants and more to provide an answer to the age old question of what to do on any given night.

What began in 2006 in Austin, Texas as Do512 (512 is the Austin area code) expanded to Chicago as Do312 in 2010 and now operates in twenty-one cities across North America.Today In: Hollywood & EntertainmentCould Taylor Swift’s Surprise Live Album Go To No. 1 Next Week?

But as bars, restaurants and venues have closed amidst self-quarantine and shelter-in-place orders, events ranging anywhere from trivia night to arena concerts have disappeared from the calendar. Ad revenues have dried up, forcing many media outlets to pivot.

“Our entire product and sort of lifeblood is not just the events but all of the people throwing events – from the bar owners to the actual creators and artists, everyone. That’s our entire business, community, friends and everything,” said DoStuff COO and founding employee Kristin Owen. “From a monetary perspective, those people are hurting too. But the way our business works, people come to our site to figure out what to do. And the people throwing events advertise with us to attract bodies to those events – be it Live Nation or bars or venues. All of those different people are spending money with us to advertise and we then get people to the events to which they buy tickets and they buy booze. It’s a very nice, mutually beneficial relationship. Then brands spend money with us on top of that to connect with that audience. But without going to events, no one needs to advertise their events. So I would say 90% of that ad revenue just stopped.”