Dedicated Ears Presents: David Safran, Brendan Losch, and Pretty Little Empire Live May 8 at The Chopin Theatre Chicago

I don't usually incorporate much of my personal life in this blog as this is a music blog and not a blog about me. Yes, there is a but coming. But, I thought a little back story on how I went from no blog 1 yr ago to blog and booking shows might help set the story for Dedicated Ears' first show at The Chopin Theatre.

I went to see and interview Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs last October at The Chopin. I got to talk to Lela, who is half owner of The Chopin. I had started looking into venues for bands I was friends with and mentioned this to Lela. Earlier this year I met with Lela and the other owner, her husband Zygmunt. I dropped off music of the bands that were looking for gigs. Lela and Zygmunt have been putting on shows at The Chopin for 18 years and are still very excited about trying new things. So they asked if I would be interested in booking acts on a regular basis at The Chopin. I happily agreed even though I haven't booked shows anywhere before. I owned my own sub sandwich start-up and I did everything by myself, top to bottom. That was a big learning curve and I have found that those skills of organization, people skills and problem solving that go along with owning my own business will serve me well while booking shows at The Chopin.

I have had an invaluable amount of help from August Forte who works at Novo Entertainment. I went to high school with August and recently reconnected via facebook. He has helped me meet many cool people in the music scene in Chicago. He is also a good friend and will be promoting many of the shows I book for the Chopin. He has helped make my Dedicated Ears' first show at The Chopin Theatre a reality, so I thank him for it. The show is May 8th with doors at 9:30 pm and the first band at 10pm. This is a 21+ show with a $6 cover. The three great acts to perform are David Safran, Brendan Losch, and Pretty Little Empire. Thanks to these bands for playing this show. Also thanks to another blogger Tarty Tart, who is probably at a show as we speak! She gave me the heads up on Brendan's music. Please come see them play live and hang out in the very cool cabaret space at The Chopin Theatre.

A good friend of mine Brian Fitzgerald designed the great poster for the show that you see on this page. You can reach Brian at brianfitzgerald3@yahoo.com if you would like to inquire about his design work.

A special thanks to my wife. She's always supportive and helps me make my crazy ideas become realities. She originally pushed me to start this blog one year ago. Like I like to say, "This is all her fault", in a good way!

An Interview with Tune-Yards at The Chopin Theatre, Chicago (10/15/09)

The Tune Yards album Bird Brains is an interesting collage of digital audio recording and samples that make for a great exploration of what is sonically possible on an album.









Therefore I was very interested to see how this collection of sound snippets and samples would play out when performed live. I was fortunate to film an interview with Merrill before the show.




She said that she didn't want to just have a DAT machine playing, and instead used relay pedals and used grunts, drumsticks hitting mic stands and anything else that was handy to lay a percussive ground-floor. She built the rest of the musical building up with her vocals and also the ukulele, which takes on a more prominent roll live than on the album. Any questions about how this would all shake out were answered immediately as Merrill created a sound that was different from the album, but actually shined the focus on her songwriting and her amazing unique vocal style.



The Chopin Theatre was a great place to see a show. The sound was really good and owner Lela and the people that worked there were very nice and accommodating for my interview of Merrill as well as throughout the show. Check out their upcoming line-up.

Thanks to Catherine at Beggars for all of the help.



Also thanks to my friend Steve Juras shot the interview on his video camera as well as took the pictures that show up on this blog. Check his wide range of artistic endeavors at swidinst.org.