Many of you will already be familiar with these gorgeous faces:
It’s the mighty Chips For The Poor, who combine sartorial elegance with ‘seductive, danceable sonic concoctions that are tastier than chips and funner than poverty’; and ‘at times recall the austerity of Wire crossed with the primitive devil-may-care chaos of the Fall’. The more observant amongst you will have already noted that I merely slammed together two quotes from recent reviews (including Time Out Chicago) in that last sentence, rather than come up with anything original; but frankly what do my opinions matter when compared to such journalistic might? They’ve supported Bobby Conn, appeared on Chicago kids rock TV show Chic-a-Go-Go; and are generally far cooler than you or I have any right to expect. And now they have a new album that they would like to bring to your attention. And it’s on cassette. Here it is:
2011 Slow Motion Records (SMT001) cassette album
Limited edition of 53 coloured cassettes
Digital download
Buy either or both from Bandcamp
Track list:
A1/ Live from downtown transmissions (30’00”)
B1/ Mountain Vision (with Robin the Fog) (5’00”)
B2/ Surf’s Up (with Design-a-Wave) (5’00”)
B3/ Radio Rapture (with Robin the Fog) (5’15”)
B4/ Wet Lands (live with James III) (9’00”)
Information:
Mix of audio from our Resonance FM radio show, a travelogue of our US tour and beyond. Side A is six shows played simultaneously, side B is us playing with special guest remixers. Track B4 previously unbroadcast. Comes in six different colours, yellow is the rarest, puce is the most unpleasant.
I really wish I was in this band. And for a couple of brief, shining moments I sort-of almost was. Because as you can see, the B-Side of this cassette features radiophonic collaborations with myself, Design-a-Wave and the ever-manic James III). More by luck than by design I happened to be the engineer supervising these live recordings and so got to tinker and monkey a little with their aforementioned sonic concoction, which was an honour and a privilege. And also quite steamy in places.
In summary: Go here. Get this.
Should you require any more convincing, you can have a listen to the shows in their original wonky glory at the Resonance FM podcast page. And furthermore, here is the video to their previous single, the 22-minute, one-note wonder that is ‘I Am A Warrior’. This is the radio edit that was released on clear 7″ vinyl. Might be an idea to pick up a copy of that too, if there’s any left:
I wish I could be a warrior too. Someday…
Robin The Fog 