“Chicago” (Used 28 times)

One of the most notorious figures in country music history is western swing pioneer Spade Cooley. Cooley was known as the "King of Western Swing" in his heyday, but due to a gruesome incident in his private life, he is often viewed these days more as the Sid Vicious of Western Swing. His is a model lesson in how a brilliant musical legacy can be overshadowed by unsavory personal problems. (via JoeMc, "He Did It Then" —> Read More)

This song features Tex Williams on vocals, and can be found on Shame On You, a set of music from Space Cooley & The Western Swing Dance Gang featuring Tex. The collection was issued by Bloodshot Records' Bloodshot Revival Series.

The Bloodshot Revival Series is a fantastic historical resource for country music in the early/mid 1900s, with a focus on the music of Bloodshot's hometown of Chicago.

Browse more promotional Bloodshot Revival/Soundies tracks on the FMA, and pick up these fantastic reissues at Bloodshot Records. Show 'em some love in honor of Preservation Week (#preswk12)!

Following the commercial "flop" of 2005's DVD-only debut album Blame it on the Youth (for every song, a music video), The Sun lost the support of their major record label (Warner) and went the Creative Commons netlabel route for their second album.

By the time Don't Let Your Baby Have All The Fun was finally released in November 2009 by Chicago's top-notch netaudio source Rock Proper, it was already established that the album would be The Sun's last. Which is a shame, because it's a really killer rock record, with shades of '70s glam, sounding at times like Jeff Tweedy fronting Oneida (they'd previously recorded with Wilco's Jay Bennett), with a heavy dose of Spoon (the album was recorded by Spoon producer Mike McCarthy).

According to one article, the album might just have easily have been released by the mighty indie Merge Records, but the band wanted to move on to other things. The Sun's leader Chris Burney is still making and releasing music with his band Adult Fiction and through his limited-edition vinyl label Eastern Watts (a recent profile on Columbus Alive), as are core members Sam Brown (New Bomb Turks, RJD2) and Brad Caulkins (Fool's Gold).

Today, former IL Gov Rod Blagojevich was convicted on 17 of 20 counts of corruption. So no more reality TV, he is going to jail for up to 300 years.

"We Toast The Governor's Hair" is a song from the Bird Names' release For The Love of Rod, which was written long before any of these corruption charges hit. David Lineal devoted three days to this bizarre work of audio fan fiction...be sure to check out the liner notes for a more complete explanation. I originally blogged this on WFMU's blog before the FMA launched, and figure it's worth posting again... enjoy!

For their part, Bird Names have a fantastic new LP on Northern-Spy called Metabolism: A Salute To The Golden Energy Of The Sun. They have since migrated south from Chicago to Athens GA and are recording/touring as a two-piece.

With their drum-machine-powered, infectious fuzzed-out goth, Black Math bring to mind the Jesus and Mary Chain (or, if you ask them, Siouxsie and the Banshees), but with more layers to pick apart. Xina's vocals float like the open sky above dark clouds, and she plays the cello! Jimmy's synth and sharp drum patterns bring a shadowy dark-wave element, while Andrew's wall-of-sound guitar harkens back to the aforementioned 1980s shoegazers.

Black Math's second LP Phantom Power is out now in a limited edition of 500 on their hometown Chicago label Permanent Records. Permanent is one of the finest record stores around, and their label releases typically sell out, including jams by Moon Duo, Cave, Charles Albright, Cheveu, The Anals, Cacaw, Nothing People, Drunks With Guns and Purling Hiss.

Permanent also released Black Math's debut LP, limited to a paltry 100 copies -- sold out instantly, and according to Permanent Records, "One fan offered as much as $120, hoping to find a remaining copy!". This, despite the fact that it's been available in completely free mp3 form here all along (via Pan y Rosas Discos).

Before the Free Music Archive launched, we featured Black Math and a bunch of other Chicago bands in our Chicagoland Free Music Archive preview, part of a series of mega-posts on wfmu's beware of the blog. More recent Chicago findings are here at the Chicago tag, and if you find more stuff, any logged-in user can join in on the tagging project.

Enjoy these three tracks from Black Math's Phantom Power LP (Permanent Records)