This Saturday, Pictures and Sounds brings the recent surge in live, improvised soundtrack performances to the campus of the University of Chicago. An annual collaboration between WHPK 88.5 FM and the University’s Film Studies Center, the event features a sampling of four acts gleaned from the Midwestern avant-noise/free improvisation music scene. Each performer has chosen a short film to accompany their show, ranging from classics of experimental cinema to films produced specifically for the occasion. This year’s roster of musical acts includes Mist, Dog Lady, Trauma y Nate Wooley, and Brett Naucke. Read the rest of this entry »

A gap in WHPK 88.5 FM’s programming will finally be filled this summer with the arrival of the station’s first Jewish interest show. Rabbi Yossi Brackman of the University of Chicago’s Chabad House describes his upcoming show, tentatively titled “L’Chaim with the Rabbi,” as a Jewish variety/call-in show, and says it will provide “some kind of a Jewish voice on the air in the area.” This voice has been lacking on the South Side, according to Brackman, who says there are currently only “a couple half-hour shows on the North Side.” Read the rest of this entry »

Operating 24/7/365, WHPK provides constant company for its small listenership. This dogged airwave presence is made possible by force of the dedication and gracious will of its DJs. But station maintenance is highly decentralized. Read the rest of this entry »

After five minutes of labyrinthine guitars and blistering drums, the WHPK record library falls silent, except for one man, Fucked Up vocalist Pink Eyes. “If I have to die, I’m glad I’m gonna die under a hail of falling records.” There it is—proof that crossover hardcore darlings Fucked Up haven’t totally escaped their roots as punk nerds. In the seven years since their founding, they’ve charted a course from distinctive if traditional hardcore to what Pink Eyes referred to as “Pitchfork-approved psychedelia.” There’s nothing radical about a band getting slower and druggier; the same process took ’80s hardcore legends Black Flag from shaved-head furies to long-haired sludge metallers. Alas, Black Flag never played WHPK. Read the rest of this entry »

The Summer Breeze war is upon us—though, as usual, it isn’t much of a battle at all. Sometimes, we can all get along. For more than twenty years, the University of Chicago’s Major Activities Board (MAB) and WHPK 88.5 FM Chicago have staged springtime music shows on the same day. This year is no different, but the eclectic line-ups of both shows ensure that your ears can experience a sonic extravaganza. Read the rest of this entry »

College was supposed to be a land of both social and academic opportunity. To a large extent it is, even at a work-intensive school like the University of Chicago. But how exactly these opportunities present themselves, and how ardently we protect them and involve ourselves, is a more complicated tale. Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the time, people never notice the background music that accompanies their movies, focusing instead on the spectacle on the screen. But what happens when music and film are equal partners, the movie theater includes a stage, the movie is an experimental silent film and the soundtrack is improvised by a live performer instead of recorded and prepackaged with the movie? “Pictures and Sounds,” a screening of experimental films that goes hand in hand with live performances by local musicians, provides an answer to this question. This annual event is a unique collaboration between WHPK 88.5 FM Chicago and the Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago, which provides the venue for the concert and screening next Saturday evening. Read the rest of this entry »