The One AM Radio Turn the Dial to 'Stellar'

It Happened Last Night

The One AM Radio Turn the Dial to 'Stellar'

CHICAGO: The L.A.-based collective layers cathartic songcraft with inspiration for diverse crowd.

By Lizz Kannenberg 08.28.07 3:00 AM

PHOTOS BY LAURA GRAY

You can't go wrong with the free admission and $1.25 PBRs every Monday night at Chicago's iconic Empty Bottle, but fortunately for the city's ever-growing population of skint-living cool kids there's also some seriously excellent music. The One AM Radio, the indie electronic project of Hrishikesh Hirway, set the ashtray floors and grimy walls of the Bottle awash in organ-drenched melody last night (Aug. 27), commanding the rapt attention of a normally rowdy and always eclectic crowd that included plenty of your usual indie scenesters, neighborhood regulars, and two (count 'em -- TWO) dudes in white pimp suits. Drawing heavily on songs from the band's latest, the city-themed This Too Will Pass, the exceedingly polite and humble Hirway and Co. delivered a harmony-heavy set of thoughtful, thickly textured and slow-building pop songs that brandished all of the introspective power of the singer-songwriter tradition with none of the woe-is-me mope.

We asked: The One AM Radio recently ran a contest on their website to make the best mix tape inspired by the new album, This Too Will Pass. If you were making a mix tape to enter the contest, what would the first track on it be and why?

Name: Hrishikesh Hirway
Age: 28
Hometown: Peabody, MA
Occupation: Mixtape connoisseur/Lead singer for One AM Radio
"It's called 'Tudo Tudo Tudo' by Caetano Veloso. It's a good opener because it's just vocals and clapping, and it's in 4 or 5 part harmony…it's one element that slowly builds to get bigger and bigger."

Name: Matthew Joynt
Age: 24
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Musician/homebody
"I would put the Notwist, 'Pick Up the Phone.' Something about the way the singer's voice fit with what they were doing instrumentally really reminded me of some distant cousin of the Notwist."
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Name: Eric Seidel
Age: 22
Hometown: Frankfurt, IN
Occupation: None currently
"That's tough…maybe the Killers, anything off the second album."

Name: Jennifer Griffin
Age: 21
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Jobless, yeah!
"The Dismemberment Plan, 'The City.' They reminded me a lot of the Dismemberment Plan."

Name: Carl Lowendorf
Age: 28
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Carpenter
"It'd be Sufjan Stevens…any song, maybe 'Chicago,' because I loved seeing One AM Radio in Chicago, and they remind me of him."

Name: Jaclyn Peterson
Age: 23
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Occupation: Instructional coordinator
"Sufjan Stevens, 'Chicago' because the opening band [Lymbyc System] talked about how awesome Chicago is, and I'm just really loving Chicago right now."

Name: Dargie Anderson
Age: 29
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Occupation: Law student
"It would have to be the Yo La Tengo song about Shea Stadium…it's an atmospheric song that's about cities and the things going on alongside the thing that you're focused on."

Name: Betty Blair
Age: 25
Hometown: Brooklyn, MI
Occupation: Traveler
"Parts of it remind me of Boards of Canada…no particular song, but definitely something older."
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Name: David Troncoso
Age: 21
Hometown: Coram, NY
Occupation: Student
"Jackie Wilson, 'Higher and Higher.' It's just one of my favorite songs."

Name: Michelle O'Brien
Age: 25
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Occupation: Student
"Probably anything from the Album Leaf…anything off of their newest CD."