Events

Reilly Downes is the Sad Cowgirl of Chicago. An Americana artist hailing from the Texas Hill Country, she cut her teeth as a session musician in Nashville, singing behind some of Americana’s favorite singer/songwriters.

Reilly's first solo album, Spent, earned her the spot of #1 Americana releases for 2022 as well as features on The Boot among other Americana and Country covering media. Since then, her haunting rendition of “Wicked Game” has landed her radio play, a feature on Spotify’s “Vibes” playlist, and more.

https://www.reillydownesmusic.com

Portland artist Ac Sapphire returns with the decadent new album Dec. 32nd, songs from a cycle that honors Sapphire at her best: guitar, and vocals front and center; celebrations of the songwriter, the shredder, that she is. Sapphire sits serenely among the songwriting class that is our generation's Laurel Canyon sound. Ac's music has a grasp on the cosmic side of Americana. She resides in Portland, but was once a desert denizen, and her southwestern exposure shows in the wide open, dusty, romantic sound of each song. She's the winner of Relix Sonic Showdown, a finalist in the John Lennon songwriting contest. She's shared the stage with artists like Son Little, long time friend Sunny War, and even been featured on a Shirley Manson (Garbage) song. Ac has played the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Treefort Music Fest. Even as this album is being released, she's finishing recording another with New Song Music as the winner of their 2022 contest. Sapphire makes a meta-modern version of Americana. Honoring the cross of hippies and cowboys that began the genre, embroidering thoughtful songwriting with cosmic consideration, emotional rock n roll, and western vista inspired folk rock. She’s capable of eviscerating emotions with harmonies and heated hard hitting love songs. Sapphire mines the same golden, glowing vein of Courntey Marie Andrews, Kassi Valazza, Madison Cunningham, or Mikaela Davis. She's a multi-instrumentalist and composer whose songs take the earnest torch of cosmic country and carry it forward, blazing a trail through a jaded, junk-future. Sapphire sings whole-heartedly, and makes cover-to-cover albums fit for Long Play listening, sitting and smoking, soul searching, desert dazing. The results of Sapphire's serendipitous wandering can be heard on the newer tracks on Dec. 32nd. On "Chaparral Bottom," her song for long-time friend and collaborator Victoria Williams. Sapphire romanticizes the mojave, and the peripatetic and perilous lives of working musicians, with voice and warbling electric while accompanied by a pack of coyotes yelping in the distance. You don't have to know what Sapphire is singing about for it to strike you. Her voice will penetrate your consciousness, your soul, the vibrations working from the inside out to shake tension and tumult loose. You'll weep, you'll cheer, you'll be won over. "Oblivion" sees a hail of harmonies like furies singing around an acoustic guitar. "Highway Hum" takes you for a ride: thrumming electric guitars sound like tread on hot tar, and Sapphire sings at the top of her lungs, as if to alone to her own radio. Dec. 32nd comes at a point of great upheaval for the artist. Owed to her ability to make friends and fans wherever she goes, she can book a gig anywhere in the country at a moment's notice, and has friends and fans all over the US and Europe. At the same time, her father -her first manager, and her biggest fan, has been battling cancer for the last two years. Ac also feels the pull of time as a singer/songwriter who is twenty years into a music industry at its most volatile point in history. Still, she's cranking out work, on tour, recording constantly.    Sapphire is at her mesmerizing best on songs like "Demon Sneeze", with just vocals and guitar sounding like a gorgeous chorus in a gargantuan church. A voice so strong that it seems to harmonize with it's own echoes, Sapphire's songs are cathedrals unto themselves. Each effort from Ac Sapphire is saturated in sentimentality, parts of these albums are views into the soul of the person. Sapphire has an ability to imbue an album with the ghosts of her past, effectively giving them a home. This saturates her work in sentimentality, making songs like "Weed Money" and "Stringbreaker" intensely personal, and poignant heartbreakers.  

https://www.acsapphiremusic.com

$5

Tropigoth is back @californiaclipper Friday 8/26! Una noche para los rockeros, bellakas gothikas, y cumbiamberxs (y quien le guste bailar a un ritmo dark)

For the first time @californiaclipper please welcome: 

@agentdmz, a NY born/Salinas, PR bred Black Boricua by the way of the 407.  She has had the honor to share the stage with local and international performers such as MC Soffia, DJ Negro,  Rosa Pistola, Mamicana & Maldita Vaina, bringing joy and energy to the dance floor challenging the status quo.

@kevinmoore  is an educator who has been djing and collecting for over 20 years. His musical journey began in Houston, TX originally playing house and techno but has since evolved to a mixed genre format with a deep appreciation for the technical aspects of the craft. His sets are a reflection of what he loves ranging from disco to EBM to post punk to breaks and on and on.

Ava v Maire is a pole dancer and instructor,  as well as founder of Black Skrippa Brigade (BSB). BSB is a Chicago-based collective of black queer strippers & pole dqncers committed to combating the current lack of opportunities and community for black dancers. Catch her performing throughout the night on the main stage and be ready to shower 💸💸 her in appreciation via cash tips! 

And as always resident DJ La Colocha dropping the latest Kumbia Obscura releases and exploration of post punk, hardcore, and rock en español. 

We continue our Monthly Blues Night with the Joey J. Saye Trio! 

When you look at Joey J. Saye, you see a promising, young musician with his entire life ahead of him. When you hear him, his sound and his musicianship far surpass his age. The way he attacks the strings with finesse embodies the roots of blues as if he was around when the Blues were born.

Joey is making a name for himself throughout Chicagoland and all over the US, he is being recognized abroad, becoming an international artist with audiences embracing him with open arms.

We're lucky enough to get Joey J. Saye at The Clipper, every last Saturday of the month. 

https://www.jjsayemusic.com

Free

To celebrate the birthday of our beloved on camera host Sydni, Real Ones is teaming up with fast-rising music curation platform That Good Sh*t for a night to remember at the Clipper. Experience live performances by dream-pop singer Tala Silva (with full band!), electrifying rapper Mvte, and DJ sets from Annabelle, Quincy Davis & FRANK LEONE. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0pWzldmto6M2HTOYv8S6eg

Annabelle is a curator, creator, and DJ based in Brooklyn. She's the founder of the platform "That Good Sh*t,” whose mission is to build community around shared love of good music. Through artist interviews, curated live events, playlists, and more, TGS is a go-to source for keeping up with the most important and innovative music of today.

https://www.thatgoodshitmusic.com

Tala Silva is a Filipina-American indie artist/producer based in Chicago, exploring the new fusion sound of Indie, Alternative Bedroom R&B, Indie Pop, House, and Neo-Soul, inspired by the likes of Men I Trust, The Marías, Steve Lacy, UMI, Omar Apollo, and Kali Uchis. Her soothing vocals, relatable lyrics, emotive guitar melodies, and dreamy production are perfect for sunset drives, falling in love, vibing with friends, and late-night parked car convos. Her ability to create a variety of sounds and blend genres is a reflection of her individuality and talent. Tala Silva’s ultimate goal is to help show others that anything is absolutely possible, regardless of one’s resources and circumstances. Despite her humble at-home, make-shift recording studio, she has been recognized by outlets such as Fashionably Early, These Days Mag, and more. As well as Spotify, where her single, “Call Back” landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday editorial playlist, proving her to be the epitome of the saying “if there’s a will, there’s a way!” Within only a year, Tala Silva has already proven to be a potential indie force to be reckoned with.

https://talasilva.bandcamp.com

Quincy Davis is a creative music producer and DJ who specializes in blending Chicago House, Deep House, Hip-Hop, and more. With a unique ability to blur the borders of genre, Quincy’s sets are a testament to his dedication to pushing musical boundaries.

https://itsquincydavis.com

FRANK LEONE is a self-produced multidisciplinary artist from the woods South of Chicago. A bedroom prodigy who is just as confirmable programming beats, singing, rapping, as he is writing screenplays and creating animated TV shows. His ability to portray raw emotions in all their stillness is apparent on his latest album FISH, a project ripe with lush instrumentation and delicate patina. Collaborators such as BADBADNOTGOOD’s Chester Hansen, Coco O. (Quadron, Tyler the Creator) and Hrlum lend a few brush strokes to these songs of longing, as Frank portrays the great pink valley that is FISH.

https://foolsgoldrecs.com/artists/frank-leone/

$10

A beautiful day for live music and DJs!

Free

DJ SETS BY 

Simone @sim1free Lex @lex_stein Soraya @dana_soraya Alexandria @alexandriathenotsogreat Vinse @unlimittedstarpower

FREE ENTRY ALL NIGHT

Having been dubbed “the hardest working band in construction”, OLD LADY has spent over a decade playing the basements, honky tonks, and dance halls of the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. In a celebration of freedom and song, their music is a dance between the nightlife, and the sun up to sun down toil of the trades.

https://oldladyofficial.bandcamp.com

Continuing the legacy of the spaghetti west, DARK CANYON delivers haunting guitar melodies and hypnotic percussion that will transport you to a spring reverb soaked ghost town.

https://darkcanyonmusic.bandcamp.com

Free

Every first Wednesday of the month you get to join Nick "Boo" Smith for a chance to win a multitude of prizes!

Free

DJ PHIL, DJ.MC, and $&M (Jeremiah Meece & Drew Sinceer) descend upon the Clipper for a night of footwork, ghettotech, House, Breaks, and club sounds for a CLINIC on the Chicago sound. 

Over the last ten years, DJ Phil, has evolved from a protegee and student of the late DJ Rashad to one of the most ambitious core members of Chicago's a Teklife collective. In that time, the Chicago native has released several projects that expose a deeper melodic angle that tends to deviate from the traditional fast-paced nature of footwork. 

"Hailing from the South Side of Chicago, Dj.Mc is a DJ/producer who became interested in music and dancing watching the Chicago Bud Billiken parade as a child and started his own musical journey marching to Ghetto House music as part of the South Shore Drill dance team. Mentored early on by DJ Gant-Man, Dj.Mc has been creating beats since 2001 and was featured on the second volume of Planet Mu Records' influential Bangs & Works compilation series in 2011. Currently in the midst of a prolific run of releases, this year he's notably put out his debut on revered UK label Hyperdub Records with the Relentless EP and quickly followed that up with his debut on London-based label Moveltraxx with the Ratchett EP, both releases bringing his bass-heavy footwork beats to a wider audience." -KEXP.ORG 

$&M combine Classic house, breaks, bass, techno, and club sounds across genres to create a unique and immersive dance experience. Fresh off of their release on Areaman Chicago titled Sinceer & Meece featured on Boileroom Chicago and supported by the likes of Lefto, Ariel Zetina, Miss Twink USA, DJ Material, Mike Servito and a number of other international Club sound mainstays, this night is sure to be a next level intimate experience with some of Chicago's top footwork icons. Hosted by King Agee

BW3 is the brainchild of trombonist, electronic artist, and bandleader Brendan Whalen. Frustrated with the boundaries of traditional music styles, Whalen quickly began to develop a unique sound of his own using a combination of electric trombone, original samples created with an SP404, and improvisation. Since their first performance as a band in 2023, BW3 is making waves in the creative music scene in a big way. Their debut studio album “BW3” combines lush, ambient textures with ripping electric trombone, break-neck drum and bass, abrasive boom bap beats, and experimental free jazz to create a cutting edge sonic experience

https://brendanwhalen.bandcamp.com

$10