Chicago Mixtape, an interactive website designed to spread excellent Chicago music everywhere, celebrates its third birthday this weekend. The concept behind Chicago Mixtape, which is run by local musician Casey Meehan, is simple: you submit your e-mail address on the website, and at the beginning of each week you get a fresh playlist of diverse Chicago-based music sent directly to you. This week’s mix is their 158th, and focuses on the artists that are going to be playing their massive fund-raiser birthday party at Empty Bottle this Saturday, February 22. The party starts at 9 PM and costs $10, which is a pretty small price to pay when you look at the huge lineup of great local talent performing. Headlined by mashup producers the Hood Internet, the other performers cover a whole range of vibes, and include rappers Psalm One and ShowYouSuck, minimal indie-folkers Quarter Mile Thunder, country singer Thomas Comerford, and experimental electronic project Potions.
Since its inception three years ago, Chicago Mixtape has featured music from over 780 local bands, and all of the mixes are archived for stream or download on the site.