A few weeks ago I went to the inaugural live episode of The Company You Keep, a Chicago music podcast hosted by Phillip-Michael Scales. He talked to my friend Donnie Biggins about life and  music and they each played a few songs. It was a lot of fun, listening to two people that I know speak in detail about topics I’ve never asked about myself. I went back and listened to the finished product once it was posted and found it to be pretty well representative of the evening. The conversation and songs went a little over an hour or so, and the podcast ended up being half an hour, so if you want to hear all the music you better go to the live-taping.

This occurs every other Thursday at Uncommon Ground on Clark, and this week the guest is Chicago mainstay JC Brooks of JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound. They have a new record coming out in April called The Neon Jungle. I just listened to an advance of the album, and it’s got some fun songs that’ll make you dance. My favorite is “O.N.O.,” so hopefully you’ll hear that one (though I imagine it will be hard to replicate some of the tunes without a band).

Brooks has always been one of the more charismatic frontmen in Chicago. The first time I saw the band play was at a fundraiser at Park West. They did their cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” and Jeff Tweedy (who was headlining) came out and sang with them. It was a lot of fun. Brooks sings and dances like he could be a Broadway star, and he’s got that indescribable quality that makes him shine.

You can head over to Uncommon Ground’s website to purchase tickets for the taping.