In touring news, Bird will be playing a short set at a pre-inaguration show at the Black Cat in Washington DC on January 19th. The name of the concert is Chicago Celebrates Change, and other Chicago musicians will be performing including Tortoise, Waco Brothers, Eleventh Dream Day, David “Honeyboy” Edwards with Michael Frank, Ken Vandermark, Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Freakwater, Icy Demons, and Judson Claiborne. Tickets are $50, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the Future of Music Coalition and the Chicago Public Schools marching bands program.

It seems as if President-elect Barack Obama has ignored the suggestions of this column and its readers as far as including any Chicago artists in his actual swearing-in ceremony next month. The best word for Chicago musicians so far? An enthusiastic group of politically active members of the underground music scene have announced that they’ll be holding a celebratory shindig of their own in Washington, D.C. on the eve of Barack Obama taking the oath of office.

The ?Musicians Bringing Musicians Home IV? concert is the celebratory and fundraising finale of the fourth three-day activist retreat hosted by Air Traffic Control and the Future of Music Coalition since the Gulf Coast storms of 2005. This retreat brings established and emerging artists from around the country to New Orleans to tour affected neighborhoods, visit with some of the city?s notable musicians and community leaders and participate in strategy sessions about how to integrate activism and philanthropy into their work as musicians.

The plight of the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster continues, and in a sense it’s everyone’s plight. Accordingly, what reads like a representative sampling of everyone in music will assemble for “Musicians Bringing Musicians Home IV”, a benefit concert for NOLA musicians’ charity Sweet Home New Orleans.

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) and the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) have released the results of a study they conducted regarding the progress toward compliance with the 2007 FCC Consent Decree and Rules of Engagement. Stemming from Elliot Spitzer?s high-profile payola investigation, the FCC in 2007 signed agreements with four major commercial radio broadcasters (CBS Radio, Clear Channel, Entercom and Citadel) that was designed to increase the representation of independent music on commercial radio. Around the same time, the independent music community, led by A2IM and the FMC, signed a separate “Rules Of Engagement” agreement with the radio chains promising to play more local and independent artists.