What is that thing? That (my friends) is a cicada and right now in the Chicago area they are everywhere. There are places (such as where the pictures here were taken) that you can find up to 1.5 million of these insects per acre. (1.5 million!) Luckily for us here in northern Illinois, these cicadas are of the genus of 17 year periodical cicadas of eastern North America called magicicadas. They are often called the “seventeen-year locust”, but they are not locusts.
The group of cicadas that is invading right now can be further classified as brood XIII or the northern Illinois brood which emerge every 17 years to mate, lay eggs, and then (in a few weeks) die. No worries as the red-eyed insects don’t sting or bite. They just buzz. It can be (however) almost deafening at times and drown out lawnmowers, motorcycles, and make it almost impossible to even have a conversation outdoors. Ravinia (an outdoor concert venue) in Highland Park has even moved the date of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert into July to accommodate the noise of the cicadas (story here). Heck, people have even been eating cicadas.
Instead of recipes for cicada tempura, here are some of the cicada-related songs I’ve come across recently. There are many.
MP3 | Cicada – Electric Blue
MP3 | Bindu – Cicada
MP3 | Gum – Cicada Material
MP3 | Editors – Munich (Cicada Remix)
MP3 | Destination Moon – Cicada
MP3 | Justin Martin – Cicada
MP3 | Fursaxa – Song To The Cicada
MP3 | Gescom – Cicada
MP3 | Kiyoshi Mizutani – Cicada At Mt. Hinobikoramaru
MP3 | Nocturnal Emissions – Talpa Cicada
MP3 | Silverchair – Cicada
MP3 | Michio Kurihara – The Last Cicada
MP3 | Odessi – Over Again (Cicada Radio)
MP3 | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum – The 17 Year Cicada
MP3 | V/A Malaysia – The Cicada Herngo D
MP3 | Taeko Onuki – Cicada
MP3 | The Burning Season – Year Of The Cicada
MP3 | Timewriter – Cicada
MP3 | Autopilot Off – The Cicada’s Song
MP3 | Michio Kurihara – Canon In C (C Is For Cicada)
MP3 | Noodreem – Cicada Wave (Acacia Tree Dub)
MP3 | French TV – My Little Cicada
I haven’t seen one yet! Maybe they’re all out in the suburbs…
Hey, I’d love to hear a cicada song with lyrics about cicadas. I breezed through the songs here (thanks for posting them), but none of them have any lryics about cicadas.
I did a silly song about cicadas on a podcast (with my bad singing voice), it’s only 30 seconds long You can listen to my cicada song at: http://www.gcast.com/user/maldre/podcast/main
http://tenseforms.com/tones/v5/jan07/
Whitney Johnson- Cicadas
Cicada’s scare the hell out of me for some reason
Download
Free Legal MP3 Music
its a bit gross
but thats a nice fine art
anyway let me know if you want to exchange link…
with my video clip for free site.
What about Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead?
(“Crickets and cicadas sing a rare and different tune”)g
If you want the best-looking cicada t-shirt go to cicadalovebug.com. It’s really cute!
you can’t make a post about cicada songs without bob dylan’s “day of the locusts”
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s new album In Glorious Times is in stores now! Catch the band on tour this summer!
Aug 2 2007 7:30P
The Phoenix Theater (all ages) Petaluma, California
Aug 3 2007 8:00P
The Galaxy Theater (all ages) Santa Ana, California
Aug 4 2007 7:30P
The Brick House (all ages) Phoenix, Arizona
Aug 5 2007 7:30P
The Totah Theater (all ages) Farmington, New Mexico
Aug 11 2007 8:00P
The Cell Block Mobile, Alabama
Aug 12 2007 8:00P
The Earl Atlanta, Georgia
Aug 14 2007 8:00P
Jackrabbit’s Jacksonville, Florida
Aug 15 2007 8:00P
The Orange Peel Asheville, North Carolina
Aug 17 2007 8:00P
The High Line Ballroom New York, New York
Aug 20 2007 8:00P
The Iron Horse Music Hall Northampton, Massachusetts
Aug 21 2007 8:00P
The Cabaret Montreal, Quebec
Aug 24 2007 8:00P
Frankie’s Toledo, Ohio
Aug 25 2007 8:00P
Ravari Room columbus, Ohio
Aug 28 2007 8:00P
The Creepy Crawl St Louis, Missouri
Aug 29 2007 8:00P
The Hurricane Kansas City, Missouri
Aug 30 2007 8:00P
Ogden Theater Denver, Colorado
Aug 31 2007 8:00P
Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, Utah
We love the sound of the cicadas. There is an old saying the first frost is 6 weeks away when they emerge here in July. Yeah! They may be a 17 yr insect, but we have them every year. They must be spread out. And yes they are noisy. I was just out picking up some shells and looking at the burrows primarily around a giant elm tree, that nothing can kill, and I am going to miss them.