Slumgullion

Anyone craving a barbecue when the weather warms up a bit in Chicago this coming Sunday might want to head over to Reggie’s Music Joint on State Street just south of downtown. That’s where the Pork And Beans Roots Rock And Smoked Meats bash is taking place. The WhatEverly Brothers will get things cooking at 4:00 PM, followed by Of Eld; The Drunken Cuddle; Scotch Hollow; Smokestack Relics; Last False Hope; and Call Me Bronco. Admission is $18 in advance, $20 at the door.

Singer-songwriter Andy Metz will be doing an acoustic set in the Act One Pub at The Mayne Stage next Wednesday as part of a CAU (Chicago Acoustic Underground) showcase of various local acts. The all ages event starts at 8:00 PM, admission is $5.

International Pop Overthrow returns to Chicago next Thursday for its annual extended stay at The Red Line Tap on Chicago’s north side. I have a brief preview of this music festival in the April issue of the Illinois Entertainer, and I’m hoping my more extensive, online preview will be up on the I.E. website some time next week.

  

Stockholm, Chrissie Hynde’s first ever solo effort, is due out June 9th in Europe and June 10th in America. Shortly after the European release of her solo debut, Hynde will perform her first concert in England in five years, when she plays at the Royal Festival Hall in London. In the meantime, fans can pre-order Stockholm on iTunes and get an immediate download of the first single, “Dark Sunglasses,” or pre-order the CD/vinyl version and get an autographed poster. 

Record Store Day is coming up on April 19th, and Laurie’s Planet Of Sound Record Store has a a full lineup of live entertainment to go along with the annual event’s harvest of rare vinyl. Phil Angotti and Friends will be recreating Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds Of Silence LP at 4:00 PM, followed by a rare in-store performance by The Handcuffs. That’s already enough to make an RSD trip to the store worthwhile, and according to a post on the Laurie’s Records Facebook page, “A SUPER SPECIAL SECRET EXCITING announcement to our lineup will be made VERY VERY SOON!!” Should be interesting to find out who that will be.

The 12th Annual CHIRP Record Fair And Other Delights will be held next Saturday, April 12th at the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers Hall. Sixty vendors will be on hand, selling vinyl, CDs, DVDs, and various collectibles. Food and beverages will also be available, from Goose Island, Dark Matter Coffee, Big Star, and Upton’s Breakroom. Tickets are $7, or $5 with a CHIRP ad, flyer, or a coupon that can be printed from the official website. The doors open at 10:00 AM.

Georgina Flood, the Dublin-based artist who’s become very popular at Fest For Beatles Fans due to her creative portraits of the band, recently announced on Facebook that she’s created the poster for a new short film titled Lennon Vs McCartney. The comedy is based on Stephen Kennedy’s play about two Irish lads who get into a heated debate in a pub as to which one of The Beatles was the greatest. Séamus Brennan and Steve Gunn star, and Eddie Jackson is the director.

Normally, Los Angeles would come to mind as the scene of the first Go-Go’s musical, but instead, Head Over Heels will get its world premiere at the 2015 Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In addition to music by The Go-Go’s, the play features a book by the Tony Award-winning Jeff Whitty. Go-Go’s member Jane Wieldin  mentioned Head Over Heels in a Facebook post, stating, “Can you believe it? It’s a dream come true!”

Born In Chicago, John Anderson’s film about suburban kids making the trek to the city’s South Side to watch live blues music in the 1960s, will be shown this Friday at the Sonoma Veterans Hall in Sonoma, CA.  There will be a concert afterward, featuring some of the performers shown in the documentary.

Generous Gurls. I haven’t forgotten about doing a third installment of my review of Holly George-Warren’s Alex Chilton biography, A Man Called Destruction. I’m almost finished reading the book and should be able to post something soon. In the meantime, here’s an interesting snippet: Shortly after The Bangles’ version of Chilton’s “September Gurls” was included on their Different Light LP, they had an opportunity to meet him via their mutual friends in The dB’s. “When they discovered  he’d not received any songwriting royalties for the track,” Warren George writes regarding The Bangles, “they reportedly wrote him a personal check for $16,000. Then, in 1987, the publishing accounting was finally accrued, with close to $48,000 in royalties coming to Alex for the song.”