Slumgullion

A hearty Broken Hearted Toy welcome to Dum Dum Girls, who are in town for a show tonight at Metro. The band will be showcasing its Too True album, which came out earlier this year. Like on earlier releases from the Dum Dum Girls, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter Dee Dee Penny did a great job on Too True of setting angst to irresistible melodies, with the added allure of 1960s style twanging guitar.

Tickets went on sale today for the Sleater-Kinney gig coming up on February 17th at the Riviera Theatre. The recently reunited trio is also rumored to have a full length album coming out next year.

The Psychedelic Furs will be coming to City Winery in Chicago on January 5th and 6th, 2015. Tickets went on sale yesterday. On January 8th, Marshall Crenshaw and Bottle Rockets will be at the venue.

Last Rites is presenting an odd and imaginative lineup at Subterranean tomorrow night that will likely involve loud music, sci-fi, and comedy. Captured! by Robots are the headliners; the other acts on the bill are I Love Rich; The Luck Of Eden Hall; and Beast Warrior. Tickets are $12 to $14, showtime is 8:30 PM.

Fun with pasta. SOPRO will present the all-original lineup of popular Chicago club band The Dancing Noodles tomorrow night at Sullivan’s Irish Pub in Midlothian, IL.

Elgin will hold its fourth annual Nightmare On Chicago Street, an ambitious Halloween celebration in the downtown area, tomorrow, October 25th. There will be special guests, live rock bands, and a costume contest. Part of the entertainment will be a store front theater showing Zombie Grandma, an original sitcom created by Jeff Kelley and David Metzger. I had the pleasure of performing in some of the scenes of Zombie Grandma. Admission for Nightmare On Chicago Street is $10.

Hushdrops, the Chicago-based power pop/psychedelic band, will be performing songs from its long-awaited full-length effort Tomorrow at the Reckless Records store at 3126 N. Broadway tomorrow (October 25th) at 3:00PM.

Halloweekend: The Return takes places on Thursday, October 30th and Friday, October 31st at Wall To Wall Recording at 676 N. LaSalle. The lineup includes Phil Angotti as Tom Petty; Androgynous Mustache as The J. Geils Band; Metropolly as Blondie; Will Phalen and Anna Phalen as Johnny Cash W/ June Carter; The Bon Mots as Bob Seger; Neal Alger And Co. as King Crimson; Johnny And The Creeps (featuring John Aselin and Phil Angotti) as The Smiths; Dirty Pigeons as Queen; Falldown as Uncle Tupelo; and Chris Dorf And Friends as The Cars. Admission for each night is $10.

Bands across the water. The British Invasion: How 1960s Beat Groups Conquered America is a new exhibit that opened at The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool on October 16th. It’s being curated by the Los Angeles-based GRAMMY Museum in a joint effort by the two institutions, and features artifacts from various English groups from the 1960s. Bobby Elliott, longtime drummer with The Hollies, has lent some interesting items to the exhibit, including a life-size cutout of himself, his Ludwig 400 snare drum, and a suit once worn by Hollies guitarist Tony Hicks. It sure would be nice to see The British Invasion come to Chicago. After all, we have done quite nicely with the David Bowie Is exhibit, which runs through January at the Museum Of Contemporary Art. 

Mac’s On Slade in Palatine will present A Tribute To The Beatles next Thursday, October 30th.

Learn several languages in just over two minutes. There are 10 catchy power pop/indie rock songs on the recently released CD Record Heat by The Safes, and the Chicago band is promoting one of them using an internationally flavored video. Directed by Mickey Mangan, “I Would Love To” features footage of The Safes performing live, along with scenes of fans in different countries holding up signs with a line from the song written on it in their native language. The clip recently premiered on the Yahoo Music site. 

Mooner, the Chicago-based band whose latest effort was favorably reviewed here on BHT, has a show coming up next Monday, October 27th at the Township club in Chicago, at 2200 - 2202 N. California. The Iowa power pop band TWINS will also be on the bill, most likely playing songs from their new Tomboys On Parade album. The experimental rock trio The Thons will also be on hand.

“Pride Before A Fall” by The Church made its debut earlier this week by way of a video on the official Rolling Stone website. The atmospheric ballad is from Further/Deeper, the full length effort the Australian band plans to release on February 3rd, 2015. It will be the 25th album by The Church but the first without guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper on board. Ian Haug from the band Powderfinger joined founding member Peter Koppes on guitar for this effort. There is talk of The Church embarking on a U.S. tour at some point next year.