Slumgullion

Happy 4th of July weekend to all the American visitors to this blog. Have fun celebrating, but be careful out there.

This year’s Square Roots Festival takes place next weekend in Lincoln Square, right by The Old Town School Of Folk Music. The music lineup includes Superchunk; Jon Langford and Sally Timms; Eleventh Dream Day; Steve Dawson And Lucid Dreams; Split Single; and Urban Twang. The event will also showcase local craft breweries and food vendors.

A recent post by long-time journalist and PR specialist Cary Baker on LinkedIn mentioned a Variety article about Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis), a new documentary guaranteed to delight aficionados of album cover art. Directed by Dutch film director-photographer Anton Corbijn and featuring Hipgnosis co-founder (with the late Storm Thorgerson) Aubrey Powell, the film explores some of the most dazzling art that has graced album covers since the 1970s. Squaring The Circle (The Story Of Hipgnosis) had a recent run at select movie theaters, and will be available on home video soon. As a fan of The Hollies, I need to mention their impressive 1972 and 1973 albums, Distant Light and Romany sported imaginative covers designed by Hipgnosis.

Chances are, bands will be performing outdoors this 4th Of July weekend close to your neighborhood or in your suburb. Palatine’s stage is a five-minute walk from my house. It’s worth the effort to check out your nearby festival’s website to see who’s playing. That said, it’s not likely your local outdoor festival can beat what’s going on at The 40th Annual American Music Festival running today through Monday at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. The lineup includes Lucinda Williams; Steve Earle; Dirty Dozen Brass Band; Dave Alvin; Sarah Shook And The Disarmers; CJ Chenier And The Red Hot Louisiana Band; Tributosaurus; Outronaut; Mucca Pazza; Terrance Simien; Joel Patterson; and Miles Nielsen And The Rusted Hearts.

Artists For Wildlife Conservation will hold a fundraiser featuring the work of rock and roll photographer Henry Diltz at the City Winery in Boston on August 30. The event offers a meet-and-greet with Diltz, who will be selling signed prints of his work. Proceeds will go toward elephant conservation in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

The Handcuffs and The Waco Brothers will share a double bill at SPACE in Evanston next Friday night.

Good news. Action Skulls, the trio of Vicki Peterson from The Bangles, John Cowsill from The Cowsills, and actor-musician Bill Mumy, released a single today titled “Find The Good!” It’s available on various streaming sites, and is from their upcoming album From A Running Horse.

The Regrettes and Built To Spill are among the headline acts scheduled for this year’s Wicker Park Fest, taking place on Milwaukee Avenue from Damen to Paulina July 28 through 30. Several other acts will be performing, and there will be an arts area and food vendors. Led by charismatic vocalist-guitarist Lydia Night, The Regrettes have released three albums of hard-edged material that melds punk with 1960s pop. They were still teenagers when their critically acclaimed debut Feel Your Feelings Fool! dropped in 2017.

Stephanie Kuehnert Lewis, who garnered national attention with her well-crafted and emotionally charged novels Ballads Of Suburbia and I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, has a different type of book coming out on March 26, 2024. Pieces Of A Girl centers on the author’s triumph over substance and relationship abuse.

I saw a Facebook post today from book illustrator/writer/rock and roll photographer Terri Murphy that mentioned her involvement with Prospect Heights Natural Resources Commission. They’ll be staging a 4th Of July parade again this year, and it looks like a lot of fun and imagination went into their various floats and outfits. The parade will be held in Prospect Heights tomorrow at 10:30 am, and in Arlington Heights on July 4th at 10:00 am.

Pre-sale tickets are now on sale for the Darker Waves festival taking place on November 18 in Huntington Beach, California. The lineup features several acts that launched successful careers in the 1980s and have maintained them over the decades. New Order, The B-52’s, Tears For Fears, X, The English Beat, Devo, Soft Cell, The Psychedelic Furs, Echo And The Bunnymen, OMD, and The Human League will be performing, along with other acts. If you can afford the airfare, tickets for Darker Waves start at a reasonable $19.99.

Two giants of the Chicago rock music scene will combine forces when Cheap Trick headlines Metro’s 40th Anniversary Celebration Finale on July 16. Congratulations to the venue and the band on their many years of financial and creative success. The event, which also features the band Brokeback, is sold out. 

The Sparks Tour 2023 will make a stop at the Copernicus Center on Chicago’s northwest side next Wednesday, July 5. The eccentric and charming duo will most likely be showcasing songs from their new album The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte. The Copernicus Center is within walking distance from the Jefferson Park public transportation center.

Chicago-based alt rockers Smoking Popes are keeping busy as they approach the 30th anniversary of their impressive debut Get Fired. A special vinyl reissue of that album will be released on August 17, and they’ve got a brand new effort coming in 2024. Two singles from that future release will arrive sooner: a revved-up cover of The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” today and their own “Madison” on July 21. Smoking Popes will embark on a tour on August 17, but so far, it doesn’t includes a Chicago date.

Several years ago, I was advised by my general practitioner, as well as a skin specialist, to start wearing a hat to protect the top of my head from potentially cancer-causing sun rays. I wasn’t accustomed to wearing hats and was reluctant to start until I spotted a baseball cap emblazoned with the WXRT logo on the radio station’s merchandise table at The Chicago Blues Fest. Being an avid fan of the station’s eclectic playlist and knowledgable, friendly DJs, I wore that hat until it was too frayed and faded to be seen in public. By that time, they were no longer available. The good news is, they’re back, and available at the WXRT online shop. 

Anyone who’s still on the fence about going to see The Who’s Tommy during its run at the Goodman Theatre, should check out the recent reviews from the Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones and Chicago Sun-Times’ Catey Sullivan. Jones described the production as, “a ready-for-primetime stunner with enough assets to bring its Chicago audience to its feet well before its end.” Sullivan noted, “From overture to finale, McAnuff’s three-dozen strong cast never lets up.” The run has already been extended twice, most recently to August 6. In related news, The Who Hits Back 2023 U.K. Tour kicks off on July 6.

Graham Parker, whose tuneful though biting new single “We Did Nothing” is now available from Big Stir Records, will perform at The Old Town School Of Folk Music on July 14. Other Brits coming to the venue include on The Zombies on October 15, and Nick Lowe on November 20.

The 94-piece exhibit Andy Warhol Portfolios: A Life In Pop will run through September 10 at McAninch Arts Center at the Cleve College Of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. 

Personality - The Lloyd Price Musical, which recently opened at the Studebaker Theater, garnered positive reviews from critics Jack Helbig in the Chicago Sun-Times and Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. The musical celebrates the amazing career of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame songwriter Lloyd Price, who gave us “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and “Aint It A Shame.”

A special presentation of High Fidelity will take place on November 1 at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. John Cusack, who starred in the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Hornby based on Hornby’s popular novel High Fidelity, will be in person at the Auditorium Theatre for the screening and a Question and Answer session. 

The State Of Sound exhibit is now open at Navy Pier, This is a pop-up version of the award-winning exhibition that was held at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, and celebrates Illinois-based stars such as Muddy Waters; Material Issue; Earth, Wind & Fire; Chicago; Chance the Rapper; Wilco; Shoes; and Cheap Trick. Admission is free, and you’ll find the exhibit at Festival Hall A in the lower level lobby of Navy Pier through Aug. 27.