Slumgullion

Best wishes to everyone going out for Halloween celebrations this weekend. I offered a sampling of available events in yesterday’s Weekend Reminders post. Be sure to keep safe and be careful.

Author Jennifer Otter Bickerdike’s book Eternal Flame - The Authorized Biography Of The Bangles, which is due out in February 2025, is now available for pre-order on various sites. It would be nice to see the band given some serious consideration for an induction into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

I was sad to see the news that Matthew Sweet, who has collaborated with The Bangles on a number of projects, and created so many of his own great songs, has suffered a stroke. A GoFundMe page has been created to help cover his medical costs. Here’s wishing Matthew a quick and full recovery.

Trouser Press Books will hold a book launch for its new edition of author Roman Kozak’s This Ain’t No Disco: The Story Of CBGB at the Generation Records store in New York City on November 2. According to a recent Facebook post, the publisher has “invited some fabled figures to share war stories about CB's, answer audience questions and sign books.” Those figures are Chris Frantz from Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club; photographer Ebet Roberts; The Ramones tour manager Monte A. Melnick; singer-songwriter/former CBGB employee Deerfrance; CBGB booker Louise Parnassa Staley; and musician/producer Jonathan Paley.

Those of us who rocked out to Queen long before “Bohemian Rhapsody,” will be glad to learn the band members themselves have overseen a remixed, remastered and expanded version of their 1973 debut Queen I. Apparently, they were not amused by how it was produced back in the day. Now it’s a 6-CD+1LP box set with 63 tracks and 43 brand new mixes. A special 2024 official video of the superb song “Keep Yourself Alive” can be viewed on YouTube.

Peter Himmelman, the Minneapolis singer-songwriter who’s given us emotionally charged songs such “Woman With The Strength Of 10,00 Men,” has released a book titled Suspended By No Strings that offers poems, and tales with a spiritual feel.

Here’s a an event for this weekend that I didn’t have in yesterday’s preview. The Wednesday Beatles Ensemble, comprised of students, will perform the Beatles Revolver album in its entirety at 2:00 pm this Sunday.

Tickets are now on sale for Stevie Wonder’s tour, which opens in Pittsburgh on October 8. It’s slogan, Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Heart, is inspired by Wonder’s call for peace and unity on his new single “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart?” New York City; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Greensboro; Atlanta; Detroit; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; Grand Rapids; and Chicago are the other stops on the tour. 

It’s been a while since the Chicago power pop band The Spindles had a live gig on the club scene, so it’s good to see they’ll open for country music recording artist Kent Rose And The Remedies at Montrose Saloon on November 6. The Spindles will have a new album coming out in March 2025 that will include a cover of the catchy “Rock For It,” originally done by The Elvis Brothers.

Eric Idle, a founding member of the Monty Python comedy group and co-creator of a highly entertaining comedy-musical, has just released a new book titled The Spamalot Diaries. It provides a behind-the-scenes look at how Spamalot came together, based on Idle’s own journal and email correspondence.

Tegan and Sara on Junior High and Crushes, an Old Town School Of Folk Music sponsored onstage conversation with the famous recording duo about writing, music, and their Young Adult book series, will be staged on November 2 at the Athenaeum Center For Thought And Culture. It will be a co-presentation with Chicago Humanities. The Athenaeum Center is located at 2936 N Southport Avenue of Chicago’s north side.

Tickets are now sale for Alison Moyet at the Vic Theatre on May 7, 2025. Moyet started her career as half of Yazoo (known as Yaz in America) and went on to a successful solo career with hits such as “Love Resurrection” and “All Cried Out.”

Sting, former Police vocalist-bassist, will bring his Sting 3.0 Tour to Chicago for concerts at the Auditorium Theatre on October 28, October 29, November 1, and November 2. Sting will be joined by guitarist Dominic Miller, and drummer Chris Maas.

Shindig, the British magazine that does a fab job looking back at everything people loved about the 1960s (or would have loved if they had lived through them) has another Montage Collector’s Edition issue on the way. This one’s titled The American Psychedelic Explosion 1965 – 71, and offers a 128-page “carefully curated collection of articles originally published between 2010-2017.” The articles and interviews have been “edited, redesigned, and updated” for this issue. It’s available to pre-order for £10.99 plus postage from Silverback Publishing Ltd. 

The 2024 Chris and Heather’s Country Calendar Show at FitzGerald’s In Berwyn, IL will take place on December 21. Andrew Sa; Jodee Lewis; Zachary Stevenson and The Oh Boys; Dave Drazin; Phil Angotti; Nora O’Connor; The Hushdrops; Jane Baxter Miller and Kent Kessler; Casey McDonough; Hillbilly Frolic; Scott Ligon and Kelly Hogan; and The Saturn Kings will be the entertainers joining Chris Ligon and Heather McAdams. Each local act will cover a well-known country or rock act.

Also, at FitzGerald’s, a charity event titled To Find A Friend: An Evening of Tom Petty Music for Hurricane Relief will take place on November 23. Several local acts will perform Petty songs, and proceeds will benefit the North Carolina Arts Disaster Fund.

This year’s International Pop Overthrow - Boston will run from October 30 through November 2 at The Square Root in Boston.There will be 21 indie rock and pop acts are scheduled to perform. IPO - New York is scheduled to take place a week later, at The Parkside Lounge.

Tickets are now available for the Joey’s Song Freezing Man Festival taking place January 8 – 11, 2025 at the Majestic Theater in Madison, WI. Several well-known acts will take part in the charity event, which raises funds to help find treatments and cures for epilepsy. This year’s performers are Debbi and Vicki Peterson, Jane Wiedlin, Tracy Bonham, Belly, The Know-It-All Boyfriends, Cory Chisel, Letters To Cleo, Look Park, John Cowsill, Garbage, Against Me!, Kenny Hoopla, Freedy Johnstone, Portugal. The Man, Silversun Pickups, Heather Porcaro, Steve Porcaro, The Goo Goo Dolls, Sierra Swan, The Nielsen Trust, and Gina Volpe.

Six Stories Up On The Campaign Trail - A Student Council Calamity, the latest production from Tellin' Tales Theatre, runs  at Filament Theatre November 18 – 27 weekends only.

Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986 is now available to order as a double-LP or CD Digipak from the Futurismo site. It’s the next volume in Futurismo's Altered Vision compilation series, and features tracks by The Three O’Clock, The Rain Parade, True West, The Bangles, Thin White Rope, Game Theory, The Dream Syndicate, The Long Ryders, Green On Red, 28th Day, The Pandoras, and Wednesday Week.

Chicago: Home Of House, an exhibit honoring the city’s pivotal role in the widespread success of house music, has been extended on Navy Pier through December 15. Admission is free.

Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets will likely play tracks from his recently released album Indoor Safari at Lincoln Hall in Chicago on October 29 and 30. The final shows for his fall will be on November 2 and in Minneapolis.

 

I recently received my copy of Issue 19 of the Second Scene alt rock newspaper, and once again, it’s filled with eye-catching graphics, along with news and reviews. Readers won’t find much copy here on big-name acts, other than a profile on the legendary KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. But, much like MOJO magazine promotes Brit musicians many of us in the States are unfamiliar with, Second Scene introduces us to indie acts worth checking out.

Sonic45, the self-proclaimed “Chicago-based new-wave quintet” led by sports broadcaster/musician/songwriter Len Kasper, will return to the Hey Nonny venue in Arlington Heights on November 24. It’s likely the audience will hear some of the songs from the band’s impressive new album SuperSonic.

What could be a better night for a new batch of “21st Century Druid Music” than Halloween? The Chicago-based band whitewolfsonicprincess, which proudly applies that label to its inventive indie rock approach, will unveil a new album titled Love Without Fear on October 31 at Evanston SPACE.