Slumgullion

Photo of Brian Wilson from the Official Beach Boys Facebook page.

Check out yesterday’s Weekend Reminders post for events happening this weekend.

From in his room to all our hearts. Over the past few days, social media has been filled with praise and cherished memories of people who performed with Brian Wilson, had an opportunity to meet him, or were deeply touched by the songs he recorded with The Beach Boys and on his own. He brought genuine emotions to rock and roll, and that inspired even the most successful musicians for decades. Farewell, Brian. Good vibrations await you.

The Lincoln Square Ravenswood Chamber Of Commerce and The Old Town School Of Folk Music will present their annual Square Roots festival on the weekend of July 11 – 13. The performers include Calexico; Ted Leo And The Pharmacists; Mekons; Alejandro Escovedo; The Lone Bellow; Heartless Bastards; Cesar Rojas And The Chi-Town Playboys; Ike Reilly Assassination; and Natalie Bergman. The festival will be held on Lincoln Avenue between Montrose and Wilson.

When Scottish rockers Simple Minds perform at Chicago’s Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island next Friday, the audience will likely be treated to hits such as “Don’t You Forget About Me,” “Alive And Kicking,” and “Sanctify Yourself.”

The Smithereens, with guest vocalist Marshall Crenshaw, have a summer-opening gig at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, NJ on June 21. It’s part of the N2S North To Shore Festival.

Alaskan singer-songwriter Mark Ward, whose 2024 album Let ‘Er Rip mixed power pop with a touch of country music, released an album of cover versions titled Translator today. It pays homage to the acts he listened to on a transistor radio as a boy, including The Left Banke; Gordon Lightfoot; Badfinger; R.Dean Taylor; and Bread. The revved-up takes on “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Indiana Wants Me” are particularly entertaining. Translator is available for download and CD on Ward’s Bandcamp  page. 

PureSoul Presents will offer A Tribute To Chicago Soul with performances of songs by Sam Cooke; Chaka Khan; Donny Hathaway; Curtis Mayfield; Staple Singers; Tyrone Davis and other acts on June 22.

Forever Now - A Post Punk, One Day Festival will take place on June 22 at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes. Participating acts in this celebration of “alternative culture, post-punk music, fashion, and literature” include The The; Johnny Marr; Billy Idol; Kraftwerk; Psychedelic Furs; Berlin; The Motels; and Chameleons.

Singer-guitarist Phil Angotti recently released his latest album. Notebook Head, a well-crafted collection of 10 acoustic solo performances can now be downloaded on his Bandcamp page, and will be available on CD in a few weeks.  All the tracks sound like winners, but “Wreck Of The Rowboat Named Harold” is particularly impressive in a Bob Dylan vein.

A new five-track, ten-inch vinyl E.P. of R.E.M.’s iconic first single “Radio Free Europe,” is being released to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the actual United States Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts news and information to various countries. The E.P. already can be downloaded on Bandcamp; and it can pre-ordered alone or in various bundles from the band’s official website.

There will be a Celebration of the Life of Michael Teach event on July 6 at Montrose Saloon on Chicago’s north side. Teach was well known and admired on the local music scene as the founder of Chicago Acoustic Underground and CAUDOG RECORDS. He passed away last November after an extended battle with cancer.  

The Journey – Part 3, due out on July 11, will wrap up The Kinks’ 60th Anniversary Anthology series with a selection of songs from their 1977 – 1984 recordings. Available as two LPs, two CDs or as a download, it will include hits such as “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” “Come Dancing,” “Better Things,” “A Rock And Roll Fantasy,” “Low Budget,” “Destroyer,” and “Sleepwalker.” The Journey – Part 3 will also feature live recordings of “Till The End Of The Day,” “Where Have All The Good Times Gone,” “Apeman,” and other Kinks favorites.

The Dallas-based band Shortwaves released Mental Health In The Information Age,  a proper, 12-track album on June 1 after posting a series of demos over the past year on their Bandcamp page. Vocalist-guitarist Joey Shortwave, AKA Joseph Holbrook, previously led The Lash Outs, and he brings a similar blend of satiric lyrics and punk/pop energy to these new songs.

Singer-guitarist Dag Juhlin, a member of several Chicago area bands, has been releasing new solo albums on his Bandcamp page over the past year. The latest, Who’s Your Favorite Clown?, with a cover illustration of Bozo and Ringmaster Ned, offers six parables set to a variety of arrangements. The lyrics are consistently sharp and clever, and conjure a feeling the games we’re playing these days could lead to serious trouble.

Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band’s 2025 Tour will include a show at the Chicago Theatre on September 10. Starr’s latest album, Look Up, finds him working in a Country and Western vein, but it’s likely he and his mates will be covering all kinds of music, including Beatles tunes.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s pop music fueled show 42 Balloons utilizes a 1980s-inspired score to tell a tale based on an actual 1982 event when a Los Angeles man attached weather balloons to a chair and sailed upward. It runs through June 29. 

American garage rock masters The Chesterfield Kings have released a seven-inch green vinyl single of “Your Strange Love,” a song they co-wrote with Steven Van Zandt for their 2024 album We’re Still The Same. The B-side is a cover of The Beatles song “It’s Only Love.”

Chicago-based singer-songwriter AJ Rosales will release his Phasedrift album next Friday on Bandcamp. Rosales specializes in melodic acoustic songs with well crafted, introspective lyrics reminiscent of vintage Neil Young. 

As recently reported on The Second Disc, an informative website that covers upcoming CD and vinyl releases, fans of the sophisticated techno pop trio Ivy have a surprise coming on September 5. That’s when Traces Of You, a 10-track album of previously unreleased songs recorded by Adam Schlesinger, Andy Chase, and Dominique Durand between 1995 and 2012, will be released. Sadly, we lost Schlesinger due to COVID-19 in 2020. The Second Disc writer Mike Duquette explains Chase and Durand, “completed the tracks with the help of longtime collaborator, guitarist Bruce Driscoll; the tracks also feature contributions by Beck/R.E.M. touring drummer Joey Waronker as well as guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, Schlesinger's bandmates in Fountains of Wayne.”

Online applications are now available for those interested in being part of YippieFest 2025 at Chopin Theatre on Chicago’s north side. The freewheeling, in-person entertainment event will return for its seventh year on the weekend of August 22 – 24. The long-running sketch/musical comedy group Famous In The Future will once again host YippieFest, which is inspired by the annual Abby Fest that was staged by Mary-Arrchie Theatre for several years.

This year’s Ravinia Festival in Highland Park is now open and will run through the end of August. Concerts coming up this month include The Black Crowes; James Taylor And His All-Star Band; Diana Krall; The Roots; Al Green; and “Weird Al” Yankovic. 

A Day For Country Music at City News Cafe will feature musician Kent Rose performing from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on June 22. City News Cafe is located at 4018 N. Cicero. 

The Handcuffs have a gig coming up on June 27 on the Patio at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn, IL. The Chicago-based indie rockers have four albums to draw material from, as well as songs that will be on their next release.

John Mead’s True Believers and Cynthia Breckenridge will honor the Southern California music scene of the late 1960s and early 70s with their Desperado: The Music Of Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles and Friends show at SPACE in Evanston on June 23. They’ll perform songs by Ronstadt, The Eagles, Warren Zevon, Lowell George, and Jackson Browne. 

There’s still a chance to check out the Jason Narducy and Dag Juhlin Celebrate Pete Townshend’s (Belated) Birthday performance at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights, IL this Saturday. Some tickets are still available for a late show that will start at 9:30 pm; tickets for the original 7:00 pm show are sold out.

As someone who attended the first public meeting for StreetWise and donated several pieces over a few years, I thoroughly enjoyed Rick Kogan's Beyond The Pages article in the Chicago Tribune. As he notes, high school student Anthony Mateos has published a book titled Who We Are: Stories From The Chicago StreetWise Community. It features interviews with vendors and staff members of the publication, and how it changed their lives. It's available to purchase for $14.50 at lulu.com. I'll definitely have to order a copy.