Slumgullion

First, a few events that should have been in yesterday’s Weekend Reminders post.

The Women Songwriters Hall Of Fame 5th Annual Awards Show And Inductee Reception will take place in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. Claudia Jordan will host, and inductees include Melba Moore; Janis Ian; Regina Belle; Brenda Russell; Vicki Peterson; and Lari White. Peterson’s award should help dispel the ridiculous misconception that The Bangles never wrote their own material.

Brothers Field will hold a Blues Fest in Long Grove, IL tomorrow and Sunday. In addition to live music, there will be  food and drinks.

And now back to our regularly scheduled listings.

Wisconsin alt rock/Americana band Bodeans will perform at the recently opened Atwood Music Hall in Madison, WI on July 3, and a day later at the Frontier Days Festival in Arlington Heights, IL. Over the years, the BoDeans have given us gems such as “Closer To Free,” “Fadeaway,” and “Good Things.”

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

Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will kick off his massive Who Is The Sky? Tour with a show in Providence, RI on September 14. The North American dates include October 28, 29, and 31 at The Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, as well as stops in Pittsburgh; Washington, D.C.; New York; Toronto; Denver; Dallas; and Miami Beach. After a few months off, Byrne will launch a series of European concerts on February 12, 2026. His new album Who Is The Sky? will be available in various formats on September 6.

As noted by musician Herb Eimerman in a recent Facebook post, indie label Kool Kat Musik will release Pop Aid 3: A Pop Compilation To Benefit Those Affected By The California Wildfires in July. Eimerman,who’s performed with Hot Mama Silver and The Britannicas, recorded a song for Pop Aid 3 with his grandson Gavin Eimerman on guitar and Australian musician/producer Joe Algeri on drums. 100% of net profits from Pop Aid 3 will go directly to the American Red Cross. Kool Kat Musik previously released Pop Aid 2: A Compilation To Benefit Those Affected By Hurricanes Helene & Milton and Pop Aid: A Power Pop Compilation to Benefit the Citizens of Ukraine.

Tickets went on sale today for Chicago radio station WXRT’s Hometown Celebration: A Benefit for The Lin Brehmer Scholars Fund at Metro on August 21. The Linburgers, featuring Tributosaurus members Matt Spiegel and Curt Morrison, along with Heather Lynne Horton, Scott Lucas, Michael McDermott, and Eddie “King" Roeser, will perform, and the station’s on-air personalities will also be on hand. Brehmer will always be remembered by his many fans as our “Best Friend In The Whole World.” Metro is located at 3730 N. Clark Street.

Material Issue, the Chicago power pop trio that scored MTV hits such as “Valerie Loves Me” and “Diane” back in the early 1990s, and later returned with new vocalist-guitarist Phil Angotti, have a show coming up at the north-side venue Schubas on September 17.

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.

Happy Birthday to artist/writer/performer Lake Sirmon, who back around 1988, convinced timid souls Frank Carr, David Drazin, and me that we should form our own comedy group with her when the cable access show we wrote for went belly-up. Lake, David, and I are no longer involved with Famous In The Future, but Frank, along with Desiree Burcum, has kept the group going all these years.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

I’m proud to share the news that my nephew Joe Flamm will co-chair this year’s Taste of the Nation for No Kid Hungry, along with fellow successful chef Diana Davila, on June 27. The event will be held at Rockwell On The River (3057 N. Rockwell) and feature 50 chefs and mixologists. Several well-known Chicago area restaurants will be involved, including Joe’s Rose Mary and il Carciofo; and Diana’s Mi Tocaya Antojeria. General Admission is $150, while an All Access Pass is $200.

Alaskan singer-songwriter Mark Ward has released an album of cover versions titled Translator that pays homage to the acts he listened to on a transistor radio as a boy. The revved-up takes on Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” and R. Dean Taylor’s “Indiana Wants Me” are particularly entertaining. Translator is available for download and CD on Ward’s Bandcamp  page.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 Diana Krall; Lindsey Sterling; The Roots; Al Green; and “Weird Al” Yankovic.