Check out yesterday’s Weekend Reminders post for events happening this weekend.American garage rock masters The Chesterfield Kings are heading overseas for their “First UK Dates In Decades” according to a recent Facebook post from band member Andy Babiuk. With the impressive British rockers The Len Price 3 as their opening act, The Chesterfield Kings will perform in Glasgow on June 15; Leeds on June 16; Liverpool on June 17; and London on June 18. We’re Still The Same, their first album in 15 years, was released in 2024.
The Electric Prunes recorded “I Had Too Much To Dream”—one of the all-time best garage rock songs—back in 1966 and scored a major hit. It was sad to learn yesterday that the band’s lead vocalist James Lowe has passed away. I still remember hearing this song for the first time on WLS in Chicago, and being so awestruck, I wrote down the title, band, and time I heard it.
In related sad news, the rock and roll world also lost vocalist-guitarist Rick Derringer, who first achieved fame as a member of The McCoys when their song “Hang On Sloopy” became a Top 40 hit in 1965. He would later launch a successful solo career with the hit “Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo,” and perform with Johnny and Edgar Winter.
Rock In Paradise, James and Rick.
It looks like director Justin Fielding’s long-awaited documentary The Power Pop Movie is moving closer to being released. According to a recent Facebook post from executive producer David Bash of International Pop Overthrow fame, The Power Pop Movie is pretty much a complete film, and Fielding “will be working on licensing shortly.”
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.
Welcome back. The Twigs, AKA fraternal twins Laura and Linda Good, have a special pop-up show coming up in Brooklyn, NY on June 13. Apparently, we’ll get more specific information in the near future. The former Illinois residents started their career as The Good Twins before morphing into The Twigs and releasing a few albums of fetching indie/techno pop around the turn of the century.
Chicago independent radio station CHIRP 107.1 FM has a summer fundraiser titled Sounds Like Chicago - Conversations About Music, Life And Our City coming up on June 11. The event will take place at Trigger in the Irving Park neighborhood, with Sound Opinions radio personality/journalist Jim DeRogatis serving as moderator. Guests will be Toni Preckwinkle; Kelly Leonard; Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark; Mindy Segal; and Doug Sohn.
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.
The Chicago Blues Festival, an annual event since 1984 and believed to be the world’s largest blues festival, returns to Millennium Park for the long weekend of June 5 – June 8. Mavis Staples will be among the headliners, and there will be a centennial tribute to the late B.B. King. Opening day will take place at the Ramova Theatre at 3520 S. Halsted and feature performances by Bobby Rush and Billy Branch And The Sons Of The Blues.
Chicago area fans can check out the Jason Narducy and Dag Juhlin Celebrate Pete Townshend’s (Belated) Birthday performance at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights, IL on June 21. Tickets recently went on sale for a late show that will start at 9:30 pm; tickets for the original 7:00 pm show are quickly selling out.
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 49th annual Fest For Beatles Fans - Chicago will take place on the weekend of August 8 –10 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. WXRT DJ Terri Hemmert will once again serve as MC; and this year’s special guests will include drummer Simon Kirke from Bad Company and Free; Jim McCarty from The Yardbirds and Renaissance; British Invasion hit maker Billy J. Kramer; 1960s model/Carnaby Street scene celebrity/author Jenny Boyd; author Yvonne Innes, whose Dip My Brain In Joy: A Life With Neil Innes celebrates her marriage to the late writer-musician-actor; and actor Eddie Deezen from the I Wanna Hold Your Hand comedy flick. There will be performances by Liverpool; The Weeklings; The Taxmen; Phil Angotti And Friends and other bands. A recent Fest For Beatles Fans email stated, “The Fest For Beatles Fans 2025 Chicago is dedicated, with love, to Joey Molland.” The late Badfinger founding member was a Fest special guest on several occasions.
Congratulations to singer-songwriter Phil Angotti on the recent release of 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. Sure enough, the Info tab states it was inspired by the Dylan film A Complete Unknown.
Wolf Alice’s North American tour will kick off on September 10 in Atlanta. The London-based indie rock band will return to The Vic in Chicago on September 26; other stops on the tour include Washington, DC; Philadelphia; Boston; Montreal; Toronto; Dallas; Denver; and Los Angeles. Wolf Alice has a new album titled The Clearing coming out August 29.
“Leitmotif,” the fourth song Chicago-based singer-songwriter AJ Rosales has released from his upcoming album Phasedrift on Bandcamp, continues the string of melodic acoustic songs with well crafted, introspective lyrics. Once again, listeners will likely be reminded of vintage Neil Young as Rosales supplies all the vocals and instrumentation. It might be the last preview we get since Phasedrift is due out on June 20.
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, which recently imported the Kinks bio musical Sunny Afternoon from England, is now offering another pop music fueled show. 42 Balloons, written by Jack Godfrey, 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’s directed by Ellie Coote, with choreography by Alexzandra Sarmiento and orchestra ad music supervision by Joe Beighton. 42 Balloons will run at Chicago Shakespeare Theater through June 29.
Wild Honey Foundation, the California-based 501(c)(3)non-profit that frequently supports worthy causes by staging all-star concerts, will combine with The Zevon Family in presenting Join Me In L.A.: The Songs Of Warren Zevon With The Wild Honey Orchestra on October 24 at new venue The United Theater on Los Angeles. The event will celebrate Zevon’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction, and raise funds for the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) and The Ed Asner Family Center, which assists the autism-neurodivergent community. Information on participating acts will likely be revealed in the near future.
The Psychedelic Furs With Special Guest Gary Numan Tour is coming to the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on October 4. Other stops on the tour include Seattle, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Denver, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Brooklyn.
Chicago area vocalist Gerald McClendon “The Soul Keeper” has a concert coming up at The Des Plaines Theatre in Des Plaines, IL on June 14.
Paul Weller’s Find El Dorado collection of reinterpretations of other artists’ material will be released on July 25. Robert Plant and Noel Gallagher are among the musicians who helped on the album.
Local publisher Numero Group has released Dante Carfagna’s two-volume, 732-page set Soul Music Of Illinois. The website states Soul Music Of Illinois “chronicles over 3200 artists, 1200 record companies, and 10,000 individual releases between the years of 1960 and 1990.”
The Kooks’ June 9 concert in Chicago has been moved from The Salt Shed to The Vic Theatre. As noted in a Jam Mail email, “all previously purchased tickets valid for new venue.” The English rock band kicked off the North American leg of its All Over The World Tour this past Tuesday in Montreal, and recently released its latest album Never/Know.
Tethered Together, the fourth album from Chicago band Push Puppets, is now available in digital and CD formats on Bandcamp. Push Puppets specialize in melodic, well-crafted indie rock, and this time out, they’ve enlisted four classical musicians and a trio of horn players. It’s also interesting to note that long-time Chicago music scene veterans Steve Frisbee and Tommi Zender helped out on this album.
As reported on the Brooklyn Vegan website, Gina Birch from the Brit band The Raincoats has an album titled Trouble coming out on July 11. She’ll be backed by musicians Marie Merlet and Jenny Green. It’s the second solo effort from Birch, who’ll head out on tour with The Miki Berenyi Trio (led by the former Lush founder) this fall. They’ll be in Chicago on October 17 at Lincoln Hall.
