The Fest For Beatles Fans - Chicago convention returns to the Hyatt Regency O’Hare a week from today and will entertain Beatles fanatics through Sunday evening. The in-person guestlist includes Micky Dolenz from The Monkees; Randy Bachman from The Guess Who and his son Tal; British Invasion singer Billy J. Kramer; lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley from Paul McCartney’s Wings; and former Official Beatles Fan Club president Freda Kelly. There will be live performances by Liverpool; The Weeklings; Jeff Lake And Cellophane Flowers; Phil Angotti And Friends; My Sweet George; and The Taxmen. WXRT DJ and Breakfast With The Beatles program host Terri Hemmert will return as The Fest’s Master Of Ceremonies, with Tom Francine as Assistant Master Of Ceremonies.
Record Collector magazine and Mantle Brewery are sponsoring the Fruits de Mer and Sendelica 20th Dream Of Dr Sardonicus International Festival Of Psychedelia that kicked off today and will run through Sunday at The Cellar Bar in Cardigan. Man, Astralasia/Mushroom, Sendelica, Pinhdar, Custard Flux, Moon Goose, The Fertility Cult, Babal, Z-Machine, Elfin Bow, SPWCI, Reuben’s Daughters and DJ Benway will be performing.
Funkadesi and Arrested Development were the headline acts when this year’s Skokie Backlot Bash kicked off today in downtown Skokie, IL. The live entertainment will include Woolworthy and Tonic tomorrow; and Thrift Store Halo and Tributosaurus Becomes The Kinks Part 2 on Sunday.
White Noise And Lightning: The Best Of Continental Drifters will be released in CD and vinyl formats on September 13 via Omnivore Recordings. Fans of the Americana band, which features members of The Cowsills; The Bangles; R.E.M.; The Dream Syndicate; Hootie and the Blowfish; and The dB’s, can also look forward to an authorized biography with that same title written by musician/producer Sean Kelly. The book is due out September 27, and is being marketed alongside We Are All Drifters: A Tribute To The Continental Drifters double CD that includes renditions by Marshall Crenshaw, Debbi Peterson And The Minus 5, Steve Wynn, and Kim Richey.
The Green Day Saviors Tour, with special guests Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid, and Linda Lindas has a Chicago stop at Wrigley Field on August 13.
The longtime free paper Chicago Reader has created a Kickstarter campaign for its upcoming book Free Chicago - 50 Years of the Reader. As someone who’s picked up countless issues during that span, I was happy to help out with a $60 pledge. The self-described “big, beautiful coffee table book” is due out in December, which makes it a great option for a holiday gift.
Per The Who’s official website, Pete Townshend and Elton John will collaborate with other musicians, as well as The Royal Philharmonic, on an ambitious interpretation of the Herman Hesse novel Siddhartha. Described as an “illustrated novel and album,” The Seeker will feature music composed by Rachel Fuller, with additional music and lyrics by Townshend. It's is scheduled to arrive on November 7.
PureSoul Presents: Soul Brunch Divas Of Dance: Chic, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross at noon next Saturday, August 10 at City Winery Chicago.
Fans of the late Kim Shattuck will surely want a copy of the 60-page Melanie And Kim Monday fanzine Melanie Vammen and Music Arkives have put together. It’s now available to pre-order at the Give Smart website. The first 100 copies will be numbered and signed by Vammen, and all proceeds will benefit the ALS Network.
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.
Longtime journalist/PR specialist Cary Baker has a book coming out in November. Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking & Street Music, which is being published by the very rock-and-roll-oriented Jawbone Press, will cover a century of street music. Baker follows in the footsteps of Mark Guarino, whose Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival was named as “Book of the Year” by the Illinois State Historical Society; and music industry veteran Dean Brownrout, whose No Big Deal book is coming out October 1 via Guernica Editions.
The Enchanted Heroes Festival will take place this Sunday at Brothers’ Field in Long Grove, IL at 340 Old McHenry Road (in the downtown area) starting at 1:00 pm. The event will include entertainment and photo ops featuring “enchanting princesses Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Jasmine, and Moana, along with heroic superheroes Batman, Captain America, and Spiderman.”
Time Hard Won, the new album from Translator member Steve Barton, will be available to stream and download next Friday, August 9. Barton recently posted on Facebook that a vinyl version will soon follow. He’s already snagged a positive review in the British rock mag MOJO.
Steve Albini, the Chicago-based/world-renowned producer/musician who left us far too early, now has a street named for him. Steve Albini Way can be found on the 2600-2700 block studio on West Belmont Avenue in Chicago. Electrical Audio, the studio where Albini worked much of his magic during the past two decades, is located at 2621 West Belmont Avenue.
Tom Toomey, long-time lead guitarist for The Zombies, has a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final step of his latest solo album Ice Cube. In a Facebook post, Toomey describes the album as, “a collection of everything from soulful reflection, bumping beats, insane cellos, my signature guitars, and the list goes on.” The pledges range from £12 to £500; with some pretty cool perks to go with them. Ice Cube is scheduled for a November release.
The full schedule of 30-plus participants for YippieFest 2024, which will be staged at Chopin Theatre on the weekend of August 23 – 25, can now be found on the event’s official website. Long-running sketch/musical comedy group Famous In The Future is once again serving as host, and all proceeds will go to charity. YippieFest is modeled after the late Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s long-running Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins Festival. Chopin Theatre is located at 1543 W. Division on the city’s north side.
The 10th Annual Super Nova Ska Festival will be held on the weekend of September 13 – 15 at Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA. British pioneering ska act The Selecter, still led by Pauline Black, will be the main draw with its performance on the last day. Other acts include Roy Ellis with The Aggrolites; Skavoovie and the Epitones; Five Iron Frenzy; and Catbite. A total of 38 acts, from 8 countries are scheduled to appear.
Pravda Records, Chicago’s longest-running independent record company, has added a few more acts to its 40th Anniversary PravdaFest event taking place on August 31 at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. One of those recent additions is The Chamber Strings, which will feature local musicians Chloe F. Orwell, Tim Fowler, Carolyn Engelmann, Anthony Illarde, Jason Walker, Ellis Clark paying tribute to founder member, the late Kevin Junior.
Critically acclaimed band NRBQ has a series of dates scheduled for the east coast toward the end of August.
Blondie founding member Chris Stein’s memoir titled Under A Rock is now available from various sites. The book, which features a forward by Debbie Harry, is described by MacMillan Publishers as a “a plunge into the moments that made a giant 1980’s artistic sensation.”
Chicago: Home Of House, an exhibit honoring the city’s pivotal role in widespread success of house music over the past 40 years, runs through the end of October.
Squeeze will embark on a U.S. tour starting in Eugene OR with other North American stops including Oakland, Costa Mesa, Phoenix, Austin, Nashville, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, New York, and Orlando. Squeeze will return to the UK in early October and continue touring through November. The Squeeze concert on September 5 at the Chicago Theatre will feature The English Beat as the special guest for that night.
Rebel Girl: My Life As A Feminist Punk, a memoir from riot-grrrl band Bikini Kill vocalist Kathleen Hanna is now available from HarperCollins Publishers on various websites and book stores.
The North American Tour of Back To The Future - The Musical starts today in Washington, D.C., and will arrive in Chicago on August 13 for just over a two-week run. Other stops for Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and the gang include Minneapolis, St. Louis, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.
There will be a triple bill of Chicago acts at Cobra Lounge next Thursday featuring power pop veterans Phil Yates And The Affiliates; the trio xyzxyz; and quartet Surgery Cult. Cobra Lounge is located at 235 N. Ashland; the music starts at 8:00 pm.
Tickets are now on sale for Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, which begins its run at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in downtown Chicago on September 10.
