Stolen Guitars And Streaming Royalties
1. Chigger Country.
“The lead guitarist for the southern rock band Molly Hatchet is thrilled that a tip from another musician and quick work by the McLean County Sheriff’s Department resulted in the recovery of his custom guitar stolen during a Sept. 8 concert in rural McLean County,” the Decatur Herald-Review reports.
“I thought Miss Molly was gone forever,” performer Bobby Ingram said Monday from his home in Florida.
“The Les Paul Black Beauty custom Gibson guitar valued at more than $12,000 was taken from the stage after a performance at Chiggerfest, an annual music festival west of McLean.”
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See also: Chiggers.
2. Van By The River.
“The band FayRoy, which calls its music ‘surfy rock,’ was left high and dry after their 1997 conversion van was stolen along with $10,000 worth of guitars and other gear after an appearance on the Northwest Side,” the Tribune reports.
“The San Francisco band said it had to scratch dates in Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and California after last week’s theft of the van, which also served as their home.”
Some of their gear turned up when some dude tried to sell it to Guitar Center, but a lot is still missing. (See Help FayRoy Find Their Missing Van.)
3. Spotty Spotify.
“The local independent label Drag City is keeping its catalog off Spotify and all other streaming services, even as most labels big and small play ball,” Mark Caro reports for the Tribune. “The Chicago-based Bloodshot Records has its music on Spotify, though label co-owner Nan Warshaw remains wary.”
4. Overrated: The Double Door And Chief Keef.
5. Breaking Berwyn.
“The transformation of one of Berwyn’s empty brick buildings into a promising new music venue is just what Bill FitzGerald likes to see, even if it creates competition for his business,” the Tribune reports.
“Two blocks from FitzGerald’s Nightclub a 33-year-old spot that draws local and national acts, four Chicago-area music professionals are partnering to open Wire, a venue, school and recording space described as an incubator for musical ideas.
“The endeavor is the latest in a procession of dining and entertainment destinations opening on Roosevelt Road, sparking some big hopes for the area.”
6. Lydia Loveless’s Aim Is True.
“I just listened to [Elvis Costello’s ‘Alison’] a lot when I was a kid,” she told UWeekly. “Or my mom did and I got so incredibly sick of it that I hated it for like a really long time. Then one night I was drinking wine and playing guitar and sort of screwing around learning that. Then we played Chicago, which is where Bloodshot is. I played that by myself and everyone in the room just kind of shut up and listened, so my label was just blown away like that. We went to breakfast the next day and one of the owners was like, ‘You have to record that.’ And I was like, ‘I guess I will.’ I wasn’t doing anything else . . . I guess that’s how it happened. (Laughs)”
7. Snubbing Chicago.
“If Abba and the Bee Gees can be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, surely there is room for Chicago,” Greg Kocher writes for the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader.
“The 46-year-old group known for its signature horns has been eligible for induction since 1994, but it has never been invited to the party.”
Click through to read his argument.
8. Hail Mahalia.
“A new Mahalia Jackson biopic is in the early stages of development and is not to be confused with the film directed by Euzhan Palcy, starring Fantasia Barrino, according to Shadow and Act,” the Atlanta Black Star notes.
“This Mahalia Jackson project will be directed by Vaun Monroe, a screenwriter/director and college professor at Columbia College in Chicago, and Chicago filmmaker Ruth L. Ratny, for Joyful Noise, LLC.”
9. State Treasure.
Bloodshot Records’ Ha Ha Tonka took their name from a park in Missouri.
10. Fulks This Town.
“One of the best things about writing the Tattle column is that not only do we get to mock people who deserve it, we also get to promote people who deserve it,” Howard Gensler writes for the Philadelphia Daily News (second item).
“We came upon Robbie Fulks a few years ago during an iTunes search for the rock band Fountains of Wayne.
Fulks’ song “Fountains of Wayne Hotline” came up, and it so brilliantly satirized and paid homage to FoW’s musical and lyrical tendencies, we thought this was a guy we needed to know more about.
“Turns out Fulks performs mostly original country music, and he’s been at it for the better part of 30 years. He was born in York, Pa., although he now lives in Chicago.
“In a phone interview last week from his tour van, Fulks cited Doc Watson, John Hartford, Hank Williams, Roger Miller and Sun Ra as musical influences, with a little Ray Stevens, Mad magazine and Jewish comedy thrown in.”
As always, click through for the rest.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on October 2, 2013