Plus: Brian Wilson, Jeff Beck & Chief Keef
1. Ha Ha Cubs.
It should come as no surprise that the guys in Ha Ha Tonka are St. Louis Cardinals fans; the band, which is on Bloodshot Records, is from Missouri and named after a state park there.
So you can imagine their reaction to a song from their new record being used during the Cardinals’ National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
From their YouTube channel:
“Most of you probably know that all of us (except Brett) are diehard St. Louis Cardinals fans. Well, you can imagine how excited we were when TBS used our song ‘Rewrite Our Lives’ last week as intro music to the Cards NLCS game, while highlights played superimposed onto the Arch. It was pretty epic. Oh, and the Redbirds beat the Dodgers 1-0.”
Here it is:
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You can download the song for 89 cents here, as well as the full new album from whence it comes, for $5.99.
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Here’s the teaser for the record.
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A Tonka song also played in the background of this sniper scene on CBS’s Criminal Minds.
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Here’s a full video.
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Tonka is on tour now; they play in Chicago on November 30 at Lincoln Hall.
2. The Beach Boys And Beck.
“Brian Wilson and Jeff Beck have added a special benefit show to their current U.S. co-headlining tour,” Classic Hits And Oldies notes.
“The two influential musicians will hit the stage at Chicago’s House of Blues on October 29 for the seventh annual School Rocks concert to raise money for San Miguel School Chicago. All proceeds from the event will help fund the facility’s scholarship programs and go toward providing community support for the urban students who attend the school.
“As with the other concerts on Wilson and Beck’s tour, the School Rocks show also will feature appearances by Brian’s fellow Beach Boys bandmates Al Jardine and David Marks. Wilson and Beck will play separate sets with their respective backing groups and also will team up for several songs. Their co-headlining outing winds down the following night, October 30, with a show in Milwaukee.”
3. Highly Recommended.
How A Chicago Indie Rocker Helped Make A West African Guitar Band A Sensation In Niger.
4. The Chicago Intervention Of Elliott Smith.
From Pitchfork’s Oral History Smith’s Downfall:
“We had tried once to have an intervention in Chicago, [circa the Either/Or tour]. Oh my god. He hated us. He never let me forget what I did to him. We’d be having a great conversation, and it would just come up again out of nowhere. It totally reminds me of the child in him, or my own kids, how they hold onto one memory of mom and dad fighting at dinner. He never let me forget how betrayed he felt. He did agree to go. I think he felt the love and the concern, but you just don’t do that to him. That’s what he was like: ‘I’m a different person. You could have dealt with it differently.'”
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From the MTV News archive:
“Already a heavy drinker while living in New York, he began coupling alcohol with antidepressants. An intervention in Chicago during the Either/Or tour proved ineffective.”
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Audio of Smith at the Riv in 2002:
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5. The Double Door Is Going For Laughs.
6. Chief Spleef.
The good news for Chief Keef is that he’s out of jail. The bad news is that good behavior doesn’t help his cred.
7. Eminent Hipster.
“Fagen writes that, while backstage at the Ravinia Festival, deeply agitated, he took a toke from a joint before the show, smoothing the wheels for a dull, ‘tight and polite’ performance.”
Ravinia: Where Rock Goes To Die.
8. Culture Shock Chicago.
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9. Heavy Metal Journey.
“The 18-year-old Bobby Landgraf who moved to Austin from Chicago in 1983 to attend the University of Texas could shred with the best of them. ‘I was always a metal kid,’ he says, ‘but I ended up in bands that played everything but metal.’ He played showband funk with Dino Lee, jazz fusion in Blow, rock ‘n’ roll with Band From Hell and rap with Def MFs. But even in those bands, his queasy Sabbathian tones broke through.”
10. The Chicago Teddy Bears Have Been Voted 2013’s Best Band By Members Who Enjoy Swinging At Rochdale’s Local Jazz Club.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on October 24, 2013