Category: Event

  • Cleveland Confidential Book Tour at Quimby's 4/2

    Smog Veil Records announces the Cleveland Confidential Book Tour returns to the road in April, with a stop at Quimby’s in Chicago on April 2.  The tour features three author-musicians also from Cleveland, Ohio including Cheetah Chrome (Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Batusis), Mike Hudson (The Pagans) and Bob Pfeifer (Human Switchboard, Tabby Chinos, former Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records). Each will read excerpts from their book, answer questions from the audience and discuss their books and careers with each other. Authors will be available to sign books at each appearance.

    Cheetah Chrome – A Dead Boy’s Tale From The Front Lines Of Punk Rock is the no-holds-barred autobiography of Cheetah Chrome, lead guitarist of the Dead Boys, one of the greatest punk bands ever. It’s a tale of success and excess—amazing music, legendary antics, epic drug use, and eventual resurrection—that only a true rock and roller could deliver. As a songwriter Chrome’s work has been covered by artists such as Guns n Roses, Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys. He still performs and records with Rocket From The Tombs and Batusis (with Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls). He lives in Nashville with his wife and son.

    Mike Hudson will read from Jetsam and Diary of a Punk. The 32 short pieces that make up Jetsam were written and published between 1977 and 2009. His lean and unsentimental prose style is apparent in even the earliest entries here. Diary of A Punk is Hudson’s autobiography. He is the founder of the seminal American punk rock group, the Pagans, formed in 1977. His work has appeared in Hustler, the Associated Press, Master Detective, Field & Stream and many other publications here and abroad. He is currently the founding editor and CEO of the Niagara Falls Reporter, a New York tabloid specializing in politics and organized crime.

    University of Strangers is Bob Pfeifer’s first novel. In a sensational case that made headlines all over the globe, the American student Amanda Knox was convicted of the murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, in what Italian authorities described as a sadistic sexual encounter. Pfeifer’s novel details the efforts of a secret society, comprised of famous contemporary figures from the worlds of literature, show business and politics, to clear the girl’s name. A unique blend of fact and fiction the book is a spellbinding account of the violence, corruption and celebrity worship that characterize much of 21st century life. Pfeifer was Senior Vice President A&R/Epic/Sony Records and President of Hollywood Records. Artists he’s worked with include Alice Cooper, Ornette Coleman, The Screaming Trees, also soundtracks like the Crow: City of Angels and Lion King. He is a founding member/songwriter of Human Switchboard and Tabby Chinos. He lives in Los Angeles with his son.

    Saturday, April 2nd, 7pm

  • Josh Alan Friedman Celebrates Black Cracker 3/29

    Celebrate “Black Tuesday” with Josh Alan Friedman and his autobiographical novel Black Cracker, about his childhood at New York’s last segregated school in the early 1960s. In first grade, your friends are your friends and all that really matters is who can come up with the best doo-doo jokes. But as the lone white boy at the local “colored school,” young Josh is in for some hard — and often hilarious — lessons in readin’, writin’, ’rithmetic and race.

    With its child’s-eye view of controversial subjects, turbulent times and all-too-human frailties, Black Cracker is hard-hitting, heartbreakingly honest and hysterically funny — often all at once.

    Writer-musician Josh Alan Friedman’s eight books include Tales of Times Square and Tell the Truth Until They Bleed; his recordings include Blacks ’n’ Jews and Famous & Poor. Quimby’s welcomes Josh Alan to Chicago for Black Tuesday, an unforgettable evening featuring readings from Black Cracker and a live set of Friedman’s music on atomic acoustic guitar.

    “Friedman splits sides, breaks hearts and always remains ruthlessly honest about the real world, a place that doesn’t conform to the politically correct wishes of liberals or conservatives.”
    — Michael Simmons, L.A. Weekly

    For more info: BlackCrackerOnline.com

    Tuesday, March 29th, 7 pm

  • Burn Collector #15 Zine Release Event with Al Burian, Anne Elizabeth Moore and Liam Warfield on 3/22

    Celebrating fifteen years of publication as well as the appearance of issue number 15, Al Burian returns to Quimby’s to present a new installment of his long-running personal zine Burn Collector. Burian began distributing his work through the tight-knit network of the DIY punk music scene in the mid-nineties. Burn Collector caught on because of its unusual content—in a scene rife with dogmatic diatribes and bland record reviews, Burian presented his readers with humorous anecdotes, philosophical musings, nuanced descriptions of odd locales and curious characters. Burn Collector #15 is the “Berlin vs. Chicago” issue: contents include an essay on the Berlin Wall by Chicago’s Anne Elizabeth Moore, and an interview with Chicago zine hero Liam Warfield, who debunks the myth of the endless techno party.

    Al Burian was a Chicago resident from 2000-2008. His book, Burn Collector: Collected Stories from One through Nine has just been republished by PM Press. He currently lives in Berlin.

    “Al Burian is one of our generation’s great storytellers, a wily and insightful observer of the human condition.”      -Davy Rothbart, Found Magazine and This American Life

    “Al Burian has become one of the most cultishly adored figures in the American punk underground. Burn Collector pairs existential dread with rapacious wit.” -Jessica Hopper, Chicago Reader

    “Al Burian produces zines with a stubborn refusal to write dumbly.” -Sam McPheeters

    Also joining the bill will be BC#15 contributors Liam Warfield (War Against the Idiots, The Skeleton, Secret Beach) and Anne Elizabeth Moore (Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity, former editor of now-defunct Punk Planet)

    Tuesday, March 22, 2011 7:30 pm

  • Connor Coyne Event Pictures

    Connor Coyne read from his serial killer novel Hungry Rats here at Quimby’s on Feb 5th. And there were cookies!

  • Mike Sacks Reads from Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason 3/10

    Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason collects Mike Sacks’ unique humor pieces—Craigslist ads, lesser-known tantric positions, letters to famous authors, Shaft living in the suburbs, a classic-rock DJ suffering a nervous breakdown, the occasional list—into one handsome, convenient volume. Originally published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and McSweeney’s, among other venerable publications, Sacks’s writing is original and sharp, yet broadly funny. Whether it’s a groom tweeting his wedding and honeymoon in real time, or a publisher offering editorial suggestions for The Diary of Anne Frank, Sacks’s work tangles contemporary social satire with absurdist sensibilities.

    Mike Sacks has written for such publications as The Believer, Esquire, GQ, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, Premiere, Radar, Salon, Time, Time Out New York, Vanity Fair, Vice, and Women’s Health. He has worked at The Washington Post, and is currently on the editorial staff of Vanity Fair. His first book, And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Humor Writers About Their Craft, was released July 2009 by Writer’s Digest Books. His second book, SEX: Our Bodies: Our Junk, co-written with Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Jason Roeder, and Ted Travelstead, was released by Random House in August 2010.

    For more info: http://www.mikesacks.com

    “Mike Sacks is not just a sensational comic writer, but a sensational writer—period.”—David Sedaris

    Thursday, March 10th, 7pm

  • Chicago Zine Fest 2011 at Various Places Around Town March 25th and 26th!

    Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor Chicago Zine Fest 2011, Friday, March 25th and Saturday, March 26th, at various locations around town. As part of the opening night’s festivities at 9pm on March 25th, Quimby’s offers some karaoke for giggles!

  • James Kirkpatrick/Thesis Sahib Launch for Before The End 2/19

    Before the End showcases over fifty full-colour pages of James Kirkpatrick’s paintings, drawings, and sculptures, and includes a download card for his new 16 – song album as Thesis Sahib. When you’re done with the card, you can plant it to grow wildflowers!

    It also comes with a blue vinyl 7-inch record featuring two previously unreleased tracks, noises from four of his sound sculptures, and two songs from the full length album.

    James Kirkpatrick has shown his art and toured with his music internationally and was featured in the traveling group exhibition Pulp Fiction, presented at Museum London, The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, and at St. Mary’s University Art Gallery. He is also well known as the graffiti artist and rapper Thesis Sahib. He has created artwork for several album covers in the underground hip hop genre, and his collaborative art book with Peter Thompson, Brain Trust, is published by Anteism. He works collaboratively with Jamie Q as the art team Dusty Peas and with Peter Thompson as the art and music duo Brain Trust.  His paintings incorporate sculptural, kinetic, and auditory elements, as he combines his 2D aesthetic with circuit-bent electronic toys. Likewise, compositions written on modified Gameboys and circuit-bent sounds have become part of his music and on-stage performances.

    “It’s good music. Kanye should take note” – DJ Wicked Awesome, the listening party CKCUFM 93.4 Ottawa.

    “This lush hardbound monograph-plus-phonograph. Kirkpatrick’s paintings and sculptures have the mad gusto of Philip Guston, the child charm of Jean Dubuffet and sedated hamburger browns of Marc Bell. Nice work, with a 16-song wildflower-laden album and sky blue 7″ record included.” –EF on quimbys.com

    For more info: http://www.jameskirkpatrick.org

    Saturday, February 19th, 7 pm

  • Poster and Flyer Artists!

    Have you ever made a poster for an event at Quimby’s? Or how about a flyer for an event at Quimby’s? Send us a digital copy and we’ll post it on our site! Contact us at info@quimbys.com. Also! Send it to the Quimby’s Flickr Group, and then make sure you add Quimby’s as a Flickr contact if you desire. We do.

    This one was designed by Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine!

  • Carrie Colpitts and Jami Sailor with Friends 2/11

    Love is in the air! Carrie Colpitts and Jami Sailor with Friends Celebrate the Valentine’s Day Split Zine Brilliant Mistake #4 + Your Secretary #8

    And check out these fellow readers!:

    Dave Roche of About My Disappearance and On Subbing. Dave vowed to finish his first novel by the time he turned 30 years old; at 36 he’s five pages in. L.B. of Truckface and So Midwest and Awkward Spaces. She enjoys playing drums, dancing to the Kinks, and teaching. Puppy Dave of Black Carrot, Fort Mortgage, and How I Learned to Love Myself and Ocassionally Other Men. Dave likes some things and dislikes others. He plays drums in Warboner….and fresh of the state fair circuit, Laura Palmer and the Kates!


    For more info:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171109372934574

    Friday, February 11th, 7pm

  • Art of Comics

    Oots Ha-hoots! This month three great new art shows have opened in Chicago with a heavy focus on comics art and comics artists! Check out work by a throng of Quimby’s favorites:

    At The Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago Ave:
    New Chicago Comics
    January 8 – 30, 2011

    For the month of January, the MCA presents an exhibition of the work of four young, Chicago-based cartoonists and animators: Jeffrey Brown, Lilli Carré, Paul Hornschemeier, and Anders Nilsen. In their own unique styles each of these artists expands and challenges the conventions of a visual art form for which Chicago continues to be renowned: the comic book.

    Jeffrey Brown’s autobiographical works examines modern relationships with discomforting detail and intimacy. His comics are drawn in a deliberately awkward and simple style that heightens both the emotional impact and charming humor of the stories. Each comic is written and drawn in an individual sketchbook, and Brown is showing a selection of these original books as part of the exhibition.

    Lilli Carré is an animator and cartoonist who has produced a series of celebrated comics, illustrations, and hand-drawn, animated short films. Her work combines an elegant visual style with elliptical narratives that are imbued with an absurdist, and at times, unsettling humor. Along with a series of original illustrations, the exhibition includes a selection of Carré’s short films.

    Paul Hornschemeier’s widely acclaimed comics incorporate complex, self-referential narrative structures that knowingly appropriate various comic book styles. A selection of his original blue graphite and ink drawings are on display.

    Using a sparse aesthetic and narrative style, Anders Nilsen creates existentialist fables that revolve around the interactions between animals (birds and dogs) and young men. Nilsen shows a selection of original graphite and ink drawings from his recently completed 600-page comic Big Questions, which is to be published by Drawn and Quarterly in 2011.

    At Los Manos Gallery, 5220 N. Clark Street, Chicago:
    The StatiCCreep Exhibition of Sequential Art
    January 14th to February 6th, 2011

    Chicago has a bastion of dark horse artists that enrich the world of comic books through the imprint this city leaves on them. A certain noir factor absorbed through brick and steel-heavy architecture, inky black alleys and a history of subversive characters has worked its way under their skin.

    Participating artists: Alex Wald, Andrew Pepoy, Chris Burnham, Corinne Mucha, Doug Klauba, Hilary Barta, Heather McAdams, Jeffrey Brown, Jenny Frison, Jill Thompson, Tony Akins, Nicole Hollander, Mike Norton, Mitch O’Connell, Sarah Becan, Dave Dorman, Nicole Hollander, Tim Seeley, Lucy Knisley, Gary Gianni, Steve Krakow and Bill Reinhold.

    At Western Exhibitions, 119 N. Peoria, Suite 2A
    Heads on Poles
    January 14 to February 19, 2011

    The iconic display of a head, severed and mounted on a stick, is ubiquitous as a representation of ominous primordial savagery. Cliché in its references to cannibalistic ritual, human sacrifice or cautionary symbolism, its general structure also contains rich connotations to formal art- a 3-dimensional image-object, laden with material and conceptual possibility.

    For the purposes of this project, curators Paul Nudd and Scott Wolniak have adopted the concept of Heads on Poles as an open guideline to direct broad responses from a large group of artists. Over four dozen artists, ranging widely in discipline and style, were invited to produce sculptures loosely based on the formula of Head On Pole, in any material. These totem-objects will be simply placed, as casually clustered bodies, throughout the main gallery space of Western Exhibitions.

    Additional artists have been asked to respond to the same theme with graphic works for a concurrent print project.

    Through collective effort and the idea that creative freedom can occur within structural uniformity, Nudd and Wolniak hope to achieve a complex and immersive spectacle. Diverse interpretations are anticipated, with possible outcomes such as conceptual objects, portraiture, obscenity, abstraction, political gestures, humor and horror. With no attempt on the part of the curators to control submissions after the initial call for participation, the final group of works will be a surprise for all.

    Participating artists: Mike Andrews, Ali Bailey, Jason Robert Bell & Marni Kotak, Nick Black, Daniel Bruttig, Andrew Burkholder, Lilli Carré, Joseph Cassan, Mariano Chavez, Ryan Travis Christian, Vincent Como, Bruce Conkle, Jean-Louis Costes, Vincent Dermody, Mike Diana, Edie Fake, Scott Fife, R.E.H. Gordon, John Hankiewicz, Keith Herzik, Carol Jackson, Bob Jones, Chris Kerr, David Leggett, Mike Lopez, Teena McClelland, Dutes Miller, Miller & Shellabarger, Joe Miller, Andy Moore, Max Morris, Rachel Niffenegger, William J. O’Brien, Onsmith, David Paleo, John Parot, Michael Rea, Tyson Reeder, Dan Rhodehamel, Bruno Richard, John Riepenhoff, Kristen Romaniszak, Steve Ruiz, David Sandlin, Mike Schuh, Mindy Rose Schwartz, David Shrigley, Edith Sloat & Sophie Greenstalk, Edra Soto, Ryan Standfest, William Staples, Ben Stone, Bill Thelen, Jeremy Tinder, Sean Townley, Jim Trainor, Anne Van der Linden, Jason Villegas, Sarah Beth Woods, Aaron Wrinkle

    AND! While you’re at Western Exhibitions, check out Terence Hannum’s exhibit of work from his artist’s books in their Gallery 2:

    Terence Hannum
    Negative Litanies

    Terence Hannum’s drawings, paintings and video installations cull the periphery of heavy metal and hardcore music subcultures to analyze the nexus of music, myth, audience and ritual. In addition to the above work, Hannum is a prolific zine maker and for his show in Western Exhibitions’ Gallery 2, Hannum will present a box set of 12 zines, all made in 2010, as well as drawings, paintings and other work that inspired the publications.

    Exemplifying the DIY spirit inherent in the scenes he’s documenting, his use of the zine relates to the format’s origin, that of the self-produced fanzine. Hannum recontextualizes elements of his drawings, paintings, installations and even sound work in his zines, at times documenting the above works, but also casting new narratives intrinsic to the multi-page format.

    Every month in 2010 Hannum produced a new zine, each one taking a different format, maximizing the possibilities of the cheaply printed page. He achieves remarkable textures, surfaces and images through seemingly simple combinations of toner on white, black and gray papers. Every subsequent zine ups the ambition from the prior one, as Hannum experiments with color xeroxes, collaborations (with New York artist Scott Treleaven and Chicagoan Elijah Burgher), vellum, sealed wax covers, obi bands and mini-CDs. Hannum pushes the zine to its extremes, much like the extreme sonic scenes he’s documenting and influenced by.