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Category: music-related
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Punk Then, Punk Now, Punk Forever: Documenting DIY Culture 11/18
A meet, greet, and discussion with authors David Ensminger and Daniel Makagon — two punkademics who explore and document the DIY scene of punk rock, plus local punk icon Martin Sorrondeguy of Limp Wrist and Los Crudos, who will be projecting photographs. The three will discuss punk history, their own involvement throughout the decades, DIY culture, and future issues, like chronicling scenes in a digital era that may lack traditional zines, flyers, and records.Ensminger’s Out of the Basement: From Cheap Trick to DIY Punk in Rockford, IL, 1973-2005 “emits in vigorous detail the lineaments of the sweat-drenched musical underground nestled in his rock hard hometown… sense impressions combine with slices of scholarly reflection and the author’s own energy and timeless enthusiasm.” — Denise Sullivan.
Martin Sorrendeguy is a punk singer known worldwide for his work with Los Crudos and Limp Wrist; he is a filmmaker that made Beyond The Screams: A U.S. Latino Hardcore Punk Documentary in 1999, and is an avid photographer whose exhibits, monograph, and lectures document’s punk’s global impact.
Daniel Makagon’s Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows published by Microcosm “explores the culture of DIY spaces like house shows and community-based music spaces, their impact on underground communities and economies…” As associate professor at DePaul University, he teaches and researches urban communication, documentary, music culture, guerrilla art, and democracy. He edits the City Series for Liminalities too.
David Ensminger writes for Razorcake and teaches at Lee College. His new book, Out of the Basement (Microcosm Publishing) is a portrayal of a rust belt city full of rebel kids making DIY music despite the odds. It combines oral history, brutally honest memoir, music history, and a sense of blunt poetics to capture the ethos of life in the 1970s-2000s, long before the Internet made punk accessible to small towners. From dusty used record stores and frenetic skating rinks to dank basements and sweat-piled gigs to the radical forebears like the local IWW chapter, the book follows the stories of rebels struggling to find spaces and a sense of community and their place in underground history. It includes hilarious untold stories and anecdotes about Fred Armisen, Green Day, and the Misfits. Ensminger has authored six books covering both American roots music and punk rock history, including Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation (Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2011) and Left of the Dial: Conversations with Punk Icons (PM Press, 2013), and Out of the Basement (Microcosm). His new The Politics of Punk analyzes radical music, social justice, community building, and punk philanthropy.
For more info: leftofthedialmag@hotmail.com, http://visualvitriol.wordpress.com
And this:
http://newbooksnetwork.com/david-ensminger-the-politics-of-punk-protest-and-revolt-from-the-streets-rowman-and-littlefield-2016/
Nov 18th, 7pm
Free Event
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John Olson Reads From Life Is a Rip-Off with Alan Hoffman 10/8
From American Tapes to Wolf Eyes, John Olson is one of the most influential musicians of the past two decades, the obvious bridge between free jazz and noise music. Wikipedia lists over 75 projects with which Olson worked and over 100 Wolf Eyes’ recordings. Olson is now a discerning and sharp-witted author too: LIFE IS A RIP OFF, published by Jack White’s imprint Third Man Records, is a collection of surprisingly untraditional record reviews which Olson wrote over the course of 365 days. He will read from his book on Saturday October 8, accompanied by some of his many instruments.
Local writer-performance artist Alan Hoffman will open for him and debut his novella AUDITIONS about internet-porn casting-couch videos.
LIFE IS A RIP OFF: THE COMPLETE BOOK is 12 months of record reviews—one record a day, every day, for one year. Yes, John “Inzane” Olson aka Inzane Johnny of the bandWolf Eyes aka American Tapes did that. And he reviewed everything from death metal demo cassettes to the Staples Singers’ gospel. Enter into the OLZONE and find out about music you’ve never known, bands from places that you’ve never heard, and then read his review of KANSAS. Reading LRIP will make you re-realize why blues is relevant, why every punk band in America matters, why jazz is good for the heart, and metal will always ride by your side.
“To write music op-ed this good, you have to tap the primordial sap sack, to butterfly stroke the ancient ooze of tune begatment, cave dwell with the knuckle draggers, scratch symbols into the dirt with the freaks and make it rain. He do and it did.” — Henry Rollins
“[Life is a Rip Off] is the best way [John Olson] can add another cubist layer to the sound and visuality he’s already presented for the last twenty or so years. He’s sharing something the people who don’t know him personally don’t get enough of—his textual, syntactical brain, stained as it is with dollar-store spray paint.” — Ben Hell Hall, Detroit artist.
“When John agreed to write a record review a day, back in 20xx, I wasn’t too keen on the idea. Not because I didn’t think he could do it – but that I knew he would do it, even if it became a years-long all-encompassing obsessive task.” — Tovah Olson, The Dead Machines.
“[John Olson] didn’t just introduce me to different worlds, the man introduced me to entire universes.” — Bryan Ramirez, Killertrees Records
“Wolf Eyes . . . sounds like a crumbling Velvet Underground bootleg that’s been burned to ashes.” — NPR, Sept 2015
As always, this event at Quimby’s is free.
More info:
The Facebook invite for this event. Invite your friends!
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Larry Livermore Brings How To Ru(i)n A Record Label to Quimby’s 3/26
In How To Ru(i)n A Record Label (Don Giovanni Records), Larry Livermore describes the spectacular rise and ignominious collapse of Lookout Records, the iconic label he co-founded in 1987 and which helped launch the careers of Green Day, Operation Ivy, Screeching Weasel, and a host of other artists.Paying due homage to his Detroit roots, the author recounts his personal journey, from Berkeley, California to Bialystok, Poland, as he built the label from the ground up, only to walk away abruptly from what had grown into a multi-million company when it was at the peak of its success.
“[An] engrossing account of being in the epicenter of the East Bay punk scene when it exploded, told from the perspective of the man holding the detonator.” – Liz Prince, author of Tomboy
“A great book by a true veteran. Well told, funny and entertainingly opinionated.” – Jesse Michaels, Operation Ivy
Larry Livermore was co-founder of Lookout Records, editor and publisher of Lookout magazine, and a longtime columnist for Maximum Rocknroll and Punk Planet. His first book, Spy Rock Memories, was published in 2013 by Don Giovanni Records.
More info:
Here’s the Facebook event invite for this event! Invite your friends!
Sat, March 26th, 7pm – Free Event
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Offsite: Chicago Zine Fest Valentine’s Day Karaoke Fundraiser at Beauty Bar Chicago 2/14
Show your love through song this Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14th as you help raise funds for the independent literary event Chicago Zine Fest, at Beauty Bar, 1444 W Chicago Ave. (NOT AT QUIMBY’S.)
For their fifth annual karaoke fundraiser, Zine Fest partners with Shameless Karaoke with a songbook of karaoke favorites from Blondie, the Smiths, James Brown, Madonna, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Prince, The Clash, Elvis Costello, the Kinks, Kiss, Britney Spears, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, classic punk and new wave and more. You can voice your feelings about Valentine’s Day with your song selection, whether it’s “Addicted to Love” or “Love Will Tear Us Apart.”
Bring some extra dollars as Beauty Bar offers unique drink specials all night long, including a signature martini and manicure to make sure you look your best this holiday. Plus Zine Fest will hold a 50/50 raffle, splitting the pot that night with one lucky winner. Purchase raffle tickets for a chance to take home a nice holiday gift.
There is a $5 admission which will benefit the 2016 Chicago Zine Fest. The event beings at 8pm and is 21+.
About Chicago Zine Fest: Chicago Zine Fest (CZF) is a celebration of small press and independent publishers. CZF’s mission is to showcase the culture and accessibility of zine-making through workshops, events, and an annual festival that welcomes artists and creators to share their stories, knowledge, and love of zines. Chicago Zine Fest 2016 takes place on April 29th and 30th, 2016. Visit chicagozinefest.org for more information.
Join the event on Facebook and invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/545483928934905/
About Shameless Karaoke: Visit www.facebook.com/ShamelessKaraoke/
See the Shameless Karaoke list here to think about what song(s) you want to do!
Artwork by the lovely and talented Chicago artist Gina Wynbrandt (Big Pussy).
Quimby’s is proud to co-sponsor Chicago Zine Fest, which is April 29th-30th, 2016.
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Steven Krakow, author of My Kind of Sound: The Secret History of Chicago Music, in conversation with the Reader’s Philip Montoro on 2/18
Steven Krakow’s My Kind of Sound (Curbside Splendor) compiles more than a decade worth of “The Secret History of Chicago Music,” the illustrated column by Steve Krakow (“Plastic Crimewave”) that has been printed bi-weekly in the Chicago Reader since 2005. There is much to discover in these stories; amidst the slighted fame, botched contracts, overdoses, and break-ups, Krakow spotlights the glory that exists in making music.
Some of these musicians made considerable contributions to Chicago’s music culture, rivaling those of the legends we all know and collect. And some of them didn’t, but Krakow insists that you know about them. Each of the more than 200 columns included in My Kind of Sound were painstakingly constructed by Krakow in his signature scissor-and-glue process, the same he employs in his long-running psychedelic zine, Galactic Zoo Dossier. Charmed though his process may be, Krakow’s gigantic love for music and the people who make it is serious and staggering and the resulting collection is as fun as it is important.
“[The Secret History of Chicago Music] is an education even for us know-it-all music obsessives, and are the only comics that have sent me directly to the record store to dig in the bins for dusty gems.”
—Jessica Hopper, Pitchfork, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock CriticFacebook invite for this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/106144166435422/
For more info, email Catherine Eves: catherine(at)curbsidesplendor(dot)com
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Daniel Makagon Reads From Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows With Photographers Patrick Houdek and Craig Kamrath 9/15
In Daniel Makagon’s new book Underground: The Subterranean Culture of DIY Punk Shows (Microcosm), he writes about DIY punk shows in the USA. The book focuses on the development of a DIY punk touring network, the emergence of punk house shows, and the establishment of volunteer-run community punk show spaces. Makagon describes how DIY punk shows provide opportunities for punks to form communities and enact social and economic alternatives to top down mainstream music industry practices. Underground weaves interviews with punk band members and show promoters to flesh out an argument about the reasons why punk shows are at the core of doing DIY.“Daniel Makagon was there, and he’s likely forgotten more about DIY than many of you will ever know.”
-Adam Pfahler, JawbreakerPatrick Houdek has been photographing punk shows for nearly three decades. He founded the P&S Productions cassette compilation label in the 1980s and was involved with early show promotion at Lost Cross house in Carbondale, IL.
Craig Kamrath has been photographing punk bands in the Midwest for the past ten years. He’s documented long-lasting and short-lived show spaces in Chicago as well as some of the most important DIY spaces in the Midwest.
Patrick’s photos and Craig’s photos are featured in Underground.
For more info contact Daniel Makagon: dmakagon(at)depaul(dot)edu
Facebook event post for this event is here.
Tuesday, September 15th, 7pm – Free Event
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Bob Suren reads from Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records 7/17
Crate Digger: An Obsession with Punk Records is a funny, honest and personal memoir of thirty years in the D.I.Y. punk scene. There are stories about touring, recording studios and record stores. There are stories about success, failure, disappointment, self-actualization and heartbreak. There are 60,000+ words, 192 pages and 39 photos. The story takes place over three decades in nine countries on four continents. There are nine deaths, two basset hounds and one love poem. There are special appearances by Jello Biafra, Ron Reyes (possibly), Tesco Vee, Joey Shithead, Cheetah Chrome and one very serious FBI agent."Really brings to life the early days of the American punk scene as it spread slowly across the country, through turntables, fanzines, and word of mouth. His vivid vinyl recollections illustrate how good record stores and adventurous college radio stations were so essential in bringing startling new music into the lives of many previously isolated kids. It follows the trajectory of a kid as his passion for music became all-consuming."
– Jeff Nelson, Minor Threat and Dischord Records
"A fun, easy-to-read, personal narrative of 30 years of living through "Punk Rock" - finding records, going to concerts, making discoveries, and a myriad of other experiences - that help the reader "make sense" of a still-inspiring cultural revolution and breakthrough "philosophy of life" that spawned the current "entrepreneurial culture" (where everybody wants to start their own "start-up"). D-I-Y, indeed..."
-- V. Vale, founder of SEARCH & DESTROY and RE/SEARCH Publications
Bob Suren has written for numerous underground music magazines over the decades such as Maximum Rocknroll, Engine, Seven Inches to Freedom and published his own magazine, Heavy Rotation. Crate Digger is his first book.
For more info: microcosmpublishing.com or surentime(at)gmail(dot)com
Fri, July 17th, 7pm -
Offsite: Quimby’s Night at LiveWire Lounge: 3 Songs, 3 Writers Reading About Those Songs 6/28
The LiveWire Lounge (3394 N Milwaukee) asked Quimby’s to curate a night at their lounge. So this is what we’re bringing, a themed mix of reading and music with a very specific focus.
Ben Tanzer, reading about The World’s a Mess by X
Shay DeGrandis, reading about Ever Fallen In Love by the Buzzcocks
Paul Durica, reading about Children of the Revolution by T. Rex
All 3 songs performed by The Blue Ribbon Glee Club
Original Readings by:
Ben Tanzer is the author of the books 99 Problems, My Father’s House, You Can Make Him Like You, Orphans, which won the 24th Annual Midwest Book Award in Fantasy/SciFi/Horror/Paranormal and a Bronze medal in the Science Fiction category at the 2015 IPPY Awards, and Lost in Space, which received an Honorable Mention in the Chicago Writers Association 2014 Book Awards Traditional Non-Fiction category, among others. He has also contributed to Punk Planet, Clamor, and Men’s Health, serves as Senior Director, Acquisitions for Curbside Splendor and can be found online at This Blog Will Change Your Life.
Shay DeGrandis is an artist, writer, producer, administrator, well-meaning amateur therapist, and accidental comedian. She produces and hosts the Chicago edition of Mortified, a comedy show of “personal redemption through public humiliation.” Helping performers bring to light their most awkward adolescent writing, she persuades them to share their shame with strangers. Shay also likes to share her own shame both on stage and off and has, in fact, fallen in love with someone she shouldn’t have fallen in love with . . . multiple times. You can see what the results look like at shaydegrandis.com
Paul Durica is a teacher, writer, and public historian. Since 2008 he has been producing a series of free and interactive public history programs under the name Pocket Guide to Hell. These talks, walks, and reenactments use costumes, props, music, and audience participation to make the past feel present. Paul has collaborated on programs with a range of cultural institutions from across Chicago including the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, Chicago History Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Gallery 400, Smart Museum, and Sullivan Galleries among others. Paul’s writing on Chicago history and culture has appeared in Poetry, The Chicagoan, Mash Tun, Lumpen, and elsewhere and, with Bill Savage, he is the editor of Chicago By Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America (Northwestern UP, 2013). pocketguidetohell.com
The Blue Ribbon Glee Club is Chicago’s punk rock a capella glee club, and regularly performs songs by Fugazi, Gang of Four, the Dead Kennedys, the Buzzcocks and more.
Please note: This event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the LIVEWIRE LOUNGE | 3394 N MILWAUKEE AVE, CHICAGO, IL
Sun, June 28th, 6pm
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Jessica Hopper Reads From The First Collection of Criticism By a Living Female Rock Critic 5/29
Featherproof is proud to announce the publication of legendary rock critic Jessica Hopper’s newest book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, in Spring 2015.
Jessica Hopper’s music criticism has earned her a reputation as one of the firebrands of the form, a keen observer and fearless critic not just of music, but the culture around it, revealing new truths that often challenge us to consider what it is to be a fan.
With this premiere volume, spanning from her punk fanzine roots to her landmark piece on R. Kelly’s past, The First Collection leaves no doubt why the New York Times has called Hopper’s work “influential.” Not merely a selection of two decades of Hopper’s most engaging, thoughtful and humorous writing, this book serves as a document of the last 20 years of American music making and the shifting landscape of music consumption.
Through this vast range of album reviews, essays, columns, interviews, and oral histories, Hopper chronicles what it is to be truly obsessed with music, the ideas in songs and albums, how fantasies of artists become complicated by real life, and just what happens when you follow that obsession into muddy festival fields, dank basements, corporate offices or court records.
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST COLLECTION OF CRITICISM BY A LIVING FEMALE ROCK CRITIC BY JESSICA HOPPER
“Jessica Hopper’s criticsm is a trenchant and necessary counterpoint not just on music, but on our culture at large.” —Annie Clark, St. Vincent
“In this crucial book, Hopper schools us all on the art of criticism. You’ll be reminded, as I was, why you care to read and write about (and listen to!) music to begin with. Hopper’s relationship with music is a joy to behold.” —Tavi Gevinson, Editor-in-Chief, Rookie
“I read Hopper’s book with a sense of bewildered gratitude. She concedes nothing to the idea that it is dumb to care so much. The excitement in her work is that these things are worth scrapping about.” —Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mixtape
About Jessica Hopper:
Jessica Hopper’s music criticism has been included in Best Music Writing 2004, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011. Her first book, The Girls Guide to Rocking, was named one of 2009’s Notable Books for Young Readers by the American Library Associa- tion. She is Senior Editor at Pitchfork and the Editor-in-Chief of The Pitchfork Review. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two young sons.
Click here for the Facebook invite for this event.
For press inquiries: Dana Meyerson dana(at)biz3(dot)net
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Offsite: Quimby's Night at LiveWire Lounge: 3 Songs, 3 Writers Reading About Those Songs 3/22
The LiveWire Lounge (3394 N Milwaukee) asked Quimby’s if we wanted to curate a night at their lounge. And we said yes. So this is what we’re bringing, a themed mix of reading and music with a very specific focus:Quimby’s Night at LiveWire Lounge: 3 Songs, 3 Writers Reading About Those Songs
Original Readings by:
Mike “McBeardo” McPadden, reading about Kiss Me Deadly by Generation X
Celia Forrest, reading about Black and White by the DBs
Dan Kelly, reading about X Offender by BlondieAll 3 songs performed by The Blue Ribbon Glee Club
Celia Forrest is a writer, director, teacher and actress who was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. She is a new mother and couldn’t shut up about it if she tried. She is well-known in Minnesota for her work teaching theater to kids and her award-winning turn in Neil Labute’s Fat Pig. In Chicago she is mostly known for her sketch comedy writing and directing, as well for her work on The People’s Republic of Edward Snowden. Celia is also famous in a subset of radical activists as a co-host of Morning Damnit, the morning news and talk show on Q4 Radio, and the weekly program The Celia and Erik Show, which features comedy, commentary and interviews with local artists. Find her on Twitter at twitter.com/thatcelia
Mike “McBeardo” McPadden is the author of Heavy Metal Movies: Guitar Barbarians, Mutant Bimbos, and Cult Zombies Amok in the 666 Most Ear- and Eye-Ripping Big Scream Films Ever! (Bazillion Points, 2014) and the upcoming Going All the Way: The Ultimate Guide to Teen Sex Comedy Films of the VHS Era (Bazillion Points, 2016). You will love him. More info at mcbeardo.com.
Dan Kelly is the author of Hilaretic. He is not to be confused with the Australian judoka and mixed martial artist Dan Kelly. He occasionally writes for The Baffler and Gapers Block. He blogs at mrdankelly.com/blog.
The Blue Ribbon Glee Club is Chicago’s punk rock a capella glee club, and regularly performs songs by Fugazi, Gang of Four, the Dead Kennedys, the Buzzcocks and more.
Please note: This event is NOT at Quimby’s. It is at the LIVEWIRE LOUNGE | 3394 N MILWAUKEE AVE, CHICAGO, IL
