Gossip Wolf has been missing the heck out of local live-music game show Shame That Tune since it went “off the air” with a good-bye episode at the Hideout last summer—so we’re stoked to report that former STT cohost and Baby Teeth front man Abraham Levitan has a brand-new music-related podcast! For Nerds on Tour the dependably hilarious Levitan talks to folks who’ve “endured in this nutty industry” (as he puts it) about how to do the same—including alt-country belter Kelly Hogan and New Yorker critic John Seabrook. Future episodes, which Levitan hopes to release weekly, will feature former Redwalls guitarist Andrew Langer, Empty Bottle owner Bruce Finkelman, and Thrill Jockey founder Bettina Richards. The podcast is available from the iTunes Store and at nerdsontourpod.com.
Gossip Wolf has spent the past few years convinced that Paper Mice singer and guitarist David Reminick was also the editor of the New Yorker—of course, that dude spells it David Remnick, which isn’t a dumb thing to miss at all. Anyway, for the past few years Reminick has been working toward a PhD in composition at Northwestern University, and on Friday, February 12, he presents his doctoral recital at Constellation. The program includes pieces for string quartet with vocals, solo trombone, and four detuned soprano saxophones—sounds like a prescription for weirdness!
Chicago rapper Rich Jones popped up in the Reader‘s year-end music coverage thanks to last spring’s breezy “Milwaukee Ave.,” and next week he releases a mixtape called Pink Slips. Jones breaks from his usual slow-and-low rapping for much of the mixtape’s eight tracks, instead switching confidently to outright singing (or at least talk-singing). Guests on Pink Slips include soul combo the O’My’s, one-man band Netherfriends, and rapid rapper Taylor Bennett; Jones celebrates its release with a free show at Schubas on Tuesday, February 16. v
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