The sausage party that is the Electrical Audio message boards is taking it offline for a four-day festival, June 10-13. The Premier Rock Forum BBQ Rockfest kicks off at Quenchers and then runs the next three days at nonvenue the Drug Church, with more than two dozen locals and touring bands to entertain Steve Albini‘s acolytes (and that’s not counting Friday’s karaoke party). Details on how to attend the Drug Church shows can be found by digging around on the forum. The Quenchers show, featuring Whales, .22, and others, is $5. According to one poster, commenting on another site, “anyone who’s not an asshole is welcome” to the whole shebang, but Gossip Wolf finds it really hard to believe they wouldn’t let Albini in.
Lorna Donley of recently reunited Chicago goth-punk band DA (who play their first gig since 1981 this Saturday at the Bottle—see Sharp Darts) has a new “dark pop” project in the works, sources tell Gossip Wolf. The tentatively named Twilight Furniture features Donley on bass and vocals and Dan Burke of Illusion of Safety on guitar, samples, and sequences. For now it’s just the two of them, but they’re looking to record and recruit a full band for live shows.
Local industrial/techno duo Gatekeeper have outgrown the Chicago scene and are moving to Brooklyn next month. Also hightailing it this week is band manager (Zola Jesus) and longtime gal-on-the-scene Taylor Brode, who is taking up residence in Queens next week.
The free Edible Audible Picnic lunchtime concert series lineup has been announced; performers include locals like Cajmere, The Cool Kids, and Tortoise side project A Grape Dope, as well as national acts like Javelin and the Juan MacLean. Concerts are every Monday at noon at Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion from June 7 through Labor Day.
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers, an avant-garde feature film about a fortune teller directed by Califone‘s Tim Rutilli, comes out on DVD this month via IndiePix.
The Museum of Contemporary Art’s new exhibit of artwork by Steve Krakow, aka Plastic Crimewave, features over 100 original works from Krakow’s comic “The Secret History of Chicago Music,” which runs biweekly in the Reader. The monthlong exhibit features performances by musicians Krakow has drawn, including ONO, Phil Cohran, and Chet Nichols. It also kicks off the museum’s plans for more extensive music programming, according to curatorial assistant Michael Green, who will be doing the booking.
Just about a year after joining forces, rockcrit megalith Pitchfork and music streaming service Lala are splitting. As the service, which was acquired by Apple in December, announced last week that it would shut down May 31, Pitchfork honcho Ryan Schrieber tweeted a preemptive headline summarizing the news: “PITCHFUCKED” (emphasis his). Gossip Wolf thinks maybe God is punishing them. According to an update on the site’s news page, Pitchfork is looking into other streaming services to augment the reviews section.
Girl Talk proprietor Gregg Gillis recently overnighted in Chicago en route to his show in Milwaukee and supped at the invitation of his number one fan, chef Graham Elliot Bowles, at the local culinary icon’s signature restaurant. Gillis, whose palate reportedly lists toward prepackaged gas station food, was treated to a six-course tasting menu and wine pairings inspired by his favorite junk foods. Sources tell Gossip Wolf the big surprise of the evening came when one of Gillis’s six-deep entourage, on a tour of the bistro’s kitchen, fished one of the restaurant’s trademark brioche “twinkies” from the trash and consumed it in view of the chefs.
Local posicore duo Love of Everything probably love each other best—they are married, after all. Last month Bobby Burg and Elisse La Roche released the live-in-the-studio album Best of Tensions on Record Label/Polyvinyl and made a music video featuring some very fine tennis ball drumming. Burg tells Gossip Wolf that later this month they are heading out for a midwest tour and recording a session for Daytrotter, after their record release show May 18 at the Empty Bottle.