The raunchy Fireside Bowl bathrooms of yore have finally achieved mythological status. Last week the Chicago News Cooperative reported for the New York Times on a new series of shows being booked this summer at the bowling alley by House Call Entertainment’s John Benetti. WBEZ did its own version of the CNC story, which featured nostalgic quotes from former Los Crudos front man Martin Sorrondeguy and Underdog Records collectivist Douglas Ward but no comment from famously reticent former Fireside booker Brian Peterson. Of course, where there’s nostalgia, revisionist history is never far behind: ‘BEZ reporter Robin Amer remarks that shows at the Fireside back in the day “sold out nightly,” news to everyone who ever played to Elliot Dicks and the four other touring bands on the bill.
Chicago metal band Russian Circles missed a few dates on their tour with Boris after their van was rear-ended on I-10 near Baton Rouge on July 30. While the van, trailer, and some equipment (mostly Dave Turncrantz’s vintage Gretsch drums) were totaled, the band members were are all OK. Critics have responded that while the crash was heavy, the damage sustained was “not metal enough.”
Rap producer and former 1st and 15th associate Prolyfic picked a fight with Lupe Fiasco via Twitter this week, calling Fiasco’s recent material “emo weirdo bullshit.” Someone at Lupe’s label, Atlantic Records, seems to share this opinion, as the record, tentatively entitled “Lasers,” remains unreleased. A July 24 tweet from the label claims that the album is still coming. Meanwhile, Lupe dropped a nine-song album this week by his punk-rock side project Japanese Cartoon.
Speaking of Twitter, noted oversharer and rabid luxury-label consumer Kanye West has finally joined the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Joan Rivers on the social networking service. Although mocking tweets from Ye bro Aziz Ansari are even more Kanye-like than the original, the mocking hasn’t just come from his friends. @BudgetKanyeWest, for instance, offers a series of money-saving ideas, including getting the most out of a Quizno’s meal, and the comedy duo Paul and Storm has started mashing up Kanye’s tweets with New Yorker cartoons.
Brian Slodysko, a founding guitarist of Seattle retro-metallers Black Breath, recently abandoned the Pacific Northwest rock scene for a reporter’s beat in the ‘burbs. Although newly moved into a place in Logan Square, he’s covering crime, politics and other goings-on in the teeming metropolis of Downers Grove for the Chicago Tribune. Critics have called his dispatches “not metal enough.”
Local grunge quartet Cacaw are celebrating the release of their self-titled first album this week with a show on Saturday, August 7, at the Hideout; Cave and Blood Mambas will share the bill. Other local acts are no longer even bothering with record releases: political party rappers BBU mark the release of their new T-shirt at the Leaders 1354 store (672 N. Wells) on Thursday, August 5. A posse cut with Brooklyn’s Das Racist (“Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell”) is forthcoming (see this week’s Q & A).