Venerable reunited Chicago pre-emo band Smoking Popes announced a new album and tour over the weekend via Twitter. This Is Only a Test, the band’s second full-length of new material since their 2005 reunion, is due March 15 via Asian Man. Staying true to emo form, it’s a concept album written from the perspective of a high-school senior. Eli Caterer tells Gossip Wolf that it was recorded a few songs at a time over 14 months with Matt Allison at Atlas Studios.
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Occidental Brothers Dance Band International guitarist Nathaniel Braddock teaches at the Old Town School, and as Gossip Wolf has already reported, he recently offered a class in SST’s greatest hits. His love of the label is hardly confined to the classroom, though: with Paul Kelvington (Freak Magnet), Colby Starck (Head of Femur, Bobby Conn), and vocalists to be announced, he’s formed the Minutemen tribute band Econoline. They play their first gig—and possibly their only gig—on February 20 at Lincoln Hall for a Girls Rock! Chicago benefit. (Watch out this spring for Painted Wolfie, our tribute to infrequently remembered SST artist Painted Willie.) Meanwhile, Braddock hasn’t stopped teaching the underground to his students; his ensemble class, called Kill Yr Idols, is currently on its third SST session, with 2 Tone and Factory Records to come.
Amazingly enough, James Chance wasn’t the oddest show Gossip Wolf peeped over the holidays. That honor would have to go to Chuck Berry‘s eldritch engagement at the Congress Theater on 1/1/11, which was more like a Shakespeare play than a mere rock concert. First, there was a plethora of preshow portent: out-of-place skinheads drawn by out-of-place opening band Deal’s Gone Bad, a dude in a wicked hand-painted Yngwie Malmsteen jean jacket, and Dick Biondi. Berry’s set itself featured often incoherent (and mildly disheartening) performances and a whole lot of Chuck tuning his guitar. About an hour in, things took a turn for the scary when Berry appeared to suffer a collapse while playing the keyboard of accompanist Vijay Tellis-Nayak. Concert promoters called for an ambulance, and Berry was escorted away to be evaluated by medical pros. Though he didn’t perform again, he did return to the stage (under a physician’s watchful eye) to thank fans for their concern. He even did a bit of his famous “duck walk” to appreciative cheers from those who’d waited around.
