Venerable British singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock is a lot like one of your obscure, little-known uncles: sometimes you forget he exists, then you run into him every few years or so and realize, “Oh yeah, this guy isn’t so bad, he’s just weird as hell.” The former frontman for new wave outfit The Soft Boys has released sixteen solos records since the band’s demise in 1981, offering a chance for Hitchcock to display his proficiency in a wide array of folk and pop, and to catch a glimpse of some of the bizarre shit going on in his mind. Hitchcock’s surrealist lyrics about the “Museum of Sex” and the “man who invented himself” are fun and intriguing, even if you can’t figure out what the hell he’s talking about half the time. While none of Hitchcock’s records managed to reach “breakthrough” status, most of them have at least a handful of quality tracks, and the same goes for his latest with the Venus 3, “Goodnight Olso,” ten more slightly off-kilter pop songs that are occasionally forgettable, sporadically haunting and always worth a closer inspection of the lyric sheet. (Andy Seifert)
April 18 at Epiphany, 201 S. Ashland, at 8pm. $20.
Do It Again: A Preview of Brian Wilson at Horseshoe Hammond While today former bandmate Mike Love leads a group calling itself the Beach Boys, that band features no Brian Wilson. Wilson’s group, on the other hand, includes original Beach Boys member Al Jardine as well as late-prime-era Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin, and is jaw-droppingly facile at recreating the Beach Boys sound.
Especially For You: A Preview of the Smithereens at the Memorial Opera House Serious music scholars all, the Smithereens distilled their musical loves into something that ultimately sounded like nobody but them. Diken points to Gary Lewis and the Playboys as an influence; it’s worth noting that the studio cats who played on those records—immortal pop tunes like “Count Me In” —included Leon Russell and drummer Hal Blaine.
Still Breathtaking: A Preview of Sting at Ravinia Festival Sting's solo catalog boasts more than a dozen studio albums. He may not rack up the hit singles like he once did, but he remains a compelling writer, musician and performer.
