Music Top 5: July 2023

1
JAPANESE BREAKFAST
(Salt Shed)
With an upcoming big-screen adaptation of her bestselling 2021 memoir, singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner is seriously poised to go mega. Fortunately Japanese Breakfast, her irresistible lo-fi music project, remains front and center in her profile.
July 9 and 10

2
GORAN IVANOVIC AND FAREED HAQUE
(Evanston SPACE)
The two acoustic-guitar virtuosos made waves as a duo a couple of decades ago; now they’ve re-teamed and have been playing around town, which is as can’t-miss an opportunity as we’re likely to see all summer.
July 30

3
PUDDLES PITY PARTY
(City Winery)
As gimmicks go, Mike Geier’s is singular: the seven-foot singer decks himself out as a Pagliacci-style sad clown, in which guise he mainly performs covers—everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Black Sabbath. But the voice is far from cosplay: a thrilling, supple baritone.
July 13

4
GRAHAM PARKER
(Old Town School of Folk Music)
Hard to believe one of the late seventies’ iconic angry young men is now seventy-two; but Parker’s intensity hasn’t dimmed. The former Rumour front man and pub-rock legend breezes into town with a back catalog other artists can only dream of.
July 14

5
PROTOMARTYR
(Thalia Hall)
The post-punk poets of American decline are on the road to tour their newly released album, “Formal Growth in the Desert,” another jangly, bittersweet cri de coeur, but with a decided lurch toward gothic sensibility.
July 13

Robert Rodi

Robert Rodi is an author, spoken-word performer and musician who has served as Newcity’s Music Editor since 2014. He’s written more than a dozen books, including the travel memoir “Seven Seasons In Siena,” and his literary and music criticism has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Huffington Post and many other national and regional publications.
Contact: robert@newcity.com