BOBBY CONN 5/16, 6 odum; 5/20, POOP STUDIOs After glittering around the Chicago underground for almost a decade, serving as devil’s advocate and postcelebrity celebrity, at last Bobby Conn has convinced someone to put money where his mouth is. His full-length debut, Bobby Conn (Truckstop), features some sterling guests letting their ya-yas out–and didn’t you suspect all along that the Antichrist would sound more like Donovan than Johnny Rotten?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Cherry poppin’ daddies, sPRING HEELED JACK 5/17, HOUSE OF BLUES Nearly every member of the Connecticut ska band Spring Heeled Jack–not to be confused with the electronica duo Spring Heel Jack–thanks George Lucas and various actors and characters from Star Wars in the copious liner notes to its Static World View. The music’s more like Luke than Han, eschewing rude-boy poses in favor of a pop-punk sensibility that requires little suspension of disbelief. The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, on the other hand, are zoot-suit mannequins with all the excitement and freshness of a Battlestar Galactica rerun.
ME’SHELL NDEGEOCELLO 5/19, METRO; 5/21, VIC The measure of any genre’s vitality lies in its capacity to reinvent itself, and the industry hacks rushing with such eagerness to proclaim hip-hop moribund based on flagging sales of gangsta rap are about as far off target as their predecessors who said that rock ‘n’ roll would die when Elvis went in the army. What will save hip-hop–and everything else–are independent-minded shape-shifters like Me’Shell NdegeOcello. Her debut, Plantation Lullabies, introduced her swirling blend of rap, jazz, and urbane soul; last year’s Peace Beyond Passion added gospel, funk, and Afro-pop to the mix and spelled out her feminist, humanist, and spiritual agenda without any coy ambiguity or bad-mama posing. She can belt love lyrics right out of the Song of Songs on the street corners and she can croon calls to revolution in the uptown lounges.
