Who are we going to play with? Oh, youre going to open for Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens. And we fucking lost our shit, because thats Big Star. They were making records. I dont know why they would. If you didnt conform, you were either beaten up and made to conform or you were dropped. It came and went almost as quickly as it arrived. Some of it was like, are you happy with playing Saturday night at Metro? It can be hard. I remember being so surprised at how well accepted we were. We were smart in the fact that we just kept touring all the time, and we used that money or that. In 1993, bands like Tortoise and the Jesus Lizard, venues like HotHouse and Lounge Ax, and labels like Touch and Go and Bloodshot turned Chicago into a bastion of musical adventurousness. Ill never forget the first timenot the small labels, because everybody had an imprint at that timebut the real labels like Geffen and Capitol were coming out and we were playing Avalon. He was at OHare waiting for a flight to New Orleans, and this was before everything took off, around 91, 92. I can remember getting something started at Metro and shooting over to Lounge Ax, or shooting over to, I dont know, sometimes Phyllis [Musical Inn]. We said, Sure, get us out of the apartment for a couple days, go to Austin, thats great. It was just not our audience. Our first record had that whole sort of southern boogie thing going. In some ways, that was an aberration. Thats it. You want the history? So it was the way to get in touch with me. But we never had a problem booking that room. And then they called back right after that, and at that point, we kind of knew it was Jody Stephens. I think that Brad helped us with that a lot, too. Last song we play is You Cant Have Me by Big Star, thinking this is a great tribute to this guy. One tine, a guy from a record company came to Chicago to kind of hang out and just be around to try to get us to sign, I guess. But the community was a big deal. But I have really fond memories of making it. Rocking out in Chicago. Though the dwindling and nostalgic few who still hold them dear disagree, the Pumpkins were best when they were paring back and giving us less, most notably on the less ironic, more heartfelt Adore in 1998. I think the one night when we took a bunch of mushrooms and they realized that we were all on mushrooms, they all disappeared pretty quickly after that. You had Wax Trax!, which was really percolating with Ministry and the Revolting Cocks, [Al] Jorgensen. What is there to say about the Pumpkins at this point in time, more than two decades after their heyday? So very 90s. But the difference between a Smashing Pumpkins and a great band like Eleventh Dream Day is that Corgan knew how to play the game. I mean, Nirvana worshipped them. Right behind them were names like Veruca Salt, Material Issue, and many other bands that were just as good, but for whatever reason are now only remembered by diehard fans. We didnt really have much trouble. Now everybody has to earn every nickel and it doesn't seem quite as glamorous to drag your ass up and down the country if there's no tour bus or record deal on the horizon.. They were really one of the best things in that whole thing as far as I was concerned. Just go over and see who they were working with. We messed around with a few other people first, but Brad ended up being our choice. If you think the best Chicago indie rock band is missing from the list, then feel free to add it at the bottom so it's included with these other great acts. Again, coming out of bowling alleys like Fireside. THE MUSICIANS IN BLIND REALITY HAVE BEEN FRIENDS FOR OVER 30 YEARS WITH THE COMMONALITY TO LOVE TO PLAY MUSIC. We would play, and Veruca Salt would get on stage. The next day somebody calls our Oakwood apartment and I pick up the phone and its like, Hi, this is Jody Stephens. Now it seems to be you have to be much more established to even go on a tour, but back then you could put a tour together and sleep on friends floors. And not many of the old spaces remain. Very few people are mature enough at that age to know your way around the industry at all. The Audition (band) B. Bnny; C. Catherine (alternative rock band) Caviar (band) Certain Distant Suns; Chevelle (band) Company of Thieves (band) Cupcakes (band) D. Detholz! We may never see that again, and in some ways, I hope we dont, because I thought it did put this artificial layer on Chicago that in some ways was antithetical to what Chicagos artistic scene has been all about for so many years. In late 1991, Nirvanas Nevermindwas on its way to becoming a full-blown cultural phenomenon, sending label representatives cool-hunting in marginal hubs of artistic activity across the U.S. in search of the next Seattle and the next big payday. That was when I first met him, and after that, I said, All right, Ive listened to their records, theyre interesting. That started a relationship with him that lasted a couple years. It just kind of goes from genre to genre. Greg Kot: Obviously these bands crossed paths a lot and shared bills, but to me, there were so many great bands in that era that nobody paid attention to, bands that just slid under that radar and were never really appreciated for what they were, because they were deemed uncommercial. Wed do that with Triple Fast. Instead of just engineering. That kid can play guitar. He was perfectly willing to work with a big label to help him move that along, whereas some of these more indie-oriented bands, I mean, Eleventh Dream Day and bands of that ilk were coming out of the whole punk and post-punk scenes and they were very much skeptical. Free jazz and indie rock mixed frequently at the HotHouse, where Berman remembers seeing the George Freeman Trio, Gastr Del Sol, and Tortoise on one bill in 1994. That just wasnt what we were doing. I did have Gene Simmons call. Sometimes thered be a band from Minneapolis and then thered be a band from Chicago and maybe a band from St. Louis or Champaign, a lot of the Champaign bands. It was early on, they had just put out their first EP, and that was the first time I had seen The Jesus Lizard and I went, Holy shit, who is this man? Ever since then, it was just a cavalcade of darkly comedic entertainment every time David Yow is on a stage. They look really happy. And all of a sudden people come in and theyre saying, Oh, were going to make you a star, and they fly you out to L.A., they fly you out to New York. Now everybody has to earn every nickel and it doesn't seem quite as glamorous to drag your ass up and down the country if there's no tour bus or record deal on the horizon.. A. But you know something, everyone thought that was an overnight success, and it wasnt. Ill wait. So my manager at the time said afterward, Absolutely youre not allowed to record KISS. The legendary first-wave British art-punk collective Mekons had adopted Chicago as their town, says Doug McCombs, of Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, and Brokeback; Mekons/Three Johns founder Jon Langford relocated to Chicago in the early '90s. So in a way, we didnt want that huge money up front, because in that way, we would never really become a huge pain in the ass. Thats punk rock and an entire do-it-yourself ethos, but it had a supported ecosystem of like-minded business. The other reason is because people pay less money to make records now. Its actually sort of an homage, is it not? And he grabbed me by the shirt and said, Theres only so many chords on a guitar neck, man! We adored Material Issue and The Slugs and Green. Lollapalooza was originally conceived as this outsider festival, and look what it became within a few short years. I really dont think I was very good at [recording], with some exceptions, until later on in the 90s. ADVERTISEMENT. I think our A&R guy was really busting his balls to make it happen. Joel Spencer: There was definitely almost like a punk rock ethos, even though we werent really making hardcore punk or whatever. It's not a venue, really, but it's just a really great place. We were playing the Rosemont Horizon, playing where I saw my first concert; it was freaky. Blake Smith, founding member of Fig Dish and Caviar, is Director Of Entertainment for Virgin Hotels and lives in Chicago. All across the city there was asense of musical playfulness and a lack of desire to be pigeonholed. We get up on stage and play our set. We just called Idful one day and were surprised to get Casey Rice on the phone and said we wanted to book some time. They werent just going to phone in it, so to speak, and just slap it together. I remember Brad laughing at us like, You guys will never be that. Those guys are surgeons when it comes to that. 1. Ah, Urge. We may earn a commission from links on this page. I remember singing with Louise, sharing a mic. Maybe some other people are making piles of dough, but Im not. I know how everything works. Thats no way to get into this biz; you just do it. Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90s, The current lineup performed and talked about that long and rich career on Sound Opinions last April, 50 Chicago Artists Who Changed Popular Music Rock In The 60s And 70s, 50 Chicago Artists Who Changed Popular Music Soul And R&B, 50 Chicago Artists Who Changed Popular Music Chess Records, Meet the artist whose bold portraits have dressed up Chicago bus shelters, 150 years later, Dixon bridge tragedy among nations worst, Why were launching The Democracy Solutions Project, Linda Lenz, who kept generations of CPS parents informed through her nonprofit publication Catalyst, is dead at 77. Look at Screeching Weasel in the suburbs. Scott Lucas: I think we all thought the first Menthol record was the shit. I do have that philosophy that there wasnt anything else that I had in mind. It wasnt like they were pulling the wool over someones eyes. They werent cool enough. Red Hot Chili Peppers. We wanted to be musicians, and we wanted to make a career out of it. I tell all the bands I work with, Dont do what I did. I know a lot about what not to do. The Galacticas are giving us a much-needed dose of '90s-era punk with a classic sci-fi aesthetic to boot. And then we did some really weird tours. Pop/Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Post-Grunge, Punk Revival A New January 1990s - 2000s Ken [Vandermark] totally exemplifies that, too., Things have changed since then, of course, and Albini reflects on what the current landscape means for independent music in Chicago: The thing we've lost is the influx of cash that the profiteers enabled. How do I put it? Were serious about making music. Eventually, it was just her and her guitar and myself and eventually Casey Rice. Urge Overkill was doing Saturation, that was pretty big. But then I did. Joe Shanahan: I have lots of fond memories of Jim showing up at Metro on Wednesday nights. But I think that we thought we could do it, and I think that we were not, I mean, part of the thing with that Midwestern ethic was that we really were not going to compromise. Top 10 Chicago Blues Artists April 30, 2023; Margo Price Gets Her 'Hands On The Wheel' For Willie Nelson's 90th . Thats where everyone lived and worked. McCombs says of the Rainbos magic: That's a place where all of us have worked and drunk for a long time. Now, like so many other alt veterans, the two have reunited. I remember when we put the New Years Eve show together, she wanted to do the flyer. But when Casey started working there in 91, I dont think we ever pitched ourselves as a team. 100 Best Rock Bands of the '90s. The market got really small, the kind that I worked with dried up dramatically. And then that second record went through so many problems. They probably played like two shows a week and it felt like they were doing a completely new set of material each time they played., McCombs describes the first ever Tortoise show, at the Lounge Ax, in 1994: We were supposed to be opening for the Ex but they didn't make it because they had problems at the border of Canada. There was a certain amount of that. Everybody just came out of the place just at once. Guitarists-vocalist Nathan Kaatrud (a.k.a. I think really between Lounge Ax, Metro, I suppose Schubas, that was all in the mix there. I think that pushed open a big, big door, and they were able to step through it. There was a huge influx of money, audio engineer, outspoken advocate for all things Chicago and DIY, and Shellac guitarist Steve Albini explains. And then, as the decade neared its end, just as quickly as the scene swept in, it was suddenly over . We recorded a second record for them, and they decided not to put it out. Touch and Go became a distributor and manufacturer for a lot of them, doing millions of dollars of business with some of the weirdest music and people imaginable. In order to celebrate Winnetka-raised, Wicker Park-championing Phair today, we have to separate the avalanche of hype that hailed her as a post-feminist heroine at the time, all of which she gleefully embraced. We got all that money, and we didnt sell shit for records. As soon as we went over that hump, we were like, uhh uhn. I was like, Oh yeah, wait a second, its not about the music anymore, its about those fucking ratings. But you know, its about those Arbitrons and Neilsen and all that stuff. 3. From bands who had a formative influence on Nirvana themselves (Melvins, Butthole Surfers) to those who took up the alt-rock charge in their wake (Bush, Candlebox, Stone Temple Pilots), everybody was suddenly a potential star in the making, a commercial goldmine just waiting to be tapped.That also meant the 90s were a time where seemingly any band could break big and climb the charts, whether . Wes Kidd was a founding member of Rights Of The Accused and Triple Fast Action. Luckily we got to tour with most of them. Colins like, Sure. Even though we werent friends with him, I think he knew who we were. Wed just run up to people in bars as kids, underage, and talk to them. We got a lot of phone calls from major labels, but I dont know if that much ever came of it. But thats the thing, they would come to our shows and they would get up and play with us. I was in line at a grocery store and he ran up out of nowhere and paid for my groceries. The [Seattle band] Sunny Day Real Estate record [Diary] sounds great. We better be thinking about harmonies. Every neighborhood was different, and there were music scenes, there was a lot of interesting stuff going on here in the early- to mid-90s where you saw some cross-pollination between the jazz scenes and the indie rock scenes and the avant-garde noise scene. Guitarist Rick Rizzo and drummer Janet Beveridge Bean moved to Chicago from Louisville in the mid-80s, and here they linked up with bassist Doug McCombs and early guitarist Baird Figi to forge a sound best, The groups latest album, the appropriately titled, After moving to Chicago from Addison, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Jim Ellison became an important mover and shaker in the citys indie-rock scene in the mid-80s, booking the club Batteries Not Included. And thats the first time I was able to integrate what I had been doing alone by myself just for fun into a recording of somebody else. So Casey and John McEntire were encouraged to book their own projects. We thought that because they had such a big machine that it was going to be probably a better place for us. Ad Choices. Joe Shanahan: Well, format changes. Sorry, one and all. Seattle and Chicago almost simultaneously had that moment. So it just turned into a free show, but people didn't know that until they got to the door, because there was no way to spread the news that the Ex hadn't made it. Brad Wood: What I was trying to achieve was the ability to make a living. 2018 Cond Nast. I also think that we had high expectations for ourselves, and if werent going to be able to meet them, it was kind of not really feasible. It was a bunch of opening tours, and then we got that Stone Temple Pilots tour. That night as back in the day, Naked Raygun was much, much better. That said, there still was such great local labels and regional labels that supported the chemistry of all the Midwest bands, which I thought was so exciting, and really has never been repeated again. Studios were busy, the rehearsal spaces were busy. I think to this day hes still one of the best songwriters that Chicago has produced, and I think hes made a bunch of really great records that people seemed to care less and less about as the years go on, but he still does really strong work.

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