postpunk on the prairie: PEGBOY

This post has been a long time coming.

As the 1980s came to a close, the legendary Naked Raygun utterly dominated the Chicago punk rock scene. Their fierce blend of Buzzcockian pop sensibility, Misfitsish "oh-wey-ohhh" vocals, and the amplifier-crunching colossal guitar attack - courtesy of John Haggerty - set the stage for the postpoppunk revival of the 1990s. And for the most part, Raygun missed it.

1990 came around with John feeling burnt out on Raygun. So he quit and started over again. Teaming up with former Bhopal Stiffs Larry Damore (vocals) and Steve Saylors (bass), and joined by his brother Joe (ex-Bloodsport and Effigies) on drums, Pegboy was born.

Why should you care? Because no band, or rather no progression of bands (in this case, Naked Raygun -> Pegboy), best represents the old-skool "Chicago sound". The second (or was it third? #2 and #3 came within a week of each other) gig I ever saw was Naked Raygun in 1989, and to this day I remember that night like it was yesterday, it meant so much to me.

And in 1990, your humble blogger also attended Pegboy's debut gig at Chicago's Metro.



Paring down the sound to basics - wall-of-crunch guitars, gruff vocals, throbbing bass, and flailing drums, with songwriting to match, Pegboy was perhaps the greatest punk band to ultimately make it out of the Chicago scene. Oh many will disagree with me, and on some days I would disagree with myself as well, but Pegboy just did their job, day-in and day-out, not particularly messing with the formula.

In 1990 the foursome asked legendary Chicago punk producer Iain Burgess to record a 4-song demo. The resulting recording was so powerful it was released as-is, as the band's debut on newly-formed Touch and Go offshoot Quarterstick Records (coincidentally, also Quarterstick's debut release as well). Three-Chord Monte opens with the anthemic "Through My Fingers", which is John Haggerty's sound to a T. Possibly the greatest Chicago punk song ever, at least in the top 5. And the other three tracks on the EP are none too shabby either.

THREE-CHORD MONTE
1990 Quarterstick Records



01 Through My Fingers
02 My Youth
03 Fade Away
04 Method

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1991 saw the band release their debut LP, also recorded in Chicago by Iain Burgess, entitled Strong Reaction. With more of the same stellar playing and songwriting, this record just solidified the impact generated by the EP and presented the band to the world. Tracks "Strong Reaction" / "Field Of Darkness" (also released as a 7" single) / "Superstar" are the standouts, with the rest nearly as melodically strong. It's hard to locate a single bit of filler in the bunch, this record truly is one of the greatest Chicago punk sets EVER. Larry isn't the world's greatest singer, but it works here, and works wonders.

STRONG REACTION
1991 Quarterstick Records



01 Strong Reaction
02 Still Uneasy
03 Not What I Want
04 What To Do
05 Locomotivelung
06 Superstar
07 Field Of Darkness
08 Time Again
09 Believe
10 Hardlight
11 (untitled)

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Sometime following Strong Reaction, founder bassist Steve Saylors left the band. Yet with songs to record and a name to keep out there, to build on the goodwill created by the EP and debut LP, the band returned to the studio anyway, this time with Big Black / Rapeman / legendary engineer Steve Albini on bass. Albini also engineered the recording session, and the resulting EP Fore really digs down deep into the angular crunch of the band. Perhaps the band's hardest-sounding record, nonetheless the songs are great. And the cover art just has to be seen to be believed, who'd have thought they'd see Albini in golf attire ;)

FORE
1993 Quarterstick Records



01 Never A Question
02 Witnessed
03 Minutes To Hours
04 Jesus Christ

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Abini on bass was obviously only a temporary solution to the needing-a-bassist problem, with Albini's new band Shellac (not to mention his busy engineering career) demanding most of his attention. So, with Naked Raygun now in indefinite hiatus, legendary bassist Pierre Kezdy suddenly was free and Pegboy wisely snapped him up.

Moving on, 1994 saw the band's second LP Earwig come down the pipe. This time the band traveled to provincial France to record in Iain Burgess's newly built residential studio, and the resulting record is stellar. More of the same classic Haggerty guitars, and a more tuneful Larry (did he get vocal coaching?), mean this record will also get stuck in your ears. "You" is one giant slagpile of melody, and with perhaps a tighter vocal melody this might have been a hit. They also pull off a reverential Mission of Burma cover ("That's When I Reach For My Revolver", here shortened to simply "Revolver"), throw Clint Conley's original vocal track on top and you'd not know you weren't listening to the Burma musicians. And as far as I know, "Over The Hills" is Haggerty's first-ever acoustic track and it's spectacular.

EARWIG
1994 Quarterstick Records



01 Line Up
02 Sinner Inside
03 Gordo
04 Sideshow
05 Spaghetti Western
06 Revolver (Mission of Burma)
07 You
08 Blister
09 Wages Of Sin
10 Mr. Pink
11 Over The Hills
12 Louisiana

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The band basically dropped from the scene for a while, then came back in 1997 with the as-of-now final LP Cha Cha Damore, recorded by a returning Steve Albini. Featuring the same Damore/Haggerty/Haggerty/Kezdy lineup as the prior LP, this time the band returns to the more focused pop/punk of their earlier efforts, a choice that benefits supremely by Albini's recording methodology. The drums here sound amazing - as good as they've ever sounded on a Pegboy record - and the songwriting remains stellar. And the surprise cover this time? Cheap Trick's "Surrender", done with love and an obvious passion for the original.

CHA CHA DAMORE
1997 Quarterstick Records



o1 Dangerwood
02 Can't Give
03 You Fight Like A Little Girl
04 Dangermare
05 Dog, Dog
06 Liberace Hat Trick
07 Dangerace
08 Hey, Look, I'm A Cowboy
09 In The Pantry Of The Mountain King
10 Surrender
11 Planet Porno

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The band functionally disbanded in 2000 yet never officially gave up the ghost - they did pop up now and then for the odd one-off gig, but then in 2007 played the Touch And Go 25th Anniversary gig, and in 2009 toured in the summer with new bassist "Skinny" Mike Thompson replacing Pierre Kezdy (who had rejoined the reactivated Naked Raygun).

So I present to you all of the above, in compendium style, as is the wont of The PoIT. I'm only missing three tracks in their entire discography - the "Field Of Darkness" / "Walk On By" 7" single (what I've been able to track down online is pretty crap sounding), a Thin Lizzy cover "Emerald" from a 1995 Thin Lizzy tribute, and the 1996 "Dangermare" split single with Kepone.

Three RAR files as usual, gotta download each one.

edit: Removed link.

Enjoy!

how I learned to love The Bomb / Indecision

Sometimes you come across a record which reminds you of why you fell in with a particular band/style/etc in the first place. A record that you can proudly hold up in the air and scream to the winds, "THIS is _____ in full glory, this could be the only ______ record you need to own", or "HELL yeah, ________ is/are back!"

This "new" record by legendary Chicago punkster Jeff Pezzati's "other" band The Bomb, Indecision, could be exactly that. Note: "New" because while released in 2005, the record's new to yours truly (had it since then but only listened to a song or two until - get this - yesterday), and "Other" because Pezzati's main gig Naked Raygun is alive and kicking, in fact performing tonight at House of Blues, Chicago.


Naked Raygun at Subterranean, Chicago 11/4/06

Pezzati is hardly new to the scene, having led Naked Raygun out of the miniscule early 1980s Chicago punk scene into national recognition, and international gigging, by the early 1990s - themselves solidifying their signature Buzzcocks-meets-Minor Threat sound over several classic, legendary albums until their hibernation period that began in 1992. Retired from music for some time, Pezzati and the rest of Raygun performed a handful of reunion gigs in 1997, and disappeared again until reuniting - for good, apparently, in 2006.

Meanwhile, in the late 90s Pezzati resurfaced with a new crew and new songs, eventually with a Steve Albini-recorded debut LP Torch Songs in 2000 (on Pezzati's own Jettison Music label, itself named in tribute to the legendary Raygun 1988 LP Jettison). That record was OK, but was singular in that it featured Jeff on bass guitar for the first time since his stint with Big Black in the mid 1980s. The songwriting, while itself OK, didn't exactly match up with what Naked Raygun could toss off in an afternoon, at their peak. Put it this way - I have it as a longtime fan of Jeff Pezzati, but it's not something I'll ever give more than a casual glance at.


The Bomb, Jeff Pezzati on right

We need to back up a bit to bring this all into context.

Naked Raygun was/is one of those genre-defining bands, a case where great riches, fame and worldwide domination could have been theirs had they simply wanted it enough. Raygun perfected the strongly melodic, funny, blistering, powerpophardcorepunk style made famous in the 90s by bands such as Green Day and Foo Fighters - yet Raygun did it first, in some cases 10 years before. They were just too soon, and furthermore, were sadly content to live with the regional fame they accrued (they were HUGE in Chicago during their prime, to the point where other major touring acts wouldn't schedule opposite a Raygun gig), and the occasional national (and in 1989, European) tour to play for the kids. So when they faded out in 1992, after a mediocre album which did nothing but keep the name in the record racks, they left the door open for the usurpers in that post-Nirvana age to take the torch they blazed and run with it.

Fast forward to yesterday. In the process of researching tunes for the blog, I popped on this record and was BLOWN AWAY. Everything I loved about Naked Raygun is here in full glory - the blistering guitars, the fantastic call-and-response choruses, Pezzati's signature "whoa-oh-oh" vocals, it's all here - evidenced over 12 spectacular songs, recorded by Jawbox's J. Robbins. And I never knew about it! Pezzati is back as vocalist and primary songwriter, but this time with Jeff Dean on guitars, and stole the rhythm section from Chicago-area punkers The Methadones to anchor it all.



THE BOMB / Indecision
(2005 Thick Records)

OK, there are a few not-so-stellar tracks, but every album has them, and I'll not name them just because I'm silly that way. However tracks like the incendiary "Burn It All" (despite the odd-for-Pezzati skapunk intro) are as good as you'll ever find from him, and easily could be tracks from a great, lost, Naked Raygun record.

So I know Jeff Pezzati still has it in him. Why doesn't Naked Raygun - as I said, back in full blown tour mode with us today - do this? The world would be theirs, if they wanted it.

Tracklist:

1. Up From The Floor
2. Indecision
3. Hardly Shed A Tear
4. Burn It All
5. Further From The Truth
6. Never Want To See You Again
7. Won't Apologize
8. Bring The Shotgun
9. Turned On
10. Nothing To Say
11. Faith Anymore
12. 1000 Tons of Ice


------------- APPENDIX ----------------

This record as-released is a bad, bad sufferer of the audiophile's greatest scourge, ugly overcompression/limiting (better known as the Loudness Wars). See the links on the sidebar for more info about this horrible affliction, and here's a good visual of it below from this album as-released (click through for full-size)...



I do have tricks up my sleeve for fixing the worst of it, bringing some well-needed dynamics back in play, which I've done for the fileset linked above (and trust me, it now sounds 1,000,000 times better for it) - but post-facto restoration should IMHO never be needed - get it right the first time!

Here's a visual of the same files in the shot above, but having been de-futzed with care:



I really, REALLY despise this trend in music. We all have volume knobs, if things are too quiet, TURN IT UP! Don't do it for us, and don't give us muddled/flattened crap. End rant.

variations on a theme: Iain Burgess

edit: New post here with a much more comprehensive compilation of Iain's recordings, in light of his recent passing...

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Iain Burgess, for many years, was the "architect" of the Chicago classic punk sound in the 80s and early 90s. If your record wasn't engineered by Iain, it seemingly didn't exist. Virtually every Chicago punk/alternative band used him at one point or another.


Iain in 2003-ish, at his residential studio Black Box in France

Oddly there's little to no biographical information about him on the internets. I do know he came to Chicago from the UK, did a lot of production, and eventually moved to France to open his own studio. Steve Albini credits Iain for introducing him to a lot of recording techniques he uses today, especially about preserving the sound, presence and impact of a loud punk band playing in its element - live.


Iain in 1988 behind the boards at Chicago Recording Company, recording the Poster Children (see below)

Having searched the vast, wide web of the world, I do believe this is the first blogpost ever to spotlight Iain Burgess's works. Hooray!

So enough blathering - what about the music?

EFFIGIES / "Fly on a Wire"



(from the 1985 Ruthless LP Fly On A Wire, long out of print)

Chicago's Effigies were among the first postpunk bands to make a name for themselves outside Chicagoland. This is a terrific proto-indierock blast that shows how they've moved on from hardcore to something maybe more melodic.

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BIG BLACK / "Kerosene"



(from the 1986 Homestead LP Atomizer, currently available on Touch And Go on vinyl, and on CD as part of The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape)

From their first real full-length (not counting Lungs or Bulldozer), really, what else is there to do in tiny smalltown America than jump kerosene? Iain really makes the guitars scraaaang and that walloping piledriving drum machine hammer.

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DEFOLIANTS / "Mr. Spy"



(from the 1987 Pravda 7" EP Hang Ten, long out of print)

I saw these guys open for Naked Raygun at the Riviera, Chicago in 1989 and ever since been on a quest for Defoliants material. Even then you couldn't find the records, and even today the utter lack of Defoliants--age on the internets is disappointing. This is the only track I could find and it just doesn't do the memory of these guys live-on-stage justice. Think Dick Dale fronting a punk band. Amazing stuff.

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NAKED RAYGUN / "Soldiers Requiem" and "Vanilla Blue"



("Soldiers Requiem" from the 1988 Caroline LP Jettison, "Vanilla Blue" from their 1987 self-released 7", also on the CD issue of Jettison)

The torch-bearers of the Chicago punk scene, probably the band with the greatest national and international recognition. These guys were/are something else live, yet they never were afraid to themselves laugh at the whole spectacle of it all - even having John Haggerty's guitar lowered to him from the rafters at the Cabaret Metro. Amazing, amazing band, this lineup was their classic lineup that lasted from 1984-1989. 1989 saw Haggerty quit to form Pegboy (see below).

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POSTER CHILDREN / "Question"



(from the 1989 Limited Potential LP Flower Plower, currently on the band's own Twelve Inch Records label)

Formed at University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana in the late 80s, this band really lived (and still lives) by the Minutemen "we jam econo" credo. This track is from their first full-length record and a great snapshot of the energy and spunk the Poster Kids carry.

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PEGBOY / "Through My Fingers" and "Strong Reaction"



("Through My Fingers" from the 1990 Quarterstick EP Three-Chord Monte, "Strong Reaction" from their 1991 Quarterstick LP Strong Reaction)

Pegboy was formed in 1989 after John Haggerty quit Raygun, joining up instead with his brother Joe on drums and two ex-Bhopal Stiffs on vocals and bass. Really, the only reason to listen to Pegboy is Haggerty's guitar sound, he's got one hell of a roar and his playing style is perfect for the music.

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JAWBOX / "Static"



(from the 1992 Dischord LP Novelty)

The first non-Illinois band here, Jawbox came from the Washington, DC Dischord scene and in fact J Robbins was former Government Issue - another key hardcore touchpoint band. Dischord and the Chicago Touch And Go scene shared a lot of friends, commonality and ethics and they cross-pollinated quite a bit. Here we have these guys traveling to Chicago to record with Iain, on their last independent record before skipping Dischord and signing to Atlantic.

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After the mid-90s Iain was relatively quiet production-wise, concentrating on building his own studio in France. There have been a a couple really fantastic records made there and with his assistance, including.....

NINA NASTASIA / "Superstar"



(from her 2003 Touch And Go LP Run To Ruin, recorded by Steve Albini and Iain Burgess at his French residential studio)

This Brooklyn, NY singer/guitarist is amazing - and this record is a perfect example of how you cannot pigeonhole Steve Albini's production style.

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Like these? Thoughts?