Comments on: Cover Story: Essential Local Albums ‘96-’06

By: Linwood Burkowski

Linwood Burkowski — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:12:08 +0000

What a great list of local albums. Does anyone know where I can purchase these locally? Record Shops? I just moved to Chicago (Bridgeport) from Ireland.

By: Vcook

Vcook — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:57:07 +0000

I spent a drunken night in ‘96 in a muddy urbana backyard, drinking cheap keg beer with SF, waiting for Braid to play in a small living room. Did they ever play that night, Stever? Some band played, Vcook got drunk, and the details are hazy. We were not foreign exchange students that night, but the groundwork was layed.

By: adam

adam — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:13:14 +0000

Well, I heard about the high school musical thing. I seriously doubt it was his wishing to go witness this. He was probably assigned this.

By: e.j.

e.j. — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 23:37:37 +0000

great article, but you are, indeed, missing rise against and local h. as for your earlier list: nicely done. off broadway AND naked raygun in the same list? only in chicago. yeah, baby!!

By: langosch brian

langosch brian — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:59:04 +0000

one of my favorates ya missed was pezband laughing in the dark

By: Pete Rainey

Pete Rainey — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:20:51 +0000

We’ll there’s nothing wrong personally with DeRogatis – seems like a nice guy. But – look no further than his TWO pages devoted to Disney’s High School Musical in Friday’s and Monday ’s Sun-Times. He slammed the whole production of course – but my problem is he dedicated 2000 words to the topic at all. Talk about lame. I’d rather read about IE’s dubious list of essential Local CD’s than a local Rock (Star) Critic telling me that High School Musical blows. Tell me something I DON’T know……

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:27:18 +0000

I’m not sure what the pot calling the kettle black refers to in this situation. What’s wrong with Dero?

By: pete rainey

pete rainey — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:55:05 +0000

Mellon Collie was 1995 – that why Adore – 1998- is a good choice.
Citing DeRogatis? Pot calling the kettle black……

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 01:45:55 +0000

Seriously, Local H? I think Jim Derogatis “Pack Up the Cats” as record of the year when it was released but it’s not essential enough for you crummy list. Plus, Whatever Happend to P.J. Soles? contains one of the best written songs I’ve heard that being P.J. Soles. You are lame and your list sucks. No 11th Dreamday either. Are you from Chicago? Was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness ‘95 or ‘96? It it’s the latter that just makes you more of a dumbass.

By: Fragglerocker

Fragglerocker — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:30:31 +0000

NO LOCAL H? oddd…on the other hand…its nice to see Robbie Fulks on the list.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:49:40 +0000

Some good stuff on here but seriously, where is Local H?

By: dave

dave — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 20:06:37 +0000

ANY Yakuza record.

By: chi

chi — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:10:44 +0000

Oui vs. Sam Prekop’s eponymous debut solo album…no question the latter should have been chosen. Sorry.

By: al

al — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:38:56 +0000

steve albini?? pick one. preferably a shellac record.
the fiery furnaces are one of the best bands in the world…and they happen to have grown up in Oak Park.

By: widely

widely — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:35:00 +0000

not to ring my own bells… but Green’s ‘White Soul’ kicked the arse of many of the above and still does. not to mention their self titled debut and Elaine MacKenzie…

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 03:15:43 +0000

This’ll teach ‘em to laugh you out of Starbucks…

By: tim

tim — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 03:35:11 +0000

dude im out of it. but really, yeah where the hell is the (local) h?

By: James Parker

James Parker — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 04:23:25 +0000

Darren is dead-on when he mentions the Village Voice Factor p—y factor.
In your mission to be P.C. (Patricia Barber?), you’ve left out one of the great Chicago power pop records of the last ten years……Caviar’s debut – which re-defined the genre created by Cheap Trick, Shoes, Material Issue and yes Enuff Z’Nuff. Caviar did it with such flair and cheekiness, i’ve got two copies – one for the car and one for the iPod. Timeless and ESSENTIAL.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:57:12 +0000

My bad, on the Urge Overkill…which I see was issued in ‘93. All others had releases within the 96-06 timeframe (although Material Issue’s was posthumously after Ellison’s death)…Ministry’s new Grammy-nominated CD is their best since Twitch, which was reissued as Jourgenson originally intended (but Warner insisted on tweaking the track listing) last year by Radioactive (so it should be on the list!).
Also, upon further review Atomizer, which is included on Rich Man’s Eight Track Tape, falls outside the 96-06 timeframe…so I’m wrong about that one.

By: Darren

Darren — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:48:55 +0000

In this list’s attempt to sound as if it was written for Village Voice by a critic who would rather name-drop obscure indie bands in some vain attempt to remain cutting edge/relevent than list the albums they really listen to, many truly noteworthy Chicago releases are completely disregarded. The minute you choose a three-month old Lupe Fiasco CD over an album that stands as the template for an entire genre (such as Ministry’s “Twitch” or Big Black’s “Atomizer”), or give props to Neko Case, but forget the contributions of Chicago transplants such as Poi Dog Pondering or the Mekons (who DO tend to get mentioned a lot, I admit), your list comes off as severely uninformed. Personally, I’m a bit disappointed to see no Naked Raygun, Material Issue, or Urge Overkill on this list.

By: Cat

Cat — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:14:34 +0000

No Local H, no The Lawrence Arms, no Kill Hannah, AND no Rise Against? I think this list needs to be longer! I know opinions are subjective and there’s no way that all of my personal faves could be included but no Local H? In conclusion, I think it’s absolutely impossible to sum up all of the “essential” albums that have come out of the Chicago music scene in 25 records (even if limited by the time period of 1996-2006 and with the added scrutiny of limiting the field to one specific genre!).

By: matt bacon

matt bacon — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:53:26 +0000

Local H?????????