Grey Cell Evergreen.

No joke, Ned's Atomic Dustbin's Godfodder came out on this day in 1991!

A few months later I would see them open for Jesus Jones so I could review the headliner's set.* I know not everyone digs them, and many of my British pals slightly cringe when I proclaim I am a fan, but this debut was a perfect thundering mix of melody and guitars atop a truly rumbling rhythm section that my ears were thirsty for at the time. The group would never recapture this formula so perfectly again, but I can still listen to it from start to finish with a smile on my face. And while I do love the most popular single off this album "Kill Your Television," it's "Grey Cell Green" that hooked me into my initial fandom.

*It was a memorable night, complete with me cornering some Ned's players at the back bar of the Aragon when I stumbled across them on my way to try and find my show buddy since he'd taken a bunch of acid earlier. I found him in the bathroom staring at a sink as he turned to ask me if I too saw that it was filled with blood. And friends, it was (and not the best time for him to run into something like that. Yipes! But he was fine and we enjoyed the rest of the show together.

Revisiting The Lemonheads' 'Car Button Cloth.'

Photo by: Michel Van Collenburg

I was listening to the expanded reissue of The Lemonheads' Car Button Cloth earlier today. When it originally came out, I was buzzing along with most other folks about the hefty one-two punch of It's A Shame About Ray and Come On Feel The Lemonheads coming out in quick succession in 1993 and 1994. So in 1996, Car Button Cloth was met with great anticipation as we expected another collection of lead Lemonhead Evan Dando's honeyed mixture of power-pop melodies with an indie rock sensibility and an uncanny, unerring ear for a hook. Instead, Car Button Cloth was an album taking a more fractured approach to pop, and back in the day, that album really did occasionally feel like you were experiencing Dando's mental degradation and disassociation in real time.

But here we are, almost 30 years later, and in the grand timeline/story of The Lemonheads Car Button Cloth not only deserves a second chance, I believe it's at times knife-edge emotional uncertainty feels like an artistic statement from the subconscious, no matter what shape Dando was actually in when recording.

The original album certainly seems less "off-balance" to my older ears than it did to my youthful ones. However, this would have been back in a time when I was DJing a lot and would often focus on the tracks I thought would work in a set, so I give myself a slight pass for not immediately recognizing some of the gems within its running order upon its inital release. On that basis alone, I would urge you to give this a spin (or another spin, if you also haven't returned to this album in decades).

If you're gonna pick up the album, in this instance I do recommend the expanded version since the bonus tracks here are varied and entertaining and go beyond the usual “here’s an acoustic demo or two” that afflicts most other reissues of this ilk. In other words, in the parlance we used to employ back in the day when you needed a review to know whether an album was worth your hard-earned dough to hear anything else inside of it beyond the radio singles, it’s worth it.

How I've missed days like this.

It is mid-March and currently 75º F in Chicago and I can't tell you how much being able to work at home with my windows open and the breeze carrying in the sounds of birds my ears is doing absolute wonders illuminating and improving my mood. I highly recommend it! 

In other news, I also wrote about the excellent new album from Neal Francis today, so please do head over to Third Coast Review and check that out.

A quick intro to a band you'll want to know a lot more about in the future—Violets!

Man, I was starting to feel I was on a roll around these parts as far as picking up the pace of posting, but life had other ideas. I’ve got stuff in the works but for now I recommend a tasty new tune from Chicago’s Violets, who are playing this weekend with a March 1 show at Chop Shop in Chicago.

A Band Called Horse!

A Band Called Horse didn’t play many shows during their brief existence, but I’ve always felt a little proud that I booked one of them at The Note in 2001 while I was talent buyer there. My tenure at The Note preceded the era of easily shooting digital video on your phone, requiring actual an actual digital video camera of some sort, so I have stumbled across very few visual recordings of the shows I did there. 

But man oh man, am I glad this one exists!  

Hi there!

Since these little folks make me smile multiple times a day when I pass them in my apartment, maybe they'll help brighten your Friday too.

One recommendation: Hundreds of Beavers!

It’s rare that I stumble across a piece of media that will easily answer the question I hear most often, “what do you recommend I listen to or watch?” Usually there is so much sloshing around up there that I can’t answer quickly with a response that feels tailor-made to that person’s individual tastes. But recently I stumbled across a movie that feels like an excellent recommendation to just about anyone of (almost) any age!

Go watch Hundreds Of Beavers. Now.

It’s been out for a few years on the festival circuit but recently made it’s way to Amazon Prime video (though the Blu-Ray seems to have been delayed, if you’re more a physical media type). And to say much more would rob you of the pleasure watching the film with a naive mindset. But if I must save an elevator pitch, I‘d say it’s a live action Looney Tune cartoon stretched to feature film length, employing some of the most ingenious super-duper lo-fi effects I’ve seen.

One word of warning: it does open with a musical number that doesn’t entirely work, and it can take a few minutes to adjust to the film once it gets really rolling. But if you’re looking for tons of fun, settle in, get comfy, and look no further.

(If you live in Chicago, I see the film is actually playing at The Music Box tonight at 11:15, so it's clearly already moving into midnight movie territory...always an excellent sign.)

A listening update on that whole "listen to more old and familiar music" resolution.

As you can see from the graphics below, my resolution to listen to more “old” music last year and try and take a break from ceaselessly consuming the “new” was…not successful.

Oh well, let's see how I do this year!

30 years of Tankboy?

It has occurred to me that 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the original Tankboy email newsletter (that ran regularly until the mid-aughts) and the 20th anniversary of my starting at Chicagoist (a gig I held for the next 12 years). Mind-blowing, sometimes.

And people wonder why it sometimes feels like I've "been around forever/have always been online" or get confused when they discover my age.* Most folks tend to believe I am just a few years younger or older than they are, depending on what time in their life they first came across my writing or met me. I have plenty of thoughts on that, too.

But this is more a reminder to myself that I shouldn't let either of these two things pass by this year without some deeper discussion on both, so that's something for you to look forward to as well, right?

It's also weird to me to think that the nickname I picked as an AOL handle based on my favorite comic book character at the time that ended up sticking to me from then on might be older than a number of my readers. Wait, did people even still know what AOL was/is?!

Okee doke, carry on. Just parking a few thoughts and I'm glad you stopped by.

"Sent from 64 iPhones."

I guess in the spirit of full transparency I should divulge that in December I contributed enough money to be an "executive producer" during this current album cycle for the band OK Go. It's symbolic nature and I think of it more as directly putting some dough into the collective pockets of a band I've been a fan of since their earliest days in Chicago.

Anyhoo, for me it's pretty exciting to see OK Go come out of a pretty long hibernation period, and their first video for the new album continues their trend of creating eye-bending visuals, this time through the vehicle of multiple iPhone screens showcasing a carefully stitched together collection of interwoven shots.

Rejoice! Franz Ferdinand's new album is out soon!

You've only got to wait until January 10 to hear the whole thing, but why don't you start the new year off right with a taste of one of my favorite albums of 2025 (already!). 

Franz Ferdinand's last album exceeded all my expectations and 2025's The Human Fear takes a few wild left turns to shake things up, broaden their sound, and holy heck if it ain't another stellar release from a band now decades into their career. 

This ain't a sentimental stroll but an adventurous road trip for your ears, exploring all kinds of new territories and revealing eddy upon eddy of swirling, captivating hooks to swim in.

The band is touring North America later this year, but it appears the Christmas show they played for the local radio station last month means Chicago doesn't get a dedicated stop on the proper tour. Which is a bummer, but I'm sure they'll be back some other time.

UPDATE 1/10: The band has just announced a Chicago stop after all! They'll play The Vic on April 5!