The 1900s

They've only released a single EP, Plume Delivery (Parasol Records), but The 1900s are one of the most talked-about young bands in Chicago. Fusing various pop and rock strains of the past 50 years, The 1900s deliver a delectable brew of infectious melodies, wistful lyrics and lush orchestration. Recently, bassist Charlie Ransford was kind enough to answer a few questions about their enigmatic name, myriad influences and plans for a full-length album.

There's a lot of local buzz surrounding The 1900s. In the last couple weeks I've seen features in The Reader, Time Out and the Chicago Sun-Times and you recently sold out a show at The Hideout. Were you expecting all the attention?

I think we knew we had something good when we were finished recording the EP and that people would notice it. We recorded the album ourselves and really put a lot into that recording and were very happy with how it turned out and thrilled with the job Graeme Gibson did mixing it, so we expected something. But the amount of attention that we ended up getting has been really unexpected. From the start the support that bands like Bobby Conn, The M's and The Changes gave us was unexpected, and then when the local press and blogs started writing about us ... well, I mean we were hoping and planning for things to work out like this, but that it actually did is quite surprising to all of us.

I understand you've only been performing live as a band since last fall. When and how did the band come together?

Our first show was in September of 2005, so it's been just about a year that we've been playing together. Ed [Anderson], Tim [Minnick], and Mike [Jasinski] all went to high school together and have been playing in various musical projects on and off together for years. I hooked up with them because we've all been playing in the Chicago music scene for years and knew each other through our various bands. We've all been talking about playing in a band together for years, so when the timing was right, we started getting together. The girls were reportedly recruited after performing a little impromptu dance routine to an Ike and Tina Turner song at some party that Ed was at, which if you've seen us live you know we have managed to work that into our live show quite a bit.

I think you currently have 8 members. Is bigger better? And I wonder, is this a Chicago thing? Because a couple other local bands, namely Head of Femur and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, are also bursting at the seams.

Bigger isn't necessarily better. I mean, some of the best stuff out there is just one person singing and playing guitar like Dylan or Townes or Willie Nelson. But to do what we want to do, you need bigger. You need backup singers and string players and an occasional horn player and before you know it, you can barely fit on stage. I'd bet other bands with similar lineups have done it for similar reasons, and we probably have some similar influences that drive us to form big bands--Belle and Sebastian, Beach Boys, Sufjan Stevens, Flaming Lips, Motown, tropicalia. Why there are so many in Chicago is anyone's guess.

Where did your name come from? Because listening to your music, it seems like you might more appropriately be called The 1960s (and I'm guessing I'm not the first person to say that).

No you're not the first to say that, a lot of people pick up on the 1960s influences in our music. I think that 60s sound really comes out because of the vintage keyboards that are featured pretty prominently in our music. But if you dig into the songs a bit more there are definitely some things in there that are reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac from the 70s or Buddy Holly from the 50s or Tom Petty from the 80s. So the name "The 1900s" works on that level, but we weren't really trying to suggest anything about the music with the name of the band. I like to think of the name as more of a nostalgic nod to a century recently passed.

Plume Delivery sounds like a mix of so many different influences--60s psychedelia and garage rock, 70s country-rock, more recent indie pop. Is this a refection of individual band member's tastes?

Yeah that's definitely a reflection of our tastes. We all listen to a large variety of music. One of the reasons I think this bands works is that we all come together and agree on such a diverse set of influences, and you hit on four of the biggest influences, 60s psychedelic, 60s garage rock, 70s country rock, and recent indie rock.

What are your plans for a full-length album?

We've been writing the songs for a full-length album over the past couple months, so we've started the process already. The plan is to start recording demos of our songs to work out what we want to do with them over the summer and then sometime this fall we will be going into a studio and recording the album. We hope the album will come out sometime next spring.

What are some of the local bands that inspire you?

Chicago right now has so many great bands and such a great music scene, its really exciting to be a part of it. Andrew Bird is one of the most talented people out there and our music has definitely been inspired by what he has done. Generally what has been most inspiring has been just being around so many great musicians. I've already mentioned The M's, The Changes and Bobby Conn, but they deserve a second mention. Bands like Devin Davis, The Eternals, Paliard, Singleman Affair, Office and Manishevitz are all making great music. Chicago is really a great place to making music right now. Visit The 1900s' Web site and Myspace page.

See The 1900s live:
July 1, Double Door, Chicago
July 15, Cowboy Monkey, Champaign, IL

Listen to The 1900s:

Bring The Good Boys Home - The 1900s

A Coming Age (live) - The 1900s

Oh No (live) - The 1900s

The live tracks--including one of the band's new songs, "Oh No"--come from a May 31, 2006 Chicago Public Radio in studio performance.

Other interviews in our Chicago series: Nora O'Connor, Pinetop Seven, Office.

Return to Shake Your Fist

Nora O'Connor

In the third of our series of interviews with Chicago bands and musicians we love, I briefly chatted with singer-songwriter-musician and Bloodshot Records artist Nora O'Connor. Well-known as a member of glam-country band The Blacks and Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire, and for her contributions to records by The New Pornographers and Archer Prewitt, O'Connor also released the lovely, highly recommended, solo album Til The Dawn (US, UK, eMusic) in 2004. When she isn't spending time with her new baby (congrats Nora!), Chicagoans can catch her around town performing with Kelly Hogan and Scott Ligon and, in July, in a much-anticipated Blacks reunion show.

I'm convinced you could play Six Degrees of Separation with Nora O'Connor and hit every Chicago musician in two degrees. What have been your favorite collaborations?

Well, what I'm doing right now with Kelly Hogan and Scott Ligon is blowin' my mind. I just love singing with them and I think the songs we do are great. We're starting to do more of Scott's original songs and the harmonies are really lush. And I have to say working on the last two New Pornographers records have been great projects. Oh and Archer Prewitt ... Kelly and I sang on his album Three (US, UK) and we just had a blast. Archer had some great back ups planned for that record and we loved, loved doing them.

Who haven't you worked with but are dying to?

I'd really like to sing with Neko [Case]. We were never in the studio at the same time during the New Pornographers sessions, so that doesn't count.

Your solo album has more of a traditional country and bluegrass sound compared with say, your work with The Blacks. Is this the music that's closest to your heart?

It depends what day it is. When it comes to singing I do like the pretty stuff. With The Blacks, I got to rock out and play electric guitar with pedals. That makes me feel pretty cool.

After six years apart, The Blacks just announced a reunion show at Empty Bottle. Is this a one-night deal or are you guys considering recording another album?

It may be more than a one-night deal but we haven't really thought beyond that.

What else are you currently working on?

I'm really just doing shows with Scott and Kelly and working on the Blacks stuff. I just had a baby so he's my passion right now.

You're an ordained reverend. How often do you actually perform weddings?

OK, I guess that sounded really cool in my bio, huh? I've performed one wedding. I really just did that with some of my friends so we could walk around calling each other reverend. Like nodding "Reverend, "Reverend" back n' forth ... We crazy.

Finally, as a south side girl you've got have an opinion on this: Will the Sox go all the way again this year?

I hope so. I'm annoying to watch sports with because I cheer for the guy with the ball, I don't care who he/she is. I'd love to see the Sox and Cardinals go up against each other because I know some passionate Cardinal fans and Sox fans so I'd be happy for them.

Visit Nora O'Connor's Web site.

Listen to Nora O'Connor:

My Backyard - O'Connor

Looks Like I'm Up Shit Creek Again - Nora O'Connor

Sticks n' Stones - Nora O'Connor

Previous Chicago interviews:
Pinetop Seven
Office

Pinetop Seven

Darren Richard, of Chicago-based and local favorite Pinetop Seven, was kind enough to grant us an interview recently in support of the band's latest release, Beneath Confederate Lake (Amazon: US, UK, eMusic, iTunes). Many thanks to Darren for his frank and insightful responses, including his thoughts on the band's genre-defying reputation and their liberal view of today's file sharing culture. Though no live shows are currently scheduled, we hope that will change soon.

You've been part of Chicago's musical landscape for ten years now. How much does Chicago inform your music? Because even though you've used ambient noise on your recordings there almost seems something anti-urban about Pinetop Seven, not to mention a strong Southern gothic vibe.

I don't think there's anything Chicago-specific that really has much of an influence other than it's a really conducive city for making almost any type of music. There's no shortage of musicians in Chicago, and most of them are both unpretentious and musically open-minded. There's also a lot of mutual support and cross-pollination between bands.

As has often been noted, Pinetop Seven is a difficult band to pin down genre-wise. Do you think that's in part because your reference points are as much literary, cinematic and historical as musical?

I think all of those contribute, but more likely it's the amalgam of musical styles at play that I think presents a challenge to those who look for easy categorization. Myself, along with most of musicians that have contributed to Pinetop Seven, have pretty diverse musical tastes, and listen to and enjoy everything from tango, funeral dirges, 20th century classical, Eastern European, Asian gamelan, American folk and country blues, and everything in the cracks between. More than anything else, I believe it's the diverse musical influences at play that contribute to Pinetop Seven being difficult to classify.

Compared to some bands (and record companies), you take a very enlightened view about offering free mp3 downloads on your Web site. Do you find this a effective way to reach new fans? And are you concerned about the distribution of your music online in ways you can't control--such as through blogs or peer-to-peer sites?

I'm perhaps not as concerned as I should be, I don't know. We only make select tracks available on our Web site, while the remainder of the records can be found at iTunes or eMusic. I grew up on mix tapes, used records and bootleg recordings so it'd be a little hypocritical of me to get up on my soapbox and start complaining now that it's directly affecting me. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

From what I gather, you created Barbary Coast Recordings to release Pinetop Seven albums, beginning with 2005's The Night's Bloom (Amazon: US, eMusic, iTunes). What previous experience with record labels, negative or positive, led you to this decision? What are the challenges? Do you intend to release music by other bands?

Yeah, Barbary Coast was created to primarily release Pinetop Seven-related projects. I'm not really sure what direction the label will take--I'd love to do non-Pinetop Seven releases, but I'm limited by time and finances.

Your contribution to the Will Oldham tribute album I Am A Cold Rock, I Am Dull Grass (CD Baby), is probably one of the best tracks on that record. How did your participation in that project come about?

I received an email from Thomas at Tract who invited us to participate. I agreed provided we could do "A Minor Place"--such a beautiful song, probably Will's best in my opinion.

Beneath Confederate Lake is billed as a collection of previously unreleased odds and ends, yet it has a very cohesive feel to it. What were your considerations when selecting the tracks and sequencing the album?

Emptied the closet. Had a bunch of semi-redeemable songs laying around and initially I intended to release it myself in the same vein as Lest We Forget However David at Empyrean talked me into letting him put it out. So I sequenced and mastered it and we put the packaging together. Even though it's a grab-bag collection of miscellania I still attempted to sequence it in a way that gave it more cohesiveness as an album.

Return to Shake Your Fist.

Office

In the first of a series of interviews with Chicago bands we like, I sat down with (ok, emailed) Scott Masson, lead vocalist/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist of one of the city's hottest new bands, Office. Office is two guys (Masson, Tom Smith) and two gals (Erica Corniel, Alissa Noonan) making funky, fun, complex pop music. The band's new LP, Q&A, has garnered them well-deserved attention from music fans, record labels and even landed them a month-long residency at one of Chicago's best clubs, Schubas. Among other things, I asked Scott about the band's genesis, their South By Southwest experience and their "branding" strategy.

From what I understand, Office began as your solo project. When and how did it come together as a band?

It happened very naturally. Playing music as a solo performer, armed only with a drum machine, guitar, and piano was stressful, and probably a little self-indulgent. I always knew that an "Office" ensemble was inevitable, but it was important to find the right people to work with before allowing myself to open up and collaborate.

Basically, my life slammed into a brick wall in early 2004. I moved back home with my parents in Michigan to re-evaluate my life, write songs, try out new recording techniques, and get out of the city for awhile to rest. During that seven month period of time, I discovered that Office was definitely something that I could not give up even though I thought it was probably a healthy option. Despite a few failed attempts in casting a good staff of collaborators, I felt it was important to keep developing and moving forward, so I moved back to the windy city.

Upon returning to Chicago, I immediately drafted up a plan to find a definite version of Office. Alissa, Tom, and Erica had certain resume experience that was appealing to me. They all came from either punk rock, visual art, minimalist, avant garde, pop or dance music backgrounds. How perfect, I thought! Plus, the idea of being involved with a mixed-gendered, sexually ambiguous pop project appealed to me right away. There are lots of gender-non-specific ideas about love, work, play, fear, freedom, sex, money, culture, etc. in Office's music. Why not carry this over to our collective concerns?

I love the kind of pop music you make--big hooks, exuberant vocals, detailed arrangements--but for some reason, this sound sometimes seems like a tough sell. How much do you think about commercial viability and reach?

Thank you so much. Never thought about it, actually. This style of music, contrary to popular belief, is some of the most difficult music to write outside of jazz and classical. Ten second "hooks" require a lot more patience and science than 45-second melodies that never conclude themselves.

I take pop music very seriously as a lost art form, especially after constructing 9-minute avant garde epics back in the 90s. I used to be more concerned with trying to be different, and now I know that it takes a certain amount of audacity to simplify songwriting to its purest and most simplistic elements. It also takes months and months to write a song that has a timeless appeal to it...where older folks and children can get something out of it simultaneously. I never thought there was anything wrong with that. Some people within the music intelligentsia seem to think this is wrong, or "selling out". Poor them.

As far as viability and reach outside the US, yes we are very concerned with sharing our music universally. It's never the focus while we're creating, but it's important for every artist or band to have that desire to reach people outside of their age bracket, gender, race, age and ethnicity. The American mentality tends to forget that the world is much bigger than 50 small states, and that rock and roll should not only be geared towards white kids in the suburbs. Europe, and many other countries, value pop music in a different way than Americans do. I feel like we probably relate to that European way of thinking more.

What goes into your sound?

We often incorporate an older 20th Century production technique known as the "wall of sound." Phil Spector and Brian Wilson were pioneers in applying it to rock and roll, but classical composers have been incorporating "wall of sound" in music for centuries. It's when one melodic counterpart or phrase is layered three-five times with three-five different sounds, all playing the same notes simultaneously. Just because you're in a rock and roll band, doesn't mean you have to only work with two guitars, bass, vocals, and drums. Thanks to modern technology, anyone can orchestrate if they have a little time and patience on their side.

It sounds like you got some record label attention from playing South By Southwest in March. Are you leaning in any particular direction?

We will end up with a label that will allow us to be ourselves. That's why we are still unsigned. Funny that.

Did you get a chance to check out other acts playing in Austin? Any band really impressive you?

Erica and I were too wrapped up in going to parties and talking to people to really grasp what anybody was doing. I'm much too spaced-out most of the time to really understand what bands are doing these days. A lot of it sounds like the 90s to me. I saw some brilliant moments from Hot Chip, Blackalicious, Spoon, Ghostface Killah and a few others. Alissa and Tom are definitely more interested in contemporary music. I've been listening to Sam Cooke lately and am perfectly happy with older music. My friends write great songs as well, so I'm constantly being inspired by the people I know who weren't asked to go to SXSW.

It's hard to miss the "branding" of your promotional materials positioning Office as a corporation or the fact that you perform in business clothes. Critique of the music business or something else?

There is a lot of irony and humor in our branding strategy, especially since we are so poor, and don't want to work for other people. In fact, we just recently started calling this our "branding strategy" because writers have referred to it as such. Why not, ya know? Wearing dark suits, ties, and female power outfits was a natural, unconscious decision on our part. Hell, Erica and Alissa even cake on the face makeup before every show, which they rarely wear in their everyday lives. Tom and I don't ask them to participate in this behavior. Our manager doesn't ask this of them either. Maybe Alissa and Erica are asking their own set of questions by this display of gender role-playing. Everything is a performance when it relates to our band, most of the time. I guess we wear office attire onstage to re-evaluate our delusional upbringing of what it means to be in a rock and roll band, or what it means to work and have power in this country.

Can you imagine a band called Office, and seeing them in jeans and T-Shirts? I can't. It would be boring, and not "complete" from an artistic perspective. Wouldn't be as fun either, and entertainment and art are allowed to be fun. We enjoy older bands like The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, Johnny Cash, Kraftwerk and The Beatles, who all had a little bit of style and grace onstage to back up those long hours in the studio. As long as we work hard on writing good songs, then it doesn't really matter what we wear. Music is roll-playing. Chances are, Freddy Mercury was probably not wearing silver tights to the grocery store back in 1975 either. It's important to keep your personal life separate from your life onstage.

You're doing a month-long residency at Chicago's Schubas every Monday in May. How did this come about?

We were asked by our very good friend, Matt Rucins, who is the main booking agent there. This offer came up before we went to SXSW. Matt has been very supportive of our music, as well as other artists here in Chicago. Playing Schubas is a wonderful opportunity for any group, since the room is made of old wood, and the sound system is ace. As Alissa says: "It sounds like you're performing inside a cello."

Thanks, Scott!

Return to Shake Your Fist