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DJ M-Dash writesOasis: Rock N’ Roll’s Most Polarizing Great Band?
by Andy Frye
If you follow music at all, you have heard the news: Oasis are back together. With concert dates next summer scheduled in London, Cardiff, Dublin, and other locations, tickets across the pond are selling fast. Is there new material? Supposedly, there is an album in the works. In related news, Liam Gallagher says his brother Noel is no longer a "potato."
Why reform Oasis now? Some might say… It's all about the money. Either way, many of us who dug in hard to their first two albums a quarter-century ago are celebrating. To others, the band is still—to say the least—a little polarizing.
Looking back, what appears to irk people most about Oasis, at least in the U.S., is both about the music—and not about the music. Some of the dislike of the band is more about the two brothers' personalities. Or—at least back then in the '90s—the size of their footprint on music.
But with the more prominent bands from the 1990s it seems to come with the territory. Ask anyone on the street about one of the most popular acts of the decade—not Nirvana, but the Dave Matthews Band and you'll surely get different reactions. Some consider DMB not much different from smooth jazz (something about which we all have a pointed opinion.) There are strong opinions about Green Day, Alanis Morrissette, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Like them or not, each artist was an essential part of the late 20th-century musical ecosystem.
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Sep 9 - Sep 15)
Upcoming Events:
- Wednesday Sep 11: Both Sides Now: A CHIRP Vinyl Listening Bar at Schubas (feat. DJ D-Rock)
- Wednesday Sep 11 - Sunday Sep 15: CHIRP Radio is a proud media sponsor of the 31st Chicago Underground Film Festival
- Saturday Sep 14 - Sunday Sep 15: CHIRP Radio is at the Ravenswood ArtWalk: Tour of Arts & Industry
- Tuesay Sep 17: CHIRP Music Trivia: OG Edition at Beermiscuous
- Friday Sep 27: CHIRP Welcomes The Juliana Hatfield Three to Sleeping Village
- Saturday Sep 28: CHIRP Welcomes Material Issue to Lincoln Hall
- Saturday Sep 28: CHIRP Welcomes Previous Industires to Schubas
- Sunday Sep 29: CHIRP is proud to partner with Chicago Humanities for Pilsen Day
- Sunday Sep 29: CHIRP Night at the Whistler with Heet Deth and Tension Pets
- Friday Oct 4: CHIRP Welcomes Jalen Ngonda to Lincoln Hall
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Sep 2 - Sep 8)
Upcoming Events:
- Friday Sep 6: CHIRP Welcomes Tobacco City, Half Gringa and Red PK to Metro
- Saturday Sep 7 - Sunday Sep 8: CHIRP Radio is a media sponsor for Thirsty Ears Festival
- Wednesday Sep 11: Both Sides Now: A CHIRP Vinyl Listening Bar at Schubas (feat. DJ D-Rock)
- Wednesday Sep 11 - Sunday Sep 15: CHIRP Radio is a proud media sponsor of the 31st Chicago Underground Film Festival
- Saturday Sep 14 - Sunday Sep 15: CHIRP Radio is at the Ravenswood ArtWalk: Tour of Arts & Industry
- Friday Sep 27: CHIRP Welcomes The Juliana Hatfield Three to Slepping Village
- Friday Sep 27: CHIRP Welcomes Material Issue to Lincoln Hall
- Friday Sep 27: CHIRP Welcomes Previous Industires to Schubas
- Sunday Sep 29: CHIRP is proud to partner with Chicago Humanities for Pilsen Day
- Sunday Sep 29: CHIRP Night at the Whistler with Heet Deth and Tension Pets
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Aug 26 - Sep 1)
Upcoming Events:
- Friday Sep 6: CHIRP Welcomes Tobacco City, Half Gringa and Red PK to Metro
- Saturday Sep 7 - Sunday Sep 8: CHIRP Radio is a media sponsor for Thirsty Ears Festival
- Wednesday Sep 11: Both Sides Now: A CHIRP Vinyl Listening Bar at Schubas (feat. DJ D-Rock)
- Saturday Sep 14 - Sunday Sep 15: CHIRP Radio is at the Ravenswood ArtWalk: Tour of Arts & Industry
DJ M-Dash writesFig Dish Returns With Two Singles and Two Sold-Out Shows
by Andy Frye
It’s been 27 years since Fig Dish released their last full-length album, but this Chicago-based band has not lost a beat. If you don’t believe me, ask **Steve.
The band of high school friends—guitarists and vocalists Rick Ness and Blake Smith, bassist Mike Willison, and drummer Andy Hamilton—put out their newest single "Burn Bright For Now” in June, with another to follow.
You can hear "Burn Bright” now on Spotify and other streaming services. Listeners who know Fig Dish will detect the same sound and fury the band was always known for. I spoke with Ness and Smith a week ago via Zoom, and they explained it all.
“People don’t realize that these are songs we recorded in 1998,” Smith said, “but we didn’t put out because the band broke up.”
“We were trying to put together our third album at that time,” Ness said of the 1998 recordings, “but we got dropped, and another label deal didn’t materialize, so we split up into our different projects.”
Fig Dish subsequently splintered into the electronic-tinged band Caviar, made up of Smith and Willison, while Ness formed a prog rock-influenced outfit, Ness, with Bill Swartz and Veruca Salt’s Jim Shapiro. After other projects in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, Smith took up work in the entertainment industry, and Ness got his Ph. D in English to become a college professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Ragged Ones” — A first listen on CHIRP
Even if, for the moment, what’s old is new again, there’s more on the horizon for Fig Dish and the band’s nostalgic fans. First, Fig Dish is set to play two sold-out shows at the GMan Tavern, Sep. 5 and 6, with fellow Chicago scene members Menthol.
But if you don’t have tickets to the show, you can pre-order the next Fig Dish album Feels Like The Very First Two Times on vinyl on Forge Again Records here.