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Group Members: Janet Bean and the Concertina Wire
The career of the noisy guitar unit Eleventh Dream Day -- one of the most resilient and criminally underappreciated bands to rise from the Midwestern underground community -- was a textbook study in alt-rock endurance; despite a nightmarish major-label tenure, ill-timed roster changes, and commercial indifference, the group persevered, ultimately emerging as elder statesmen of the flourishing Chicago independent scene of the mid-'90s.
Eleventh Dream Day's origins dated to 1981, when singer/guitarist Rick Rizzo met vocalist/drummer Janet Beveridge Bean at the University of Kentucky. Inspired by punk, Rizzo taught himself to play guitar with the aid of Neil Young's Zuma songbook; Young remained the group's major inspiration throughout its career, his incendiary aesthetic informing much of Rizzo's own raw, rootsy style. The couple soon relocated to Chicago, where they teamed with bassist Douglas McCombs and guitarist Baird Figi; after several years of honing their explosive live set, Eleventh Dream Day finally recorded their eponymous debut EP for the Amoeba label in 1987.
The full-length Prairie School Freakout, recorded in one six-hour span with a buzzing, dilapidated amplifier, followed in 1988, and brought Eleventh Dream Day to the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed the group for 1989's assured Beet. Despite critical acclaim, the record failed to find an audience; Lived to Tell followed in 1991 and suffered the same fate as its predecessor. In the middle of a tour to promote the album, Figi abruptly quit, and was replaced by Bodeco's Matthew "Wink" O'Bannon prior to 1993's superb El Moodio. After three commercial strikes, Atlantic unceremoniously dropped the group.
Following a hiatus that allowed Rizzo and Bean to concentrate on raising their newborn child, Eleventh Dream Day enlisted co-producers Brad Wood and John McEntire (McCombs' partner in the post-rock supergroup Tortoise) for 1994's Ursa Major, released on City Slang. After another break -- during which time Rizzo returned to college, Bean focused on her country side project Freakwater, and O'Bannon exited to return to Bodeco -- Eleventh Dream Day signed to the Chicago-based indie Thrill Jockey to record 1997's Eighth.
Stalled Parade followed in 2000, but at this point Eleventh Dream Day was a part-time venture at best. Rizzo was teaching and Bean and McCombs both had other musical ventures. They continued to play live in Chicago occasionally, ably assisted by former Coctail Mark Greenberg on keyboards. In 2003, Thrill Jockey reissued the long out of print Prairie School Freakout paired with the Wayne EP, and Baird Figi joined the band for a one-off reunion show in November of that year. Zeroes and Ones, the band's first new material in six years and the first album recorded with Greenberg, was released in 2006. Five more years would pass before they returned with the 2011 release Riot Now!, an album “inspired” by the apathy of American youth.
from Wikipedia:
Eleventh Dream Day is a rock band from Chicago, Illinois.
History
The band was founded by guitarists Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean, who met at a place fondly known as 1069. This was a house/practice space/hang out in Louisville where at the time Janet was practicing with the band she was in with Tara Key and Tim Harris; the Zoo Directors. They finished a practice and there Rick was in the next room. Janet scrounged up all the change in her pocket, about $1.20, to go to dinner with him and his pals. They all went to Wok Inn and Janet had egg drop soup. That was either very late 1982 or very early 1983.
After moving to Chicago, Bean and Rizzo joined with guitarist Baird Figi and bassist Doug McCombs; Bean soon switched over to drums. Their first self-titled EP in 1987 introduced the hallmarks of EDD's sound: Neil Young-inspired electric guitar workouts mixed with punk energy.
The band's full-length follow-up, Prairie School Freakout (1988), won critical praise and the attention of major labels; the band soon signed with Atlantic Records. Followups Beet (1989) and Lived to Tell (1991) won more strong reviews but didn't sell many copies; Figi left during the Lived to Tell tour and was replaced by Matthew "Wink" O'Bannon.
The band made a stab for commercial success with 1993's El Moodio, but the effort was unsuccessful and Eleventh Dream Day was dropped from Atlantic's roster. O'Bannon left after recording 1994's "Ursa Major" and the band ceased to be a full-time entity; Rizzo went back to college to earn a degree in education, while Bean and McCombs concentrated on their other musical projects, Freakwater and Tortoise respectively.
Eleventh Dream Day has since recorded new albums every few years, starting with 1997's Eighth. Recent albums have balanced the band's Young-influenced approach with an interest in ambient sound, likely influenced by McCombs's work with Tortoise. EDD released Stalled Parade in 2000, playing a handful of shows after the album's release with Mark Greenberg of (the Coctails) assisting on keyboards and other instruments. Zeroes and Ones was released on April 25, 2006, on Thrill Jockey Records. Riot Now! was released on March 15, 2011, on Thrill Jockey Records.
