Hi. I work for Chicago Public Radio and am in the process of putting together a documentary on the history of the Chicago punk and underground music scenes of the 70's and 80's. I am tired of New York, LA and London getting all the credit for all the great music when in fact Chicago and the Midwest has contributed some of the greatest music of all time.
This is a project in the earliest pre production stages and I have a list of people and organizations I'd like to interview and include, but since I didn't get into punk until I was a high school freshman in 1987, I missed out on a lot and so don't have a complete idea of what to include. I never saw a show at Oz for example, and would like to know more about it.
So I am asking those of you here, specifically old timers from Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, to help with suggestions of people, bands, clubs, zines, labels, shows you attended, etc, that you feel were essential to this time. I would like this project to be as comprehensive as possible, and yes I would like to include the Wax Trax industrial bands of that time as well as the suburban scene that I was first exposed to that had bands like Screeching Weasel and the Smoking Popes. From Pezband to Naked Raygun to Ministry to the Jesus Lizard, I'd like to touch on all of it. I know these scenes are perhaps unrelated, some even aggresively so, yet they all contributed to making Chicago an important center of all things rock.
This would be as long as it needed to be, so if and when it is finally broadcast, it may be a multi episode production. I am also interested in any live or rare recordings for use in the documentary. However, I want to talk about more than just the music and get into the hippie feel good aspects of people's feelings, attitudes, artistic goals and life changing events that all pertain to the subject of Chicago's underground music community of the 70's and 80's.
As I said I work for public radio and I come from a DIY background, so this isn't a get rich commercial pursuit, it is my attempt to piece together a history of the music that remains to me exciting and important. I am an engineer at the station and this would be my first production submitted for broadcast consideration so it's ultimate realization is unknown, though I have the support of some people at the station.
Please feel free to email me at graham@grahamhick.com with "Chicago Punk" or some such thing in your subject line, with ideas and suggestions of who and what to cover. Also feel free to discuss it here in this thread. As I said, I wasn't aware until 1987 so I need help in making this accurate and relevant. I have the luxury of taking my time, but I don't want to spend more than a year or so on it if I can help it.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading.
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