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Features / Interviews
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Chicago Reader
"A Century of Progress - The 1900s make a leap forward with their new album "
by Miles Raymer10/10/07
"It’s only been a year and a half since Bob Mehr profiled the 1900s in the Meter, but my, how they’ve grown. Back then they were a somewhat untested combo that had only been playing shows for seven months, and they were still weeks away from their debut release, the EP Plume Delivery. But they already had a knack for engineering ambitious, baroque pop structures—though they’re a seven-piece, with keys and strings and boy-girl harmony vocals, their songs would sound epic and orchestral even played by a power trio. Now that early promise has been fulfilled: after a year packed with shows to promote Plume Delivery, both in Chicago and on the road, they’re intimidatingly tight, and the EP’s lead single, “Bring the Good Boys Home,” is the closest thing to a local hit the Chicago indie scene has had in years.
When the 1900s appeared in the Meter, they expected to have put out their first LP by this spring, but Cold & Kind (Parasol) just dropped last week—Friday’s show is a release party. Even if you’ve been following their steady evolution into a beautiful machine for the delivery of pop bliss, even if you’ve seen them so often you can sing along with songs they haven’t recorded yet, the new album still might catch you off guard. It’s actually kind of spooky how good it is. With its wealth of unforgettable hooks and its intricate, sensitively executed arrangements, it feels like a classic on first listen—it’s the kind of record that seems to come from a more perfect dimension (or at least from England), not from the band next door. If the 1900s keep this up, it won’t be long till the rest of the country falls for them just as hard as Chicago has.
Yet when I ask how the band has changed most in the past year, they say they have a van now. “The last batch of blogs that have come out about the record have said exactly what I was hoping they would,” says guitarist Mike Jasinski, “that we took a step forward from Plume Delivery.” That’s about as close to gushing over the album as anybody in the band is willing to get. Mostly they talk about how much time and effort they invested in it.
“It took two days to record all the basic tracks,” says songwriter Ed Anderson, who shares lead vocals with Jeanine O’Toole and Caroline Donovan, “and then seven months to do all the overdubs.” The overdub sessions were preceded by months of planning and demo recordings, with the band devising a grid on a whiteboard where every box corresponded to an additional track they wanted for an arrangement. “It took forever to get all those boxes checked off,” says O’Toole. By the time it was all over, though, they’d added horn parts by local improvisers like Keefe Jackson and Josh Berman, extra guitar by songwriter Devin Davis, and percussion by engineer Graeme Gibson. Quartet Parapluie, featuring 1900s string player Andra Kulans, guested on three songs.
As great as Cold & Kind is, it won’t make the 1900s into stars overnight. Sure, they can pack a month’s worth of weekly shows at Schubas, but outside Chicago they say they sell their CDs mostly to door guys and soundmen. So they’re doing the working-band grind, making weekend jaunts around the midwest or to the east coast, driving down to Texas for SXSW, doing stints opening for other bands. (They say they genuinely enjoy spending time together—which is good, because if you cram seven people into a van and they don’t get along, somebody’s gonna get abandoned at a rest stop.)
All this hustle has put them in front of some of the right people: Domino Records, the UK major indie that’s home to Franz Ferdinand and the Arctic Monkeys, approached the band this spring at SXSW, and Atlantic Records sent reps to a Brooklyn show this summer. But the band preferred to stay with Parasol, the Urbana indie that signed them a month after their first show. “We didn’t want to wait until next year to put out the record,” Anderson says. “It would’ve been a disaster in our lives to have to wait that long. But it was getting weird, like, ‘Atlantic or Parasol Records?'”
The 1900s should probably get used to that kind of weirdness—Cold & Kind is only gonna bring more of it their way."
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Newcity - "Kind Hearted " by Tom Lynch 10/10/07
"Local septet The 1900s raced upon the scene in 2006 with a surprising six-song EP called "Plume Delivery" (Parasol), a small collection the band recorded before it even played its first show. The sound—a bit of a throwback to the whimsy of The Velvet Underground and The Zombies—caught the ear of the press and the band quickly became a local critics’ favorite, while its live shows packed in interested scenesters.
Countless successful shows around town—including a slot in the afternoon heat at this summer’s Lollapalooza—helped solidify the group as one of the city’s bright new bands, destined for bigger things at any moment, and "Cold & Kind," The 1900s’ debut full-length, again on Parasol, is certainly the vessel. Expanding on "Plume Delivery"’s sound, a bit cleaner, a bit tighter, a bit more Fleetwood Mac, "Cold & Kind" is the record you’d expect from The 1900s. More serene than its EP predecessor, the album is quiet, reflective, a carefully crafted trek into the annals of sentimentality. The vocal harmonies, string arrangements and boy-girl trade-off vocals converge into a warm, melodic peace.
"I’d say that I think I approached it with a bit more confidence as far as my vocal arrangements and lyrics go, the little bit of lyrics I contributed," says vocalist Jeanine O’Toole of the band’s mindset while it created the record. "I think—like everyone else in the band—I felt more confident in the way we put things together." She continues, "Last time, we were still getting to know each other when we were making the first record. There was a lot of politeness, ‘I can do this,’ ‘Maybe you should do that.’ This time everybody was a little more blunt, and unafraid to bring up ideas. [There was] a lot more openness, a lot of brutal honesty going on."
"We wanted to do something more epic than the EP," vocalist and guitarist Edward Anderson says. "A little more in your face, a little more solid."
"[The songs] are a bit tighter," O’Toole says. "For the most part, the songs on the record are pop songs, with a beginning, middle and end, each telling a different story. The songs are shorter, more concise. There’s more editing going on. On the first record, we’d let the chorus go for a second time, just because. On this record there was a lot of editing, keeping only what’s best."
She says there isn’t a preconceived notion of what The 1900s should be, that the material develops naturally. "I don’t think anybody feels we need to sound like this, play a show like this, look or act like this," she says. "Things have opened up in the last year or so, we’re more comfortable with each other, for better or worse. Decisions are made based on what we all think should happen. There doesn’t seem to be any outside influence."
Anderson sees "Cold & Kind" thematically as a continuation of "Plume Delivery." "It kind of has this idea of escape," he says, "it kind of plays with the idea the last song on the EP had, ‘If we left all earthly things behind.’ This album starts from that idea, going on a journey of leaving all the stuff that doesn’t matter behind and focusing on the things that really matter."
The record, even in just its arrangements, shows a deeper maturity, from the illustrious balladry of a song called "City Water" to a small, but perfect and gorgeous, guitar lead on closer "Wool of the Lamb." Either a band grows or falls to pieces—it will rarely stay idle—and The 1900s are definitely moving forward. "We’ve definitely grown, like in our bellies," Anderson jokes, and then seconds O’Toole’s sentiment, "but I think we’ve become much more confident, knowing what we can and can’t do. Maybe a year ago, we didn’t know what it would be like to play a big show. It was kind of scary, but we played with Iron and Wine for 1,300 people. Having the ability to do that and knowing you can do that, it’s a good feeling. You gain confidence in yourself."
O’Toole says the overwhelming positive response the band has received since last year was unexpected. "I don’t think anybody expects positive attention," she says. "But we also really worked for it. I’d be lying if I said the band was getting together writing songs for fun. We do it with the intention of other people hearing it. That’s the nature of happy, sentimental music. We have nostalgic pop music, and you don’t make that kind of music if you don’t want to share it with others. So we have a feeling of relief and gratitude that anybody likes the music at all"
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Metromix / Red Eye - "Size Doesn't Matter " by Matt Pais 10/10/07
" How can a devoted Cubs fan like Ed Anderson, singer and guitarist for Chicago buzz band The 1900s, record his group’s debut across the street from U.S. Cellular Field?
"Well, it was in the middle of winter so it was pleasantly void of Sox fans," he says.
Local baseball rivalries won’t be a priority for long, though. After building a loyal following around town and rocking Lollapalooza in August, the seven-piece band is ready for national exposure. The 1900s’ full-length debut, "Cold and Kind," is reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian, full of catchy, horn-laced melodies and disarmingly pleasant vocals from Anderson, Jeanine O’Toole and other band members. Chicago Tribune music critic Greg Kot has called it one of the year’s best albums.
From his day job in Logan Square, Anderson told us about the pros of squeezing seven people onto tiny stages, the band’s plan to eventually become a country act and the confusion caused by similarly named groups.
There’s also the Scottish band The 1990s, and there’s Chicago’s 1997. What’s the deal?
I don’t know. It’s pretty annoying though. … I think we’re gonna be playing with the 1990s in Washington, D.C., which is going to be kind of amazing, I think. We just got it in the e-mail yesterday, and we’re like, "Holy s***! We’re playing with the 1990s! We can finally kick their asses, wipe ’em off the face of the earth!"
With seven band members in the 1900s, how hard is it to squeeze everyone onstage?
Sometimes, the smaller the better. We’ve never played a stage where people haven’t fit, even though it’s been really close and tight. Sometimes it’s kind of amazing to play a really small stage … everyone just needs to mash super-close together and bump into each other—kinda makes it a little more intense. But then you’ll play at some huge stage, and you’ll look, and the next person’s like 10 feet away from you, and you’re like, "How you doin’ down there?"
Do you start to feel lonely?
Yeah! [Laughs] It’s hard to run over and dance with them and get back to your mic in order to start singing the next part.
You’re a bit like Fleetwood Mac, with all of the past and current relationships between band members. Does that give the 1900s potential for the same longevity?
Um, well, they’ve done all right, I guess. What did they put out, four albums with all those guys? Four or five. I think if we did four or five records that would be pretty awesome. I always tell everyone that to play music when you get older you have to play country cuz it’s the only kind of music you can play when you’re old and still be cool. So we’re going to move maybe in the next 20 years into straight-on, full-on country … That’s our 20-year arc plan.
Yet you’re already working on a solo album. Are you leaving the band only weeks after the debut comes out?
Oh, no, definitely not. Mostly it started because they’re all songs that the band passed on when I gave them a CD of all the demos that we were considering. And I was like, "I’ll show them! I’ll make it so good! They’re going to be pissed they didn’t want to play it!"
Good, because that would be the fastest-ever turnaround from bandleader to solo artist.
I’m going to probably make a band name for it too just so it’s not like "Edward Anderson: new release." That’s kind of annoying.
Maybe the 1910s?
Yeah. We’ll see, man. No, definitely not.
So anything that cannot be found on a calendar.
[Laughs] Right. The Decemberists ... The Novemberists! That’s what I’m going to call it"
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Chicago Tribune - "1900s create one of year's best albums " by Greg Kot 9/9/07
"Edward Anderson had big plans for the debut album by his Chicago septet, the 1900s. A grand "psychedelic Motown" opus, he said in the promising summer of 2006, tongue only partially in cheek. Then things got out of hand.
"At the start, it all felt like it was not going to be a problem. I had a real clear idea of what I wanted to do with the songs," Anderson says. "But it got to a real raw end point, and I lost all perspective on it."
"Cold & Kind" (Parasol) coldly took the band's money and time, and nearly their sanity. It shredded their modest budget and took seven months to record, re-record and mix multiple times, with the band working weekends and nights in between day jobs.
"Only in the last few weeks did I finally get to the point where I started to feel happy with the end result," says singer Jeanine O'Toole.
At least from the listeners' perspective, the angst was worth it. "Cold & Kind," due out Oct. 2, is one of the year's best albums, and more than fulfills the promise of the group's widely lauded 2006 debut EP, "Plume Delivery." With its sumptuous arrangements, outfitted with horns and strings, and soaring harmony vocals, the disc is a pop masterwork: dense yet not heavy-handed, with rapturous arrangements sweeping the melodies off their feet. Yet beneath the heady surface, the songs explore notions of risk, death and redemption in a loose narrative. The characters sometimes go too far, and the turmoil they encounter stands in stark contrast to the sun-kissed music.
The album's centerpiece, "Acultiplantar Dude," is an elegy of sorts to a friend who died of a drug overdose. The song's closing refrain -- "If I died I would live again in your body" -- was written before the tragedy. A few months later, it was discovered that the dead man's girlfriend was pregnant with his child. It made the line seem eerily prescient, another layer of subtext to an album already swimming in drama.
"Words can be pretty ferocious," O'Toole says. "It's pretty emotional to sing some of them, because our lives all changed while we were making this record."
Those personal travails raised the stakes for the album, and the band -- Anderson, O'Toole, vocalist Caroline Donovan, drummer Tim Minnick, keyboardist Mike Jasinski, bassist Charlie Ransford and violinist Andra Kulans -- didn't back off. Every note mattered, which is why the album went through several incarnations before all the band members could embrace it.
Even though albums aren't the coin of the musical realm anymore in the MP3 era, O'Toole still holds them dear. "An album is like a great novel, and I wouldn't want to read just one chapter of a novel," she says. "Albums are a beautiful piece of art, and I want to keep making them."
Anderson aims to oblige. He's readying a solo album and says he's already making headway on the next 1900s release. "The next one is going to be a little more stripped down," he says with a laugh. "A little looser to make. At least I hope so."
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Schubas Backstage - interview from SXSW, Austin, TX 2007
Listen here: http://www.schubas.com/interviews.aspx?interview=10
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Chicago Sun Times- "Grand Entrance" by Jim DeRogtis 2/2/07 view entire article
excerpt: "The band's very name hints that it is a group out of step with prevailing pop trends and harkening back to another grander time. And indeed, with their fragile but gorgeous melodies and lush orchestral-pop arrangements, the 1900s stand out as one of the most promising up-and-comers on the local music scene."
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New City - Ten musical artists on the verge by Tom Lynch 1/17/07 view online
"With inspiration from The Zombies and The Velvet Underground, the seven-piece orchestra of indie pop The 1900s landed surefooted with 2006's EP "Plume Delivery," a promising and focused collection of songs that stands out for its charm and detailed grace. On stage, the band's even better--the sixties pop erupts with monumental vigor as the boy-girl harmonies, plus the violin and dead-ahead bass and drum parts, create a whirlwind of earnest, pleasurable fun. The band's currently recording what will become its first full-length, and based on what we've heard so far, it seems as if this band will deliver on that original promise.
Potential Stumbles: Too many cooks in the kitchen--keeping seven members together cannot be easy.
Quotable: Jeanine O'Toole, vocalist, says about the new record: "All of us personally went through things. The band lost a really good friend, and that affected everyone in different ways. When things like that happen to a group of people, it changes everybody a little bit. We've had a couple broken bones--some injuries. So the record's definitely reflective, definitely on the last year of our lives."
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Chicago Tribune - by Greg Kot 6/30/06
1900's spawn tricky sound, relationships
Jeanine O'Toole is happy to be calling from New York, where her band, the 1900's, is playing a series of concerts. "I'm shocked that we're all still alive and no one's in jail," she says with only a hint of a laugh. "This whole thing nearly fell apart" before it began.
A few days before the octet's first extended tour outside of Chicago was to begin, keyboardist Mike Jasinski stumbled home to the Logan Square apartment he shares with guitarist Edward Anderson. He was shoeless and sporting a right elbow that resembled a black and blue grapefruit. A half-day was spent in the waiting room of Cook County Hospital, where it was determined he'd suffered a broken arm.
Details are vague, but band members say an Andersonville bar, an aggressive bouncer, some kind of altercation and a door were involved. Jasinski took one for the team, though. He's not only on the road with his bandmates, he drove the band's van all the way to the East Coast and is hauling his own equipment at gigs.
"What a trooper," O'Toole marvels. Such is life in a band where everything, from the music to the relationships, is somewhat complicated.
The 1900's have a terrific EP to their credit, "Plume Delivery" (Parasol), and a boatload of buzz built on live gigs. Their gorgeous multipart harmonies, swooning strings, indelible melodies and multipart psychedelic folk-rock songs suggest a cool, clear-headed update of the Zombies and Love. Yes, the future looks bright--if the band can keep its volatile chemistry in balance.
Groundwork for the band was laid years ago by Anderson, Jasinski and drummer Tim Minnick, who began playing together at south suburban Amos Alonzo Stagg High School. They began assembling their dream band two years ago when they asked bassist Charlie Ransford to join, then recruited vocalists O'Toole and Caroline Donovan.
"I was so sure they would work, even though I didn't actually know if they could sing when I asked them to stop by," Anderson confesses. "Then, when they actually did sing over some of the songs we were writing it was a great relief. `Whoah! They really can sing.'"
O'Toole and Donovan had been best friends since their high school days at Mother McCauley on the South Side, and they had an innate sense of harmony from their extensive training in theater.
Within weeks, Donovan began dating Anderson, and O'Toole paired off with Ransford. The latter couple eventually broke up, and tension was high within the band for a few weeks, but the notion of quitting never arose. "We're in this band together for better or worse, and now we're friends again," O'Toole says.
When it's suggested that this sounds more than a little like the mid-'70s soap opera that surrounded Fleetwood Mac circa Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and Christine and John McVie, O'Toole responds: "Oh, yeah, except without as much coke."
Anderson laughs when told of O'Toole's response. "Actually, I'd say with more coke." Jokes aside, he says, the notion of band members sharing more than just music left him a little uneasy at first, "but the relationships are all pretty solid now. We had our best soundcheck ever the other night. We were just having a great time being together. Usually someone storms off, and people are screaming at each other."
That passion cuts through the music, which makes all the internal drama worthwhile, Anderson and O'Toole concur. "It's worked out freakishly well," O'Toole says. "In a way, we're still getting to know each other."
The band, which now includes violinist Audra Kulan and violist Whitney Johnson, was together for a year before playing its first concert, last September in downstate Champaign. By then, they'd already recorded "Plume Delivery," with the idea that they would distribute it themselves. Instead, Geoff Merritt, owner of the respected indie label Parasol, offered the fledgling band a record deal after the show.
"He came to the show as a friend, and I don't think he had any intention of signing us," O'Toole says. "Then he saw us play, and said he wanted to put the record out. It happened so fast, we didn't think he was being serious. But he e-mailed the next Monday and said he absolutely was."
Anderson is serious about his band, too. "We have bigger plans for how the next record will sound," the guitarist says. "It'll be more grand. String arrangements, horns . . . we jokingly call it `psychedelic Motown.'"
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Daily Southtown - By Robert Loerzel 6/30/06
Ensemble rock
When Edward Anderson and Tim Minnick were students at Stagg High School in Palos Hills in the mid 1990s, they did more than start a band. They created their own little world.
"It was almost like a cult. We had our own mythology," Anderson says.
That cult band was MOP, short for Minotaurs of P. They sang songs in made-up languages and pretended they lived in an imaginary city, moving from experimental noise to tuneful pop as they learned to play their instruments better.
"Sophomore year at Stagg, we were the freaks, the weirdo kids," Anderson says. But by senior year, even some of the jocks were ready to join the cult, he says.
A decade later, Anderson and Minnick have a new group that's ripe for a cult following — the 1900s. The seven-piece band, playing catchy songs that sound straight out of the late '60s, has just released its debut recording, a six-song EP called "Plume Delivery," on Champaign-based Parasol Records.
Anderson, Minnick and their bandmate from Chicago's Beverly community, Michael Jasinski, parted ways after high school as they went off to different colleges.
They all returned to the Chicago area eventually, ending up in different bands. For a while, Anderson and Minnick played together in Forty Piece Choir, but Anderson says he wanted to be in a band in which he had more artistic control.
"I was the seventh member, and he was playing drums, so we didn't have much say," he says. "I ended up getting kicked out of that band. … Finally, we said, 'All right, it's time for us to do our own thing.' "
The name of the 1900s is not intended to make the band sound old-fashioned.
"It's just the idea of a century that's just come to an end," Anderson says.
But old musical styles are clearly an influence.
"We're playing the kind of music that we all like," he says.
From the beginning, they wanted the 1900s to be a large ensemble, with female singers and violin in addition to the standard rock instruments. The group includes Anderson on guitar and vocals, Minnick on drums, Jasinski on keyboards and guitar, Chesterton, Ind., native Charlie Ransford on bass, Andra Kulans on violin, and singers Jeanine O'Toole and Caroline Donovan, both of whom grew up in Beverly.
The band members all live in Chicago's Logan Square and Bucktown neighborhoods.
Although the 1900s are capable of almost orchestral pop, Anderson says he wants to avoid the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sound of other big groups such as the Polyphonic Spree. Instead of having everyone play everything all at once, the 1900s carefully arrange their songs so the different sounds have maximum impact.
For several months, though, the band members weren't sure what it was going to sound like. The guitarists, bassist and drummer practiced their parts for half a year before they felt ready to bring in the female singers. And, Anderson adds, "We'd never heard them sing before."
It all worked out when O'Toole and Donovan finally were brought in to sing their parts. The group recorded its first six songs a year ago, attracting interest from Parasol Records.
"We recorded it before we'd even played a live show or anyone had heard us," Anderson said. "We're writing new songs that we like even better."
The 1900s played a CD-release party last month at Schubas before a wildly enthusiastic audience, and the band will perform Saturday at the Double Door, a benefit for the radio station WLUW-FM (88.7).
After more concerts this summer to promote "Plume Delivery," the 1900s will begin recording a full-length album in the fall, with plans for full string and horn arrangements.
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Newcity 6/29/06 by Tom Lynch (Tip of the week)
"Two of the best new bands to recently emerge from the city, Office and the
1900s, bring their indie-pop to the Double Door stage, a sensible pairing
of tarts that should play all their shows together..... The 1900s, one of
my new favorites, fuses sixties-pop with a grand curtain of current indie
rock glow - their six members create a wholeheartedly atmospheric
experience on stage, each song a gem, each chord progression and vocal
melody freeing and startling. Those harmonies astound. "The Plume
Delivery" EP, the band's only release so far, is a prize local release from
this year, perhaps the best."
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Timeout New York - Shows not to miss June 2006
"Opening [for Midlake] are the 1900s, a sprawling band that recently issued its first EP, Plume Delivery (Parasol), and is talked about with dollar-eyed reverence in its native Chicago. As it turns out, the seven musicians stalk a middle ground ceded by Midlake, performing bittersweet pop with shades of both '60s London and '70s Los Angeles. Indeed, the 1900s have a scrambled sense of time: "Tomorrow," they song at one point, "has come and gone." (Jay Ruttenberg)
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www.3hive.com June 2006
" The bouncy organ riffs sold me immediately on The 1900's. Lines like "wrap them in licorice and tie them to stones" and the strings and french horn that close out the song complete the psychedelic smorgasbord from this Chicago sextet. Speaking of sex, it sounds like there's a few love triangles between band members. Keep those relationships in check kids! We wouldn't want to spoil the party before things get going. Their debut "mini-album" Plume Delivery has been out less than a month. They'd make good summer mix tape neighbors with The Zombies, Stereolab, and the ol' Elephant 6 crew.
The 1900's play with Midlake tonight at the Mercury Lounge in New York, with shows continuing in the city for the next two nights (Fontana's and Arlene's Grocery respectively). More tour dates here. "
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NewCity - Tom Lynch - June 2006
"Tip of the Week: The 1900s
One of the finest new bands I've heard in a long, long time, local sextet The 1900s celebrate the release of their debut EP "Plume Delivery" (Parasol Records) this week, a blissful six-song collection of sixties pop-inspired treasure, fueled by delicate songwriting and elegant vocal harmonies, graceful string accompaniment and sturdy use of keyboards. It's been said before, but the band channels the likes of the Velvet Underground, The Zombies and Belle & Sebastian and, in my opinion, perhaps more convincingly and with more confidence then any other band that has tried before. The sheer joyousness of the band's work haunts you with affection. The best part is that audiences are catching on--the band recently sold out a show at the Hideout--and the layers upon layers of subtlety and substance within each song leave much to be discovered, well after multiple listens."
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Time Out Chicago by Matthew Lurie (wonderful photographs in print by Calbee Booth)
This could be their year
Chicago’s eight-piece pop ensemble The 1900s is on its way to Next Big Thing status.
"Soon after local breeze-pop darlings The 1900s were formed, the groups spiritual forebear become obvious: “There were some contentious relationships within the band, and we realized, Omigod, we’re totally Fleetwood Mac,” recounts vocalist-guitarist Edward Anderson. Specifically, lead singer Jeanine O’Toole and bassist Charlie Ransford were once an item, and Anderson now dates vocalist Caroline Donovan. But the band has more in common with the seminal rock band then its potentially contentious emotional entanglements: The South Suburban band’s debut EP, Plume Delivery, is top-notch summer lounging music reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s best work.
“With this many people you have to be simple,” explains drummer Tim Minnick. Anderson adds “It’s really easy to get crazy and intense – like the Polyphonic Spree – but it’s better if you just let the beat do the work for you.” Instead of eight people clamoring for attention, The 1900s give each other room to breathe. The result is surprisingly airy: Delicate harmonies hover over glassy keyboards, and the melancholy vocals of O’Toole and Anderson blur with strings and strummed acoustic guitars.
The band wasn’t exactly shooting for the stars with the EP’s release, multi-instrumentalist Mike Jasinski says. “We always had pipe dreams about it getting picked up, but it was mostly meant to farm out so we could eventually make that freshman effort,” he says. Urbana indie label Parasol had a little more faith: The label signed The 1900s after their first performance in Champaign and will release Plume nationally this week.
The 1900s formed in 1992, when Palos Park high-school friends Minnick, Anderson and Jasinski bonded over their mutual love of popsters like Buddy Holly and Tommy James. After many false starts in other bands, the three friends reconnected after college and decided they wouldn’t be content with a bedroom project. “Back when [just the guys] first wrote the songs, they were always written with the idea that we’re going to be putting more over this,” Jasinski says.
The “more” turned out to be Ransford and the female members of the band, Donovan, O’Toole as well as new string players Andra Kulans and Whitney Johnson. O’Toole and Donovan’s first audition went beyond informal: “Me and Caroline used to have these dance parties. And we did this dance number at each one to Ike and Tina Turner’s Proud Mary’. We’re show-offs,” O’Toole says. The boys invited the girls over for a more formal rehearsal and “there was no question after that,” Anderson says.
During a photo shoot on a summery night, there was no trace of romantic tension between the bandmembers. They’re all sweet, well-adjusted twentysomethings with day jobs, working in everything from non-profits with international refugees to attending nursing school. Jasinski, though, just lost his job. “I’m the first full-time 1900!” he says. There’s hope that, by summer’s end, he won’t be the last. "
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UR Chicago - Amber Drea - May/June Issue
"Consisting of eight players - including two red-headed go-go dancing back-up singers named "the Murphs," alternating male-female vocals, vintage keyboards, lushly layered guitars and a string section - the band evokes the sounds of artists such as Belle & Sebastian, Broadcast and Nico...their six-track debut EP, Plume Delivery, reveals a dedication to producing melodic, meticulously arranged songs"
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Chicago Reader - Bob Mehr - "The Meter" 4/21/06 (view online)
Do old friends make good bandmates? It's sure working for the 1900s.
Just Right
After a series of musical matchups that didn't quite fit, three childhood pals put together their dream band, the 1900s.
The 1900s have only been playing live shows since September, and their debut EP, Plume Delivery, doesn't come out until May 30. But they've led a charmed existence so far. They landed a deal with Parasol Records shortly after their first gig, the EP's enjoying positive advance notices on indie-rock tip sheets and MP3 blogs, and they sold out a recent headlining gig at the Hideout.
The band's sweet, keyboard-swathed pop shows a strong 60s influence and puts coed vocals front and center, a formula that's worked for bands like the New Pornographers, Belle & Sebastian, and Broken Social Scene. But, guitarist and singer Edward Anderson argues, the band also works because it's a group of "friends, lovers, and ex-lovers." Most of its six members -- Anderson, drummer Tim Minnick, bassist Charlie Ransford, multi-instrumentalist Mike Jasinski, and vocalists Jeanine O'Toole and Caroline Donovan -- have known each other since childhood. O'Toole and Ransford once dated, and Anderson and Donovan are still an item.
Growing up in the southwest suburb of Palos Park, Anderson took an early interest in making music: when he was 11 he and a few neighbors started messing around with a crude home-recording setup. "It was like a really old drum machine and some acoustic guitars and a tape deck," he says. "One guy would write lyrics and we'd just improvise whole albums on the spot."
Anderson was classmates with Tim Minnick, who got into music while playing percussion in the school band. In high school the two formed a noisy experimental outfit called M.O.P. (short for Minotaurs of P) that included another classmate, Mike Jasinski, on guitar. But after graduating in the mid-90s the three friends went separate ways: Minnick to art school in England, Jasinski to Carbondale to study recording and composition at SIU, and Anderson to the University of Oregon to study anthropology and folklore.
In 2001 Anderson returned to Chicago, where Minnick was playing with the eclectic local roots-rockers Forty Piece Choir. Anderson soon joined the group as a seventh member, but his ambition to play a larger songwriting role in the band soon got him kicked out. ("I kinda overstepped my bounds creatively," he says.) The following year he joined Plane, a postpunk combo led by Edgars Legzdins, who'd recorded Forty Piece Choir. Plane frequently played with local power-pop band Turner Joy, and Anderson became friends with that band's bassist, Charlie Ransford.
"I'd run into Ed at shows and we'd hang out," says Ransford. "And he always talked about doing something together. He had these ideas kicking around. We'd all been in situations musically where it wasn't exactly what we wanted. So finally we thought, 'Let's do a band, but let's do it right.'"
"We didn't quite form the band out of desperation -- it wasn't like it was our last hope or anything," says Anderson, who's 27. "But I don't want to be a rock star at 40. It was more like, 'Let's take everything we've learned and all get together and do it the right way.'"
In the spring of 2004 Anderson, Jasinski, Ransford, and Minnick began playing together, bonding over their mutual obsessions -- which included Velvet Underground bootlegs and Daft Punk singles -- at Anderson's home studio in Logan Square. Their longlate-night jam sessions led to a three-song demo of Anderson's finely etched pop songs.
But the band wanted to fill out the tracks some more, adding strings and female vocals in particular. "We had just been imagining these parts for months when it was just the four of us," says Minnick. "We knew the band had to add something else." Through mutual friends, Anderson met Jeanine O'Toole and Caroline Donovan, roommates who'd grown up together in the south-side neighborhood of Mount Greenwood singing in Catholic church choirs and high school musicals.
Anderson approached the two about joining the 1900s shortly after the demos were finished in the summer of 2004. "I remember we spent a long time on the deck at this dinner party talking about music and what the band would be," says O'Toole. Neither she nor Donovan had been in a group, but both were sold after hearing the demo tracks. "I totally loved it," says O'Toole. "I remember telling Caroline, 'This is a band I would totally listen to.'"
Soon after, Anderson brought the two into his home studio and asked them to improvise their vocal parts. "We knew how to sing in arrangements, having done it in church and school and everything," Donovan says. "I sing second soprano, so I always naturally sing harmony parts."
Anderson also brought in violinist Kristina Dutton, another old Palos Park acquaintance, who is also a member of Smallwire and Andrew Morgan's band. By May, with Jasinski producing, they began work on Plume Delivery, which kicks off with O'Toole singing the pulsing, organ-driven "Bring the Good Boys Home" and closes with the jangly miniature "Heart Props." They recorded the EP over a series of weekends at a studio at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where Minnick works as a Web programmer for a bioterrorism-preparedness program in the school's department of public health. "After 9/11, as part of Bush's plan to fund bioterrorism-protection efforts, they built this big studio to record lectures and do webcasts," Minnick says. "It's federally funded, so it's a really nice setup."
The band handed the tracks to engineer Graeme Gibson for mixing in September, the same month they played their very first gig, opening for Bobby Conn at the student union at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The show was sparsely attended, but one of the folks in the crowd was Geoff Merritt, owner of Urbana-based Parasol Records. O'Toole, who worked at Parasol when she was living in Champaign, had sent him a copy of the demo, but Merritt says it was the show that sold him. "Usually, first shows are fun but sloppy, especially with a band that has seven members," Merritt says. "I just kept thinking of Roxy Music, where they practiced for ages before they went out and played. It seemed like these guys had done the same thing." Less than a month later, the 1900s had signed a deal with the label. Since then Dutton's left to devote herself to her other projects, and the band's brought in two adjunct members, viola player Whitney Johnson and violinist Andra Kulans.
The 1900s are set to begin recording a full-length with Gibson this summer. "We're planning on making it more of a big production, so it probably won't be coming out until next spring," Anderson says. In the meantime, the band will be playing various gigs to promote Plume Delivery, including a guest spot in I.O.'s Late Night Late Show on April 29, a show at Metro on May 12 opening for Brad Peterson and the Bon Mots, and an official release party June 3 at Schubas. After that, they'll head east for their first tour.
For Anderson the growing attention is gratifying but also a little unsettling. "The response has been pretty incredible, almost weird as far as everyone being super helpful and friendly, and other bands asking us to play shows," he says. "We've kinda been looking at each other like, 'What's happening here?'"
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New City -Tom Lynch - 4/13/06
"A total throw back to sixties pop - think The Zombies and the lighter side
of the Velvet Underground - this Chicago sextet makes the most of all their
instruments on "plume Delivery," the band's debut EP on Parasol
Records. The vocal harmonies make the pop pop with almost mathematical
precision, all the while seeming as laid back as a Sunday afternoon at the
ballpark. The band is immensely likable and during the too-brief EP never
strays from what it does best, leaping from tartness to hypnotic jam
interludes and back to tartness again. "Whole of the Law," with its
gentle, dreamy keyboard work and fiddle, is faultless in its innocence,
innovation and thick summertime haze. The fantasy-like, cloud-hopping
weightlessness that the songs inspire is frighteningly joyous and strange,
pulsing and sweet."
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Mundane Sounds - 4/11/06
In the coming months, I predict you're going to hear a lot about a little band from Chicago named The 1900s. You'll probably see their named mention along with comparisons to Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Donovan, Nick Drake, and The Velvet Underground. These comparisons will arise for several reasons, the lesser of which is the fact that their press kit references most of these bands and music writers are, for the most part, rather lazy individuals who will take hand-fed comparisons at face value. The primary reason for such comparisons, though, is quite obvious; The 1900s definitely sound inspired by Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, Donovan, Nick Drake, and the Velvet Underground.
No matter, though.
This group is a very large group; the promo shot shows a band of six, but the band credits list seven, and their sound is indeed quite large. The six songs on debut release Plume Delivery are grand--not "grand" as in "simply faboo" (though they certainly are), but they're lush, larger-than-life affairs that aren't heavy in any orchestra pop kind of way. (It's an odd thing, being a baroque band making baroque pop that's not heavy, but that's another story.) They don't need robes and loud bells and whistles to make their music fabulous (even though, of course, their songs do have them); part of their appeal is that they're simply good songwriters and they're simply good musicians, and this debut of theirs doesn't sound like a debut record at all. If you're an indie-pop boy and you need a new indie-pop crush, you'll fall instantly for Caroline Donovan; if you're an indie-pop girl, it'll be hard for you to resist the charms of Edward Anderson; even though it's the girls who deliver most of the songs, there are a few boy moments, and they're equally as good.
Though all of the songs on Plume Delivery are lovely things, the big, must-hear track is "Patron Saint of the Mediocre." Though they start off with a ripping off of the Wire/Elastica "Three Girl Rhumba/Connected" riff, they quickly turn it into a British post-Mersey/pre-Revolver pop beat (think Zombies, as per the comparison above), with lovely, seductive vocals by Ms. Donovan. Halfway through it, though, the band apparently dropped some acid, and the rest of the jam session becomes quite heady, as they hit upon a psych-pop groooooove that Brian Jonestown Massacre probably wished they'd written. Very delicious stuff, and well worth the admission price.
Sharing the brilliance that is "Patron Saint of the Mediocre" with you here would be wrong, of course, but don't think that this selection is slack, either. It starts off with a wonderful beat...but it ends magnificently. Expect to hear more, and, if you're lucky enough to live in the Chicago area, go see them live!
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INTERVIEW: Scott Smith – Centerstage.net 4/5/06 (view online)
When he set out to form the band that would eventually become The 1900s, guitarist Edward Anderson had a not-so-modest goal: "I had this idea...my dream band in a perfect world."
Bringing together a group of "old friends, lovers and ex-lovers" into a creative, musical melting pot might seem like more of a nightmare than a dream come true. Yet it's obvious by watching The 1900s that they've fallen into an easy push-pull rhythm. Like any group with a shared history, they're constantly finishing each other's sentences or telling stories they've likely repeated several times before.
Their closeness is, in part, due to the "intense pressure" they put on themselves in the year they spent honing their sound before playing their first live show last September.
Anderson formed the core of The 1900s in mid-2004 along with high school friends Tim Minnick on drums and Mike Jasinski on keyboards. They later recruited bassist Charlie Ransford, having long admired his work with the band Turnerjoy. Singers Caroline Donovan and Jeanine O'Toole (who Jasinski would later christen "The Murphs") joined the group in the fall of that year after a casual conversation at a dinner party led the duo to compose three-part harmonies "on the spot" for some of the band's early demos. Multi-instrumentalist Kristina Dutton of Smallwire filled out the lineup.
As any new band must, The 1900s struggle with how to establish their own identity in the face of comparisons to those that have come before them. "Every review we've had, they mention Belle and Sebastian and the Velvet Underground," says O'Toole. "Both are high compliments. I don't really see that, but we're not the most objective."
Their debut EP "Plume Delivery" (out on Parasol Records in late May) should help to define The 1900s' sound for anyone who hasn't caught one of the group's live shows at Schubas or Empty Bottle. While there are nods to the oeuvres of Stuart Murdoch and Lou Reed, fans of '60s psychedelia will find plenty to love with skittish guitars and "96 Tears"-style keyboards that stretch out on a bed of sun-kissed harmonies.
The evolution of The 1900s came naturally without any designs on becoming a psych-pop revival outfit. "The instruments that we used were just stuff that we liked," says Anderson. "We just put mics next to ourselves and that's what we sounded like. It's not blatant or purposeful."
With Dutton no longer a part of the group, The 1900s recently welcomed two new members with open arms: Whitney Johnson on viola and Audra Kulan on violin. "We really like [them]" says O'Toole. "We think they could be just as close with us as we all are with each other."
"We're just keeping our fingers crossed that no other members start dating," says Anderson.
Tell me who you are:
Edward: We're not like one of those people who says 'I can't describe my band.' I usually say we're psychedelic orchestral pop music with vocal harmonies, strings and a little folk in there. We're not trying to be crazy or avant-garde.
In the beginning:
Jeanine: At the Courtyard in Champaign, IL with Bobby Conn. It was not very crowded.
Caroline: It was in the student union. We probably played to 15 people. Not many people go there because there's no smoking and no drinking.
Here I am—rock you like:
Jeanine and Caroline: A Murph!
What's cool in your neck of the woods:
Jeanine: Rainbo. That's our after-practice spot.
Edward: The Hiawatha Inn. It's on Chicago and California. We in there once and there was, like, one guy spinning old 78 records. It was just him and us...and a dog.
Jeanine: I didn't know that place had a name.
This band blew my hair back:
Edward: Andrew Bird. He's one we're all obsessed with.
Jeanine: I followed him around last night.
Edward: I am really crazy about Palliard that we're playing with. I heard their recording, but when I saw them live at Schubas I kept going to Charlie, 'These guys are a-ma-zing.'
After a gig:
Jeannine: We usually hang out wherever we played. I'm always the first to go home. Everybody else stays out until dawn.
Caroline: One time, we were playing the Hideout and Kelly Hogan was sweeping the floor. She was like 'I totally love you guys, but I gotta go home.'
Edward: And we were begging her for beers.
On a Sunday afternoon, you'll find us:
Edward: On my couch.
Caroline: I'd be on Ed's couch too.
Jeanine: I'd be asleep on this couch. We're all couch people on Sundays.
Fresh from the woodshop: Plume Delivery, out May 30 on Parasol Records
Coming soon to a bar near you: April 13 at the Hideout with Palliard & Children vs. Children of Doom.
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Chad Cheatham – The Crutch - March 2006 Issue (www.thecrutch.net)
"When you frame a stage crowded with seven members of a rock troupe, the picture rarely has balance, but Chicago septet, The 1900's, beautifully orchestrate such colorful arrangements that your ears can't help but hear a unit of sound rather than multiple parts. It's straight pop and conjures thoughts of Belle & Sebastian or even Fleetwood Mac, but several layers lay beneath and on top, splashed with psychedelia, garage, and British Invasion – all of which are exemplified in the first single, "Bring the Good Boys Home", off their forthcoming debut, Plume Delivery, out on Parasol Records in May. The subgenre labels, however, fall short of capturing that Velvet Underground "Sunday Morning" feeling of serenity that The 1900's evoke – and even that reference is insufficient. To describe it simply, it will put a smile on your face. Try to picture it, and then go listen."
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NewCity Chicago - Tom Lynch – 1/12/06
The 1900’s
"Combining the most infectious Belle and Sebastian and the melancholic ambience of the Velvet Underground, The 1900’s could potentially become one of Chicago’s best bands in the next few years. Carefully mixed organ and distorted guitars, along with Nico-like vocals and simple, beat-happy drums make the “Plume Delivery” EP quite unforgettable.
Quiet without being self-indulgent, harmonic without pretense and melodic with devastating effect, The 1900’s will be headlining these kind of shows very, very soon, that is if the band gets the recognition it deserves. The dual male-female vocals are brilliantly distributed, and songs like “Whole of the Law” and “Bring the Good Boys Home” come as close to structurally perfect as musically possible, and while the band’s only released a handful of songs thus far, I can’t wait to hear more."
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NewCity Chicago - Tom Lynch – 11/30/05
"The M's / The 1900s at Schubas
Two of Chicago's brightest pop lights:
Awesome! Chicago 's Beatles-esque pop foursome The M's are the next to do the Monday-night residency at Schubas, following a great four nights by The Changes and a less-than-great set of evenings by Baby Teeth. The M's return back to the spotlight after opening gigs over the last few years with indie gold Broken Social Scene and Wilco and, come next February, a new record is due and sure to slot the quartet right back into the "next big thing" conversations that will run rampant through the city, just as they did some time ago. Better yet, tonight the band plays with The 1900s, a dare-I-say totally perfect band of low-key pop and melody, acoustic guitars, strings, and vocal harmonies. Evoking both The Velvet Underground and Belle and Sebastian, The 1900s should be in everyone's head all the time."
