Come on baby, let me whisper in your ear

December 2, 2021 5:14 PM

Before the Seattle sound grunged its way to the top of the charts, a power pop trio from Chicago dropped their debut album, International Pop Overthrow. Now a documentary by a filmmaker born four years after lead singer Jim Ellison died by suicide is tells the story in Out of Time: The Material Issue Story. It premieres in Chicago tonight at Lincoln Hall.

Forbes coverage by Jim Ryan

Chicago Sun-Times

Axios

Reminiscence from a Chicagoan whose self-proclaimed 'crappy band' opened for Material Issue (and also for the Replacements).

I saw a fair number of MI shows. But not enough. Valerie loved them. I did, too.

posted by cyndigo (27 comments total)

The first time I was ever in a college radio station, I sat in the booth and listened to a friend blast the then-new "Diane" out into the middle of the night in the small Indiana town we were living in.

RIP and thanks for an indelible memory, Jim Ellison.
posted by ryanshepard at 5:33 PM on December 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

Great post. I bought IPO based on the album title and cover alone and loved it. Such a fantastic set of songs. That record plus a friend giving me a dub of a Ramones album and Frankenchrist all around the same time are what opened the door to punk.

In retrospect, I always kind of think of IPO as an American counterpart to the La's record.
posted by Text TK at 6:14 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

“Valerie Loves Me” was one of the songs that let me understand what music can do.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:35 PM on December 2, 2021 [6 favorites]

I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t listened to them because I hated the sleeve art for Fun City Soundtrack. Their Kim the Waitress cover is great, though.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:52 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Material Issue was well known in Chicago, but I don’t know how widely known they are beyond in the rest of the US or world. I have many fond memories of teenage-me driving a convertible in the summer, blasting IPO. I tried to see them play a bar in Champaign not long before Jim Ellison died but you had to be 19 to enter and my fake I’d got turned away. One of my biggest concert regrets.
posted by Bunglegirl at 7:02 PM on December 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh man. My Chuck E. Cheese coworker Doug brought Freak City Soundtrack into the break room and it was love at first sound. I memorized every note and then worked backwards to International Pop Overthrow and Destination Universe. They were the perfect ‘90s power pop band.

We were just down the road in St. Louis and so I got to see them a few times before Jim was gone. Just the best.

Thanks for this post.
posted by AgentRocket at 7:31 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Goofy side story: we are foster parents and our very first placement was a special needs Kindergarten girl who really responded to music. I’d play her everything in my library and sometimes something would get down in there deep. “What Girls Want” was one of those songs, and she’d gleefully sing along with the chorus.

After her time with us (we were always meant to be a temporary placement), she transitioned to an adoptive home that was evangelical. To ease the move we made a CD of her favorite music.

I can’t imagine she got past “I want love, I want drugs, I want sex and affection” more than once. It makes me laugh to think about. Loved that kid so much.
posted by AgentRocket at 7:55 PM on December 2, 2021 [5 favorites]

"Material Issue was well known in Chicago, but I don’t know how widely known they are beyond in the rest of the US or world. "

"Valerie Loves Me" was in pretty heavy rotation on MTV's "120 Minutes" and Indy radio stations at the time.
posted by jonathanhughes at 8:11 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Such a great 3 piece, I remember Gordon Gano giving them a huge 👍 once at a festival, their energy was very similar.
posted by riverlife at 8:17 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Am I old or was there a story about Jim and Tim Rutili of Red Red Meat throwing their own piss at each other? Two great bands.
posted by repoman at 8:28 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

Whew, just the mention of Illinois Entertainer took me back. MI was an amazing band with just pitch-perfect power pop that holds up so very well… looking forward to seeing this documentary when it hopefully does go streaming next year.
posted by hijinx at 9:21 PM on December 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

They came to my shiity Chicago-adjacent hometown on a double bill with The Pursuit Of Happiness, who are still one of my all-time faves. What a night that was.
posted by mykescipark at 9:31 PM on December 2, 2021 [2 favorites]

I thought I hadn't heard them before - having grown up around Chicago but born a bit late. My dad had WXRT on constantly in my youth though, so I went over to Spotify and found myself singing along to the choruses - completely buried memories!
posted by onehalfjunco at 11:07 PM on December 2, 2021 [3 favorites]

There is a "Material Issue VEVO" channel on YouTube if you want to explore and don't have Spotify or whatever.

I only discovered the band recently so this post is timely, thank you.
posted by maxwelton at 11:12 PM on December 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Material Issue ruled, I played them all the time on WORT in Madison, and Teegeeack AV Club Secretary needs to steer clear of the Hoboken Shop-Rite.
posted by whuppy at 5:19 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

I go back and forth on them. Always thought the chorus of 'Diane' was really lazy, and I didn't hear "Valerie Loves Me" until much later, so I never paid much attention to their first album.

Then some local car audio company used "What Girls Want" in their radio commercial, and I thought it sounded great. So found Destination Universe and loved it. Their cover of Kim the Waitress (video linked above) is awesome - and I spent more time than I'd like to admit (in those days it was much harder) trying to figure out if all the little references were pertinent to the theme of the video.

Then I moved on and never got anything new from them. Was too young to have seen them in concert, and by the time I was old enough, they were gone.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:54 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

And just for the casual fans: The post title song Don't You Think I Know , which is an album track off Destination Universe, and it employs the excellent songwriting trick of a love song with an unspecified gender of any of the parties in the song.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:13 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Apple Music link for the Pop overthrow album . Boo to spotify.
posted by zenon at 8:14 AM on December 3, 2021 [3 favorites]

I mean boo to apple too. Man I miss rdio.

Anyway, MI is America’s Sloan.
posted by zenon at 8:16 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Wow, "Valerie Loves Me" is a massive late-teens nostalgia trip for me too. I last heard it in a childhood friend's bedroom sitting by a glass case of pewter dragon statuettes, not long before we went away to college. The song made you imagine what might be waiting out there beyond your small town. It appeared on a mix tape of college rock made for my friend by a girl with an unrequited obsession with him (and much better taste in music than us). Even though I was a bitter and jealous GNR fan who hated love songs and hated everyone for finding romantic partners, there was something so compelling and desperate about the Valerie story in the song that it jolted me. But then we got to college and in a few years all these exciting beginning-of-the-'90s sounds seemed to give way to the bleak world of Pearl Jam clones...RIP Jim Ellison.
posted by johngoren at 9:09 AM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wow, "Valerie Loves Me" is a massive late-teens nostalgia trip for me too.

Ever notice how it's a companion song of Elvis Costello (and Paul McCartney)'s Veronica (and produced by T-Bone Burnett, all rock royalty), but equally as good?
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:38 AM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

"Valerie Loves Me" is hashed together with Icicle Works' "Understanding Jane" in my head.
posted by The Tensor at 12:11 PM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

Maybe it is bad to inject this into a discussion of power pop but this lovely ‘90s first-person piece remembering friendship with Ellison turns out to be by a guy pardoned for stalking by Donald Trump. Strange world.
posted by johngoren at 12:47 PM on December 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

♫♪♪ And she says...Well I'm out right now, but I might be back in the morning. I'm out right now. Leave your name and number on the recording. ♫♪♪

Out Right Now
posted by elmono at 1:29 PM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

“Very First Lie” is a perfect song.

I just picked up my copy of a new vinyl release of International Pop Overthrow put out by these guys.
posted by padraigin at 6:24 PM on December 3, 2021 [2 favorites]

Power Pop Pop.

I can't stop thinking about "Valerie Loves Me" ever since reading this post. Will definitely go track down their albums to listen to. Thanks!
posted by johngoren at 12:46 AM on December 4, 2021 [1 favorite]

International Pop Overthrow came out the spring of my senior year of high school, and I loved it so, so much. It's a perfect sense memory for me of how it felt to be FINALLY leaving home for college and beginning to be a recognizable version of myself.
posted by desuetude at 10:16 PM on December 4, 2021 [3 favorites]