Here is a really obscure entry into this series. Back when the third wave ska/punk fusion was all the rage in the early and mid 90's, one of Chicago's finest was The Eclectics. They put out a few records on Jump Up! Records, including Idle Worship which was recorded with (none other than) Steve Albini. After a few lineup changes they weren't the same. Anyhow, when former Eclectics frontman Roy started a new band (I think it was about 1997 or so), he incorporated more punk/hardcore/emo stylings into the music. I've also heard (but don't know for sure) that the drummer was also in the Eclectics. To the best of my knowledge, Skokie was only briefly a band and only recorded one demo tape with five songs that is long out of print. Despite that very limited output, I remember them fondly rocking the Fireside Bowl. Here are all five songs in iPod friendly format straight from the original demo tape.
MP3 | Skokie - Skokie Demo
MP3 | Skokie - Sunday (A Whole Lot Of) Demo
MP3 | Skokie - Some Kind Of Wonderful Demo
MP3 | Skokie - Sam & Diane Demo
MP3 | Skokie - Snow Angel Demo
4 Comments ↓
I never realized how crappy these guys were. Man...
awwww...i loved me some eclectics....
there was a second cassette release, two of which songs that ended up on the clubhouse's 1998 summer sampler cd (the only one they released, i think)
of the other two songs from that tape, one was a cover of the smiths "stop me if you think you've heard this one before"..
and yes indeed dale (drummer) from the eclectics was in this band for a short time, as was the eclectics guitarist russ. they played on the first tape and maybe a handful of shows.
they started playing shows somewhere around spring of 97, played shows here and there and then imploded sometime about a year later (strangely enough, it seemed like they were around a lot longer when i was 15 years old..)
OK here's the story of Skokie. After Roy left the Eclectics he wanted to start a new band, so he got me (Kevin) to play guitar and Dylan to play bass. Russ and Dale from the Eclectics were with us too in the beginning. We recorded our first demo in a basement in Elgin. Our sound back then was pretty emo and poppy. Shortly after the tape was released Russ and Dale quit, so we got this guy Ben (I think he was from Maywood or something) to play drums and our friend Jody (from Everlast and a couple other bands) to play guitar. Ben played with us for a few shows and then quit and moved to California. Then we got Tony to play drums. Tony was an awesome drummer and hopefully he's playing in a band somewhere now. Roy wanted to replace Jody for some reason so we got Tony's friend Eric( or "E" as he was called)to play guitar. This was our final lineup. Our sound had changed a lot by then to a more melodic hardcore sound. People said we sounded like Lifetime, Avail, Dag Nasty, etc. Some people didn't like Roy's voice, but some did. We recorded a four song tape at Sonic Iguana studios, two of which appeared on a Clubhouse CD sampler. We did the Smiths cover because there was supposed to be a Smiths tribute comp coming out with a bunch of punk versions of Smiths songs (to the best of my knowledge I don't think it ever materialized). We also recorded another five songs at Sonic Iguana in October of 1998 that never got released on anything. Our last show was at the Fireside in December of 1998 if I remember correctly. We just kinda stopped getting together to practice. Bands do that sometimes. Now I'm an aftercare teacher in Columbus, Ohio, working with 7th and 8th graders and playing kickball and dodgeball with the younger kids. I want to finish school one day and go into the field of nutrition. Peace.
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