Material Issue continued touring, selling out venues throughout the upper Midwest. In the summer of 1995 the band co-headlined the first Edgefest festival in Somerset, Wisconsin . In 1995, the group, with Liz Phair , recorded a cover of ” The Tra La La Song ” for the tribute album…
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1994’s Freak City Soundtrack featured the single “Kim The Waitress”, a cover of a 1980s single by The Green Pajamas , and written by Jeff Kelly. Freak City Soundtrack sold fewer than 50,000 copies and Material Issue, feeling left behind by their label, parted ways with Mercury in early 1995.
The band’s follow up album, 1992’s Destination Universe , was also produced by Jeff Murphy at Short Order Recorder, and included the single “What Girls Want” in addition to ballads such as “Next Big Thing” and “Everything”. Material Issue continued to tour heavily across the country in support of both…
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Over the next two years, the band toured extensively across the Midwest and recorded what would become their debut album International Pop Overthrow . The album was a compilation of various demos recorded between roughly 1988 and 1991 and produced by Jeff Murphy from the Chicago-area power pop band Shoes…
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In 1987, Material Issue released an eponymous EP on their own label, Big Block. The label operated out of Ellison’s bedroom at his parents’ home in Addison, Illinois , and was named for the big block engines of the 1970s muscle cars Ellison loved. In 1988, their song “Sixteen Tambourines”…
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Material Issue was formed in 1985, led by frontman Jim Ellison , who played guitar, sang lead vocals, and wrote most of the band’s songs. Ellison met bassist Ted Ansani while both were attending Columbia College Chicago in 1986. Drummer Mike Zelenko was found through an ad in the Illinois…
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