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 Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits , produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records . Throughout the remainder of 1995 and into 1996, Material Issue recorded a set of new songs with the intention of shopping them to a new label. However, Ellison died by suicide on June 20, 1996 by carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage. A note was found by police, the contents of which were not released publicly. The recordings from 1995 and 1996 were released posthumously on Telecommando Americano in 1997 by Rykodisc as the final Material Issue release, along with the band’s six-song debut EP from 1987 as a bonus.
Ellison died by suicide
Written by
in