»In which we defend and relocate

I started out with Bastro Diablo Guapo, and then The Serpentine Similar, and then followed the Louisville-Chicago connection through Bitch Magnet, from the Oberlin spur. From there to Seam, to Tortoise (and their excellent Lazarus Taxon), and then winding up with the Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation CD, which is consistently outstanding. The first five tracks all hug the course of mid-nineties Chicago indie rock, with grinding guitars and start-stop rhythms: The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Sebadoh (unexpectedly concise, and a neat fit to follow the "surgically precise" rock of Shellac of North America), June of '44, and the Cocktails.

The Compact Disc was put together to save the Lounge Ax, a remarkable club on the stretch of North Lincoln which had more than its share of debauchery and rock'n'roll. I spent many, many evenings here, arriving on bicycle, in a private automobile, via the L, even on a university-sponsored shuttle bus. I heard The Red Krayola on my 21st birthday; I took strips of grainy black-and-white pictures in the photobooth; I bugged Adam, that guy who recorded every show, to hook me up with a tape of the ear-shatteringly cool Yo La Tengo set in which Richard Rizzo of Eleventh Dream Day joined Ira for some first-class guitar wig-outs: the two of them freaked out on their instruments while studiously jumping on the dozens of pedals on the floor. I nodded off to sleep after moving apartments one steamy June or July afternoon and then heading up to catch a Combustible Edison set; I sprawled out on the steps lining either side of the club for dozens of shows; I think I even drank a drink there on occasion. Most of all, I rocked out, just as the CD does. For a compilation CD it is pretty consistently awesome; I could do without the four minutes of Guided By Voices, though.