Eleventh Dream Day: Biography

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• Rick Rizzo
• Douglas McCombs
• Janet Beveridge Bean

Formed:

Jan 1, 1983

Genres:

Rock Music, Alternative Rock Music, Punk and Hardcore Rock Music, Folk & Country Rock Music

Decades Active:

1980's|1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

Medium

Cultural Impact

Low

Popularity

Low

Ratings Guide

One of the most resilient and criminally underappreciated bands to rise from the Midwestern underground community, the career of the noisy guitar unit Eleventh Dream Day was a textbook study in alt-rock endurance; despite a nightmarish major-label tenure, ill-timed roster changes and commercial indifference, the group persevered, ultimately emerging as elder statesmen of the fluorishing Chicago independent scene of the mid-'90s.

Eleventh Dream Day's origins dated to 1981, when singer/guitarist Rick Rizzo met vocalist/drummer Janet Beveridge Bean at the University of Kentucky. Inspired by punk, Rizzo taught himself to play guitar with the aid of Neil Young's Zuma songbook; Young remained the group's major inspiration throughout their career, his incendiary aesthetic informing much of Rizzo's own raw, rootsy style. The couple soon relocated to Chicago, where they teamed with bassist Douglas McCombs and guitarist Baird Figi; after several years of honing their explosive live set, Eleventh Dream Day finally recorded their eponymous debut EP for the Amoeba label in 1987.

The full-length Prairie School Freakout, recorded in one six-hour span with a buzzing, dilapidated amplifier, followed in 1988, and brought Eleventh Dream Day to the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed the group for 1989's assured Beet. Despite critical acclaim, the record failed to find an audience; Lived to Tell followed in 1991 and suffered the same fate as its predecessor. In the middle of a tour to promote the album, Figi abruptly quit, and was replaced by Bodeco's Matthew "Wink" O'Bannon prior to 1993's superb El Moodio.

After three commercial strikes, Atlantic unceremoniously dropped the group; following a hiatus which allowed Rizzo and Bean to concentrate on raising their newborn child, Eleventh Dream Day enlisted co-producers Brad Wood and John McEntire (McCombs' partner in the post-rock supergroup Tortoise) for 1994's Ursa Major, released on City Slang. After another break -- during which time Rizzo returned to college, Bean focused on her country side project Freakwater and O'Bannon exited to return to Bodeco -- Eleventh Dream Day signed to the Chicago-based indie Thrill Jockey to record 1997's Eighth.

- Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide