In 1990, Jeff Gregory was a regular customer at Co-Op Records, which in those days was Peoria, Illinois' only viable independent alternative to the generic shopping-mall barns that dominated the landscape. Jeff, who had most recently played guitar in the hardcore group Circus 76, was only a high school senior, but had already started to form relationships with some of the musicians and creative people around town. Among these acquaintances was Josh Shane, a native of nearby Morton, Illinois and a fixture in various local blues bands. Josh's brother Matt worked as a clerk at Co-Op, and it was there that he and Jeff would, through their conversations about music, decide to form a rock band in the vein of such "heavy" indie bands as Mudhoney and the Afghan Whigs.
The two began rehearsing in the Shanes' basement. Although he was a capable drummer, Matt decided to play guitar, with Jeff trying his hand at bass. Until they could find a permanent drummer, they recruited their friend Scott Ligon who, fortuitously, was staying with the Shanes at the time. While Scott had never before played drums in a band, he was a preternaturally talented and versatile musician who had recently returned from St. Louis after playing with a group there for several years. In short time, Scott warmed to the drum chair, and the Dollface sound was conceived.
The music that emerged from Dollface's early rehearsals took the "grunge" sound envisioned in Matt and Jeff's Co-Op brainstorming sessions not as a blueprint, but as a point of departure in establishing their sound. They shared an affinity for feedback, distortion and loud detuned guitars with the Sub Pop bands they admired; however, the songs they produced were highly melodic and displayed a direct, engaging and unpretentious lyrical sensibility and a wicked sense of humor. The three members of the group traded off lead vocals freely and frequently added soaring harmonies to the spastic racket they created. Their snotty, exuberant brand of rock n' roll effectively ignored the supposed boundaries between such diverse artists as the Stooges and the Beatles, Devo and the Who, amalgamating these disparate influences, and many others, with inventiveness and style.
Dollface made its live debut at a house party in Canton, Illinois, and began playing occasional shows around the Peoria area at bars, VFW halls and the like. A self-titled, nine-song demo recorded on four-track cassette was soon released under the auspices of "Ed Records" (the imprint of Ed Carper, Matt's coworker at Co-Op and the proprietor of a Canton-based home studio) and distributed through various Central Illinois record stores. The basement-recorded debut demo introduced several of the group's most enduring tunes, including Matt's "Toulouse-Lautrec" (a sort of musical biography of the painter) and Jeff's classic "Astronaut." Scott took center stage with "Dis My Chick," which soon became a staple at live performances. The tape was a success, and several triumphant performances later (including an unforgettable VFW hall show at which the band's sheer rock power vanquished an entire legion of drunken headbangers), Dollface was the toast of Peoria's small but enthusiastic underground rock scene.
Dollface's first foray into a proper recording studio, Wooden Nickel in Dunlap, Illinois, resulted in several finished tracks, only one of which would ever see the light of day. Meanwhile, Josh Shane accepted an invitation to join the band on bass, with Jeff Gregory moving over to guitar. Josh's arrival tightened and expanded the band's sound, and afforded them greater freedom in the live setting. Additionally, Josh was (and is) the owner of a lovely and soulful tenor, which allowed the group's already formidable vocal harmonies to reach even greater heights.
In 1991, Jeff, Matt, Scott and Josh went into Ed Carper's eight-track basement studio, where they recorded what would become their second demo, entitled Corvette Summer and released in 1992 on Ed Records (this cassette-only mini-album also features one track, "Kick The Ball," salvaged from the 1990 session at Wooden Nickel). The songs on Corvette Summer showed tremendous growth from the debut in all phases: the writing grew even sharper, while the overall sound was bigger and more polished, but still appealingly dirty. Only on this now-rare release can one find the band's superlative cover of Wings' "Jet," which features a great vocal by Scott and still makes the McCartney original sound utterly wussified by comparison. The band's growth as songwriters and performers, as well as the Corvette Summer demo's improved fidelity, its thoughtful sequencing of tracks, and the care afforded to artwork and presentation, served notice that Dollface were more than just a great live act, and had even greater things in store as recording artists.
Throughout 1991 and 1992, Dollface toured Illinois aggressively, making frequent stops in Chicago and in the college towns of Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington-Normal, while seeking a record deal on the strength of the Corvette Summer demo. During this period, they attained a reputation as a formidable live unit. In 1993, they were contacted by Minneapolis' Crackpot Records, a small label which, promisingly, was owned by an international music distributor. Crackpot's representatives made the trip south and caught a particularly rousing Dollface gig at Peoria's own Airwaves Skate Park, a converted warehouse filled with skateboarding ramps, which on the weekends was transformed into a showcase for the burgeoning crop of young local rock bands (many of whom had been inspired to pick up instruments for the first time by none other than Dollface). The band slew the hometown crowd, and on the merits of the show, Crackpot offered a deal. While other labels had shown interest, the band felt they had found the right fit, and promptly agreed to sign.
Dollface went to work recording their Crackpot debut in the Minneapolis offices of the legendary Rykodisc label, with co-producer/engineer Brian Paulson. They built the album upon the foundation of the Corvette Summer demo, keeping the title, cover art, basic track sequence, and re-recording all the songs (save "Jet," which was undoubtedly omitted to avoid a world of copyright hurt). The Corvette Summer album, released in February of 1994, also included re-recordings of four Dollface classics that preceded the demo: "Toulouse-Lautrec," "Gun Or A Lover," "Astronaut," and "No Duh No Doi."
Arguably the greatest revelation of Corvette Summer was the development of Matt Shane's songwriting. While Matt had, from the band's earliest days, showed a talent for penning blistering hunks of overdriven adolescent angst(his "Wish," from the debut demo and always a live favorite, sounds shit-hot to this day and remains one of Dollface's greatest songs), he toned down the punk intensity just a notch on Corvette Summer, releasing a volley of ragged-edged but tuneful pop songs. Not that Matt had abandoned the earsplitting chords of yore: the album kicks off in style with "Kick the Ball" and "Timi Yuro Song," two unabashed rockers. However, Matt's most eye-opening contributions were the two down-tempo numbers: the smoldering "Half a Chance" and the country-inflected album-closing ballad, "In Spite of Everything," each of which represented a change of pace not only for Matt, but for the band as a whole.
Jeff Gregory continued to mature as a songwriter as well, combining hard-rock muscle and ultra-catchy melodicism with scientific exactitude on "Angeline" and the bouncy three-chord pop of "Opportunities." "Oahu," a pretty, wistful midtepmo song, anchors Corvette Summer's second side, and is followed by the urgent "Heaven Scent," one of Jeff's, and the band's, very best songs.
The no-frills recording of Corvette Summer revealed a band near the top of its game. Scott showed his range as a drummer, playing with as much restraint on the slower songs as abandon on the group's signature rave-ups. His golden pipes are on display too, mostly in harmony with the other three members (Scott sings lead on "No Duh No Doi"). Josh, as those familiar with his other musical projects can attest, is more than capable of occupying the spotlight; however, in Dollface he played the role of the secret weapon, remaining in the background at all times, making things sound fuller, tighter . . . better. In a live setting, he was the anchor, allowing the others to stretch out on flights of feedback-squalling mayhem while keeping the groove tethered loosely to the ground.
And play live Dollface did, incessantly, behind Corvette Summer throughout 1994. In addition to all the familiar home-state haunts, they hit practically every large and mid-sized city in the Midwest, several times over: Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cedar Rapids, Minneapolis . . . the list goes on. They also made their way down to Austin, Texas for South By Southwest.
1995 saw more touring and the release of a split 7" with label-mates Fat Tuesday. The Dollface side of that record was Jeff's "Get On Your Bikes And Ride," blurted forth in an efficient running time of about 90 seconds. The two bands toured together briefly that year as well. Dollface also recorded two terrific tracks, "Black Kittycat" and "I Remember When I Used To Hate Girls," for the Now Playing In Peoria compilation, released in the fall by an independent Peoria concert promoter.
After several very productive years, Dollface was dealt two heavy blows in late 1995. As they were preparing to record the follow-up to Corvette Summer, with studio time already booked, an ominous silence from the folks at Crackpot alerted the boys that all was not well up north. Eventually they learned that Twin City Imports, the distributor owner of the label, was going bankrupt, and Crackpot along with it. Around the same time, Josh Shane decided to leave the band to pursue other projects. It appeared that Dollface was dead.
But Scott, Matt and Jeff were not done rocking yet. They reconstituted themselves as a trio, with Jeff switching back to bass. In 1996, they returned to Minneapolis to record an 8-song CD, Dollface Lights The Pilot!!!, which they self-released on Matt's Warm Jet imprint.
While the group had returned to its 1990 configuration, the music they created on Pilot was unlike anything that had come before; the deceptively simple guitar hooks and vocal harmonies were still there, but coexist happily with a fresh experimentalism, evident both in the writing and the production values. The opener, Matt's "Destiny, Oh Destiny," remains one of Dollface's greatest studio successes, with a splendid intro, throbbing bass, and a circular, chugging guitar riff. Jeff added yet another handful of indelibly melodic gems with "Rods And Cones" and "Atlantis," and the album's penultimate track, the moody "Perigee." On "I Light The Pilot," Scott delivers an authentically deranged vocal over his own bizarre guitar-and-clavinet musical concoction. A stratospheric cover version of the Beach Boys' "Transcendental Meditation" gave the record a fitting conclusion, as Pilot was, in a sense, Dollface's "psychedelic" album.
In 1996, Dollface played some gigs in support of Pilot, and recorded "Out In The Streets" and "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" for the tribute album Whodunit: Chicago Knows Who. Soon after, Scott Ligon left the group to devote more time to his many other musical projects, and for the second time, it seemed that Dollface would be no more. However, Joe Camarillo of Chicago's Hushdrops was quick to step up to the plate. While the group missed Scott's inimitable personality, they lost nothing in the drumming department, and like Scott, Joe boasted a great singing voice. Unfortunately, this lineup would be short-lived.
Matt and Jeff left for Los Angeles in 1997, with the hopes of joining up with a drummer and continuing the band. Jeff soon began a successful career as a recording engineer, and was able to secure some studio time to lay down the new Dollface demos. After logging over 100 hours in the studio and emerging with approximately 30 brand-new tunes, however, the duo decided that what they had wrought was an eclectic mass of quality songs, but not the basis for a cohesive record, and they reluctantly aborted the sessions. Disenchanted with L.A., Matt returned to Illinois shortly thereafter; he would later release a demo as Matt Shane and the New Mutes, featuring some tracks salvaged from the L.A. sessions. Today he records and performs sporadically. Jeff remains in Los Angeles, where he continues to write and record music.
Sadly, only a relative few had the privilege of experiencing this great band during its short lifespan. It is all of our good fortune that, by popular demand, the entire Dollface recorded legacy is being made available again, at long last.
-Ben Ruddell
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