Why is it that the local rock scene around Champaign/Urbana Il. & Kansas City MO produced so many great bands during the mid to late 90s? I've just discovered another one I had previously overlooked, a now defunct band called Shiner. Just another excellent but unrecognized contributor to what I call "Grain belt" post-rock...that special, unique, and quite excellent sound of bands from mid-sized cities of the lower Midwest.
Shiner is quickly becoming one of my favorite bands of all time (and that says a LOT because I am a music FREAK who regularly listens to everything from Opera to Electronica). This is not the "woe is me-I've got a zit-my gal left me and I hate my parents" claptrap that passes for alternative rock THESE days. The prepubescent post-emo dorks who are now so popular could really learn a thing or two about musicianship from the grain-belt bands of the 90s. That was music you had to listen to. Music you had to think about...and it made you want to think.
If you know any HUM at all, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Why the hell was I in lame old Western Wisconsin during the early 90s, when I could have been doing just as much drinking in some city further south? The difference is I would have been doing it while seeing shows by the likes of Castor, Hum, Shiner, and many others. That CU/KC sound is so different, like the Seattle sound was during the same period. So different and so fresh...and it still is.
I'm now in a panic, and redoubling my efforts to track down even MORE music from the grain-belt 90's before they are lost to history. To think I almost missed discovering Shiner makes me cringe...and wonder how much more I've been missing.
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