Making Rumbles

Jonny Rumble is one of those bands endlessly toiling in the background of the music scene. It feels like they're been around forever but they've never really made that much of an impact. Sure, folks would book them because they were a decent draw, but they seemed destined to be yet another undiscovered Chicago band that would be barely remembered.

Hopefully that perception of the band will change with the release of Jonny Rumble's new album Almost Dead. Whereas in the past the group kicked out workmanlike riffs that won over listeners through their familiarity, the band now steps up their game and works hard to craft inventie new phrases that still evoke years past, but this time there's a distinctive stamp of the band's own personality on every riff. (O.K., except for one. Dudes, no fair ripping off Nirvana so blatantly on "New New Deal" since it really hurts our argument that you're branching out.)

It seems that scrappy mid-'90s alt-rock is due for a resurgence, hell Q101 already features most of those band as "classic rockers" at this point, so Jonny Rumble's time to rise above the scene's din just might have arrived.

Jonny Rumble plays a CD release party at Metro tonight, 3730 N Clark, 9:30 p.m., free before 9:30 p.m. / $5 after, 18+