Again with the Bands on the Verge Thing

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 18, 2007 5:33PM

We all know that lists are great for pulling in readers and encouraging debate. As a matter if fact, this trend has grown into obscenely silly proportions in the MS(music)M, but we suppose they will do whatever they can in an attempt to keep themselves fresh. We’re looking at you Blender, Q, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly. (We’re letting Time off the hook for this one since their recent music list was just so obviously wrong, and people tend to turn to them for news and not music.)

We love our local scene so we're always interested to see who makes the grade when publications decide to tout their picks for upcoming Chicago bands. Newcity has just released their own “Ten Chicago musical artists on the verge” and we find ourselves stunned when we say we agree with the majority of their picks. Newcity does stumble and commit the one mistake we usually discount by including Head Of Femur, a band that has been “on the verge” for years and are probably not going to come down the mountain in victory any time soon. We love ‘em too, but we’re pretty sure you can file them next to The Redwalls as far as potential superstardom is concerned.

Of course Newcity also includes Catfish Haven, a band that has the Chicagoist editorial board constantly coming to blows since some of us love ‘em and some of us find them pretty pedestrian. Ironically we’ve come to the conclusion that of all the bands named, they might have the best chance at breaking out, since they do seem to appeal to regular folks, rock critics be damned. Hey, it worked for Dave Matthews, right?

The 1900s, Baby Teeth, The Bound Stems, and Office all get lots of play here on the 73rd floor of the Chicagoist offices, so we have zero quibbles with those choices. Of the four we lay odds on Office actually hitting it big, provided main man Scott Mason keeps hammering out his super catchy blend of rockin’ guitar pop. The new Baby Teeth disc will serve to further their current popularity and last year The Bound Stems put out one of the finest Chicago-based debuts ever. As far as the 1900s go, we think Newcity’s Tom Lynch hit the nail on the head when he said their primary obstacle was that, “keeping seven members together cannot be easy.”

The whole list is available here, so take a look and share you own thoughts with us. Who did they miss? Who wasn’t worthy of inclusion? Whaddya think?

Photo of Office by Aaron O.