When the Blue Ribbon Glee Club, which consists of about 25 members (give or take), embarked upon their maiden voyage into the hearts and minds of Chicago's rock scene in 2007, no one really knew what to make of it. “So, they dress up in blue clothing and sing Dead Kennedy's songs? But without guitars?” Since then, they've become a Chicago staple, serving up their unique brand of rock all over the city, and in just about every type of venue you can imagine: parties, bars, gallery openings, The Vic, and even Millenium Park. Oh, and the best part, they were around well before glee clubs became hip... before the television show. Speaking of television, they were recently featured on WTTW's Chicago Tonight.
Singing classics from bands like Fugazi, Sleater Kinney, The Flaming Lips, and Black Sabbath, BRGC are a sight to behold. We recently caught up with a handful of the gang's usual suspects to talk about such vital topics as cheese castles, water-boarding, a weeping Jewess, and Barb's mom.
LSD: I noticed some parents/family in the crowd at the last BRGC show. What do your folks think of this glee club business? Have they ever attended a show?
Amy Levin (member BRGC): My parents came to a show and my mother cried. She said it was from joy. She may have also been crying because we were singing in a church and we’re Jewish.
Joe Baldwin (member BRGC): My family probably thinks of the Blue Ribbon Glee Club as part of this Chicago circus I ran off to join.
Thomas Irvin (member BRGC): My father, who is 81 years old, doesn't really know what to make of it. My mother is only 79, so she's a good deal more "hip" and "with it." She even "Liked" the video of our Chicago Tonight interview when we posted it on Facebook.
Soren Davis (member BRGC): I hear Barb’s mom likes us a lot.
LSD: Do you have a favorite Blue Ribbon Glee Club (BRGC) song?
Paul Nixon (member BRGC): I really liked when we used to do 'Lake Shore Drive' (Aliota, Haynes, and Jeremiah). Of the current glee repertoire, I like 'Damaged Goods' cuz I have a drum solo!!
JB: 'Spanish Bombs', which sadly is pretty much retired. I don't know if it's us performing it that I love or the song itself, but it was one of the songs that made me want to join the BRGC.
TI: 'California Uber Alles' (originally by the Dead Kennedys) is my sentimental favorite, because it's the first thing I ever heard the BRGC do. I was at a CHIRP record fair in the spring of 2008, and they got on stage and started singing the riff from the song. I thought, "I know that riff...what is that?" Then when the vocals came in and I realized who it was, I instantly knew I had to join the group.
SD: My favorite song to perform is 'Panis Et Circenses' by Os Mutantes. I don’t know if it’s our best song or not but I love the way it starts out so formally but winds up in a frenzy by the end. This song was my first exposure to the BRGC style of arrangement by committee. When I joined, I was happy to discover that there was no evil genius behind the group, nobody bringing in fixed arrangements and saying “you sing this”, just a bunch of people singing the song over and over and making suggestions to each other until it falls into place. I also like 'Paranoid' (Black Sabbath) but it really rips up my vocal cords.
LSD: So, the Glee Club is kind of like a gang... did you have to go through any type of initiation process (e.g. group beat down, clap some domes)?
Paul Kim (member BRGC): No initiation process, but i think newbies should bring a case of beer to their first practice!
PN: No. Except the waterboarding.
SD: If you can do 20 pushups in 20 minutes, you’re in.
TI: Our initiation process consists of coming back the second week. A lot of people have come to practice once, and only once. We're not for everybody, but the people who do come back and stick with it are some of the coolest and kindest and most interesting people I've met in my life.
LSD: Do you have any particular songs you'd like to see BRGC cover in the future?
PN: GG Allin, Descendents, Naked Raygun. I think we need to be a little more punk.
JB: I would 'heart' us to cover some Wesley Willis, or Neutral Milk Hotel.
SD: I always have about 4 or 5 songs queued up in my head that I think the BRGC would sound great covering but they change constantly. For the longest time I thought we should do 'Touch Sensitive' by the Fall and 'Slack Motherfucker' by Superchunk. Currently I’m hoping for 'Too Much, Too Young' by the Specials and 'Dance Dance Dance Dance Dance To the Radio' by MOTO.
LSD: Do you personally have any pre-show rituals? How about the band as a whole?
PK: Personally, I like to drink a lot before a show. as a group, we like to drink a lot before a show
JB: Nah - For awhile we were warming up on stage with Edelweiss, but when you have 20 people or more performing the best pre-show ritual is getting to the show on time and finding everyone to sound check.
TI: We have set lists, but I make my own set list that also includes a note to myself how the song starts and who starts it. Once I get started, I'm fine.
SD: I just try to scrape together some sort of bluish outfit then shamble on over to the venue. No big personal rituals. The group doesn’t have too many rituals either but sometimes we stroke Paul’s beard for luck before we go on.
LSD: I saw you perform at Ronnie's last week and was struck by the growing complexity of the vocal arrangements in some of the newer material. Do you feel that the group's ability/mojo has been developing over time?
SD: Yeah, I think our ability has grown over time and the amazing thing is that we still learn songs the same way that we always did. It’s all very organic, we listen to the song over and over again, singing along and coming up with parts until it all meshes together. The difference is that the group has gotten a lot more confident about what we can do. We don’t shy away from songs because they might be too complex, we just sort of go for it and if it works, it goes into the set if if doesn’t, oh well.
I’m really happy with how comfortable we’ve become with tackling more challenging material but I’m glad too that we’re still pretty rough around the edges. I wouldn’t want to be in a glee club that takes itself too seriously. We’re never gonna kick someone out because they can’t sing. At the end of the day, we’re more of a social club that sings than a choir that socializes and that’s just fine.
LSD: Seems that with a project of this magnitude (so many people) organization would be a daunting task and a major priority. How does that work? Is it challenging to get everyone together in one place?
AL: Yes, it can be challenging. Day-to-day organization is challenging, but the minute-to-minute aspect of it is not. We see the trees, but not always the forest. One day at a time. We try to have a consistent practice day, time, and place. Change is hard, but that’s the only constant in life, right? Oh, and death and taxes. Or just death.
JB: It's fairly easy to get enough of us to practice every Monday, and we have sign-ups to see which of us can do a show before agreeing to it (with a minimum of 18 folks as our bar). As far as logistics, like merch and supplies, we have three of us (Nathaniel, Kelly, and Paul) who take the leadership roles and help moderate practice and decisions that we make as a group. I think we get more done than congress... that's not a fact but it could be.
LSD: I heard that you all played your first non-Chicago show in Milwaukee recently. How does one go about transporting a punk rock glee club to an out-of-state show? Are there any plans for future road shows? Perhaps a BRGC tour?
Kelly Reynolds (member BRGC): Well, we rented a 15 passenger van from a place out by O'Hare to transport the majority. I drove the van, a few other people drove their own cars. It went pretty smoothly until we hit Milwaukee and it turned out I had the wrong address for the venue and a very limited map printed out from the internet; so we did a few loops and asked for directions, then switched drivers because I was having a hard time keeping calm, to put it politely (next time I won't skip breakfast or coffee before a road trip). Ultimately, we made it safe and sound and settled in alright before the show without any tears. On the way back, we stopped for fireworks! Unfortunately we didn't make it to any cheese castles.
We do have plans to travel, but it's difficult for everyone to go to the same place at once for more than one night. We'd love to get in a big bus and travel the country singing, but most of us have pretty busy schedules. Small Midwestern weekend tours to places like Minneapolis and Madison, or Detroit and Cleveland have been discussed.
It'd be a dream to have a mode of transport with room for all of us plus snacks, games, and all our pillows; but for now we're having a great time performing in our fair city of Chicago...where we can ride our bikes to shows.
LSD: Word on the street is that BRGC started with Craigslist Casual Encounter advertisement. Can you tell us a bit about that?
PN: Josh Dumas sent me an email about the glee club 3 years ago or so. I was pretty set on not doing it. My friend Bill encouraged me to come do it. I reluctantly showed up, really liked it, really liked the people and the vibe of everyone singing together. It was a lot of fun and everyone was friendly. So, I've been doing it ever since. As far as Craigslist rumors, I'm honored that people make up things about us. We've never gotten anyone new from Craigslist. So, if you're searching for a punk glee club to join, just go to one of our shows and talk to us.
AL: I joined the BRGC by showing up to a practice two years ago after hearing them bravely perform in front of a group of children. I didn’t even have to bring a child with me to the practice—at that point, the glee club had suspended that requirement. I didn’t have to make any other unseemly promises, either, just had to show up to practice.
LSD: I'm a big fan of collectives and clubs. They seem to bring out the best in people. Do you feel that being a part of BRGC has made a significant impact on your life? How has the experience affected your overall view of the creative process?
PN: Yes. I have met some interesting people, got to play shows that are way higher profile than shows I've ever played before. I met my girlfriend. I've learned how to play the drums and lead a glee club. There's sort of a high turnover in glee club, so I'm always excited to see how the newer people are going to change the group dynamic too. The people I'd least expect change my life the most. It's great.
AL: I agree—we are definitely forced to be better leaders and followers than we might ordinarily be in other situations. For me, the BRGC is the only adult-ish creative hobby that I have, it’s totally unlike what I do the rest of the week. The people I sing with are not like people that I see at any other time in my week. I’m even more appreciative of other people’s creative efforts and so appreciative of the chance to be a part of a group creative effort.
PK: I have met so many great people through the glee club. It has been a wonderful experience. It is pretty amazing how much we get accomplished in a practice with 20-30 people. I have been in bands with just four people that would struggle through practices to learn songs.
JB: I was in an ensemble choir in school, but outside of school I always wanted to be in a band. I never picked up on instruments very well, yet I loved singing -- just not the spotlight -- so this was really a great place to land. A great group of creative folks. I've studied and trained as an artist in photography, sculpture and new media - this was a great way to push my creativity and I feel I'm more open to collectives in my artistic projects.
TI: Soren once referred to our collective decision-making process as the "hive mind," and I think that's an apt analogy. We all bring ideas to the group and they get discussed and tossed around and some get used and some get discarded. Invariably the stuff that sticks around is the best stuff, and it's much better than anything we could have come up with as individuals. At my first practice, we learned a new song, 'Where Eagles Dare' by the Misfits. I was amazed at how such a chaotic process produced such a good arrangement in just a couple of hours, with no single person dictating how the song should go.
SD: I don’t know if it’s had any significant impact on my life but it sure has been a blast. It’s all the best parts about being in a band without the bullshit. Just a bunch of like minded people singing and having fun.
LSD: Where can Logan Squares expect to see the band next? Any big shows coming up?
PN: Actually, 9/30 at Viaduct Theater on Belmont and Western.
