Next way ' under the radar ' band I'm posting about is a group called - Flophouse. Self described as "Chicago's longest running kind of sounds like music combo , since 1984' (a great year for alot of kinds of music!) this 'group' (really the only constant member is Alan Richter I think) came to my attention due once again to WZRD 88.3fm in Chicago. Their sound can barely be defined except maybe as 'noisejam' ??! Not a good description but there you have it. its as if i can picture this group jamming noise with a basement loaded with tons of old equipment (guitars with half blown out fuzzy pickups, bass guitars with ancient ,rusty wobbly strings, keyboards and synths from the early 70's , amps that need repair, drums and percussive instruments found at old thrift stores, garages and junk yards and ....well you get the idea!...) And with all this they just throw it into a big melting pot and compose stuff . Pot probably has a part speaking of too. Some tracks are really solid others are missing something but its just sound like they are having fun in a twisted way . The best example of their work i think is the 1987 self released "7 -Flopdisk. 500 copies were made and you can still buy it . Here's a few tracks from it :
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=60944&songID=708652
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=60944&songID=623859
Other links for more than enough info and tons of songs :
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=60944
Discogs :
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Flophouse
The actually released alot more than what is on the Discogs page and that needs to be corrected. There are alot of cassette only releases, several of which i've played on my dj days at WZRD, and a full length split Lp package with one whole slab of vinyl by Flophouse and one by fellow Chicago experimentalist Research Defense Squad.
Some pics :
