Dave Chamberlain

The self-described "unrock" band has finally met its own expectations.

Set to release its third full-length record, atombombpocketknife outdoes itself on "Lack and Pattern" (File 13), an abrasive wash of overlapping guitars, bass, keyboards and intensity. The band, composed of Justin Sinkovich, Allison Hollihan, Tony Lazzara and Che Arthur, has been a fixture in Chicago in one form or another since 1998, and its lush but loud take on complex indie rock once earned it comparisons to Blonde Redhead of yore or even Sonic Youth.

But with "Lack and Pattern," all bets are off, and so are the moot comparisons. From the rhythmically unhinged opening track, "Slow Gotten Gone," to the psychedelic deconstruction of "Flood" and the demented, acoustically based of "Sugar Free," abpk builds an uncomfortable but warm forward-thinking take on their own art-damaged past.

"That is very true," says guitarist/vocalist Sinkovich. "It's a big change from the last record." While the band's last record, "God Save The ABPK" from 2001, was made while the band's lineup was in a transitional phase, the lineup changes (Lazzara on drums, who replaced original drummer Matt Espy, and Arthur as more than just a touring guitarist) were solidified this time around. Both Lazzara and Arthur contributed heavily to the songwriting process, says Sinkovich, creating a higher level of collaboration.

Sinkovich also points to the process. "With the last record, we pretty much had all the songs half-written by the time we started to make the record. This time around, a lot of it came from just jamming. During our tour in Europe last year, we were able to work a lot out at soundchecks."

The band started tracking the record a year ago, but the layered complexity it added was something that would have been impossible without their own studio. Sinkovich, who is also co-owner of File 13 Records, solved that problem by building a studio in his home. "You're always kind of working against the clock when you're in the studio," he explains. "But on this one we weren't, and we weren't in a huge hurry to release a record. We finally had the luxury of just experimenting for a very long time."

Of course, that kind of effort can often backfire and result in a mess of primordial, chaotic mulch. And hence the possible conundrum: is the record too complex? Sinkovich laughs. "During the course of making the record, I would emerge from my house after the weekend and see Allison and be like, `Yeah, I just added ten guitars to whatever song'--she'd just cringe.

"But the idea occurred to us. There's a certain point where you have to stop. We, as a band, are pretty critical, because we're all always surrounded by music and we're always hearing so many different people's music. Che's always going on tour to do sound with bands, Tony and Allison work at the Empty Bottle and The Fireside, and me with the label. And we all want everything to be up to the caliber of our peers. So we were really tough on ourselves for this record."

He notes that at one point, the band just had to stop the blacksmith process and give the final product time to cool off. "When we finally took the record to Brian Deck [at Engine Studios] for mixing, it was kind of a mess."

In addition to the band touring Europe last year, it also just returned from playing All Tomorrow's Parties, a sort of UK equivalent to South by Southwest. It's a testament to the members collective steel chins: they have, after all, been toiling away since 1998, have undergone significant lineup changes, and have parted ways with their original record label, Southern Records. The latter was a change that made sense. "The only reason is because I have a record label," Sinkovich relates. "That's it. When I started running File 13, we were still on Southern; as we started working on this new record, staying with them didn't make a lot of sense. I pretty much explained that to them, and they said go crazy--we figured as much. It was a very comfortable transition."

You could make a case that abpk has outlasted the majority of its contemporaries. As Chicago's rock scene becomes increasingly dominated by more direct rock `n' roll (garage, metal, punk or pop), most indie-rock bands, especially those that have been around for more than five years, have taken a backseat. It's a period where many bands feel a long-term discouragement and often fade away. "I think that we all acknowledge that," says Sinkovich. "Things have changed--but we all acknowledge that we like to play music together. And fortunately, there's not that 23-year-old kid stuck in a band with all these rock veterans. We can't all play as much as we used to, but playing music is something we all want to do in some way or another."

atombombpocketknife plays a record-release party for "Lack and Pattern," April 17 at the Empty Bottle.

(2004-04-14)

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