Rough-ass Chicago band that formed from the ashes of Da! (guitarist Gaylene Goudreau) and a no-records-released all-women Los Angeles band from the '70s called Lois Lane.

Adding future Swans bassist Algis Kizys, they moved to NYC in '82, fell in w/people like Sonic Youth and Rat at Rat R, issued an undistributed 7" that's worth a lot of money nowadays, and broke up for the usual reasons. Several Bag Peeps resurfaced together a few years later in Of Cabbages and Kings.

In my mind, this is a more "rock" but wonderfully grimy take on that whole early-'80s post-no wave sound. And I can't think of anyone from Chicago who sounded anything like them at the time (which is perhaps why the Bags got the hell out of town).

LP retrospective (disclosure: I am very tangentially involved) out later this month on Drag City:

https://www.dragcity.com/news/2025-02-2 ... oy9mYi3Fdv

A resounding Not Crap from me, but I'm admittedly biased.

I was ready to talk about fanny bags and such, but fine, I'll check this thing out.

Thanks for the recommendation!

rsmurphy wrote:Thanks for the recommendation!

Anytime!

This is pretty great. Kind of a “missing link” band as I can hear very proto Chrome Cranks

They must have been wild live!

Got this album a while ago, first as a prerelease. And I still like it.