Skin Graft – A-Z – Cheer-Accident

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Although they started out as early as 1981, Chicago-based Cheer-Accident released much of their early material on small labels and as a result, much of it is hard to find. With the passing of guitarist Phil Bonnet in 1999, the band’s future became uncertain, but they still decided to go on and eventually signed to Skin Graft.

Cheer-Accident started out in the early 80s as a trio of Jim Drummond, Thymme Jones and Mike Greenlees. Throughout the 80s they recorded a number of tapes and by ’87 they started doing live shows.  In the early 90s, they also paired up with Steve Albini (Big Black, Shellac, Rapeman) and released “Dumb Ask” in 1990.

Their third LP was  “Babies Shouldn’t Smoke” and in 1991 they contributed their version of “Theme From Shaft” to Pravda Records compilation “20 Explosive Dynamic Super Smash Hit Explosions!”. In 1993, the band started their own cable show called “Cool Clown Ground” and by 1994 they once again paired up with Albini in order to record “Not A Food” album. 1994 also brought “Why Album”, a collection of “14 well thought-out and catchy pop songs”, according to the band’s bio.

Further down the road, they recorded “Enduring The American Dream” album for Pravda Records, which would turn out to be their last recording for the rest of the 90s. The band continued playing live for the rest of the decade, but it took a death of their guitarist Phil Bonnet to make them finish “Salad Days” album, which they started recording back in 1997.

By 1999, they added Jamie Fillmore to the line-up and his first show with the band happened during January 7, 2000 performance at Lounge Ax club, during which Cheer-Accident shared a bill with Flying Luttenbachers. This was followed by more touring and a self-released album “Trading Balloons”, which included an epic 52-minute title track.

Their first Skin Graft release – 2000 “Salad Days” was described by All Music Guide as containing ” everything from bizarre field recordings to falsetto vocals” and they also noted that the record “alternates between smart math rock, utter nonsense, and a weighty dose of Zappa-esque rhythmic tomfoolery.”

The band also recorded a series of albums for Pravda Records entitled “Variations On A Goddamn Old Man”, as well as a soundtrack for “Gumballhead The Cat” comic book by Rob Syers. Their newest album is 2009 “Fear Draws Misfortune” which is going to be released on January 20th, 2009 on Cuneiform Records and the band is planning to do more touring in support of the record.

Discography:

Life Isn’t Like That (1986)

Sever Roots, Tree Dies (1988)

Vasectomy (1989)

Dumb Ask (1991)

Babies Shouldn’t Smoke (1993)

The Why Album (1994)

Not A Food (1996)

Enduring The American Dream (1997)

Trading Baloons (1999)

Salad Days CD (Skin Graft, 2000)

Variations On A Goddamn Old Man (2002)

Gumballhead The Cat CD (Skin Graft, 2003)

Introducing Lemon 2xLP (Skin Graft, 2003)

Knormalities Volume 3: Posthumorities (With Voodoo Muzak, The Ex and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) (2005)

Variations On A Goddamn Old Man 2 (2006)

What Sequel? (2006)

Fear Draws Misfortune (2009)

Live (2008)