Twelve years ago today, the reign of proto-power pop kings of Chicago Material Issue came to an end with the suicide of frontman Jim Ellison. I didn’t live in Chicago during Ish’s heyday, but I hadn’t been in this city a week before I was intimately familiar with the music and the band’s mythic status among the small, fiercely independent underground in this city. Though they were both critically and commercially successful, and Ellison was as much of a big shot as you could get and still be a Chicago artist, it never seemed to be enough.

For many fans of melodic, post-punk leaning rock music, Material Issue picked up where the Replacements left off in the early 90’s. Though 1994’s Freak City Soundtrack was my personal introduction to the band and is still my go-to Ish record, 1991’s International Pop Overthrow would prove to be the band’s nascent masterpiece. Few students of the “college rock” movement of that time would argue with “Valerie Loves Me” as being one of the finest examples of the crossover appeal that punk rock spirit has when tempered with radio-ready production and massive pop hooks.

Though Ellison left a suicide note, the contents were never made public and speculation as to why a brilliant songwriter with a band still on an upward trajectory would take his own life hasn’t died down after more than a decade. The only silver lining for fans like myself is that the manic, pounding beat of “Going Through Your Purse” and the knife-twisting, weirdly desperate love song pop of “Very First Lie” still sound as fresh, honest, and sincere as they did nearly fifteen years ago.

MP3: Material Issue - Valerie Loves Me (live)

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