I was in a band called Chinese Fire Drill playing the bass. We broke up in the summer of
1997. CFD used to jam with another River Grove band, Eternal Bliss. We played 2 of
our 4 shows with them at Smiler Coogan's. Eternal Bliss was on the outs also at that
time, and sometime before the fall of 1997, Eternal Bliss guitarist Matt Briske
approached me about jamming with him and a drummer he knew. Probably a week later
we were in the basement of current Low Profile drummer, Rob Tarpey. We kicked out
some jams that day and a few more days soon after. It was during these sessions that the
original Low Profile songs were created: 'Raymond' and 'Problem Solved'. Due to some
nonsense beef from the time which no one remembers, Matt was soon ejected/quit. I
contacted Eternal Bliss bassist Dave Martinez about jamming with us. He showed and I
moved to guitar. Very shortly thereafter, Matt came back on 2nd guitar. We were
practicing those songs although there was no talk of gigs at the time. I was throughouly
opposed to that.
Due to a lack of a work ethic to some extent from both of the Eternal Bliss rejects, they
were soon not showing up for practice, etc… I contacted an old friend named Erik
Hilger, who used to play bass for a band called Socially Unacceptable. I had gone to
their gigs and practices before I had ever picked a serious note on any instrument in my
life. He came out to practice and we were back to a 3-piece. By now it was spring 1998.
We rehersed and wrote some more songs: 'Three Times', 'Brown' and 'Swingline'. We
played our first gig at around 1:30 AM at Smiler Coogan's on June 31, 1998. We packed
in 9 more shows before the year was up.
In the spring of 1999, the rest of the material for our first album had been finished. We
went to DNA Studio(Eternal Bliss had recorded there). It was the first studio experience
for all of us. The finished product, '15-Story Fireball', was released in March 1999.
1999 ended up being our most busy year ever, with a total of 17 shows. We went back to
the studio sometime that summer and recorded some tracks in the middle of the night at
Rax Trax Recording Co. in Chicago w/ my college classmate, Andy Pollina (an intern
there) running the board. We came back there again for a similar session in October and
our second album, 'The Process of Elimination' was also complete. 17 shows and 2 full
length albums in our first full year together. Not bad!
In July of 2000 we returned once again to Rax Trax to record the 16 song 'What's It
Worth?'. This was an all night session, starting around 8 PM, mixing started around 2
AM and Andy finished things up around 9 AM while we were all in bed. I picked up the
master the next day and we began to distribute it. Around this time our long running beef
with local band Pie in the Sky had reached a boiling point. Pie in the Sky contained 2
members (the other 2/3) of CFD; those same 2 guys had also played with Hilger in
Socially Unacceptable. In one of the harshest displays of street credibility and revenge,
we returned to old haunt DNA Studios to record the album, 'an interpretation'. This
would be a limited production/distribution album of basically the entire Pie in the Sky
discography, plus the scathing 8 min.+ final track, 'The Last Laugh'. 5 of our 6 gigs that
year were at the Fireside Bowl, bringing the total to 10 all time shows at that venue. We
haven't been back since that last one!
2001 was a slow year, gig wise – only 3 shows. In the meantime, we recorded our 4th full
length at DNA Studios, 'Hybrid Style'. In the 3rd of 3 'Riverpalooza' gigs at the RG
VFW hall, we recorded our first live album, 'RGHC – LIVE!'. That 22 track album
defined the band and the people at the show, and thus, River Grove itself.
2002 almost exceeded the sum gig total from the past TWO years, with 8. We recorded
our 5th full length, 'Throwing Shapes' once again at DNA Studios. We recorded our 2nd
live album, 'Live@Afternite'(as well as video in an elaborate, multi-camera shoot)at
Afternite Studios.
2003 brought us more shows then ever at any point in our careers and although we may have neglected song writing
a bit, we made so many new friends and got to jam with so many great bands that it was worth it. As of the end
of 2003, we find ourselves 6 songs deep into the writing for our next album which will be released in Spring 2004.
2004 brought more shows and the longest hiatus in Low Profiles history. The last show of the year came early, by the end of the summer. Low Profile, like the Grizzly Bear of the music scene that they are, then went into 'hibernation' for another cold Chicago winter, ready to rise up in the spring of 2005 in preparation to celebrate their 7th birthday.
Equipment:
Hilger
satan165
Rob