User:Poornorman/Sandbox

The Webstirs is a band based in Chicago, USA featuring the songwriting duo of Mark Winkler (keyboards) and Preston Pisellini (guitar), along with Charlie Short (bass), and Jordan Kozer (drums). They have released four full-length albums: Smirk in 1994 (self-released), Rocket to the Moon in 1998 (Ginger Records), Radio Racket in 2000 (Ginger), and So Long in 2009 (Ginger).

Winkler and Pisellini, who have been friends since grade school in Elmhurst, IL, first played and recorded together as the pop experimental group Stamp Act during the late 1980s in Champaign, IL, where they met their longtime producer/collaborator Matt Allison. They later played in the powerpop band Thrugmullians before eventually returning to Chicago in 1991.

The Webstirs got its ignonimous start when the duo contributed a pair of songs to the 1992 compilation Chicago Underground Hits at Large (Big Block Records) under the name “The Web Stirs.” Encouraged by the response, the duo soon became a quartet with the addition of bassist Lil' Ed Schaller and drummer Tim Samuel. In 1994, the group released their first CD, Smirk, a tongue-in-cheek nod to Brian Wilson’s legendary (and at-the-time still lost) album Smile. In 1996 the band signed with Chicago’s Ginger Records and released the limited gold-vinyl 7-inch single Gallaudet/Liberty Camp.

Drummer Russ Horvath (who played previously in the edgy Champaign band Sarge'), joined the Webstirs in 1997 for the group's second effort, Rocket to the Moon. The album garnered critical success from publications such as Pop Culture Press, which called it " a minor masterpiece." In 1999, the band contributed the previously unreleased song “Tiny Star” to the International Pop Overthrow Vol. 2 CD (Del-Fi Records). They soon returned to the studio with Allison and released their third album, Radio Racket, in 2000.

After writing, recording, and touring together for more than a decade, the group decided to take a hiatus in 2002 when Schaller returned to Urbana and Horvath pursued his art/teaching career. In the ensuing years, Winkler teamed up with Rich Sparks (of Ginger Records labelmate Love Kit) to form the creative juggernaut Dad Factory. Pisellini played with drummer extraordinaire Brad Elvis, formerly of Champaign rockabilly superstars The Elvis Brothers, in the band Big Hello.

Then in 2005, while meeting casually over a beer, Matt Allison convinced the duo to collaborate on another album. Armed with dozens of home-recorded demos, they returned to Allison’s newly christened Atlas Studio with Schaller and drummer Heath Chappell to cut ground on what would become their most ambitious record yet. Recording on and off over the next several years, they were able to recruit the talents of Jordan Kozer (who had played drums for ultra-mod Chicago rockers The Redwalls) and former Big Hello/Starina bassist Charlie Short, both of whom would bolster the new lineup of The Webstirs.. The resulting album, So Long, was released in 2009 on Ginger Records, and marked a new beginning. The solid songcraft, augmented by lush harmonies and horn/string arrangements, marked yet another watershed for the band.