User:W guice/sandbox/Cheer-Accident

Cheer-Accident (sometimes informally abbreviated to Cheer-Ax by fans) is an American progressive/alternative rock band from Chicago, Illinois, lead by drummer, vocalist and pianist Thymme Jones. They are noted for both the diversity and unpredictability of their music and their anarchic and often surrealist sense of humor.

History
A loose version of the band began at a New Year's party on January 1 1981, with the line-up of Thymme Jones on piano, Mike Greenlees on drums and stream of consciousness vocals from Jim Drummond. More than one explanation has been offered for the band's name. One version suggests that it derives from the band coming together by accident over cheer; the most generally accepted explanation is that band leader Jones had spotted a rack of Hallmark greeting cards labelled "Cheer-Accident" and decided the phrase would make a good band name.

This core of three members was augmented by a rotating cast of up to ten other musicians. During this period, the band began to self-release music on cassette, notably the Life Isn't Like That EP. (This early period of the band's history is also documented on the 2004 retrospective compilation Younger Than You Are Now (1981–1984).) By the summer of 1987, the group had started to make occasional live appearances, with the the line-up (drawn from the Cheer-Accident 'collective') of Jones on drums, Chris Block on bass and Jeff Libersher on guitar; this line-up recorded the band's first album proper, Sever Roots, Tree Dies, a year later. Recorded under the guidance of local producer Phil Bonnet, the album was released (as with their earlier cassettes) by Complacency Records on 12" only.

The band decided that their second album should sound "harsher" to reflect their live sound, and to achieve this hired renowned Chicago producer Steve Albini, who recorded 1990's Dumb Ask in his basement studio. The album was released jointly by Complacency and British label Neat, and lead to a multi-album contract with the latter, which was abruptly severed when the band became unhappy with their treatment of Dumb Ask. In the same year, the band expanded to a four-piece after recruiting Sever Roots, Tree Dies producer Phil Bonnet on second guitar as a permanent member. In June 1991, this line-up recorded the band's third album, Babies Shouldn't Smoke, also contributing a version of Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" to local label Pravda Records' compilation 20 Explosive Dynamic Super Smash Hit Explosions!.

In June 1992, Chris Block was asked to leave, apparently "frustrated by the group's unwillingness to define itself exclusively as a dissonant band". He was replaced by bassist and composer Dan Forden, and the band set to composing new music as well as performing frequently. In late 1993, the band helped create a public access cable television show named Cool Clown Ground, which reflected the band's anarchic humor: one episode, for instance, consisting of Thymme Jones playing a single maraca for a full hour.[citation needed] In July of the following year, the band recorded "Not A Food", again with Steve Albini, although the album was not released for another two years. This album took on a notably more rock-based sound while still incorporating humorous and progressive flourishes. Though productive, Forden's stay was short-lived, and he left after getting married in August 1994. He was replaced on bass by ex-Flying Luttenbacher Dylan Posa, and the line-up of Bonnet, Jones, Libersher and Posa stabilised. This line-up released the band's fourth full-length album in November of the same year. The Why Album, whose titled nodded to the Beatles' White Album[citation needed], was the band's most straightforward record to date, consisting of fourteen indie-pop songs driven by Thymme Jones' piano.

Other projects
The members of Cheer-Accident have worked in numerous other projects, mainly centered around Chicago's music scene. Thymme Jones is a member of alternative rock group You Fantastic! with Dazzling Killmen members Darin Gray and Tim Garrigan. With Gray, Cheer-Accident guitarist Dylan Posa and Jim O'Rourke, Jones was also a member of the avant-garde rock group Brise-Glace, who released one single and one album on Skin Graft Records. Jones, O'Rourke and Gray had also previously played together in 1994 in the short-lived Yona-Kit. Jones and O'Rourke have also both been members of Dan Burke's dark ambient/drone project Illusion of Safety, and Jones was a member of O'Rourke's Gastr del Sol project for the album The Harp Factory on Lake Street.

Jones also contributed piano to the Smog album Red Apple Falls, drums, piano, Moog and trumpet to several Bobby Conn albums, including drumming on his biggest hit "Never Get Ahead", and trumpet to U.S. Maple's first record Long Hair in Three Stages. In 2000, he released his first solo record, a collection of five solo piano pieces inspired by the likes of Steve Reich and György Ligeti. Since then, he has released a second solo album.

Dylan Posa played guitar for The Flying Luttenbachers from 1993 to 1994, and again in 1998. He has also released a solo album, Bees Are Bored, on the Born and Raised on Sugar label.

Phil Bonnet was well-known and prolific as a producer, again mostly working with bands from the Chicago scene. He produced or engineered records for The Slugs, Screeching Weasel, The Smoking Popes, Eleventh Dream Day, Green, The New Duncan Imperials, Apocalypse Hoboken, U.S. Maple, Bobby Conn, Sam Prekop, Jim O'Rourke, No Empathy, Sidekick Kato, Illusion of Safety, the Krinkles, Will Oldham, and Edith Frost, among others.

Albums

 * Life Isn't Like That (Complacency, 1986) (cassette only)
 * Sever Roots, Tree Dies (Complacency, 1988) (12" only)
 * Vasectomy (Complacency, 1989) (cassette only)
 * Dumb Ask (Complacency/Neat, 1990)
 * Babies Shouldn't Smoke (Complacency, 1993)
 * The Why Album (Complacency, 1994)
 * Not a Food (Pravda, 1996)
 * Enduring the American Dream (Pravda, 1997)
 * Trading Balloons (self-released, 1999)
 * Salad Days (Skin Graft, 2000)
 * Variations on a Goddam Old Man (Pravda, 2002)
 * Introducing Lemon (Skin Graft, 2003)
 * Gumballhead the Cat OST (Skin Graft, 2003)
 * Younger Than You Are Now (1981-1984) (2004)
 * Variations on a Goddam Old Man (Pravda, 2005)
 * What Sequel? (Pravda, 2006)

Singles

 * "His Ass Was His Only Feature" (Super 800, 1997) (split with Star.Star)
 * "Title" (1999)

Compilation appearances

 * "Theme from Shaft" from 20 Explosive Dynamic Super Smash Hit Explosions! (Pravda, 1991)

Current members

 * Jamie Fillmore – guitar
 * Thymme Jones – drums, vocals, trumpet, Moog, Casio, harmonica
 * Jeff Libersher – guitar
 * Dylan Posa – bass, guitar, Casio, microcassette, air organ
 * Todd Rittmann – guitar

Former members

 * Chris Block – bass (1987–1992)
 * Phil Bonnet (deceased) – guitar (1993–1999)
 * Jim Drummond – vocals (1981–1984)
 * Dan Forden – bass (1992–1993)
 * Mike Greenlees – drums (1981–1987)
 * Scott Rutledge – lyrics

Various press articles
various press articles

BAND HISTORY from SGR
CHEER-ACCIDENT began literally in the first few seconds of 1981 during a New Year's brainstorming party that included Jim Drummond (stream-of-consciousness vocal), Thymme Jones(piano), and Mike Greenlees (drums). For the next five years, the band (which during this time was really a community of up to 10 musicians) refined their aesthetic by recording a number of independently-produced cassettes, including the critically-acclaimed 1986 release, "Life Isn't Like That." The band began making sporadic live appearances in the summer of 1987 featuring a pared-down CHEER-ACCIDENT consisting of Chris Block on bass, Jeff Libersher on guitar, and Jones on drums. In 1988, the trio recorded "Sever Roots, Tree Dies" showcasing an assortment of moods and instruments under the guidance of noted Chicago producer Phil Bonnet.

For their next release, in an attempt to capture their harsher live sound, the band turned to internationally-renowned engineer Steve Albini. This successful pairing yielded "Dumb Ask" and ultimately resulted in a multi-album contract with England's NEAT Records in mid-1990. That same year, as a result of the band's growing format, they once again enlisted the services of Bonnet, although this time on second guitar. In June of 1991, the new line-up recorded the band's third LP, "Babies Shouldn't Smoke". A recording that consistently expands the boundaries of rock music while never failing to rock. The same line-up that recorded "Babies" can also be heard on the PRAVDA Records compilation, "20 Explosive Dynamic Super Smash Hit Explosions!" with their decomposition of the "Theme From Shaft".

1992 was a year of great productivity-the band's Bassist Chris Block, frustrated by the group's unwillingness to define itself exclusively as a dissonant band, was asked to leave in June. He was promptly replaced by bassist/composer Dan Forden, whose musicianship and strong work ethic led to a very fruitful couple of years with CHEER-ACCIDENT. In addition to performing in the numerous and always-varying live shows, Forden contributed to the 150+ minutes of music that were recorded during that time. In late 1993, CHEER-ACCIDENT (along with pal, Fred Krueger) helped create the cable access show "Cool Clown Ground". In 1994, the show's popularity (to the complete shock of everyone) began to significantly increase. In July, CHEER-ACCIDENT teamed up once again with Steve Albini to record "Not A Food", their 'rock update' with a few decidedly non-rock stumbling blocks. This full-length recording is a very self-assured work -probably their best match -up with Steve to date.

In August of 1994, Dan Forden was institutionalized (that is to say, married) and replaced by ex-Flying Luttenbachers member Dylan Posa. In November of 1994, they released their fourth full-length recording, entitled "The Why Album", featuring 14 well thought-out and catchy pop songs. This was the first time that this aspect of the band (though implied on previous releases) had been thoroughly explored in a particular setting. At this point, Cheer-Accident's live shows had become quite treacherous--much more visceral and much more dynamic: Dylan had brought a decidedly unbridled Kinetic energy to the mix, sending the band further in the areas of exploratory noise and pointless theatrics.

1995 and 1996 turned out to be years of tremendous growth in terms of the band's live performances: Some of the shows functioned (in part) as an intensive overview of CHEER-ACCIDENT's musical history (as they breathed new life into old songs, butting them up against new material), while some of the shows seemed to abandon history (and music) entirely. An example of a show in the anti-history/anti music vein was the March 15, 1996 Fireside Bowl show where Chalfont, a "really intelligent" English guy spent the first fifteen minutes introducing "the spokesman for your generation". The Spokesman (who ended up being band lyricist Scott Rutledge) then got up and read "World Bank", a piece about connecting with the world economy by consuming mass quantities of pennies and then, after circulating them through the digestive system, bringing them to the bank (unwashed) and cashing them in. There were "smart" looks as all around onstage as each band member gradually "progressed" from looking very dignified to laughing giddily and uncontrollably. This was then followed by the band attempting (unsuccessfully) to play one of their older songs, "Fat Dog's Gonna Hatch", as they started and stopped the song at various points in their quest to 'get it right'. Yeah, I guess you had to be there...

In April of 1997, they came out with their second Pravda recording ("Not a Food" was released in '96), entitled, "Enduring The American Dream". This full-length, their sixth, is a densely structured 72 minute work which utilizes a variety of instruments and musical approaches while retaining a cohesive aesthetic integrity. Certainly their most ambitious endeavor up to this point, "Enduring" was recorded over a five-year period and contains fourteen pieces that range from lo-fi pop to carefully constructed noise collages to extended form rock compositions.

After recording their 52-minute song, "Trading Balloons" in May of '97, the band retreated deeply into it's own psyche, practically drowning in id vomit. This "id vomit" is rather hard to describe in musical terms, but let's just say that it's the psycho-acoustic equivalent to a squashed bug's insides oozing out as it slowly dies. There is something decidedly organic about this aspect of the band, almost as if the sound taking place is a necessary by-product of the life and death process. From the summer of 1997 to the fall of 1998 there were long stretches of time where it looked like CHEER-ACCIDENT would never "rock" again. However, on September 23, 1998 at Lounge Ax (with The Bells and The Flying Luttenbachers), they whipped out one of their patented (and ever-improving) "all over the map" heavy prog shows, signaling to the world that they were "back".

On Friday, January 22, 1999, CHEER-ACCIDENT performed a rhythmically aggressive and sonically relentless show at the Dekalb punk venue, Seven Dead Arson. During the song 'Garbage Head", Phil, instead of his usual "wailing' guitar solo, whipped out a harmonica and "remembered the blues" to the complete shock of everyone in attendance (including fellow bandmates). It was a brilliant, spontaneous, and truly memorable comedic moment. Sadly, this was to be his final performance. Less than two weeks later, on February 2, 1999, Phil died, leaving the band (as well as a large part of Chicago's musical community) stunned: Not only a vital member of this uniquely synchronized band, and not only an extremely-hardworking engineer adored throughout chicagoland, Phil also happened to be an uncommonly genuine human being, a person whose integrity was wholly unmatched.

Paralyzed by the loss of this man who was in possession of an encyclopedic knowledge of rock, a perfect pop sensibility, and an eerily intuitive knack for harmony, CHEER-ACCIDENT was forced to seriously question it's future.

On an early spring of '99 day, Jeff, Thymme, and Dylan took a long walk on the north side of Chicago to discuss whether or not they desired to still exist as a band. They concluded that, although Phil was irreplaceable, they would continue on in some capacity. Step one of "continuing on" turning out to be the completion of "Salad Days", a recording they had begun literally the day before Phil died. Though there was some trepidation in heading back to the studio in April, these overdubbing sessions (graciously engineered by Steve Albini at a reduced rate) turned out to be exactly what the band needed. The mixdown (which included material recorded back in '97) went extremely well, and they had a finished full-length by the middle of May. It seemed as though some momentum had returned to the band much more quickly than they would have imagined. This, however, proved to be an illusion.

Step two of "continuing on" turned out to be... not much. Practices were few and far between and the overall morale was low. As denial and delusion fell away, and everyone began to fully feel the effects of Phil's absence, the summer of '99 became one big "What's next?"

On a late summer night at Athens Cafe (in Chicago's Rogers Park) Thymme (over an Italian beef and cheese fries) was telling his friend of four years, Jamie Fillmore, all about CHEER-ACCIDENT's current woes--how they felt that they still had some things to contribute to the planet, but how they seemed to be missing a necessary component that would allow them to "turn the page". Jamie was quite sympathetic to the situation and (he, himself, a fine musician) offered his services, should the occasion arise. Well, one thing led to another, and by September Jamie was a full-fledged member. Not only does Jamie possess a keen musical sensitivity to go along with a formidable technical prowess, he fully understands (and involves himself with) the "extramusical" aspects of the band (in other words, donÕt expect the tendencies toward the abstract or idish to end anytime soon!). It was immediately evident that the chemistry between Jeff, Thymme, Dylan, and Jamie was something special (Jamie already having been immediately familiar with much of CHEER-ACCIDENT's history and "way of doing things" didn't hurt), paving the way for a spirited return of a high level of productivity. His first performance with the band occurred on Friday, January 7, 2000 (one of the final Lounge Ax shows, which also included The Flying Luttenbachers on the bill), where they performed an evening's worth of (what else?) Christian songs and homemade id vomit spirituals.

The dawn of the new millennium found CHEER-ACCIDENT with the self-released "Trading Balloons" (the aformentioned 52-minute song...with a 15-minute rock anthem ending!), a steady stream of live shows, and their latest triumph "Salad Days", their first recording for the tenacious Skin Graft label. Soon after tha band rleased the first in a proposed series of home recordings "Variations On A Goddamn Old Man" for Pravda Records.

Now the band has completed a 60+ minute soundtrack for a new "Gumballhead The Cat" Comic Book penned by cartoonist Rob Syers and has put the finishing touches on their next LP "Introducing Lemon"! Stick around... 'cause who knows what's gonna happen next!

Album blurb/recap from SGR
CHEER-ACCIDENT is clearly the underdog of Chicago. Always unpredictable, always entertaining, but darn hard to pigeonhole. Imagine an indie prog band, an emo band that can laugh at itself, or a band that might get compared to Trans Am or the Champs (but has probably never heard either), or maybe the best bet is to set that blender on "10" and dream about Steely Dan, Chicago (the band) and U.S Maple. CHEER-ACCIDENT thrills in dissonance and odd chord changes, yet are undeniably A POP BAND. Chicago has had its share of indie giants, like Tortoise, Joan Of Arc, Shellac, The Sea And Cake, Seam, and Don Cab to name a few. Cheer-Accident fits right in among the crevices. But they sneak in the back door, taking things to another level, with songwriting that will make you cry, musicianship that will make you tremble, and the hooks and the looks needed to go down in musical history. CHEER-ACCIDENT has an eccentric sense of humor that combines a lush pop style with bursts of bizarre changes; at just about the point where you become convinced that any given song could make it on commercial radio, they "blow it" with some left-field turn straight off a cliff. Their latest album, and first for SkiN GRAFT is "Salad Days", a celebration that music is being made at all - A Hi-Fi invitation to the band«s explorations into the dark world of lo fi consciousness (mixed by Steve Albini!!!). Tap in and fell the most rewarding album of the year. 

Chi Reader on Cheer-Ax
By Peter Margasak

October 13, 2000

Life After Phil

CHEER-ACCIDENT, Feeling Better

On February 2, 1999, two days after Cheer-Accident finished recording the basic tracks for the epic title tune from their new album, Salad Days (Skin Graft), guitarist Phil Bonnet was found dead in his car near his Ukrainian Village apartment. Bonnet, who was only 38, was a beloved local recording engineer; he was on his way home from the studio when he suffered a brain aneurysm. He'd been playing in the band for nearly a decade, and the other members of the group—drummer Thymme Jones, guitarist Jeff Libersher, and bassist Dylan Posa—were devastated, having lost not only a close friend but also a crucial collaborator. Bands have certainly broken up for lesser reasons—but remarkably Cheer-Accident survived the loss.

Jones, a 37-year-old who makes a living delivering pizza, began using the name Cheer-Accident as a teenager in Palatine. (It was inspired, he says, by a category of greeting cards he noticed at a Hallmark store.) In 1982 he started the experimental rock band Dot Dot Dot, and Cheer-Accident quickly became a studio side project with a revolving cast, recording a couple cassettes for limited release. But in 1987, a year after Libersher joined Jones and bassist Chris Block, the group began playing live, and in 1988 it released its first commercially available album, Sever Roots, Tree Dies, on Complacency Records, an imprint run by Illusion of Safety's Dan Burke. The band went on to make six more albums in the 90s, ranging wildly from prog rock to sweet piano-driven pop to brutally aggressive noise, sometimes on the same record. Around the time the fourth of these, Not a Food, was recorded—in 1994, though Pravda Records released it in 1996—Posa replaced Dan Forden, who'd replaced Block in '92, and the lineup stabilized.

Through all the personnel changes, the group has maintained an unapologetically geeky sense of humor and a healthy aversion to taking itself seriously. The typical Cheer-Accident show is resolutely atypical: At the Fireside Bowl in 1996 they entertained the kids with a set of Burt Bacharach and Herb Alpert material, and in 1994 at the Czar Bar they played an entire set over a loud, utterly incongruous click track. On several occasions they've spent a whole day performing the final one-chord groove from "Filet of Nod," a piece from their second official album, Dumb Ask.

After Bonnet died, the band hibernated for several months, but in May 1999 Jones, Posa, and Libersher began to consider a Cheer-Accident without him. They booked studio time with Steve Albini, who'd recorded Dumb Ask and was encouraging them to get back in the saddle. "I pushed doing that just to see what was going to happen," says Libersher. "I thought it might be a positive thing."

"We were pretty paralyzed," adds Jones. "When we went in to do the overdubs for `Salad Days' I remember dreading it. We weren't ready to do anything." Much to the trio's relief, the intricate session for the 19-minute piece—which includes crisscrossing guitar parts and a tricky matrix of horns—was a rousing success. But once they finished assembling the album, which includes tracks recorded between 1997 and '99, they were stuck again. "It seemed like we had some momentum, but when it was over the three of us were just like, now what?" says Jones. They got together and jammed some, but things weren't clicking. "It wasn't going anywhere. There was something missing tensionwise. We needed a foil. Phil was an element that created this other thing, and without him everything was just kind of sitting there."

By midsummer Jones was harboring severe doubts, and asked Libersher how long he saw himself playing in the band. When his bandmate responded with "an until-I-die kind of thing," he steeled himself and continued searching for a way for the group to progress. The solution arrived at the end of the summer, in the form of a guitarist and longtime Cheer-Accident fan named Jamie Fillmore. "Jamie had been coming to our shows for four years and he told me he was in the process of learning our entire catalog anyway, so he offered us his services if we wanted help doing anything from our past," says Jones. "That was the initial impetus, and once we started playing with him the chemistry was so amazing that we started doing all of this new stuff as well, engaging in what we call `id vomit' in the practice space, just letting the stuff come out of your unconscious."

This January the new incarnation of Cheer-Accident made its debut as part of Lounge Ax's farewell blowout. The group performed a low-key, percussion-free set of what Jones sarcastically dubs "Christian rock," starting with a cover of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer." "We were nervous, but in a good way," explains Jones. "There was a really nice tension and the audience was amazing. We were wondering if people would be like, `Why don't you guys just stop?' Phil was such an amazing person and we thought some people might be pissed off that we continued without him, but we didn't get a hint of that."

In fact, as experimental music has expanded its audience in Chicago, they've attained something like elder statesman status, and though Jones says they've done nothing in particular to encourage it, he admits that he doesn't mind. "It seems like more people know who we are nowadays, and I just hope we can keep doing what we're doing with recognition as we have without it," he says. "It would be nice to earn a little bit of a living from it—to deliver pizzas three times a week instead of five."

Cheer-Accident will celebrate the release of Salad Days by performing a set of material from previous albums on Saturday, October 14, at the Hideout. 

Phil Bonnet's death from Chi Reader
By Peter Margasak

February 12, 1999

Funeral for a Friend

PHIL BONNET, Empty Space

In a city where producers and engineers like Steve Albini, Brad Wood, and John McEntire are as celebrated as the bands they record, the late Phil Bonnet kept a profile so low as to be invisible. Bonnet, an engineer and musician who died last week at age 38 (a brain aneurysm is suspected), "didn't know how to blow his own horn," explains Thymme Jones, who played with him in the prog-rock band Cheer-Accident for eight years.

Yet if you follow local music at all, chances are you own something Bonnet worked on. The Slugs, Screeching Weasel, the Smoking Popes, Eleventh Dream Day, Green, the New Duncan Imperials, Apocalypse Hoboken, U.S. Maple, Bobby Conn, Sam Prekop, Jim O'Rourke, No Empathy, Sidekick Kato, Illusion of Safety, the Krinkles, Will Oldham, and Edith Frost were among the artists he recorded over the last 15 years. He routinely cut selfless deals with young, inexperienced bands to make recording affordable, turning the meter off after midnight or flat-out working for free. But he also made the musicians feel comfortable in the studio, and for many he became an indispensable confidant and creative adviser. No other engineer was connected to as many disparate subsets of the local rock scene, and by all accounts he was right at home in every situation.

His career path was set at age four, when he expressed his dissatisfaction with the quality of an orchestral concert by marching up to the podium and plugging his ears with his fingers. Later, says his sister, Nicki Sangdahl, he used to walk into her bedroom and wordlessly turn off the Top 40 radio station she listened to. When he was 14 he took up the guitar, and by the time he graduated from Naperville North High School in 1978 he'd played in numerous garage bands. But he'd also become fascinated with the technical side of music, procuring a mixing board and microphones and recording every note he and his friends bashed out. In the early 80s, he got a job as an engineer at a tiny Naperville eight-track studio called Old Plank. Through its owner, Steve Jacula, who freelanced at other studios, Bonnet eventually landed a position at Solid Sound in Hoffman Estates, where he spent most of his career.

His clients remember Bonnet as a guy who knew when to butt out--and when to butt in. Kyle Bruckmann of Lozenge, an unsigned experimental rock outfit that was in the midst of recording with Bonnet, says, "We have this strange combination of perfectionism and incompetence which makes us very hard to work with. Our sound is counterintuitive and our instrumentation is bizarre, but he just set up the mikes and proceeded to make us feel warm and fuzzy about what we were doing." Dag Juhlin of the Slugs, who made their first recording with Bonnet at Old Plank in 1985, says, "Looking back now it seems like no big deal, but at the time we were trying to do something with a guitar and he just leaned over and detuned a string and it solved all these problems. It seemed like this genius revelation, and it really endeared him to us."

The Smoking Popes recorded their first single with Bonnet in 1991, and he engineered most of their subsequent sessions, including their 1994 indie breakthrough, Born to Quit. When they signed with Capitol in 1995, they went to the mat to keep working with him. "We had to fight to get Phil on [Destination Failure, from 1997] because the label didn't want to use anyone who wasn't an established name," says front man Josh Caterer. "We refused to do it without him. He had given so much of his time, energy, and talent to us for pretty much nothing over the years, and we felt we owed it to him. We were also nervous about being in a major label situation and we knew that having him there would help us and make us more comfortable. He would protect the integrity of the music because Phil would never do anything he didn't absolutely believe was right for the music."

Bonnet worked with countless other bands who would never get their day in the sun, from generic suburban hair-metal outfits to inchoate punk combos. "He had a soft spot for the little guy," says his Cheer-Accident bandmate Jeff Libersher. "He would always say, 'If they're cool guys and they're trying to do something, who am I to say no, I'm not going to record you?'"

Bonnet's work ethic earned him the respect and friendship of fellow engineers and producers: "Phil was one of the kindest, strongest, most centered people I knew. He had ideals and he stuck to them," says Jim O'Rourke, who used Bonnet on nearly every project in the last few years. But it also took a toll.

"Working 12- to 14-hour days and barely making rent can really get to a person," says Jones. "He didn't complain about it, but he would tell me sometimes that he was really frazzled. I could never believe how much he worked." He also fought waves of brutal self-doubt. "Phil wasn't happy unless you were happy," says Juhlin. He last saw Bonnet two weeks ago at Lounge Ax, during a release party for a new album by Slugs guitarist Johnny L that Bonnet had recorded. "I asked him what he thought of the record, and he said, 'Every time I hear it I can only hear my mistakes.' He could really brood about stuff like that."

When Bonnet died, he was in the process of making some long-deserved adjustments in his own favor. He'd been building a studio in the east Humboldt Park apartment he shared with his girlfriend of six years, Brenda Breitenstein. She says he had planned to become more selective about whom he recorded so that he could dedicate more time to Cheer-Accident and a solo album he was working on. But even if he'd chosen to work only with friends, he'd still have been a busy man. At a memorial service Thursday in Naperville almost 250 people showed up. "The family thought there would be about ten people there," says Sangdahl. "We never realized the impact Phil had." 

Scaruffi (cock)
Cheer-Accident is a Chicago band formed by keyboardist/drummer Thymme Jones (ex Illusion of Safety). Initially (1985) the band was only Jones and vocalist Jim Drummond. After a number of independently produced cassettes, Drummond left and in 1986 bassist Chris Block and guitarist Jeff Libersher joined Jones. The EP Life Isn't Like That (1986) was followed by Sever Roots Tree Dies (1988), recorded by producer Phil Bonnet, who also became a permanent member.

Steve Albini produced the EP Dumb Ask (Neat Metal, 1989) whose highlight is the dissonant double-guitar assault of Phil Bonnet and Jeff Libersher.

Babies Shouldn't Smoke (Neat Metal, 1991)

The Why Album (1994)

Jones, always hyperactive on the Chicago scene, then formed You Fantastic and joined avant-punks Dot Dot Dot. Cheer-Accident recruited bassist Dylan Posa.

Thymme Jones also released the solo piano albums While (Perdition Plastics, 1996) and Career Move (Perdition Plastics, 1997).

Despite Cheer-Accident's pedigree, the mostly instrumental Not A Food (Pravda, 1996) likes to follow into the footsteps of Frank Zappa's dadaistic circus (King Cheezamin, the nine-minute Evan Had A Half-Life). The bold counterpoint and textures used to derail the jokes are descendants of Slint's school of avant-rock. The album's weak point is a stubborn and a little self-indulgent recycling of progressive-rock cliches (the 11-minute 30 Seconds of Weightlessness).

Piano and organ largely replace guitars on the 72-minute 14-track tour de force Enduring The American Dream (Pravda, 1997). Often, the keyboards are used as percussion instruments, like in Steve Reich's minimalist scores. Nonetheless, "songs" such as Metaphysical indulge in melodic romanticism. What has remained the same is the abrupt rhythm changes (the 13-minute Desert Song), and the ironic attitude towards songwriting (Dismantling the Berliz Waltz). The opening Vacuum is just one 5-minute drone.

Bonnet, a well-known producer for whom Cheer-Accident was an intellectual passtime, died in February 1999 at the age of 38.

Thymme Jones released his first solo album, While (Perdition Plastics, 2000), a set of five minimalist piano quartets.

Cheer-Accident's first post-Bonnet album, Salad Days (Skin Graft, 2000), is another fantastic excursion in the realms of creative music. The 11-minute Graphic Depression (originally composed in 1981) and the 19-minute Salad Days rank among the band's most daring ventures, trascending both prog-rock and math-rock and coining a new form of abstract composition. Insomnia and Post-Premature are cubistic pieces built by warping melodies into geometric shapes and by assembling collages of disconnected sounds. The album suffers from the way it was composed (the other members overdubbing tracks that Bonnet had barely sketched), but it still provides moments of intriguing theory. The scores are complex in the tradition of Frank Zappa and Soft Machine.

Gumballhead THe Cat (Skin Graft, 2003) sounds, instead, like Cheer-Accident's less innovative work, a mere routine that surveys the themes and styles they are more familiar with.

Continuing the stylistic zig-zag, Introducing Lemon (Skin Graft, 2003) marks, for the most part, a glorious return to their most abstract and discordant prog-rock roots. The 22-minute suite The Autumn Wind is a Pirate is a summation of the band's prog-rock and post-rock ambitions. This is a powerful potion of Yes, Frank Zappa and King Crimson for the Tortoise generation. This stylistic tour de force is the real reason for the album to exist. The other 22-minute monolith, Find, that closes the album, is basically, a medley of ballads bridged by convoluted instrumental passages, but it could have been edited down to half its length; and the shortest songs (with the exception of the pretty Smile) are filler of the worst kind.

By now Cheer-Accident had become the vehicle for Thymme Jones' music, who surrounded himself with different collaborators on each album. What Sequel (2006) was his "pop" album: a collection of relatively straightforward melodic ditties. Unfortunately, they are marred by his vocals, not the most tuneful in the business.

Epitonic
Chicago's Cheer-Accident came together by accident over "cheers" in the first moments of New Year's Day, 1981, though only one member of the band's initial incarnation -- Thymme Jones -- remains today. The band started out as a three-piece comprised of drums, piano, and stream-of-consciousness vocals, then went on to try on a variety of sounds over the years. By the late '80s, Cheer-Accident had settled on a more or less consistent lineup that included multi-instrumentalist Jones (also an occasional member of Gastr del Sol, US Maple, Brise-Glace, and You Fantastic!, among others), guitarist and occasional producer Phil Bonnet, guitarist Jeff Libersher, and bassist Chris Block. The only significant change over the next decade-plus would be the exit of Block and the entrance of former Flying Luttenbachers and Brice-Glace member Dylan Posa.

By the '90s, Cheer-Accident had refined and developed one of the most unique musical aesthetic in recent memory: erumpent, endlessly layered noise collages that hit you with volcanic force. It starts with guitars, usually two or three of them, and busy energetic drums, and builds into a madness of beautifully arranged layers that include a noble-sounding trumpet, a madman harmonica, multiple keyboards, tape loops, and extremely occasional and always inscrutable vocals (and often still more instrumentation, including flute, piccolo, trombone, and Moog organ). Cheer-Accident makes transitions from hypnotic minimalist drone to dissonant jazz improvisation to a kind of deconstructed prog rock effortlessly, gracefully, and often on multiple occasions during the course of a piece. In a Chicago music scene crowded with self-styled innovators, Cheer-Accident is a consummate original.

Or stood. Guitarist and respected local producer Bonnet died of a brain aneurysm in February 1999. Shortly before his death, Cheer-Accident finished recording its seventh full-length, Salad Days, with esteemed producer Steve Albini (with whom the band had recorded on numerous occasions beginning in 1988). Though the band's future is in question, this eccentric, lovely album serves as a nice introduction to a dense, varied, remarkable catalogue. Jesse Ashlock last updated: 09/05/01