Eleventh Dream Day

The career of the noisy guitar unit Eleventh Dream Day -- one of the most resilient and criminally underappreciated bands to rise from the Midwestern underground community -- is a textbook study in alt rock endurance. Despite a nightmarish major-label tenure, ill-timed roster changes, and commercial indifference, the group persevered, ultimately emerging as elder statesmen of the flourishing Chicago independent scene of the mid-'90s. 1991's Lived to Tell was a guitar-fueled highlight of their major-label period; 1997's Eighth found them still powerful and compelling despite a return to the independent community and being stripped down to a trio; 2006's muscular Zeroes and Ones, and 2021's more contemplative Since Grazed demonstrated they were still making music every bit as strong as they did in their salad days.