Biography
Emerging in 1990 from Chicago's folk-punk group Friends of Betty, the modern blues balladeers Red Red Meat stood in sharp contrast to the glam-informed swagger that defined the Windy City's Material Issue and Urge Overkill. Founding members Tim Rutili on vocals and guitars and Glynis Johnson on bass and vocals, together with Brian Deck on drums and Glenn Girard, guitarist from Crows, issued their opening single Snowball in 1991. Strains from internal friction and personal turmoil already surfaced while the band tracked its self-titled debut LP in 1992; issued on the band's own Perishable imprint, the set delivered a solid portion of Stones-inspired roots rock that secured regular live dates and raised the group's standing amid the frenzied early-'90s underground sparked by Nirvana.
That summer the Smashing Pumpkins, fellow Chicago upstarts, tapped Red Red Meat for the support slot on a ten-day tour. The run exposed the toll on Johnson's declining health and further frayed her already stressed eight-year bond with Rutili, both musical and romantic. Unaware of how grave her condition had become and complying with her repeated wishes, Rutili dismissed her from the lineup. Two months later the 32-year-old Johnson succumbed to AIDS. Instead of letting the loss splinter the group, Red Red Meat chose to continue as a tribute to their friend and bandmate. By winter 1992 attorney Tim Hurley joined as permanent bassist. With guitar tones left gritty and drum kits augmented by steel pots and kitchen sinks, Rutili's gravelly voice guided the refreshed lineup through a string of smoke-stained, ragged modern blues-rock albums.
Riding the momentum of "Flank" in 1993, the band signed with Seattle's Sub Pop and placed its next three releases with the label. Jimmywine Majestic, the 1993 debut for Sub Pop, offered an early electric hint of the direction Red Red Meat would pursue. Though still echoing a sludgy, cosmic Faces record, the distorted guitars of Rutili and Girard moved deliberately across, beneath, and around the driving blues-rock tracks that felt like the frayed cuff of a well-worn shirt.
Erratic live shows and drunken episodes cemented the band's reputation as Chicago misfits; at a 1995 hometown date, Material Issue frontman Jim Ellison hurled a Dixie cup of his own urine at the group in payback for Hurley's earlier bar incident. That year also brought Bunny Gets Paid, the third LP and second Sub Pop effort. After Glenn Girard's 1994 exit, Hurley had moved from bass to guitar while longtime Friends of Betty drummer Ben Massarella formally joined for the sessions. The scruffy outfit aimed for the most pop-leaning record possible yet filtered through the codeine haze of skewed Chicago art-school sensibilities, resulting in what many consider the band's strongest work. Bunny Gets Paid, the reflective and poignant sibling to Jimmywine Majestic, let the band linger in the space between notes, dialing back the fuzz guitars to spotlight the fractured, luminous, nearly anthemic blues-pop melodies that had long hovered at the edges of Red Red Meat's emotional core. The album closed with a crooked, bourbon-soaked version of "There's Always Tomorrow" from the claymation perennial Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
For the 1997 release There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight, the band assumed production duties, with Brian Deck handling most engineering. The wide-open, meandering set sought to "synthesize a field recording with a Can aesthetic," expanding instrumental palettes through organs and assorted effects and machinery within avant-blues rags that foreshadowed the group's later evolution into Califone. Songs on There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight began and ended or simply fell apart without warning; guitars sounded strung with spools of worn audio tape; and the players often launched a groove only to break it apart. Not surprisingly, the album marked the end of Red Red Meat's Sub Pop tenure. The band unofficially dissolved later that year as Rutili and Massarella revived the Perishable imprint to document future work from the altered Red Red Meat lineage.
That summer the Smashing Pumpkins, fellow Chicago upstarts, tapped Red Red Meat for the support slot on a ten-day tour. The run exposed the toll on Johnson's declining health and further frayed her already stressed eight-year bond with Rutili, both musical and romantic. Unaware of how grave her condition had become and complying with her repeated wishes, Rutili dismissed her from the lineup. Two months later the 32-year-old Johnson succumbed to AIDS. Instead of letting the loss splinter the group, Red Red Meat chose to continue as a tribute to their friend and bandmate. By winter 1992 attorney Tim Hurley joined as permanent bassist. With guitar tones left gritty and drum kits augmented by steel pots and kitchen sinks, Rutili's gravelly voice guided the refreshed lineup through a string of smoke-stained, ragged modern blues-rock albums.
Riding the momentum of "Flank" in 1993, the band signed with Seattle's Sub Pop and placed its next three releases with the label. Jimmywine Majestic, the 1993 debut for Sub Pop, offered an early electric hint of the direction Red Red Meat would pursue. Though still echoing a sludgy, cosmic Faces record, the distorted guitars of Rutili and Girard moved deliberately across, beneath, and around the driving blues-rock tracks that felt like the frayed cuff of a well-worn shirt.
Erratic live shows and drunken episodes cemented the band's reputation as Chicago misfits; at a 1995 hometown date, Material Issue frontman Jim Ellison hurled a Dixie cup of his own urine at the group in payback for Hurley's earlier bar incident. That year also brought Bunny Gets Paid, the third LP and second Sub Pop effort. After Glenn Girard's 1994 exit, Hurley had moved from bass to guitar while longtime Friends of Betty drummer Ben Massarella formally joined for the sessions. The scruffy outfit aimed for the most pop-leaning record possible yet filtered through the codeine haze of skewed Chicago art-school sensibilities, resulting in what many consider the band's strongest work. Bunny Gets Paid, the reflective and poignant sibling to Jimmywine Majestic, let the band linger in the space between notes, dialing back the fuzz guitars to spotlight the fractured, luminous, nearly anthemic blues-pop melodies that had long hovered at the edges of Red Red Meat's emotional core. The album closed with a crooked, bourbon-soaked version of "There's Always Tomorrow" from the claymation perennial Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
For the 1997 release There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight, the band assumed production duties, with Brian Deck handling most engineering. The wide-open, meandering set sought to "synthesize a field recording with a Can aesthetic," expanding instrumental palettes through organs and assorted effects and machinery within avant-blues rags that foreshadowed the group's later evolution into Califone. Songs on There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight began and ended or simply fell apart without warning; guitars sounded strung with spools of worn audio tape; and the players often launched a groove only to break it apart. Not surprisingly, the album marked the end of Red Red Meat's Sub Pop tenure. The band unofficially dissolved later that year as Rutili and Massarella revived the Perishable imprint to document future work from the altered Red Red Meat lineage.
Albums
Post-Coital Ghost Dreams From a Warm Mammal Pile
2016
Post-Coital Ghost Dreams from a Warm Mammal Pile
2016
Bunny Gets Paid (Deluxe Edition)
2009
There's A Star Above The Manger Tonight
1997
There's a Star Above the Manger Tonight
1997
Bunny Gets Paid
1995
Bunny Gets Paid: Deluxe Edition
1995
Red Red Meat
1994
Jimmywine Majestic
1994