Fig Dish is a 1990s
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band based in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The band signed to
PolyGram Records in 1995 and released two full-length albums before becoming inactive in 1998. In 2024, they released their third full-length album, ''Feels Like the Very First Two Times'', culled from demos recorded in the late '90s.
Description
Fig Dish's sound was influenced by '80s college rock and indie bands such as
Dinosaur Jr. and
The Replacements, and has drawn comparisons to
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick is an American rock band formed in Rockford, Illinois in 1970 by guitarist Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, lead vocalist Robin Zander and drummer Bun E. Carlos. Their work bridged elements of '60s pop rock, guitar pop, '70s har ...
. They were part of a mid-90s Chicago rock scene that included
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins (also simply known as Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The ...
,
Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt is an American alternative rock band founded in Chicago in 1992 by vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post, drummer Jim Shapiro, and bassist Steve Lack. They are best known for their first single, " Seether", which was rel ...
, and
Local H
Local H is an American rock band co-founded in 1990 in Zion, Illinois by guitarist and vocalist Scott Lucas, who has remained the band's sole consistent member. Following the departures of the early line-up's bassist and lead guitarist, Lucas a ...
. They were closely associated and often shared bills with those and other Chicago acts such as
Triple Fast Action, Smoking Popes, and
Hushdrops. The band's name was said to have been chosen for its resemblance, when pronounced, to the vulgar German phrase ''
fick dich''.
''
That's What Love Songs Often Do
''That's What Love Songs Often Do'' is an album by the American band Fig Dish, released in 1995. "Seeds" and "Bury Me" were released as singles. ''That's What Love Songs Often Do'' was a commercial disappointment. The band supported it with a Nor ...
'', Fig Dish's 1995 major-label debut album which had been out of print for years, was re-released in April 2013.
''
Chicago Magazine
''Chicago'' is a monthly magazine published by Tribune Publishing. It concentrates on lifestyle and human interest stories, and on reviewing restaurants, travel, fashion, and theatre from or nearby Chicago. Its circulation in 2004 was 165,000, l ...
'' wrote that the band was a "folkloric Chicago outfit," and quoted Blake Smith's summary of the band's career: "We were too busy being the underdog Midwestern raging partying guys, and it killed us.... We just weren’t very good at playing the game, and we drank a lot back in those days."
[ The band reportedly "blew their first big chance at a signing when they opted to play an entire set of Neil Diamond covers at an A&R showcase at the now-defunct Avalon nightclub."][
Live shows by Fig Dish in Chicago became popular with a small devoted fan base due to the inclusion of goofy banter and audience interaction, and an apparent embrace of a drunken rock club party atmosphere. Fig Dish participated in the first and many subsequent Halloween shows at Chicago's Double Door. Some live shows included an encore of classic rock numbers that showcased guest vocalist Wes Kidd of Triple Fast Action, who performed apparently intoxicated and dressed in a pink bunny suit.
In September 1998, the band broke with their recording label, ]A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
. According to ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
The magazine was first known fo ...
'', the band considered its lack of widespread recognition to be the fault of the label's "zero effort" to provide exposure outside of Chicago, concluding, "The final straw was an estimated $80,000 soft-porn music video the quartet made for the single 'When Shirts Get Tight,' which featured a handful of elite porn stars. The band reportedly picked up the tab for both clean and dirty versions of the video, but neither of them received any airplay on MTV."[ In contrast to the comedic video, the song's lyrics showcased the depth of the band's musical knowledge with lines quoted from ]Game Theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...
's song "Friend of the Family," from ''Real Nighttime
''Real Nighttime'' is the second full-length album from Game Theory, a California power pop band founded by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Released in 1985, the album is cited as "a watershed work in '80s paisley underground pop." ...
'' (1985).
Musical careers after Fig Dish
Several members of Fig Dish have gone on to form or work with other bands:
* Blake Smith and Mike Willison formed Caviar
Caviar or caviare is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspi ...
in 1999. They later joined forces with Local H
Local H is an American rock band co-founded in 1990 in Zion, Illinois by guitarist and vocalist Scott Lucas, who has remained the band's sole consistent member. Following the departures of the early line-up's bassist and lead guitarist, Lucas a ...
frontman Scott Lucas in the electronica project The Prairie Cartel. As of 2015, Smith was the lead singer for Chicago-based noise-pop band Forgotten Species, which released its debut EP, ''Hades Fades'', in January 2015.
* Rick Ness went on to play with The Cells
The Cells is a 3-piece American rock band based in Chicago, currently made up of singer/guitarist Cory Hance, bassist Johnny Furman and drummer Mark Doyle.
The band was formed in 1998 by singer/guitarist Cory Hance and bassist Brede Hovland. H ...
and The Webb Brothers. He also started his own project, Ness, with Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt is an American alternative rock band founded in Chicago in 1992 by vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post, drummer Jim Shapiro, and bassist Steve Lack. They are best known for their first single, " Seether", which was rel ...
's Jim Shapiro.
* Bill Swartz was also a member of Ness, along with John San Juan from The Hushdrops, and Jonny Polonsky
Jonny Polonsky (born July 10, 1973) is an American songwriter, rock guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Career
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in suburban Wilmette, Illinois, Polonsky began writing, recording ...
.
* Brian Nolan joined drummer Stacy Jones in 1998 to form BMX Girl, which later became American Hi-Fi.[
]
Members
* Blake Smith - Guitars and vocals
* Rick Ness - Guitars and vocals
* Mike Willison - Bass and vocals
* Andy Hamilton - Drums (''That's What Love Songs Often Do'', 1995)
* Bill Swartz - Drums (''When Shove Goes Back To Push'', 1997)
* Brian Nolan - Drums
* Gustavo Lovato - Bass and vocals (pre-Polygram)
Discography
* ''Unleash the Cracken'' (Touchy-Feely Records, 1991)
* "Rollover, Please" b/w "Miss California" (7" single, 1993)
* "Nimble" b/w "Bury Me" (7" single, 1993)
* ''That's What Love Songs Often Do
''That's What Love Songs Often Do'' is an album by the American band Fig Dish, released in 1995. "Seeds" and "Bury Me" were released as singles. ''That's What Love Songs Often Do'' was a commercial disappointment. The band supported it with a Nor ...
'' (1995)
* ''When Shove Goes Back To Push'' (1997)
* ''Feels Like The Very First Two Times'' (2024, recorded 1998)
References
External links
*
Fig Dish
at Musicbrainz
MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...
Fig Dish at MySpace
WorldCat discography
{{Authority control
Alternative rock groups from Chicago
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical groups disestablished in 1998