SOUND CHECK / Above the law
TOM BOWKER
Indie rocker -- and law student -- Elizabeth Elmore of the Reputation is looking to force a fate
If Webster's had any sense, they'd put a picture of Elizabeth Elmore, singer/guitarist/pianist of Chicago indie rockers The Reputation, next to the definition of Driven. Last spring, she led her band through a 40-date, kamikaze touring schedule. In the winter, she undertook a month of daily, 14-hour recording sessions for The Reputation's brilliant, aptly titled, sophomore album: to force a fate.
While that might seem like cracking the whip to most, she did it all while wrapping up her last year of law school at Northwestern University. ''Two of my classes were two of the hardest in the whole school; of course, no one bothered to tell me that until I registered for them,'' she says, laughing breezily while listing a semester schedule that induces caffeinated shakes just thinking about it: federal jurisdiction, commercial arbitration, First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, and administrative law. ''I had just brutal Monday-through-Thursdays,'' she relates. ``Then we'd get in the van and go as far as we could, [coming back] Monday for class. [During finals] the band drove straight from London, Ontario, and dropped me off at 8 a.m. to take my last test. I was still all yucky and gross from the night before.''
While 2003 was a tad extreme, Elmore's musical career has always torched both ends of the candle. During her undergraduate days at the University of Illinois, she fronted Sarge, a Fastbacks-meets-Buzzcocks pop punk band that released three albums on the Parasol label. Thanks to the ''riot-grrl'' tag with which lazy rock critics stuck them, Sarge got enough of a critical buzz to be dubbed a ''Hot Band'' by Rolling Stone in 1998.
While the press helped Elmore book Sarge into clubs that might otherwise have ignored her, the attention also created jealousy. ``Sarge had so much big press, people thought we were much bigger than we were. I was at shows where we drove for 12 hours and played to 20 people, but people were like: ``What did she do to get into Rolling Stone?''
By the time she moved to Chicago to start law school, the speculation ran toward sexual slander. Stories about her trading oral favors for musical ones ran rampant. Elmore became known as the local indie rock Jezebel. 'I still get people who come up to me and say, `You're nothing at all like I was told you were.' ''
While Chicago's wagging tongues debated Elmore's proclivities, she continued to play music. When Sarge suddenly broke up in December 1999, she decided to promote their last record by herself. But as Sarge was a full-on rock band, a typically acoustic, one-woman show wasn't something she aspired to. ''I didn't like playing solo,'' she remembers, ``but it was better than not playing at all. I didn't want to be a folk rock chick, so I overcompensated -- I brought out a half-stack and played really loud every night.''
While Elmore may have missed her backing band, her stripped down act afforded her the opportunity to do a string of European dates, thanks to frequent flyer miles and an overzealous Norwegian club who flew her in.
Back in Chicago, Elmore cobbled together another tour, but decided she didn't want to go out alone again. Two weeks before she was to hop in the van, she recruited bassist Joel Root, guitarist Sean Hulet, and her old Sarge drummer, Chad Roman. As a nod to the scarlet letter attached to her name, she named the band The Reputation.
By the end of their first year, The Reputation had recorded their self-titled debut. If the indie rock gossips were pissed about Sarge's press, the never-ending critical huzzahs bestowed upon The Reputation's tales of sexual politics and Elmore's declaration (in the ten minute opus ''For The Win'') that ''I'm your favorite piece of ass'' must've given them heartburn.
Despite the use of keyboards and strings in the studio, the public soon found that Elmore's punk background wasn't all for naught. ``When we're live, we're constantly being told to turn down. I don't like to play slower stuff live. I like doing a rock show. In the studio I like to challenge myself and write songs that have more room and interesting arrangements, so I try to write songs to serve both purposes.''
It's a strategy she works to perfection on to force a fate. ''Bottlerocket Battles'' features Hulet and Elmore harmonizing like John Dough and Exene while bashing out a rocker that Pegboy would have been proud to call their own. On ''Cartography,'' Elmore tickles a sparse chord progression across a Rhodes piano, leaving drummer Steve Van Horn to lead the way with a beat that's engagingly funky, yet cerebral enough for the pickiest jazzbo. And ''Face it'' is a beautiful slice of radio-friendly, girl-power pop that could inspire a legion of YM readers to pick up a guitar and annoy their mommies.
While there are plenty of indie rock labels that would be a perfect home for this batch of eclectic indie pop, to force a fate is being released next month by an unlikely label -- Berkeley punk label Lookout!, the company that brought the world Green Day and the ensuing '90s pop-punk explosion.
So what if the Reputation is an indie rock band on a punk label, muses Elmore. She's having fun. Besides, she has student loans to pay off. The Reputation plays 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, at Churchill's, 5501 NE Second Ave., Little Haiti. Also performing are the Remedy Session, Reign Of Terror, Whirlaway, and Septembre. For more info, call 305-757-1807. mail@streetmiami.com