Elizabeth's old band Sarge broke up in January of 99. She toured solo for a while but wasn't very good at it. She started playing w/ Sarge's first drummer Russ Horvath and ex-Chisel bass player (and law school classmate) Chris Norborg. They got 5 songs together (Either Coast, Alaskan, This Town, She Turned Your Head, and For the Win), played some shows and recorded a 5-song demo in the fall of 2000.
In the spring of 2001, Elizabeth had a tour booked but was sick of playing solo. Russ and Chris couldn't tour b/c of job and school obligations. Elizabeth had met Sean Hulet a few years earlier when her guitar was stolen, and he loaned her guitars for several weeks and then sold one to her. Sean had never toured before, so when Elizabeth asked if he wanted to do three weeks of tour over her spring break from law school, he agreed. Sean was playing in a great band called Moreno, so they recruited his drummer Scott Rosenquist for the tour. Originally, Sean was going to play bass but decided to switch to guitar. Two and a half weeks before the tour, Elizabeth opened solo for the Shipping News and Sean came to the show. While there, he ran into a guy named Joel Root who was randomly dragged to the show by his brother. Joel's jazz combo had been playing a weekly show at Sean's corner bar so they knew each other a little bit. Sean, only semi-jokingly, asked Joel if he wanted to go on tour in two weeks. Joel, only semi-jokingly, agreed and they had a bass player. They got asked to do a show 11 days later at the Double Door, so they played their first show with 5 songs.
They finished "Misery By Design" with Scott, and a few days later, they left on their first three week tour to the East coast. The band supplemented their set with one song that was never recorded (tentatively called "Move On") and two cover songs. "March," a song that later came out on their second CD, was written by John Davis from Q and not U for a half-assed side project he and Elizabeth had been working on called "Cosmopolitan. "The Bottom" was a song written by Elizabeth's friend, Sean Tillmann, better known as Har Mar Superstar, for his other band Sean Na Na.
Mind you, at this point, they didn't consider themselves a "real" band at all. Everyone was just doing it for fun. However, Elizabeth, Sean and Joel got along so well that they decided to keep playing Ð nothing serious, just to see where it went.
After completing her second year of law school, Elizabeth worked as a summer associate at a law firm. The band continued to play out regionally under her name. When the summer of 2001 was over, Elizabeth took a deep breath and requested a leave of absence from law school. The request was granted by the extremely wonderful people at Northwestern Law, and the band got serious. By this point, Scott had moved onto other bands and they needed a new drummer to do their late summer dates and early fall CMJ tour. Ben Kane of the recently broken-up Nymb entered the picture to loan his talents for a few months. With Ben, they finished "Stars of Amateur Hour" and "The Truth." On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, they all got up early to go build a loft for the van so that they could leave late that afternoon to start their fall tour. Instead, they just sat in a Home Depot parking lot listening to the radio, completely sick. Needless to say, that tour didn't happen.
During this time, they signed to Initial Records out of Louisville, KY. The guys at Initial were old friends of Elizabeth's that she originally met at Michiganfest in 1998. They stayed in touch, and when the band was ready to release their first record, Initial seemed like the best fit.
Ben's tenure with the band was over, and now the band needed to find another fill-in drummer for the November 2001 West Coast tour. The catch was that they were recording their first record as soon as they got home so whoever did the tour had to do the record. Elizabeth knew who she wanted Ð Chad Romanski, Sarge's first drummer. For various reasons, including his full-time job and much unresolved drama from Sarge days, Chad was not an easy guy to persuade. Elizabeth spent many weeks wheedling, persuading and begging. Elizabeth and Chad had always wanted to record Elvis Costello's "Almost Blue," so when she told him they were recording the song for the album with Jay Bennett from Wilco, that sealed the deal and Chad signed on. With Chad, the band finished "The Uselessness of Friends."
Before they went on the west coast tour, the band started debating choosing a name. Joel and Sean were fine with playing with under Elizabeth's name, but Elizabeth was pretty sure that would be lame and make them look like backup musicians, which didn't do their contributions justice. Several names were suggested and discarded. One night, Elizabeth was out with John Davis from Q and not U for his birthday. After several beverages were consumed, they hit on the topic of the gossiping to which Elizabeth was subjected in Sarge days. Drunkenly, Elizabeth decided that "The Reputation" would be the funniest name ever. John agreed, or at least pretended to, or at least neglected to exercise any better judgment. Elizabeth brought it to the band, and they decided it had potential but to wait awhile before going with it.
The first West Coast tour was great. They finished it November 23, 2001 at the Metro in Chicago. The next day, they went into Atlas Studios with Matt Allison to record the first CD. Or rather, Sean, Joel and Chad went in the next morning. Elizabeth was somewhat hungover and didn't make it in until the afternoon. Matt was an old friend who recorded Sarge's album The Glass Intact and part of Distant as well as albums by the Alkaline Trio and Lawrence Arms. For the next 5 weeks, the band worked 12-18 hour days. It was ridiculous. They also spent two days with Mike Lust doing overdubs of pianos, fake french horns, organ etc. AND a few days at Jay Bennett's (from Wilco) house recording a cover of Almost Blue by Elvis Costello which Jay also played piano on. At Jay's, they also did overdubs like piano and mellotron on She Turned Your Head, the Uselessness of friends and For the Win. They also had three friends drop by to play trumpet on She Turned Your Head and Alaskan - Fred Erskine from Him, June of 44 and Hoover, Josh Berman, an avant jazzer in Chicago and in Andiamo with Joel, and Nate Walcott who frequently does all the horn and string charts for a lot of Saddlecreek bands. John Davis from Q and not U did artwork for our album.
Chad went back to his job, and once again, the band needed a drummer for three upcoming spring tours. During the interim period, they recorded "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield for a Vietnam Veteran's benefit comp including Death Cab, Ted Leo, Enon, etc. Their friend Jay Dandurand (from Lustre King, Tight Phantomz) sat in on drums. Finally, they found a drummer named Kent Stewart. He played a short east coast tour - the first under the name The Reputation. He was very, very temporary Ð something the band agreed was a good thing.
So it was the beginning of March, and the band had 8 days to find a drummer for their west coast tour. That night, Elizabeth walked into the Empty Bottle and saw good friend Che Arthur who was in a band called Atombombpocketknife at the time. Turned out their drummer Matt Espy had just left the band, and with Che's permission, the band pounced. Once again, the band just asked if he could loan his talents for a few months. In less than 24 hours, he agreed to do the upcoming west coast tour in March. A couple weeks into the West Coast tour, he agreed to do their second east coast tour of Spring 2002 in April. Both tours went really well and Matt signed on. The Reputation FINALLY had their first permanent drummer. Thank god. On April 2, 2002, the self-titled debut was released on Initial Records.
That summer, the band did another two-week tour. And then in the fall of 2002, they did a 2 - month tour where they hit the West Coast once and the East Coast twice. They wrote "Some Senseless Day" and recorded it for a Thick Records Chicago comp w/ Alkaline Trio, Local H, Lawrence Arms, etc. They also wrote "Cartography."
In January of 2003, Elizabeth went back to finish her final year of law school. However, the band stayed fully active, playing over 40 shows that spring, including full east coast and west coat tours and their first stop at SXSW. Basically, she worked 100-110 hours a week and didn't sleep. During this time, the band started talking to Lookout! Records about releasing their next album.
In early summer of 2003, the band played a few shows, and then Matt Espy told them that he'd have to leave the band to return to school and finish earning his degree. They were very disappointed but understood. He'd been with them for a year and a half, which was a record for The Reputation! Elizabeth went on a short solo tour of the East Coast, and the search for a new drummer began in earnest.
After auditioning a LOT of drummers, the band decided on Steve Van Horn, this 20 year old kid from Rockford. He was a great drummer, but they were so worried about his age that they made him audition 3 times! Finally, the band decided we just couldn't pass him up and began practicing and writing in earnest.
In the fall of 2003, the band worked on writing the next record for Lookout while Elizabeth finished her final semester of law school. The band kept playing as many shows as possible, including three trips to the east coast. Essentially, Elizabeth would finish class at noon on Wednesday and the guys would pick her up at school. They'd drive about 7 hours and play a show on the way out to the east coast. By the second day, they'd make it as far as Chapel Hill or Boston, play 3 shows on the East Coast Th-Sat, play another show in between on Sunday, drive overnight and drop Elizabeth off at law school at 8am Monday morning to start the whole thing over again. Another semester of no sleep. During this period, The Reputation announced that they had signed to Lookout! Records and played their CMJ showcase at CBGB's. They were really excited to be on such a great, historic label.
That fall, the band also finished a lot of new songs with Steve – Let this Rest, Bottle Rockets, Follow-through Time, Face It, The Lasting Effects, The Ugliness Kicking Around, and Bone-tired (though almost none of them had names at the time!) It was the most collaborative they'd ever been. Two songs sprung from parts written by other band members – "Let This Rest" from Sean, and "Follow-through Time" from Joel.
After speaking to a few different engineer/producers, The Reputation decided to record the new record with Mike Hagler. He had worked on Wilco's Summerteeth and records by Neko Case, OK GO, the Mekons etc. The plan was for Elizabeth to finish law school Dec. 18, 2003, for the band to practice the morning of Dec. 19 and headline a show at Schubas that night, and to start recording Dec. 20. As usual, nothing went according to plan.
First, Elizabeth stayed up 43 hours straight to finish one of her papers and had to take extensions on two others. The band was supposed to practice at 10 the next morning, but after 4 hours of sleep, Elizabeth didn't show up until 11:30. Upon arriving, she ran outside to puke and then fainted from exhaustion. She spent the rest of the practice huddled in a delusional mass, shivering despite the guys coats piled on top of her, while they continued to practice. At soundcheck for the show later that night, they got a call from Mike Hagler that he had thrown out his back and couldn't move. They played the show – albeit not that well – and tried to figure out what the hell to do. They ended up going into the studio the next day with a completely different engineer and trying to get all the bass and drum tracks done in 4 days. A week later, when Mike was better, he threw out 7 of the 10 basic trackings and they started over.
Between Dec. 20 and Jan. 19, the band was in the studio every single day except Christmas and New Years. Most days were 12-14 hours. During this time, Elizabeth still had to finish two 50-page law school papers. She'd get up and work for 3 hours and then go into the studio and try to get more work done during breaks. Not exactly conducive to recording a record.
On Jan. 19, 2004, the record was finally finished, and they shipped it off to Lookout with the title "to force a fate." – a line from "Ugliness." The Reputation left in early March for a two month tour of the US, including the Lookout! SXSW showcase and a date opening for the Killers in Boston. At SXSW, they were really nervous b/c we had to start at 8 and thought no one would be there, but it turned out to be an amazing show that got mentioned in everything from Entertainment Weekly to the New York Times to the Memphis Flyer. On Apr. 1, in Washington DC, the band got copies of the record for the first time. By the time the official Apr. 20 release date rolled around, The Reputation was in San Francisco, the home of their label. The record hit #58 on the CMJ charts and received great reviews in Entertainment Weekly, Spin, the Village Voice, CMJ, Magnet and a slew of other publications.
The Reputation got home from tour in early May, and Elizabeth went through her graduation ceremony. After a two-week break, Elizabeth started two months of classes for the bar exam. Not a good time. Despite a 12-hour a day, 7-day a week study schedule, the band managed to do about 15 shows, including the Q101 block party w/ Death Cab and Modest Mouse, and 7 dates with Ted Leo going as far north as London, ON and Buffalo, NY. At the end of July, Elizabeth took the bar exam and then sank into semi-depression under the thankfully-mistaken belief that she didn't pass. In the final months of summer, Sean brought in a riff that turned into a song that, as yet, remains unnamed (though it shows up on the set list as "new rock.")
The band left in October for a 2 - month US/Canadian tour that brought them to the Maritimes (Nova Scotia/PEI/New Brunswick) and Vancouver for the first time. They went East for CMJ, up North to Canada and across the Northern United States. They stopped through Chicago to open for the Donnas and so Elizabeth could get sworn in in front of the Illinois Supreme Court. Then they headed West to meet up w/ Ted Leo for some Northwest dates, down the West Coast, across the South (including a lovely pre-Thanksgiving show in Lucero's hometown of Memphis and a fun Thanksgiving day with them), and then all the way back up the East Coast before heading home. It was quite a trip.
The Reputation took a quick breather over the holidays and wrote a new song (called "new piano" on the set list) they were really happy with. They headlined a sold-out Schubas show and then headed to the UK in January, 2005 for the first time. The kids there were amazing (especially Leeds, Hull, and Manchester) and we had an amazing time. A great band called Jonny Panic opened for the band on all but the first date.
In early March, 2005 the band left for another US tour. This one only lasted about 7 weeks. They headed down to TX and played the worst show of their careers (at least Elizabeth's) at SXSW and then headed west to meet up w/ Ida (one of E's favorite bands ever) for 3 West Coast dates. It was the best west coast tour to date. They crossed back through and started the east coast leg – despite a rough start, it turned out great.
Before the March tour, Joel Root, their bass player from the very beginning, told them he had to move back to his hometown of Eugene, OR for personal reasons. They were very, very sad b/c Joel was doing an amazing job writing great bass lines for the new songs but... they accepted and supported his decision.
The band decided to take it easy for the summer to find time to look for a new bass player and work on writing the next record. They've been hard at work all summer and will announce their new bass player soon!
Drummers: 6
Bass Players: 2
Vans: 2
Keyboard Stands: 26