The foundations for the gritty lo-fi Chicago rock quintet Big Buildings began back in the late ‘90’s when childhood friends Matt Maloney (vocals, guitar) and Michael Wood (vocals, guitar) furiously exchanged four-track cassette tapes via post. In early 2001, Maloney, then playing in a variety of San Francisco bands, paid Wood a visit in Chicago to bash out an eight-song demo. Maloney relocated to Chicago in early 2002 and the initial trio of Big Buildings began playing the club circuit.
In 2002, Big Buildings produced and released their first EP This Is The Bricks (2002, Stars/No Stars). After a slew of different bass players, Maloney and Wood, all chipped in to get Maloney’s old San Francisco bandmate Matt Cummings (vocals, bass) a train ticket from New Orleans to Chicago to come and join up. At this point a quartet, Big Buildings hit the ground running on the sprawling Hang Together For All Time (2004, Stars/No Stars). This 19-song offering mixed and matched grainy swagger and melodic folk-rock, with all four members singing selections. Chicago press and radio effusively praised the record for its lo-fi bluster and compared the band to a rootsier Guided by Voices.
Big Buildings released Water Everywhere (2006, Stars/No Stars) to increasingly massive critical acclaim. The Chicago Reader’s Monica Kendrick anointed Water Everywhere “the best Chicago rock record of the yearâ€, and the Chicago New City’s Tom Lynch called Big Buildings “everything you could possibly want from a rock bandâ€.
The year 2007 found Big Buildings transitioning to a five man set-up as Chicago scene vets John Roeser (drums) and Greg Hamilton (keys, guitars) joined the band after the departure of original founding member Adam Yoffe. During the year, the band recorded its fourth release Wampum (2008, Stars/No Stars), an increasingly catchy slice of murky psychedelic rock, recorded almost entirely by the band to 4-track cassette. The band is currently supporting Wampum with shows in Chicago and throughout the Midwest.
