Hum

The initial line-up of the band formed in 1989, with vocalist and guitarist Andy Switzky, guitarist Matt Talbott, bassist Akis Boyatzis, and drummer Jeff Kropp. Matt and Andy met at a cafe named Treno's where the latter worked. Discussions about music led to the two forming the nucleus of a Hum. Matt had previously played in the local group We Ate Plato and was presently a member of Honcho Overload; Andy had performed in the semi-serious live band Obvious Man and had studio experience with Designer Mustard Gas.The group performed at Akis' basement for their initial months. Due to a suggestion from Rick Valentin of Poster Children, the band chose the name (over contenders like Grendel's Arm, Pod, and Feedbag), an intentional vague description of their sound, and went through a second drummer before overhearing Bryan St. Pere playing along to a Rush record out of his apartment window and recruiting him.This line-up was not to last long, though, as Akis left home for Greece in 1990. Local musician Joe Futrelle, who played with Andy in Designer Mustard Gas joined briefly, before leaving for more serious musical pursuits, and was replaced by Rod Van Huis, also of Steak Daddy Six. Due to personal reasons, he amicably split the band, and went on to perform in the Great Crusades. With the addition of Balthazar "Baltie" de Lay, of the band Mother, the band recorded their first demo in famous engineer Steve Albini's basement in Chicago, Illinois.The band recorded eight songs in first or second takes, with only vocal overdubs, and had an official demo to shop around, named Is Like Kissing an Angel (She Said). At this point, the group's primary singer, guitarist, and songwriter was Andy, and that remained the case when their first album, Fillet Show, was released by local label 12 Inch Records in 1991. The album features a faster, heavy sound somewhere between punk music and heavy metal, with more overt political and humorous material than the later oblique lyrics that Matt Talbott would write.Pressure grew on Baltie to focus his efforts on Mother and other pursuits, so he too left on good terms with the other members of Hum. Left without a bassist again, Matt suggested Jeff Dimpsey, his bandmate in Honcho Overload. In that group, and during his brief stint with the Poster Children, Jeff played guitar and Matt actually played bass, but the transition was smooth, and the band recorded two singles, "Hello Kitty"/"Roar, I'm a Tiger" and "Sundress/Time Is Melting", the former on 12 Inch, and the latter on the new Champaign-based label Mud Records. Around this time, the Champaign scene started to coalesce with members of one band joining up with members of another to form an indefinite amount of one-off side projects, and the Parasol Records distribution company helped promote local acts nationally and brought in alternative music to Champaign record stores.In the interim between these singles and the next album, creative differences grew between members of the band, and Andy left. The remaining members recruited a local fan named Tim Lash, almost a decade their junior, to play guitar. His previous experience had been in a speed metal group The Grand Vizars (with Joe Ludwinski from Scurvine and Matt Friedburger from the Fiery Furnaces), and once casually remarked to the band after a show that if they ever needed a guitarist, they could give him a call.