A friend from high school sent this to me. I’d forgotten that it was my band that killed grunge!

This is from my high school’s newspaper in the fall of 1993. Let’s go through the piece and see what jogs my memory:

If the title of this article confuses you, please do not be alarmed. In order to understand this statement, you must first understand the unique personalities of each member of the group “Dipole Moment.”

The reporter here was also the guy who recorded our first demo about a year earlier. It was sort of like how Cameron Crowe would hang around Led Zeppelin for an entire tour but then also report on them. Even though we were a 90s band capable of killing entire genres of music, we still had a 70s vibe going on.

The three-piece band, which describes its sound as “Post-Mould, Pop-core, La La”…

My guess is that we each gave one of these three answers and then they blended together into one sound. I guess I didn’t feel the need to explain who Husker Du guitarist Bob Mould was or why we were post-him.

All three share a common love and enthusiasm for music (as well as a crush on Ms. Frasier).

That last part was only Christian, I assure you.

Dipole Moment’s original material combines the harsh and intense energy of punk music with catchy and memorable songs that you can actually hum to. They’ve recently released a three-song E.P. on Father Time Records which they recorded at Precision Recording Studios located in Algonquin.

This was the first time we’d driven ourselves to a recording session, instead of having band members’ parents do it. I was going to say that I was amazed that we got to the session without getting lost, but then I remembered that my cassette of the session is labeled “Dipole Moment: Lost On Rt. 62.” So apparently we did lose our way.

They also plan to release a 7″ single with the group, Cap’n Jazz. A release date has not been set for the album. 

This almost happened. Cap’n Jazz is probably the best known band of that scene, and at some point there was talk of doing a split single with them and us. Both bands opened up for the Dischord Records band Rain Like The Sound of Trains, one of our last (and best) shows. I remember doing a soundcheck with me on guitar and the Cap’n Jazz guys on bass and drums; they played “Reclamation” by Fugazi and I didn’t quite know the song but still managed to play along. (I was also so awkward back then that I didn’t stick around to see the other two bands after we played!) Somewhere along the line the split single idea ballooned into a split LP, one side for each band, but then I think Cap’n Jazz ended up doing their own record and that was that.

Dipole Moment’s most recent gig was at the D.G.N. Homecoming Variety Show last night. 

Ah yes, this happened. They’d built the entire premise of the variety show around us! The idea was that several of the characters in the show were on their way to our concert and then they came across all the other performers, before we closed out the show. Being in the show meant being in all the rehearsals, which just meant a lot of waiting around, and for us that wasn’t a great deal of fun. I wish I could say that the waiting was worth it, but when we started our set I vividly remember about a third of the audience getting up and leaving during the first song; they’d already heard enough.

But at least we had that great photo! We’d been taking black and white photos with our pal (and future Jumping Bomb Angel drummer) Amy, mostly just walking around downtown Downers Grove, and for whatever reason decided to take a group photo outside the Christian Science Reading Room, across from the library where Jeff and I both worked. Why, you ask? Why not, I reply?