Jason Narducy and Alison Chesley started out playing together as an acoustic duo under the name “Jason & Alison”. Jason played guitar and Alison played cello. They wrote cool alternative rock songs with a lot of muscle, considering the instrumentation. I saw them a couple times playing coffee shops in Chicago and bought their Woodshed CD. Early fan.
Eventually they became an electric quartet, adding a bass player and drummer. They called themselves Verbow. Verbow caught the eye of Bob Mould, who ended up producing their excellent first album Chronicles in 1997.
Here they are during that time, performing the album’s single “Holiday” at Park West:
Sadly, Verbow only released one other album (The Brad Wood produced White Out in 2000) before breaking up.
In the meantime, they played a lot of shows, especially in Chicago at Schubas Tavern. I attended a couple of those concerts, and the shows were fun and high-energy.
Thankfully, they released highlights from their shows on an album aptly called Live At Schubas, which is today’s pick. While the studio albums are great, I think they were an even better live act and this record showcases why.
After Verbow, Alison formed a new band called Helen Money. Jason formed a band called Rockets Over Sweden, but had greater success playing bass with Bob Mould (appearing on his last few studio albums), Liz Phair and Superchunk.