EASE DOWN THE ROAD

Patti Smith, Joan Jett, Exene, Siouxsie Sioux, Kim Gordon, PJ Harvey and Karen O. In a genre dominated by male frontmen, these women have never had any problem making their rock ‘n roll male peers look boring and uninspired. As you’re reading this, industry types all around the country are buzzing about “the next great female rocker.” And get this: she’s from Fort Wayne.

Two years ago I ran into an old high school acquaintance named Tony Mullenhour while watching a show at The Patio in Indianapolis. As the night became more and more soaked with spirit, Tony started asking me about my “rock-crit writing,” eventually saying something to the affect of “my sister is in a band in Chicago,” later adding, “They’re actually good.” I vaguely remembered Tony’s sister, Angela, as a “rocker chick” who often wore band T-shirts that left her MTV-loving peers clueless.

Trusting Tony’s opinion, I wrote down the band’s name, Sybris, on my hand with a marker and continued getting drenched. I’m pretty sure Angela wore a “Queen is Dead” shirt at some point while attending school in Fort Wayne, so I looked Sybris up the next day, not really expecting anything more than maybe some cool apparel.

The three or four songs that were posted on their website at the time were good enough to strike my interest – I remember that much – so I wrote the band an e-mail to see if they’d be interested in coming to town, playing a show and, of course, having a story written about them. The band’s bass player, Shawn Podgurski, promptly and politely responded with a brief “not right now.” He explained that the band was in the middle of finishing up their self-titled debut album for Flameshovel Records, and that when the time was right we could talk about it again. I went directly back in defeat to obsessing over a Krautrock band named Can.

The two years since are a blur, but, according to my research, Sybris have been silently blowing up in the indie rock scene by word-of-mouth. The band name eventually came back to me one night as I was reading about The Hold Steady’s current tour, which, coincidentally, Sybris were a part of for a handful of shows. After contacting Flameshovel Records I called up a friend, R. Mike Horan (who had daughters at my high school around the same time as Angela) to see what he knew.

“One of my daughters remembered her and said ‘Dad, that girl was always wearing a Pixies T-shirt,’” Horan explained, adding that his daughter was raised on much more obscure bands than most kids and, thus, was not too impressed. (”We saw Pavement in 1995,” Horan proudly added, much to my approval.) I, however, was impressed enough by the T-shirt to save up some gas money for a road trip. A week later Horan and I decided to head down to Covington, Kentucky’s famed Southgate House to check out Sybris and the best band in the world right now, The Hold Steady. But we’ll get to that later.

The road to Sybris’ high-profile shows with The Hold Steady started in 2003, when a then 19-year-old Mullenhour (who had just recently relocated to Chicago) met Sybris guitarist Phil Naumann in a Chicago bar after playing at an open mic. After a few beers and an excited phone call to Podgurski to tell him that he’d found a possible singer for their band, the musicians met up with Mullenhour to jam. The quartet (then rounded out by drummer Bill Baumgardner, who has since been replaced by Eric Mahle) clicked right away. Soon enough they had found their sound, started calling themselves “Sybris” and began playing out in Chicago’s highly competitive indie scene.

After a few months Sybris had developed and perfected their room-filling, often buzzing sound. Often compared by critics to both My Bloody Valentine’s first album, Isn’t Anything, and The Pixies, Sybris play dense, epic three-minute guitar songs that highlight Mullenhour’s versatile voice and enigmatic song writing.

Next came a four-song EP called A Time for Hollerin’ that featured the cult-favorite “Blame it on Baseball” in February 2004. The excitement over the EP led to both a short East Coast tour and the band’s signing with Chicago’s Flameshovel Records. Just over a year later the band completed their debut album and began building their profile.

The time since has been better than any young band could imagine. Not only have Sybris opened for The Hold Steady, they’ve also played stints with The Fiery Furnaces, The Walkmen, The Thrills, Dashboard Confessional, Stars, Anathallo, The Appleseed Cast and the current “next big thing,” Okkervil River. In addition to their high-profile opening gigs, Sybris have played their share of festivals, including rock music’s biggest festival of all, Lollapalooza, this past summer.

With all of these pitch-perfect career building moves in mind, Horan and I hit the road for Kentucky, sans directions or a real clear idea of what to expect. Hours later we found ourselves lost and anxious. “Look, a record store, cool. You know we’re there,” said Horan. Anxious as we were to get to the venue, we stopped, shopped and walked out with a couple of Wrens’ albums and directions to the Southgate House. Dinner down and sauce in our systems, we spotted Mullenhour stage side as her band was setting up. Moments later she was there, right next to us asking the bartender for “a whole lot of shots.” The bartender explained to her that they had free beer for the bands. “We just need a lot of shots. We’ll pay for them,” she said.

Clearly nervous, Mullenhour perused the crowd, eventually getting on stage where she seamlessly went from giddy to shy. You can’t blame her; after all, opening for the hottest indie band in America is no joke. In the crowd I spotted Yo La Tengo’s James McNew, very likely one of many power players in the crowd that night there to check out both The Hold Steady and Sybris.

After seeing their excellent set and hearing their album (which rock-snob website Pitchforkmedia gave a rare high score of 8.0) through a couple times I found myself disagreeing with critics’ lazy Pixies and MBV comparisons. To me, Mullenhour comes off like an early-era PJ Harvey, had the Smashing Pumpkins’ first two albums been her primary influence. At times Mullenhour also sounds a bit like Bjork, although never quite weird enough to warrant straight comparisons. Some critics have also – and even more lazily – compared Mullenhour to both Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) and Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs). While I’m sure such comparisons probably irk the wholly original Mullenhour, they’ve also surely acted as endorsements to the previously mentioned “industry types” looking for the next great female rock singer.

Sybris’ record label, Flameshovel Records, saw a great amount of success in 2006 as four of their bands – Chin Up Chin Up, Make Believe, Maritime and, naturally, Sybris – all became candidates for “next big thing” honors amongst major publications and rock critics, opening shows for current big things and gathering the kind of positive press young bands can only dream of. This is good news for Mullenhour and Co. who will benefit greatly by their label’s increased standing as their profile continues to grow.

After finishing their jaunt with The Hold Steady, Sybris returned to Chicago and began working on their sophomore album which Mullenhour says will be in the vein of “Best Day In History Ever,” which is, hands down, their best song to date.