Prairie Town
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Prairie Town

Band Rock Americana

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"Season In Hell"

"Devoid of the ego-driven indulgences and tooling to "prove" their abilities, this Chicago bar band is just happy turning it up and laying it down in old-school fashion recalling early 1960s bands like The Standells and Shadows Of Knight. These energetic tunes are pure "garage rock" with plenty of guitar riffing that runs the gamut of "grunge" to "surf" tones. There is even a smidgen of southwestern flavor on some cuts, including "Happy With The Future." Hard-hitting drums keep the groove upbeat... Prairie Town's music is not punk, but it is loaded with plenty of snarl... Highlights include: "Just What Matters," "Out Of Touch" and "The Only One." Very much a diamond in the rough, "Season in Hell" remains a "gem" for its sheer rock 'n' roll attitude." - Tom Lounges - Northwest Indiana Times


"Everything Review"

"Never before have I heard anything exactly like this band. Sure there's Mellencamp and Springsteen, but they don't come close to this sound. Storytelling lyrics and multiple guitar influences make this band unique… I was amazed by the driving, hard hitting drums and hard guitar riffs that easily became acoustic jams… Versatile is the watchword for this band." - Maht Hector - Showcase Chicago


"For Keeps and A Single Day"

"No pretensions, no musical indulgences, just good toe-tapping rock-n-roll played by musicians who haven't forgotten what a good time rock-n-roll should be… Check these guys out." - Max Sheahan - Illinois Entertainer


Discography

Population 4 - 2006 - Full Length CD
Season In Hell - 2003 - Full Length CD
Songs of the Post-Depression Era - 1999 - Full Length CD
Necessary Chances - 1995 - Full Length CD
Everything - 1993 - Out of Print
Plain and Simple - Out of Print
For Keeps and A Single Day - 1991 - Full Length CD

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

Prairie Town – Bio – 2006

In 1985, while in college, Paul Coady (Guitar/Vocals) and Steve Grzenia (Drums/Vocals) played baseball together. Hanging out while taking batting practice, they discovered that they had very similar interests in music, sixties garage bands and power pop. What do two teenagers do in this environment? They start a band. Recruiting fellow ballplayer Marko Marketti (Bass/Vocals), the three were christened The Flaming Tailpipes (for reasons no one is willing to discuss at this point).

Marketti didn’t play bass at this time and in fact didn’t even own one. Coady and Grzenia dropped off equipment at Marko’s job and said, “you’re our bass player… you owe us $500”.

Playing three or four sets a night at neighborhood bars was an education for the band. Creating their original tunes and developing a repertoire of covers to flesh out the sets. Throughout the years, the band has been called many things, Heartland Rock, Midwestern Rock, Power Pop, Cow Punk, even Alternative. To which Coady responds, “alternative to what, we’re a rock-n-roll band”. The bands influences start with the twang of Buddy Holly and run through the choruses of Cheap Trick and the guitar crunch of Weezer and Green Day.

After recording several demos, the band changed its name to Prairie Town in 1991 when releasing their CD, “For Keeps and a Single Day”. The title track and “Ride It Out” received airplay on several local radio stations and the boys stepped up to larger music venues. In 1992, a fourth member was added to Prairie Town. Then underage guitarist/vocalist, Scott Niekelski joined up for a few shows prior to the recording of the EP, “Plain and Simple”. Scott added hard edged guitar sounds to the Prairie Town live show and atmospheric mandolin playing on the recordings.

Scott added his compositions to Coady’s for the next release, “Everything”, and has gone on to write Prairie Town staples such as “Don’t Need” and “Stumble and Fall”. Prairie Town has continued as a quartet ever since Scott joined. The boys are proud of the fact that no one has ever left the band. However, that could be due to the compromising photos that exist of each member.

Several CDs later, the boys are back with a new release for 2006. “Population 4” is a collection of a dozen literate, yet hard-hitting rock-n-roll songs. Once again, the band produced and engineered the CD themselves. On “Population 4”, Paul, Steve, Marko and Scott each take a turn on the lead vocal mic. In fact, that occurs in the first four songs. The band has been around for 21 years now, but as they’re fond of saying, “We still rock harder than any 17 year old.” While that is true, in the interest of full disclosure, it now takes them longer to recover.