About

For the past decade, the Chicago band Textbook has been crafting alternative guitar rock inspired by fellow midwesterners like The Replacements, Hüsker Dü and Naked Raygun. Sometimes pop, sometimes punk and occasionally a little country, the band's constant is singer/songwriter Dave Lysien's honest approach and melancholy outlook that give his tunes an identity all their own. Formed after the break up of his previous group Not Rebecca, Lysien has called on a rotating group of friends to fill out the band which has included members of Chicago's Four Star Alarm, The Bomb, Oblivion, Not Rebecca, Venom Lords, and Monster Trux. The current line-up features Rick Uncapher on bass and Mark Doyle on drums formerly of the band Woolworthy.

Early on Textbook released Smoke Em If You Got Em (Next to X/2000), recorded by various engineers including Phil Bonet and Matt Allison and Used (Next to X/2003), also produced by Matt Allison. In October 2003, the band traveled to Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey to record The Great Salt Creek (Next to X/Playing-Field/2005) with veteran producer John Agnello (Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr., The Hold Steady).

After a successful tour in the UK in 2007, the group struck a deal with Boss Tuneage Records who are releasing their new CD Boxing Day Massacre on July 14th, 2008. This time out the group enlisted Kansas City producer Chris Cosgrove (Blackpool Lights, The Bled) to record and Chicago's Matt Allison (Alkaline Trio, Lawrence Arms, Less Than Jake) to record/mix. In July 2008, the band is headed back to the UK to support the record and will be joined by local guitar hero Jeff Dean of Four Star Alarm and The Bomb.

Textbook has been featured on MTV's Real World Sydney, JBTV, WXRT’s Concert Capsule, fearlessradio.com, Q101 Chicago (Local 101), 103.8 Brest France (Frequence Mutine) , radioftw.com (Suburban Hell) and onekindradio.com.

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