National Skyline: Classic or Dud / S&D

National Skyline, world-famous 90's rock "supergroup". Okay, maybe if we can consider Champaign-Urbana to be "the world" and a group made up of Jeff from Hum and dudes from Castor and Compound Red to be a "supergroup". At the time their self-titled first album and This=Everything were a revelation to me, coming from guys that I associated so heavily with Champaign's guitar-heavy sound that was entered in the "next Seattle" sweepstakes. After a decade that I spent listening to mostly alt-rock, metal, and rap, it was interesting to hear these guys play around with electronics and come up with the subtle textures. Radiohead gets a lot of credit for exposing the Warp aesthetic to wider audiences with Kid A, but these dudes from Illinois were playing with a similar sound just before. It wasn't always successful, but they'll hold a place in my heart for helping me bridge the gap towards more electronic based stuff.

Search: National Skyline, Exit Now EP, and This=Everything

Haven't heard any of the self-released stuff they did between 2007 and 2009 though.

looked into them after jeff garber's stint in year of the rabbit w/ ken andrews, but they never really did it for me.

Yeah, I imagine my initial post oversells them a tiny bit, its not as if they were particularly groundbreaking or the best at combining indie rock and electronic music, but during a time when everyone seemed to be going post-rock crazy, it really made sense to me.