story by Michelle C. Liffick

Over the past two decades as staples of Chicago's indie scene, Cheer-Accident has gained a reputation as the band known for its capacity for the unexpected. They are remembered for appearing on television and playing one note for an hour. And as local indie folklore has it, they once headlined a hardcore show at the Fireside Bowl and played cover songs including some by artists such as Burt Bacharach.

At times, drummer/vocalist/trumpeter/pianist Thymme Jones has surprised and confused even other musicians playing with the band on stage with speeches or announcements. In the liner notes of one album, Babies Shouldn't Smoke, the band attributed the production to Phil Collins. (Collins was not involved in the making of the album.) This type of move has frustrated some people who take Cheer-Accident more seriously then Cheer-Accident takes itself.

As a result of some of these antics, Cheer-Accident has been described using the following terms or phrases: show-offs, intellectual masturbators, self-indulgent, unpredictable without being gratuitously quirky, academic and dry, noodling, befuddlingly complex, subtly humorous, pointless, veteran avant-gardists, pretentious, modernist, challenging, peculiar, cunning, liberated, perfectionist, trying, and prog with a pop sensibility.

FILLMORE'S INNER VIEW "When you're in the audience, you have a sense of some people getting it, some people wondering if they're getting it, and some people getting it and hating it. From when we first started playing, that's one thing I was really interested in seeing from the stage."

One writer has commented that, just as their music seems to convince a listener that a song might make it on commercial radio, they "blow it". When I mentioned this comment to Cheer-Accident, they laughed and took it as a compliment. Their lyrics have been called droll, surreal, bizarre, punning, gloomy, mature, and bittersweet. I could continue, but you get the picture.

If you're not familiar with Cheer-Accident, one look at their Web site, www.cheer-accident.com, will definitely give you an idea. The site is, well, sideways so that the reader has to turn his or her head 90 degrees to the left to review the text. The Web site also includes links to Web sites about pygmy goats. Very little about the Web site - or this band - is normal. But, what fun is normal?

DIGRESSION GOES WITH THE TERRITORY
Chicago Innerview recently sat down with the eccentric trio to get the goods on just what the hell makes them so, well, Cheer-Accident-esque.

"Musically," Cheer-Accident admits, "we're all over the map." But, music is like a conversation in that it "goes through all sorts of emotions…silence, even." It's all about "evolution - where it's at and where it's going is what's interesting," adds guitarist Jamie Fillmore. Influences attributed to the band include King Crimson, Robert Wyatt, Henry Cow, and Gastr Del Sol.

One thing Cheer-Accident especially appreciates is humor. In fact, according to Fillmore, "We like to think that a lot of people do." Guitarist/vocalist/trumpeter Jeff Libersher adds, "We're all over the map in terms of humor and in terms of wanting people to get us and all of that - none of it is meant to be aloof or random or condescending." According to Jones, people have misconstrued Cheer-Accident as being disrespectful of audiences. "I think we're the opposite," explains Jones, "the litmus test is that we don't do anything we wouldn't want to see as an audience."

"When people talk about the radio, they often complain that everything sounds the same," says Fillmore. "But the funny this is, when you go from playing some really ridiculously insane, time signature, loud thing, to playing a cover of the Carpenters, that's something you'll end up having people cringe at you about. We're trying to do that thing that you don't get in most contexts. But, by and large, people do get it and like it." Jones agrees with Fillmore, "I think they do - I think that radio stations often do a great disservice."
"When you're in the audience, you have a sense of some people getting it, some people wondering if they're getting it, and some people getting it and hating it," recalls Fillmore, and "from when we first started playing, that's one thing I was really interested in seeing from the stage."

By contrast, Fillmore has observed that when Cheer-Accident is on tour, they "get the skeptical looks, and, by fairly early on…start to see and feel the smiles, and they're right there with you." Fillmore believes this is "the reward of giving people that kind of credit." By contrast, Jones believes that when Cheer-Accident plays locally, because people have come to expect certain things, the band receives a certain type of criticism. In Chicago, Cheer-Accident is the kind of band where "you know to expect that which you don't expect," and this, according to Fillmore, is both "a blessing and a curse" for the band. "People on the road don't have those expectations," Jones explains, "they'll just take whatever we play."

INTRODUCING CHEER-ACCIDENT . . .
You may or may not have heard of Cheer-Accident. But one thing's certain - they are NOT new on the scene here in Chicago. In fact, this band called Cheer-Accident first appeared on the radar back in the early 1980s, when it was made up of Jones, Mike Greenlees, and Jim Drummond. Over the next few years, the band independently released some cassettes. Then, after what was only the beginning of what has become a line-up musical chairs, Cheer-Accident, comprised of Thymme Jones, Jeff Libersher, and Chris Block, began making live appearances.

Cheer-Accident released its first LP, Sever Roots, Tree Dies, with Phil Bonnet as producer in 1988, and, later, added Bonnet as second guitarist. It has since recorded quite a catalog of albums, including a number with Chicago's own Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. Today, the members of Cheer-Accident include Thymme Jones, Jeff Libersher, and Jamie Fillmore. And, they are true Chicago guys - Jones is from Palatine; Libersher, Joliet, and Fillmore, born in the city at Michael Reese Hospital, grew up in Oak Park.
On their most recent album, Introducing Lemon, released in 2003 by Skingraft, Jones is credited with drums, trumpet, vocals, piano, tambourine, moog, radio; Libersher with guitar, trumpet, vocals; Fillmore with 12-string guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, t-steel drum guitars, organ guitar, baritone guitar, collage tape, vocals; and Dylan Posa (who has since left the band) with bass, melodica, synthesizer, Casio, air organ, and backing vocals.

The first time that Libersher met Thymme Jones (probably spelled "T-i-m" back then) was in college. Libersher recognized Jones - he had passed Jones' dorm room and noticed the paper bags hanging from the ceiling. Libersher thought this guy seemed pretty interesting and as Jones walked by Libersher, he said "Wait right here." After Libersher waited for 10 minutes or so, he realized, much to his amusement, that he'd been had. So, Libersher decided that Jones was his kind of people. And, thus began a friendship.

In 1999, Phil Bonnet - after years as Cheer-Accident's producer, close friend, and guitar player, a man known by the good folks of indie rock for his generosity, lack of pretentiousness, and talent - died of a brain aneurysm at age 38, in the midst of recording the album Salad Days. After his untimely death, Cheer-Accident was, understandably, "sort of at a standstill," according to Jones. Both Libersher and Jones agree that the eventual addition of Jamie Fillmore "really jumpstarted the band, big time."

COME TOGETHER; or CABLE ACCESS TV
According to Fillmore, cable access television is responsible for the making of this band.
One night, Fillmore and his roommate were making a scrumptious dinner consisting of instant mashed potatoes when they flipped on cable access and found a show called "Cool Clown Ground." On this particular night, Jones was on the show playing maracas. So, Fillmore and his roommate finished making the mashed potatoes (and Thymme was still playing the maracas); plopped down on the couch and ate their mashed potatoes (and Thymme continued to play the maracas); and, finished up the potatoes and put the dishes in the sink. At this point, they realized that Thymme was STILL playing the maracas (and, as it turns out, he was only 80 percent of the way through the song). Being the guy that he is, Fillmore called in to the show to find out what all this maraca-playing was about and was soon the recipient of some free tickets to a show (which he did not attend because, well, they were free ).

But, as fate would have it, Fillmore soon found himself at an Illusion of Safety show featuring none other than the cable access maraca player, Thymme Jones. After checking out Illusion and liking it, Fillmore went to see Cheer-Accident's Not A Food release show, and was "blown away." At this particular show, Dylan Posa was wearing a ski mask. Halfway through the show, Posa removed the mask, and everyone was amazed to see that he had dyed his beard and hair gold. After Cheer-Accident played for approximately 90 minutes, Jones ended up the show with a 10-minute Buddy Rich speech.

This was Fillmore's initiation to what Cheer-Accident is about. And, according to the band, "It was all up or down hill from there." It all depends on how you look at it.

". . . THEN, WE DID A CHURCH SHOW . . ."
Their first show together with Fillmore in the mix was the last Lounge Ax show and has been called as much a farewell to Phil Bonnet as it was to Lounge Ax (a "wonderful place...my favorite," remembers Libersher). Cheer-Accident sat in a semi-circle on the stage and started out the set with a heartfelt, campfire version of "I'm A Believer." What the audience experienced in this sing-along setting has been described as an odd sense of intimacy or camaraderie. One critic called the show "Jesus Christ Superstar meets The Yiddish Cowboy Pirates."

"The first show was special," Fillmore remembers. "We didn't know what people would make of it because Cheer-Accident hadn't played in a year or two…and, Phil had died." And, Fillmore was the new guy. Cheer-Accident worried because, at the same time that playing a Christian campfire show was something funny and ironic, "we WERE those guys" by the time they played the show. "I wore a turtleneck for God's sake!" says Jones.

"IT WILTS THE LETTUCE, BUT FRESHENS UP THE SALAD"
Cheer-Accident's most recent release is Introducing Lemon, on Skingraft Records. Skingraft is known as a comic book company that makes records and is also an institution in the realm of Chicago music. According to Cheer-Accident, it is label chief Mark Fischer who really makes Skingraft great. Fischer "has been great at signing people who record stuff that's off the beaten path," says Jones. "He gets unabashedly excited about stuff where other labels ask 'can we afford to do this?'" adds Fillmore.

According to Cheer-Accident, "the fact that they could put out a lo-fi comic-book record like Gumballhead, and then, Introducing Lemon…When you'll put both of those records out within six months of each other…I mean…that's something." Though the big secret in indie rock is that there's no money, these guys laughingly claim that they don't want you to know it. "We want people to continue to think we live some sort of glamorous lifestyle," jokes Jones.

The cover of Introducing Lemon features a picture of a young man in a band uniform with his trumpet and, of course…this young man is none other than Cheer-Accident's own Jeff Libersher who, along with Jones, has always been very into marching band music. Jones says that when he was a kid, he would hear marching band music and his eyes would start watering.

As long as we're on the topic of the record jacket, one can't help but notice that, in harmony with the themes of the album, the writing on the inside of the jacket is lemony fresh! This is because Fillmore (who wrote it all) used a toothpick with lemon on it. According to Fillmore, "you either go literal or not."

The title of the album, Introducing Lemon, "was a way of covering a whole bunch of bases at once," explains Fillmore. Cheer-Accident had just put out Salad Days, and, "like the record jacket says, if you put lemon on the salad, it wilts the lettuce, but it freshens up the salad, but wilts the lettuce, which kind of suited what's going on." Jones explains further that the title "relates aesthetically to what happens on the record…It'll be cruising along and then…we introduce lemon."

A LITTLE LEMON IS GOOD FOR THE HEART!
So, what should you know about Cheer-Accident? They're good, regular guys, who are not just good, regular guys. Cheer-Accident is not trying to trick or torture their audiences. They're not trying to outsmart us. In fact, these guys have more faith in us than most artists today. Cheer-Accident is not - and will not likely ever be - Top 40 radio. And, well, this works out because Cheer-Accident suspects that we aren't either. And, as far as that goes, I'm pretty sure they're not blowing it at all.

Cheer-Accident will play at Schubas Feb. 14.