Eleventh Dream Day

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• Genre: Indie/Alternative
• Hometown: Chicago

About

With a career riddled with ill-timed personnel changes and a nightmarish major-label tenure, Eleventh Dream Day's place in music history will probably be as runner-up to Def Leppard in the Unluckiest Band category. With their eponymous EP in 1987, the band won a respectable following in the Chicago area, where the two creative mainstays of the band, Rick Rizzo and Janet Beveridge Bean, moved after meeting each other at the University of Kentucky. Lauded by critics and a devout fan base, the band signed with Atlantic Records and delivered Beet in 1989. The album showcased the band's terse, skittish pop sensibilities and penchant for gorgeous, moody ballads. Two more albums followed, but failed to push the band any further than their initial fan base. With three strikes against them, they were dropped. Ever resilient, Eleventh Dream Day continue to release music on Chicago-based Indie label Thrill Jockey, while Bean also does a turn in the country-kissed side project Freakwater.

- Linda Ryan