History

I.D.Under was one of the seminal bands in Chicago's "2nd wave" (or 3rd, depending how you count) punk scene: they were a punk generation younger than the Big Black, Naked Raygun, Out of Order, Effigies, Articles of Faith wave, and were contemporaries with Impulse Manslaughter, No Empathy, Life Sentence, Screeching Weasel, Bhopal Stiffs.

I.D.Under was formed in 1985 by Douglas Ward, then in high school. The band was Douglas' second, the first being a one show wonder called The Ex-Tones, that did mostly Jam and Clash covers, and eneded opening for b-team L.A. hair metal band Black & Blue for their only show in 1984. disheartened by the short life of that band, and having finally figured out how to write songs, Douglas had been looking around to find a lineup to make a new band. In the summer of 1985, Douglas had heard of an ex-strip club, The Kaleidescope, in suburban Palatine, now fully heavy metal, that was hosting a punk night. The show was booked by some poeple who would later turn out to be long-time punk associates, Russ Forster, then of Fudgetunnel, and later founder of Underdog Records, as well as the X-Men, later Sponge. Douglas recruited Ex-Tones drummer Steve Holtz and schoolmate Mike Joo on bass, for the first show. The lineup only held together for that first show, and soon after drummer Eric Van Keuren, aka Skinner, and Audrey Shaw, bassist filled out the three piece.

The new lineup recorded a demo, engineered by the Defoliants' Chuck Uchida, in the Spring of 1986. They played locally with their comtemporaries, Bhopal Stiffs, Impulse Manslaughter, No Empathy, Material Issue, Fudge Tunnel, Scarred for Life, Sponge, Screeching Weasel. They also were regular openers for touring punk bands at Chicago's Cabaret Metro. Audrey was a flyer artist, and she drew many of the flyers for the punk show promoter, Shawn Duffy, and I.D.Under was an easy pick for opening slots for MDC, the Meatmen, Cheetah Chrome Mutherfuckers, B.G.K., etc.

Later in 1986, Fudgetunnel founder Russ Forster started Underdog Records, whose first two releases were an LP by Sponge and I.D.Under's THE LORDS OF NOTHING 12" EP. Underdog later went on to release first records by Impulse Manslaughter, Screeching Weasel and others. (In 1989, Russ Forster retired from the label, and Underdog Records became a collective, originally staffed by Douglas Ward, Ben Weasel, John Jughead, and Marc Ruvolo [of No Empathy, and later Johann's Face Records], but later to include many, many people from the Chicago scene. Although they released around 25 local punk bands records, Underdog is best remembered for their seminal series of Chicago punk compilations, Achtung Chicago! [1990], Actung Chicago! Zwei [1992] Achtung Chicago! Drei [1995]).

I.D.Under started touring in 1987, with the help of Life Sentence founder Eric Brockman's exhaustive list of touring contacts. Trouble that had been simmering with bassist Audrey Shaw (Douglas' girlfriend throughout her time in the band) came to a head, and she left the band. Her replacement was Zac Conway, a few years younger than Ward and Van Keuren, but vastly more talented and creative than Shaw. The band quickly wrote more songs, and were playing better and better shows. Later that year, a new label, Walk Thru Fyre Records, started by a couple of non-punk record distributor businessmen signed I.D.Under, No Empathy, Impulse Manslaughter, and Life Sentence to release records. I.D.Under's GENERICIDE came out finally in 1988. From the beginning, the Walk Thru Fyre deal was a deal with the devil, and there was a slow realization, by all the bands, that they had been had. One by one, the bands severed ties with Walk Thru Fyre, who fizzled out amid financial scandals sometime in 1989.

Picking up the pieces from that mess, the band wanted to release another record. In early 1989 they recorded a demo engineered by Mike Potential, of Limited Potential Records. With new touring plans, and hopes to finish a new record that year, the band broke up in the summer of 1989.

Douglas Ward went on to form the band 8 Bark (1990-1994), V.Reverse (1995-1997), and Fourth Rotor (2000-2006), as well as being part of the Underdog Records collective, record label, distro, and zine, from 1989-1998. Bassist Zac Conway performed with Sweater Weather and a few other bands in the '90s. Eric "Skinner" Van Keuren went on to play with various local bands, including some with bassist Audrey Shaw.

Personell

Discography

Downloads

All of I.D.Under's recordings will be available here for download. Here's some...

About This Page

This page is put up by me, Douglas Ward, former member of I.D.Under. The purpose is to provide information about, and free recordings of, I.D.Under for people who are still interested. You can contact me through my current band, 97-shiki, at our website http://97-shiki.com/.