“FRESH FACES” SPOTLIGHT BAND  

Our usual criteria for spotlighting an artist in our monthly  “Fresh Faces” section includes being confident in recommending said artist to our readership and finding one who has brand new product which we can award to 15 lucky folks.  

     This month, to keep with our regional original music theme, the criteria also required the artist to have deep local roots.  

      “Roots” are something this rather remarkable young quartet know about, because they hail from the tiny farming community of Elburn, Illinois -- which boasts a population of 500 and is about 70 miles west of Chicago proper –– the toddlin’ town where Troubled Hubble cut their musical teeth at underground music meccas like the Fireside Bowl, Double Door and The Metro.   

        In fact, three of the members are so deeply “rooted” – guitarist/vocalist Josh Miller, along with rhythmic siblings Andrew and Nate Lanthrum (bass and drums, respectively) –– that they have remained residents of Elburn, even though the band has taken to touring extensively in the last two years.     

        Lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Chris Otepka -- who formed the band back in 1999 – spent nearly three years living large in Chicago, but recently returned to Elburn as well.                    

      Otepka explained Trouble Hubble – who borrowed their name from the ill-fated Hubble Telescope (the topic of many headlines in 1999) – was formed out of last minute necessity.   

      “I wrote a bunch a songs and recorded them on my own,” he said.  “When it came time to play shows, I’d have to ask around and assemble people.”  

      A last minute invite to perform at the Fireside Bowl meant pulling together a fast band, so calls went out and the ones who could make the trip from Elburn to Chicago that weekend were the Lanthrums and Miller.  That gig rocked and people went crazy for them, so Otepka invited the three to stay on board with him.  All agreed. 

    The band of Midwest  indie rockers –– whose pop-flavored rock songs fall somewhere between from Modest Mouse, Phish and Jonathan Richmond’s Modern Lovers –– have just released their fourth CD, Penturbia.    

       Like their past releases –– Slow: Plant Entrance, The Sun Beamed Off The Name Maurice and Broken Airplanes –– this new CD has been done entirely by the band itself, from the writing, to the producing, to distributing their own DIY imprint, to booking a tour of live dates to support it. 

     This hook-heavy 12-song set has a quirky underlaying conceptual theme that is fueled by Otepka’s personal belief that more and more people are getting frustrated with city and suburban living and are fleeing to the rural outreaches of place like, you guessed it, Elburn, Illinois.   And how those quiet and quaint little burgs are suffering for the exodus and shrinking away and more and more developing encroaches on them. 

      The notion for this “shrinking of America” concept hit Otepka during his own short-residency in Chicago and grew to fruition upon his moving back home, only to discover that strip malls with mega-department stores had been built less than ten miles from Elburn, displacing many of the sprawling farms of the region.   

       Upon returning, Otepka and his mates sat down and funneled their frustration into their music and Penturbia was the end result.   “We’re certainly not saying that cities are a bad place,” he said, “only that seeing them suddenly popping up in your backyard is sort of a tough thing to face.” 

     “Penturbia is nothing like suburbia,” explains Otepka.  “Suburbia is essentially urban because it is tied to a major metropolitan area accessed by short commutes.  Penturbia is too distant for that.  It’s a place of wide open spaces connected by narrow rural roads.  It’s where people live on 10-acre tracts of land and where housing is individualistic, not like the suburbs, where all the houses are mass-produced, look alike and have neatly manicured lawns.” 

      Their songs address topics like – families, love, life, work, animals and even the headaches caused by the stress of it all.  The CD cover depicts a daisy filled field with animals  (raccoon, deer, frogs, birds and even a buffalo) in the forefront, with a massive office building in the distance marring the serene beauty of nature and signalling the pollution-making human invasion to come.  

        The band still makes frequent visits to Chicago and hits several of our nation’s cities  –– Cedar Rapids (IA), Omaha (NE), Knoxville (TN), Arlington (VA), Rochester  (NY) and Athens (GA), among them –– while touring.   

       “We’re not knocking city life or cities at all, especially Chicago, because we’ve had a lot of great experiences there and met a lot of great people there.”   Penturbia, he explained  is simple them addressing an issue from the perspective of people who grew up in a much different, much calmer place.       

       “Elburn has no music scene whatsoever,” he continued. “It’s just a quiet little place where we can live and write and record and be ourselves.  It’s a place we can be happy.  We’re not too far from the highway though, so we can hop on it any time the need arrives.” 

     Otepka bristles at the notion of having to try to label the infectious and upbeat music Troubled Hubble plays as being emo, punk, pop or any other specific genre.  “We don’t think of our music in those terms,” he said, side-stepping the issue. 

        In truth, there seems to be no hidden agenda for their doing this for these last four years, other than to simply have fun and make music.    More information: www.troubledhubble.com

                                                                    Troubled Hubble perform on:

                            May 6 at Fireside Bowl in Chicago, IL and on May 31 at Kryptonite in Rockford, IL

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