Filligar

Mixing the pop-oriented piano rock of Augustana and the Hush Sound with the snappy wit of Belle & Sebastian, Filligar took root in Chicago in 2000. Brothers Pete (drums), Johnny (guitars, vocals), and Teddy Mathias (bass) comprised the band's familial core, while longtime friend Casey Gibson completed the lineup with his background vocals and classically trained keyboard skills. Still in their early teens, the bandmates issued three albums under the name Flipside before adopting their current moniker for 2004's Hoofbeats & Heat. The following year saw the release of Filligar, a self-titled album that gained the band its first significant amount of local airplay. Released in 2006, Succession, I Guess saw even more success, and Filligar continued to tour and record even as the bandmembers attended college (Gibson enrolled at Hamilton College, while all three Mathias brothers pursued an Ivy League education at Dartmouth). The City Tree arrived in 2007, garnering radio play from markets throughout the U.S. as well as a warm endorsement from Chicago-based music critic Jim DeRogatis. Nevertheless, it was the band's previous record, Succession, I Guess, that earned Filligar their biggest success to date, as the song "Big Things" was featured on MTV during an episode of The Real World. More TV spots followed, including the MTV programs College Life and 16 and Pregnant, and the band cracked the College Music Journal charts with the release of 2008's Near or Far. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide