Wampum
Big Buildings
Catalog Number 007666-5

Wampum’s musty melodicism and muted psychedelia channels bits of Big Star, Buffalo Springfield, and early Yo La Tengo; the band’s songwriting instincts are so thoroughly realized that I doubt thousands of dollars and a full modern studio treatment could’ve made the record
any better.
J. Niimi, Chicago Reader

Water Everywhere
Big Buildings
Catalog Number 007666-4

Water Everywhere is my favorite local rock record of a young 2006. I've compared their studied sloppiness to Exile on Main Street in the past, but I'm going to have to add some other markers: a wired-up Grateful Dead, a hippified Loaded-era Velvets (say, if Lou Reed had left and Sterling Morrison had taken the reins), and a puppyish R.E.M. around the time of their 1981 Athens bootlegs. (Maybe some of those Peter Buck-Keith Streng collaborations too.) They have an absolutely joyous infatuation with their own grainy lo-fi ululations throughout Water Everywhere.

Monica Kendrick, Chicago Reader

I Don't Want to Go Down to the Basement:
Live at the Sweatbox
Various Artists
Catalog Number 007666-3

If The Sweatbox Summer Concert Series was a sporting event (and some may argue that it was), this 19-band 74 min CD would be a huge box of Web Gems from a winning season. Lovingly presented by the Sweatbox Preservation Society and Stars/No Stars Records, the disc combines live songs, crowd chatter, and the sounds of beers being emptied at an alarming rate. With headphones and a six pack (not included), you'd swear you were in the basement yourself. And maybe you were.

Featuring a number of wild, shambling, and generally off the cuff performances from these Chicago bands:

Big Buildings / The Bon Mots /
Camaro Rouge / Catfish Haven /
Cracklin Moth / Adam Fitz / Frodis /
Hot Dog City / IllinoisFirst! /
The Ladies & Gentlemen /
Milk at Midnight / The Returnables / Riviera / Shot of Therapy / Snowbeast / Stroby Alliance / Telenovela / Titmice / Zimmerman Twins

Hang Together for All Time
Big Buildings
Catalog Number 007666-2

They wail and bash, channeling Bo Diddley and the Rolling Stones ("We Are Steamships," "Streetlights"). They unplug and go near-country ("Big Dave," "Peaceful Man at Odds"). They split the difference, like the Kinks meeting Uncle Tupelo ("Skinny Women Shaking"). One track is a distorted, short rant followed by a song of relative sonic polish. Someone coughed during the intro to "Quiet Landmine"? So what! Leave it in!

Barry Gilbert, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

There's a lot of stuff going on here that reminds me why I fell in love with music in the first place.
Vitas Zebratis, Glorious Noise

This is the Bricks EP
Big Buildings
Catalog Number 007666-1

Rough, but right. .
Bob Mehr, Chicago Reader

You can almost smell the beer and stale cigarette smoke.
J im DeRogatis, Chicago Sun-Times

Judging by the photos on its Web site, there are two things the members of Chicago-based Big Buildings aren’t worried about: being taken too seriously - and their hair.
Reckless Abandon Column
Columbia Daily Review