Verboten On Punk Origin Story, Debut Album Four Decades In The Making

In the 1980s, Chicago became an unexpected hotbed for punk rock music gurgling beneath the commercial radar, delivering influential acts like Naked Raygun, Rights of the Accused, The Effigies and Big Black (which featured famed recording engineer Steve Albini on vocals and guitar).

Those acts embraced punk rock’s social conscience, addressing the world in song in a manner akin to the folk tradition of artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs (who was arrested during the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago).

One of the better origin stories to emerge from that era is that of Verböten, a punk rock group whose oldest member, singer Tracey Bradford, was just 14 at the time, rendering her somewhat in charge.

“Jason asked me to come watch a practice,” Bradford explained last month, referencing vocalist/guitarist Jason Narducy during a conversation prior to a Verböten performance as opening act for Pixies frontman Frank Black at vaunted Chicago club Metro. “So, I went. And I was like, ‘You need a manager,’” she said. “Then I was like, ‘Well, you need a girl. If you had a girl, then it would be better,’” she recalled with a chuckle. “And they were like, ‘We were trying to figure out how to get you in the band!’ But I always thought it was me.”

Today, Narducy handles bass for indie rock acts like Bob Mould and Superchunk, fronts his own project Split Single (one in which he’s worked with artists like John Stirratt of Wilco, Spoon’s Britt Daniel and R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills) and is in the midst of his second tour celebrating the R.E.M. canon alongside Oscar nominated actor Michael Shannon.

But in 1982, when Verböten took the stage alongside Naked Raygun and Rights of the Accused at Cubby Bear, a north side Chicago club, Narducy was just 11. One year later, the group would perform live on the local Chicago television program Kidding Around, ultimately breaking up before releasing an album.

At the time, Narducy lived within walking distance of bassist Chris Kean and then drummer Zack Kantor, who both lived in the same apartment building just outside Chicago in the northern suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

“I lived below the drummer – so might as well join him!” said Kean with a laugh. “You’re gonna hear it every day!” added new drummer John Carroll, who’s taken over on drums for Kantor since Verböten got back together last year, performing on stage for the first time in 41 years this past September at Riot Fest.

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“This was like our family, you know? We were latchkey kids,” Kean recalled. “We were home alone after school. Now, kids have all of the internet and video games – but we didn’t have anything,” said the bassist. “We had my Atari. The 2600,” Narducy corrected with a smile, setting the scene. “We did have his Atari. But, yeah, that’s where we found our family and our community,” Kean confirmed.

“That’s what inspired us to reunite and start making music again. It’s funny to me because we didn’t talk about it for a long time,” said Narducy. “I remember, I was signed to Epic [Records] in the 90s,” said the guitarist, who, alongside cello player Alison Chesley, put a unique spin upon the conventional 90s alternative sound over the course of two major label album releases as singer and guitarist of Verbow. “I was like, ‘Well, there’s this story about me and my friends when I was a kid…’ But they never talked about it! I mean, honestly, it was when Dave Grohl kind of was nice enough to shed a spotlight on us [that the Verböten story grew legs].”

The Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman happens to be a cousin of Bradford and watched Verböten rehearse at a young age, eventually tagging along on a teenage trip to Cubby Bear where he’d quickly become enamored by punk’s do-it-yourself ethos and low barrier for entry during the formative moment.

Grohl’s telling of the story – first in the 2015 HBO documentary series Sonic Highways, again on stage across the street from Cubby Bear at Wrigley Field a year later (with Naked Raygun and Cheap Trick on the bill as opening acts) and most recently in his 2021 autobiography The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music – helped spread the group’s mythical origin story organically.

“Naked Raygun at the Cubby Bear was my first live music experience,” said Grohl, seated alongside Bradford during the first Sonic Highways episode. “My stomach was up against the stage – and the singer was like on top of my head. People diving all over the place. It was loud as f–k. And it was out of tune! There was spit! I was just a kid with an Izod. It turned my world upside down,” he admitted of the flashpoint experience. “For me, that night changed everything I knew about music. It was just like, ‘Oh my god. Is this happening where I live? Why can’t I do this?’”

Following Narducy’s staging of a Verböten musical in Chicago in 2020, Verböten got back together to begin work on their debut album in 2024 – a whopping 41 years after initially breaking up.

While Carroll stepped in for Kantor during sessions, the original drummer was involved. And on stage, guitarist Aaron Shapiro, Kantor’s nephew, helps further flesh out the group’s sound.

Working at Albini’s north side Chicago studio Electrical Audio and at producer Sean O’Keefe’s Evanston-based Rosecrud, sessions for the group’s self-titled debut were, in quintessential punk rock fashion, brisk.

“We wrote and recorded this record in five months. I’ve never done that before. And it would’ve been faster if I didn’t have a million other things going on too. But that’s pretty fast,” said Narducy. “It started with John and I. Well, it started with Chris and I writing songs. We wrote two together and then I would bring songs into John and we’d go over to Albini’s Electrical Audio and just record guitar and drums and I would do dummy lyrics. I usually didn’t have the lyrics done. And John and I would kind of work on arrangement and tempo,” Narducy explained.

“I remember I said to you, ‘So, when we do the real drum takes, like, can I maybe do an extra thing?’ And he was like ‘Yeah, these are the real ones…’” recalled Carroll, glancing to his right at Narducy with a smile.

“They’re all original drum takes. What we got in those demo sessions,” added Narducy. “And our original drummer Zack was a good sounding board. I would send him demos. And then Chris and I would get together either at his place or my basement and I’d play him songs. And he would do this thing where he’d be like, ‘OK. These three are Split Single songs. These two, I don’t know what they are. And these two are Verböten songs.’ And that really helped me figure out where my boundaries were.”

In May of 1983, Verböten performed the song “My Opinion” on local TV. Opening for Black on the Metro stage, the quintet tore through other 40 year old cuts like “He’s a Panther.” On the debut album’s dozen new tracks, now available on vinyl or for online streaming, storytelling is a central component.

“Conviction of Youth” hits on the idea of community while “No More Indecision” addresses climate change, with Verböten casting an eye upon increasingly tumultuous times in the songwriting on an album four decades in the making.

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“I live in Florida 1740729976. I’ve been through three hurricanes that have wiped out my parents’ home. It’s big. It’s real. It’s happening,” said Bradford, a home hospice and pediatric therapy nurse, of the approach to “No More Indecision.” “Really, every song on that album has something really powerful to either all of us or some of us. You know, it’s punk rock – it’s not gonna appeal to like everybody. But the lyrics and the words and the meaning behind it should, you know?”

“At least we can make a racket about it,” said Kean. “And hopefully inspire other people.”