The Blue Jean Committee – Catalina Breeze (IFC)

Softrock’s seminal band, The Blue Jean Committee, originated from blue-collar Chicago when the now legendary Clark Honus (Bill Hader) and Gene Allen (Fred Armisen) dropped out of school to create the band of their dreams. With the help of famed music manager Alvin Izoff, the band reinvented their hard Chicago-blues image to instead transcend the laid-back essence of California. After studying bands like The Beach Boys, the Blue Jean Committee were able to find their signature sound and rise to the top of music charts. Their debut album, Catalina Breeze, spawned six consecutive hit singles for the band and for a moment it seemed like they would be a long-term fixture on the American musical landscape. However, some relationships are more complicated than they appear on the surface, and nowhere did this ring more true than for Gene Allen and Clark Honus, as their infamous on-stage fight at the Hollywood Bowl Animal Rights Now Benefit and subsequent break-up has since become the stuff of legend.

Fans of the ‘Chicago band with the California sound’ can celebrate once more! After over 30 years apart, Gene and Clark were recently reunited for their first public performance together in over three decades on Late Night With Seth Meyers in August of 2015 and are now re-releasing Catalina Breeze on Drag City! Did you watch the true, behind the music story of the Blue Jean Committee earlier this week on Documentary Now! on IFC? Well if you missed it, we’ve got just the thing to fill the Fred Armisen void: Drag City is offering a special bundle of expertly curated lost ‘hits’ dedicated to regional music stars of decades past, artists who share the common experience of hitting the big time, at a purely local level: Hometown Heroes. This exclusive listening experience is available for pre-order right now!