The Lilacs

The Lilacs were a four-piece rock band from Chicago, formed in Summer 1990 by Ken Kurson, David Levinsky, Tom Whalen and John Packel. Kurson had previously played bass for Green, and after leaving the fold, he and fellow Glenbrook North High School graduate David Levinsky joined together to form the Lilacs, recruiting Tom Whalen on bass and another Glenbrook North alum, John Packel. The name was chosen for the group by Material Issue frontman Jim Ellison, who also produced the first 7" record -- The Lilacs Love You.

John Packel left the fold after that release and was replaced by yet another Glenbrook North alum, Arthur Kim. The next record, The Lilacs Hate You, contained Kurson's syruppy opus "Baby Tells Me," as well as a Levinsky-penned rager called "The Knife."

The group went into Idful Music to record their first full-length CD, The Lilacs Rise Above the Filth. Produced by Brad Wood, who would soon become well known for recording fellow Chicagoan Liz Phair, the CD was met with wide praise and much college radio play. Ira Robbins describe its "Witty, post-adolescent, rock and pop originals" in Trouser Press noting that "the band suffers from a puppy-like incapability to keep its enthusiasm in check, which occasionally leads things astray on the album," but concluding that "the spunky and unpretentious Rise Above the Filth contains attractive examples of Kurson's sprightly '70s-styled youth-pop."

The group's masterpiece, released in 1992 by Dead Dog Records (a play on the fake record label from the television show Wiseguy) was the Penelope single, which featured "Have I Told You" and Levinsky's "Pointless."