Giants Chair
The band got together in September 1993 when bassist Byron Collum and guitarist Scott Hobart relocated to Green Bay from Kansas City. The two had met at the Kansas City Art Institute in the fall of 1989. Byron had grown up with drummer Paul Ackerman in Green Bay. After a catalytic connection and several early band iterations in Kansas City, they moved to Green Bay to play with Paul. The trio relocated back to Kansas City the following spring as Giants Chair with their debut 7” (Hot Boy) on Caulfield Records. As soon as they got the box of pressed records, they sent one to Bernie at Caulfield. He left a message on their answering machine saying he liked it and would be into helping them get it out there. They loved Bernie’s band Sideshow and he had released a 7” for Germbox, a Kansas City band that had blown them away.
They assembled enough songs to record their first full-length, Red and Clear, a cryptic epic that was equal parts raw and refined. Recorded at Whoopass Studios in Lincoln with Mike and A.J. Mogis, it was released on October 10, 1995. While many of the band’s peers trended toward post-rock deconstruction in the following years, Giants Chair returned with Purity and Control, the record that solidified the band’s signature balance of tight rhythms and forward melodies, deceptively simple hooks that collide with lush and layered sonic force.
Equal parts early new wave, skate punk, prog, political folk, and 70s and 80s radio rock, Giants Chair’s influences can be traced across their catalogue. For more than two decades their records have lived on turntables, blasted through car speakers, rattled apartment walls, and destroyed headphones.
In 2019, with all original members still intact, Giants Chair returned with the release of Prefabylon on Spartan Records. A 30th anniversary edition of Red and Clear, remastered by Duane Trower at Weights and Measures, followed in 2025.
Members
- Scott Hobart - Guitar, Vocals
- Byron Collum - Bass
- Paul Ackerman - Drums
