TAR
Tar formed in the year of 1988 in Chicago, Illinois. The bass guitar parts were written and played by Tom Mescher up until January of 1991 at which point Tom Zaluckyj was more than happy to fill his shoes. The guitars were always played by Mark Zablocki and John Mohr. Though Tom and even myself started to moonlight a bit there towards the end. Tar used to tour a lot back in the day. Following the "European Debacle" of 1993 we quit touring altogether and, finally, in 1995, brought its prolific carreer to an abrupt close. During our tenure, Tar released four singles, four albums, two mini albums and contributed songs to six compilations and split singles. We never made a living off of our music, and, "Thank God" we never had to.
In 1993 we toured like madmen, in part to promote "Toast". It was also because we were partly addicted to the lure of the road. As usual the Europeans were great, but little did we know that this would be our last full tour. We returned home in early December, took some time off and did some soul searching. In January we met over breakfast and coffee at a little diner on W. Belmont. We talked, assessed our situation, and came to the mutual decision to stop touring. We also agreed to write one more album. We employ the narrow sonic palette that we have (our instruments have sounded almost identical from release to release) started kicking around ideas and went wherever the songs took us. We believe the sound of our instruments was unique enough among other bands of our rock ilk that we could indulge ourselves by approaching songwriting from an extremely open frame of mind and still be confident that whatever we tackled would become part of a cohesive whole.

Almost all of our songs came out of group improvisations which then were refined and refined and refined and cut up and turned over and generally fucked with structurally and harmonically until a song we were all happy with finally took shape. Finding the right chords to fit next to each other in a given part can take months. Many potential songs were thrown out when all four members could not come to an agreement. I don't believe that we ever once discussed any of our methods of songwriting at the time we were writing. That would be cheating. We didn't follow any direction excepting that which the songs dictated.
"Over And Out" is our latest and last full length album. Listeners will notice the usual Tar elements, (methodical song writing, shifting dynamics, layered guitars) but may also notice a more somber mood. We expanded our time restraints on some songs and weren't afraid to whisper on others. We also threw in a few barnburners for good measure. The result is a sonic downer, a "roaster" as John would say. We are very happy with the album and hope you are too.

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