Nobody in Pinebender ever said, “Slower.” It just happened.
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“That was something we never strived for,” says Chris Hansen, frontman for the Chicago heavy-rock trio. “People would always tell us, ‘No one’s ever slower than the record.’ But I don’t recall that being a discussion point of writing the songs originally. That was sort of a byproduct.”
Since the band rehearsed in drummer Stephen Howard’s parents’ home in the mid-’90s, Pinebender has always been loud and punishing — Dinosaur Jr. with stranger feedback noises or the Melvins with better melodies. But on albums such as 2006’s “Working Nine to Wolf,” the band pulls off a sort of sonic magic trick, making loud, abrasive guitars and methodical, repetitive choruses sound dreamy and exciting.
“‘Mystique’ is probably not the word,” Hansen says. “Some people have no idea what it is, and people will stop us on the street. It means a lot for some people, and a lot of people have never even heard it.
“I kind of like that,” he continues. “But it would be nice if there were a lot more people it was special to.”
For a band that has been around for 18 years, Pinebender has been surprisingly un-prolific, releasing just three studio albums, a live collection and an EP. “It’s funny,” Hansen says. “There’s so much time and so little music.”
Hansen, 41, works at a laboratory in a hospital; he occasionally has to pause a half-hour phone interview due to nearby ambulance sirens. He has worked this job of three 12-hour shifts per week about as long as he has played in Pinebender; the stability allows him to not have to pursue desperate rock ‘n’ roll dreams. But it also means there’s no pressure on Pinebender to be more productive; he has written many songs, but the band has not been able to schedule time for a new album.
“I was really lucky that way, in that my job is flexible, and I work not that much in days but still have a full-time job,” Hansen says. “I don’t know if it’s pessimism or realism, but I guess I thought I was never going to pay my bills with my guitar.”
In its early years, Pinebender referred to its sound as “the drudge,” pounding out lengthy punk-and-metal dirges such as “There’s a Bag of Weights in the Back of My Car.” At first, the band’s sonic focal point was baritone guitarist Matt Clark, who used a variety of feedback and effects pedals to create a signature busy, droning sound. Hansen and Howard slipped into Clark’s spaces until the guitarist departed for another band in 2002.
Hansen initially tried to persuade Howard to stick with the drums, because his thunderous timekeeping was crucial to the band’s identity, but Howard, also a bass player, switched seamlessly to baritone guitar and has steered Pinebender into a more melodic direction. (It helped that they were able to find a drummer, Dennis Stacer, who had the same rhythmic quality; the Tribune once said he sounded “big enough to topple a mountain.”)
“Now he’s such a good guitar player,” Hansen says of Howard. “He’s more of a melodically based musician … while Matt is more experimental, more noise-based.”
Howard, who plays in numerous other bands in addition to Pinebender, has had to overcome a lot of pain. Among other things, he has a faulty immune system, and over the years has endured hip replacements, septic infections, meningitis and a spleen removal. Because of this, he received a Demerol shot at age 15 and has said he struggled with drug addictions. But Hansen says his friend and bandmate is much better, thanks in part to pharmaceutical advances and new medicines, although he has periodic flare-ups and is unlikely to fully recover.
“The last time I had to visit him in a hospital was probably 2009,” Hansen says. “That’s the longest stretch since I’ve known him.”
Pinebender isn’t one of those bands that tours relentlessly in order to move up in the music business world. It’s signed to a small independent label, Lovitt Records out of Virginia, and performs whenever anybody invites the band to do so, most notably on the prestigious British festival All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2012.
“The occasional street fest or nostalgia, or there are some people who like us,” Hansen says. “Anyone who asks if we can do it, we almost always do it because we really like to play the songs.”
For all his other musical projects, Hansen finds Pinebender shows especially satisfying.
“We’ve really liked going from extremely quiet to extremely loud dynamic changes,” he says. “In a small room, when all of a sudden two eight-to-12-inch speakers put everything out at once towards someone who’s standing there, you could move someone’s clothing.
“What we’re trying to do is create a feeling, an emotion,” he continues. “Some people think of it as aggression. Some people think of it as sadness. I think that’s all true.”
Steve Knopper is a freelancer.
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday
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Where: Empty Bottle, 1035 Western Ave.
Tickets: $8 (21+); 773-276-3600 or www.emptybottle.com