Between The Cracks: The Complaint Line tonight at Donnie’s

Once again, Faingold at Large proudly presents Between the Cracks – the recurring feature designed to shine a light onto Springfield-area bands, and all in their own words, to boot. Join us, won’t you? There’s gold between them thar cracks!

Today’s BTC flashlight shines on regional poppy punkers The Complaint Plan, who will be playing a show with Yogi Beara and something called “Epsom” at Donnie’s Homespun tonight. The answers below were provided by vocalist / guitarist John Phillips.

Band name: The Complaint Line

Web site: www.thecomplaintlinemusic.com

Personnel: John Phillips -Vocals/Guitar; Dayton Cripe – Guitar; Shawnda Phillips – Bass; Randy Anderson – 

Drums

Where do you hail from? Originally we are from all over the state of Illinois. Currently 3/4 of us are living in 

Chatham and Randy lives in Jacksonville.

What’s in a name, particularly yours? The Complaint Line is our chosen name for several reasons. One source 

of inspiration is a book by Jonathan Lethem called You Don’t Love Me Yet. It’s about a girl that works for an art 

dealer answering phones for a complaint hotline where she documents complaints without ever offering solutions. 

Another is that several of us have a long history of working phone-based jobs which can really feel like complaint 

lines even if they aren’t officially called such. And probably the most important reason is that it just sounded cool. 

When did you form? The band came together after I bluffed my way into an opening gig at the Tin Can Pub in 

November 2012 by claiming I already had a band. I mean, I had the songs so I was halfway there right? Once the 

gig was secured I quickly made calls to several musician friends eventually convincing Dayton and Shawnda to play 

the show. We then struggled for a couple of months to find a drummer, playing gigs with anyone we could get 

behind a kit in the meantime. It was Spring 2013 when a former band mate of mine named Randy offered to fill the 

void on a more permanent basis.

Releases/discography: We’ve started recording our first full length which we hope to have finished by 

Spring/Summer this year. We will be releasing a three song “3P” at the end of March to hold people over while we 

finish recording.

How do you pay the bills? Sporadically and with great reluctance.

What artists have had the biggest impact on you? Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü, Sugar), Pixies, The Replacements, 

Soul Asylum and Dinosaur Jr are all bands we love and have impacted our sound in some way or another. Beyond

those our individual tastes vary quite a bit. A common thread is that we are all big fans of loud melodic music from

The Beatles and Bowie to Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Superchunk and beyond.

Finish this sentence: If we didn’t have to worry about money, we’d… go on a nationwide tour of every punk 

rock dive and independent record store in the country. 

See them at: Donnie’s Homespun tonight, Friday March 7th, with Epsom and Yogi Beara; The Tin Can Pub, 

Saturday March 29th, with Set Piece; The Heavy Anchor in St Louis, Friday April 11th with FREAKABOUT! 

and Tiger Rider.

Send feedback and story ideas to sfaingold@illinoistimes.com

This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2014.