With two colossal punk / alternative & new wave bands from Springfield’s past reuniting this upcoming weekend at Black Sheep (Food & Money and Backwards Day) – Tom Irwin and The Illinois Times are commemorating the upcoming reunions by publishing a cover story this week with an in-depth look at the history of both bands and punk music in Springfield as a whole. The front page article is “Music Ties That Bind” – Generations of local punk and new wave musicians unite for a concert. The concert the article refers to of course is this Saturday at Black Sheep with Food & Money, Backwards Day, Livin’ Thing, and Spellbreaker and includes punk music coming from four? five? different decades in Springfield from the 1970’s to the present. From the article:

Springfield has gone through four periods of what rock music genre critics named “punk/new wave/alternative,” a style created to disturb the status quo of contemporary popular music. Our first era coincided with the appearance of “punk” on the national and international stage, when, in the mid-to-late 1970s, after a period of easy listening hits and progressive rock meanderings, pop music seemed ripe for a change. Local musicians in town reacted to this music revolution by forming bands such as Food & Money, The Strand/Condition 90, Bad Cake, Bux da Hoota, Nervous Soldier, Will To Dance and NIL8, plus many more.

You can pick up a copy of The Illinois Times at various local businesses around town including Dumb Records, or check out the full online article right here. The rest of the article includes a look at different waves of punk music in Springfield, more photos, and more.

Food & Money (1979-1982) and Backwards Day (1988-1994) will be reuniting this Saturday at Black Sheep. For more info on the show you can go right here. Food & Money also have an LP of unreleased material coming out for this reunion released by Alona’s Dream Records. Check out one of the songs from that LP streaming below.