Lullaby for the Working Class are a somewhat stange and mysterious band with a name to match. Sometimes they've explained their name as a quote from Tolstoy. Other times they say it was inspired by the lead singer's job in a mattress store. (Does that explain the silk-screened pillowcases they sell at gigs?) Then there is the band itself; an ever-evolving group of musicians based in Lincoln, Nebraska with the Mogis brothers and Ted Stevens as the mainstays with a variety of instrumentalists to accompany them. To date there have been more than 32 different group members.
	From their very first demo tape it was obvious this was not your ordinary indie-schmindie rock combo. LFTWC were all acoustic, they didn't even bring amps on tour, neither were they a traditional folk act. Although they had learned some things from their elders ( a number of them were music school grads) they were also steeped in the latest sounds of various experimental noise makers. So with a decided classical bent to their involved arrangements, an all-acoustic presentation, and with a keen interest in things "cutting edge," Lullaby for the Working Class released their first album.
The group,formed in the winter of 1994, started as a duet of Mike Mogis, playing guitar, banjo, mandolin, and several other auxiliary instruments; and Ted Stevens, who sings and plays guitar. Their songs were written and recorded without any public appearances until April of 1996, and during this year and a half of writing and recording.
Lullabyadded A.J. Mogis (Mike's older brother) on upright bass, When they first arrived in New York in the summer of 1996 they looked like your average rag tag twenty-something college students. But when they stepped out of their sports fishing camper to hit the stage at CBGB's they were transformed into a debonair bunch of young men in suits and ties. Since then they have toured the country extensively, performing with dates with Palace, Smog, Lambchop and Luna. In October of '97 they head to Europe for the first time.
	Critics seemed intrigued by their indefinable sound and a lot of ink was generated for their debut album Blanket Warm... Many cited the "No Depression" acoustic bands (Wilco - Uncle Tupelo - Place Bros.etc.) while the NME thought lead singer Ted Steven sounded "uncannily like Mick Jagger at his most distraught and debauched." PUNCTURE called the album "an indie Astral Weeks" while AP claimed they had "sneaked in through the window left open by the Dirty Three, Rachel's and Tortoise....Rock is dead they say. Long Live post-rock."
Lullabyare at the center of a vibrant music scene in Lincoln, Nebraska. They run their own label, Saddle Creek Records and put out music by area musicians who often record in the Mogis brothers Whoopass Studio. The title for their new album I Never Even Asked For Light comes from a line in a track burned into the very end of their CD as an unlisted "secret" extra track. In the song Ted sings about approaching a city from the far off countryside. "It begins as gravel dust and ends in skyscraper." In a sense the album evokes a journey to the heart of a city and then back to its outskirts.
The album starts off with the sound of birds and wind in the trees behind the Mogis household. The birds are joined by Ted and Mike on the back porch for the opening track. "The trees in my backyard were going to be cut down and I wanted to preserve them," explained Mike. "Somehow its nice to be able to hear those leaves rustle." The album closes with another ambient recording: The final section of "The Man Vs. the Tide" was actually recorded while the band stood in the Pacific ocean on their first west coast tour. In between those recordings one hears the vast array of the Lullaby arsenal of sound and the architectural solidity of their arrangements (like a great glistening city?) built around the blended sonics of guitar, ukulele, banjo, mandolin, trumpet, trombone, glockenspiel, dulcimer, kalimba and air organ. Former Bar None staffer Ken Beck even got to play a little French Horn.
"Call it revenge of the band kids," say Alternative Press, 'you know-the ones who paid attention during music class ; the ones who practiced...LFTWC are those kids, now adults, who are still unashamed of things that jangle, tinkle, toot and chime. They are men making pretty music about sometimes ugly things."