UPDATED: 8:53 pm:
Huge apologies to Matt DeWine, as this article was originally published incorrectly. The new Pieholden is still in operation, while the former studio is what is being demolished:
Matt DeWine, a sound engineer who worked with Bennett after Bennett left Wilco, has continued to operate Pieholden Suite Sound along with studio manager Josh Dumas.
The studio — described in a 2013 Chicago Reader story as a “recording playground” and a shrine to Bennett who collected vintage guitars — moved out this past fall.
Here’s the original content below. Deepest apologies for the misinformation. (PS)
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While this isn’t directly happening here in Champaign-Urbana, this feels like something worth posting: Jay Bennett’s Pieholden studio in the Ukranian Village in Chicago is getting demolished. Per DNA Info Chicago, the studio and property will be wiped away to make room for condos. So it goes nowadays, sadly.
The ex-Wilco member Bennett has many ties to Urbana — the place where he died. Annie Weisner outlines it well in her review of his record, Kicking the Perfumed Air:
On May 24, 2009, musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett was found dead in his Urbana apartment from an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl. Bennett had first come to CU as a student of secondary education, mathematics and political studies. He played in several local bands before joining the power pop group Titanic Love Affair, and after TLA’s breakup Bennett eventually left Champaign to join Chicago-based band Wilco in 1994. Bennett had returned to Champaign-Urbana in 2007, and his friends said he seemed to be entering a calmer phase of life-working toward an online masters degree at UIUC, enjoying the relaxation of Urbana, and recording in Pieholden Suite Sound, the studio Bennett and manager Matt DeWine built from the ground up.
You should read Joel Gillespie’s piece on the studio to get a look inside what it was like. RIP.