By the time Black Umbrella rolled around, I pretty much felt like a K-zoo regular. At one particularly humble show in a defunct brewery (all ages, no drinking, no smoking), I lounged among the “backstage” couches with bassist Herb Ledbetter as the band members arrived slowly, after their day jobs. It was still daylight, and most attendees seemed to be present for headliners godheadSilo, so the Thought Industry members randomly snuck out to their van to ‘smoke’ before their grand appearance. I had already thoroughly supplied these guys with mixtapes of rare Shudder to Think stuff, old Blind Willie McTell, my own recordings as Dance Floor Five, and whatever else seemed timely — they seemed to be the only ones with a forward vision for the potential of guitar-based rock. Per usual, their delivery was accomplished and inspiring – and ended abruptly, with Brent Oberlin vanishing to the venue’s front door to light a Camel before the last note had begun to fade.
At this point, the band was arguably at their peak as a cohesive ensemble of personalities and talents. I had received my advance copy of Black Umbrella about a week before the actual release date, and carefully planned that the day would be free from distractions, allowing me to just sit down and listen to the album from start to finish. Having attended so many Club Soda appearances leading up this disc, I’d heard many of these songs evolve, and even made the error of giving a thumbs-down to “Pink Dumbo” in its early live incarnations (it would later, when fully crafted, turn out to be one of the most stunning tracks on the album). 
According to Herb, there was a point in time where Black Umbrella was tentatively titled ‘Longfellow’, and later ‘Boxing Matches’, and he’d described some possible sleeve photos — one with Brent slicing onions and looking up at the camera teary-eyed seemed entirely appropriate for this album’s melancholic tone. The collective creativity of the ensemble yeilded material that was genuinely sardonic — depressed, miserably catchy heavy rock music. Somewhere, I even recall seeing an interview where they claimed to be ‘the least happy band in the world’. Sadly, this was to be the end of an era for Thought Industry, with family and career dissolving the line-up, leaving Brent Oberlin as the sole original member to carry on the name.
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