Out Of The Loop is a fine and generally accurate document of Chicago's brief tenure as The Next Seattle. Director Scott Peterson includes interviews with current and former Chicago rock critics Jim DeRogatis (a cynical observer) and Bill Wyman (a flaky knob), stalwarts like Steve Albini (always fun), and interview and performance footage of bands as disparate as Seam, The Jesus Lizard, and Sister Machine Gun. Peterson has acknowledged that budget and time constraints necessitated a certain focus; after all, who would sit through a Shoah-length documentary on Chicago's music, let alone finance one? But more importantly, the bands and musicians he includes demonstrate just how much the city has changed in the few years since Out Of The Loop played the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Urge Overkill, Triple Fast Action, Red Red Meat, and Veruca Salt are, for all intents and purposes, no more; Wesley Willis has wandered back into the woodwork from whence he came; Yum Yum and The Pulsars were not the hit-makers many predicted. Once-vital labels like Wax Trax! are now all but irrelevant. In fact, the many omissions are even more illustrative of Chicago's vibrant underground. Missing is the ascension of the post-rock cabal and Thrill Jockey Records, the rise of insurgent country and Bloodshot Records, the numerous figures who comprise Chicago's internationally respected jazz scene, and the indie-rock tastemakers of Drag City. In fact, the only mainstream survivors of the major-label feeding frenzy are the members of The Smashing Pumpkins, but Peterson couldn't get Billy Corgan to participate in his film. All the better, as Chicago's music can't be defined by one high-profile band like Cheap Trick, Big Black, or the Pumpkins. Thus, Out Of The Loop reveals what many people have said all along: Sometimes the hype is all that's there, and when the talk finally dies down and the hype-spinners leave town, the music will continue to evolve.