The music scene in the mid-90s in Champaign-Urbana (University Illinois, where I went to school) was quite good for that shoe-gaze/wall-of-sound scene:
These guys, Honcho Overload, where a group that also included Matt Talbot and Jeff Dempsey from Hum:
These guys were an amazing trio called Hardvark. And this is probably my favorite album from the Champaign-Urbana days:
Another great band was Love Cup:
Menthol was another power-pop trio that got a little notoriety:
Probably the most popular band to come out of C-U during this time was The Poster Children:
I used to play soccer with a few of these guys. Good song by the band Suede Chain: