To music fans, news of a band break-up used to be a crushing pain akin to being ruthlessly and inexplicably dumped through no fault of your own. Even if you were prepared for the split, it did little if anything to dull the blow. But these days, it seems as if a disbanding is more a vehicle for starting new projects before eventually re-uniting when the time (and, sometimes, money) is right.
In recent weeks alone, popular acts like At The Drive-In, Refused, Hot Snakes, Shiner, and The Impossibles have decided to set aside differences, temporarily shelve current projects and get the old band back together. In December, Braid returned to Milwaukee to play a show. Even more reunion-relevant to our city is Friday’s return of The Promise Ring for a rare local performance. As great as the news of a Promise Ring reboot is, the show couldn’t help but make Music Notes consider some other disbanded Milwaukee groups we wouldn’t mind seeing one more time. Here are just a few…
Hero Of A Hundred Fights
Short-lived as it was, Hero Of A Hundred Fights managed to leave quite a mark on Milwaukee music between its late 90s origin and its premature dismantling in 2001. Hero was a formidable hybrid that combined the intricacies of math rock with the raw conduction of Midwestern hardcore. The band only managed to record 14 songs, spread between a 404 Records compilation and a pair of EPs. Although it’s hard to deny the impact of eight-minute masterpieces “Shudder The Lights Off” and “You, Me, The Switch” the band contributed to A Four Way Stop comp, the band took an even more encouraging direction by welcoming in lead vocalist William Zientara prior to the Steve Albini-recorded “The Remote, The Cold” EP.
Sadly, the four-song effort was the swan song of a band that never took the opportunity to realize its full potential. More than a decade has passed since Hero Of A Hundred Fights graced the city with its final note, but every song still holds up. Members of Hero went on to play in such local acts as Haymarket Riot, Temper Temper, as well as contemporaries Call Me Lightning and Centipedes. – TM
Managra
Pre-dating Hero Of A Hundred Fights and also including Hero’s Shane Hochstetler and William Zientara among its ranks was mid 90s Waukesha hardcore band Managra. For a bunch of high school-age kids, the product fashioned in the form of its only full-length (well, 30-minute-length), Modern Day Remembrances, suggests the band was experienced beyond its years. Between the brutally abrasive musicianship and cutting duel vocals, Managra is something the Milwaukee area has struggled to replicate since the band broke up. The lineup went on to form Hero Of A Hundred Fights, Call Me Lightning, Centipedes, Since By Man, Temper Temper, No Future and about a thousand other notable local acts.
Talk of a Managra reunion surfaces from time to time. Admittedly, though, all that talk comes from me when I’ve had one too many beers and see former member Eric Alonso in public. – TM
The Gufs
The late 90s proved to be a fertile time for the burgeoning Milwaukee alternative pop music scene. The belated national awareness of the Violent Femmes and the BoDeans combined with moderate one-off recognition for bands like Citizen King to shine a bit of a spotlight on the sleepy lakeside burg. And no band was better poised to ride the wave to mainstream success than sensitive rockers The Gufs, which dominated the local airwaves with infectiously downtrodden anthems “Crash (Into Me)” and “Smile.” The band seemed to have just the right mix of melancholic pop and alternative edge, all tied together by lead singer Goran Kralj’s unassumingly angelic voice.
But alas, The Gufs were chewed up and spit out after signing with Atlantic Records, which decided to focus its marketing on similar bands like Matchbox 20 and Hootie & the Blowfish rather than on pushing the magnificent releases The Gufs and Holiday From You. Outside of some solo work by Kralj, the members of The Gufs have primarily receded back into the fabric of established society in years since. The guys have showed a penchant for reuniting, though, with a number of token Summerfest appearances, special event gigs (as recent as last fall), and even the release of the full-length A Different Sea in 2006. So why not give it another go, fellas? – KK
The Benjamins
In the early 2000s, while Drive-Thru Records was exploding with popular releases from the likes of A New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional, Homegrown, Fenix TX, RX Bandits and other pop-punk/ska outfits, a Milwaukee band—The Benjamins—also held a coveted spot on the booming MCA Records subsidiary. Brief as the band’s stint (both on Drive-Thru and on stage, in general) was, the quartet crafted a solid sack of slacker anthems on its only mid-major release, 2001’s The Art Of Disappointment, and toured with such poppy heavy hitters as Sum 41 and Showoff before parting ways permanently (save for a few reunion performances) shortly after the album’s release. Members went on to play in Limbeck, Maritime, The Obsoletes and Man Planet. – TM
Pet Engine
Much like The Gufs, Pet Engine was formed and incubated on Milwaukee’s East Side, becoming a mainstay at clubs like the Globe East during the mid 90s. The band’s brand of inoffensively catchy power pop garnered them a large local following as well as mild levels of radio airplay in certain markets nationwide. Because of the group’s ability to draw local support, Pet Engine was the go-to opening band at The Eagles Club when mid-level national headliners like Oasis or Collective Soul needed local support to help fill out the room. Although like many groups at the time Pet Engine seemed driven to insanity by the mirage of a major label signing, some of the band’s best work came when the pressures of writing for commercial success did not consume it. Full-length albums Feeling Like a Hundred Bucks and Megahurtz showcased moments of pure power pop gold such as “Strapped” and “Reinventing the Wheel.”
Since the band’s breakup in 2001, former members Stephen Ziel and Al Hildebrand have gone on to form Slo-Fi, which recently release the impressive Basement Symphonies LP. The original Pet Engine lineup also joined forces for last year’s Pablove Benefit Concert. – KK
The Obsoletes
Technically, The Obsoletes were rooted in the city of Neenah. After Fox Cities favorite Yesterday’s Kids disbanded, Tim Schweiger (guitar/vocals) and Justin Perkins (bass/vocals) joined up with ex-Benjamins drummer Jon Phillip to form an alt-country band nestled in at the midway point of each member’s previous project. For a time, the trio managed to play out regularly and release albums despite the 100 miles set between members. Eventually, Perkins and Schweiger heeded their own advice of Yesterday’s Kids song “Down To Milwaukee” by going south on highway 41 and making Brew City home.
In the years between, The Obsoletes’ load has lightened, as Schweiger briefly played in Blueheels before founding Tim Schweiger And The Middlemen, Perkins also spent time in Blueheels before starting Mystery Room recording studio, and Phillip logged stool time in Limbeck and Trapper Schoepp and The Shades in addition to starting Goodland Records. Every couple years, you’ll see a flier for an Obsoletes show in town, but the impromptu reunions come too infrequently for our liking. – TM
