Leon

This was my first foray into punk minded music, high school stuff in 1996 and tried to keep it going into college to early 1998 I suppose. Matt and I had both gotten into a bunch of fun stuff, I enjoyed a steady diet of Helmet, Big Black, the Jesus Lizard, Squirrel Bait, and Bastro in high school. Matt loved Sebadoh, Pavement, Guided by Voices, Girls vs. Boys, Fugazi, and Nirvana. We recruited Matt's talented younger brother Ross to play drums. He was into our stuff as well as being a total Grateful Dead and Phish fan. We would tease him a bit but he is a great fella, so he put up with us.

We played a few shows, no one was really there except maybe a show in January of 1998 (maybe?) at Primizies with Itch House, Helgeson Story, and the Locust, and maybe some others. We played first and no one really watched. That's ok, we had fun. We also got into DIY recording and stuff and did a little 4 track tape demo that sounds terrible but was, as is everything, a valuable learning experience. We also have a CD of our last show which actually makes me pretty proud as we were finally onto something that never really got to be explored.

Matt did the Shining Path with me years later after finishing at Yale and a stint in Brooklyn. He is now in Portland, Oregon teaching middle school math at a hippie school. Ross finished at Yale as well (surround yourself with geniuses is my slogan) and is working on a PhD in theoretical physics or something at Stanford buying tons of good dub records in San Francisco. We still get together when they're in town and play and listen to music, drink, and catch up. Good peeps those Dunkel boys.

- Connor

• Connor Bell - guitar, bass, voice
• Matt Dunkel - guitar, voice
• Ross Dunkel - drums