Breaking Circus was a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band from the 1980s, based in Chicago and later Minneapolis, founded by guitarist and vocalist Steve Björklund.

History

Björklund had played guitar and sang for Chicago punk band

Strike Under Strike Under was an influential Chicago punk rock band of the early 1980s. It was started by Steve Bjorklund (vocals, guitar) after the demise of The Rabbits. The principal musicians, besides Bjorklund, were his brother Chris (guitar), Pierre Kez ...

after a short stint in the group Terminal Beach, Breaking Circus was his next project, originally with bassist Bruce Lange and a

Roland TR-606 The Roland TR-606 Drumatix is a drum machine built by the Roland Corporation from 1981 to 1984. It was originally designed to be used with the Roland TB-303, a monophonic analog bass synthesizer, to provide a simple drum and bass accompaniment ...

drum machine. Breaking Circus signed to

Homestead Records Homestead Records was a Long Island, New York-based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading that operated from 1983 to 1996. The label was known for not paying its artists and not spending any money on promotion. History The l ...

for their first release, '' The Very Long Fuse'' EP (1985), featuring the song "Marathon", which has been cited as "stuck in several thousand heads" and a " college-radio favorite" In 1986, Björklund moved to Minneapolis and began working with Rifle Sport

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Pete "

Flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

" Conway and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

/guitarist

Todd Trainer Todd Trainer is the drummer for the band Shellac. He also performs as a solo artist under the name Brick Layer Cake. He previously played drums for the bands Breaking Circus and Rifle Sport, and he played drums with Scout Niblett in 2005. Pers ...

. In 1986 the band released a song, ''Driving the Dynamite Truck'' on the

Twin/Tone Twin/Tone Records was an independent record label based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which operated from 1977 until 1994. It was the original home of influential Minnesota bands the Replacements and Soul Asylum and was instrumental in helping the ...

compilation ''Big Hits of Mid-America Volume Four'', with a slightly different lineup having Tony Pucci of

Man Sized Action Man Sized Action was a post-punk group from Minneapolis. John Leland of ''Trouser Press'' described the band as an "unpretentious lot" in the vein of Hüsker Dü who "opened up punk structures with distorted, ringing guitar, some off-kilter rhyt ...

in the drummer's chair. Homestead Records released the band's ''

The Ice Machine ''The Ice Machine'' is an album by Breaking Circus. It was released in 1986 by on Homestead Records. Track listing Side 1: #"Song of the South" (Steve Björklund, Pete Conway, and Todd Trainer) #"Ancient Axes" (Björklund) #"Daylight" (Björklu ...

'' LP with the album's credits appearing as a

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

-style

drinking game Drinking games are games which involve the consumption of alcoholic beverages and often enduring the subsequent intoxication resulting from them. Evidence of the existence of drinking games dates back to antiquity. Drinking games have been banned ...

insert. Guitarist

Phil Harder Philip Harder is a music video director and commercial director represented by Bob Industries in Santa Monica, California.Bobcentra ...

filled out the band for a national tour before Breaking Circus returned home to record another LP that was to feature four songs by Björklund, four by Conway, and four by Trainer. When the band arrived in the studio, they received word from Homestead that the label would only pay for six of the twelve songs that they had originally planned to record. All four of Björklund's songs and one by each of the other members were recorded and released as the EP ''

Smokers' Paradise ''Smokers' Paradise'' is an extended play by Breaking Circus. It was released in 1987 on Homestead Records. It is the first and only Breaking Circus release to feature second guitarist Phil Harder. It was intended as a full-length album with f ...

'' in 1987. The band broke up in 1988.

Post-Circus

Phil Harder Philip Harder is a music video director and commercial director represented by Bob Industries in Santa Monica, California.Bobcentra ...

became a music video director and went on to form the trio Big Trouble House. Pete Conway recorded four full-length solo albums as

for

Touch and Go Records Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. Tou ...

. Todd Trainer released two EPs under the name

Brick Layer Cake A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

before founding

Shellac Shellac () is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and ...

with

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

and

Bob Weston Bob Weston (born 1965) is an American musician, producer, recording engineer, and record mastering engineer. Critic Jason AnkenyAnkeny, Jason. " Bob Weston: Overview from Allmusic.com declares that "Weston's name and fingerprints are all over th ...

. Björklund released a final 7" single of solo

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

versions of songs by

Naked Raygun Naked Raygun was one of the first, one of the longest running, and one of the most recognized Chicago punk bands. They are considered by many to be the most important band in the history of Chicago punk rock and credited with creating “the Chi ...

and the

UK Subs U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, among the earliest in the first wave of British punk. Formed in 1976, the mainstay of the band has been vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene. They were also one of the f ...

under the name Breaking Circus. He was briefly in the band Balloon Guy before moving on to work as a producer. In the 2010s Björklund returned to making music, forming the band High Value Target with his wife, Liz Björklund, and former

Effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

drummer Steve Economou. The group released an EP in 2012.

Legacy

''Driving the Dynamite Truck'' was later covered by the band Seam on the ''Kernel EP'', and later by Björklund's own group, High Value Target. Poet Stephanie Burt paid homage to the group in her 2013 collection, ''Belmont''. Burt's poem cites the band's college radio hit, "(Knife in the) Marathon", lists the group's entire catalog, namechecks bassist Pete Conway's pseudonym, and refers to the band's slip into obscurity by stating, "I write about you now since nobody else is likely to."

Discography

Studio releases

*'' The Very Long Fuse'' EP (

Homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

) (1985) *''

'' (Homestead) (1986) *''

'' EP (Homestead) (1987) * "Home of the Brave" 7" single - included with issue 4 of ''The Pope'' fanzine.

Compilation appearances

*''Big Hits Of Mid-America, Volume IV'' (

) (1986) - "Driving The Dynamite Truck" *''Oh! You Mean Minneapolis'' cassette (Skull Duggery) (1986) - "Antient Axes (special demo version)", "Soul of Japan (live)" *''The Wailing Ultimate-The Homestead Records Compilation'' (Homestead) (1987) - "Song Of The South" *''Minneapolis Bonus'' cassette EP (Skull Duggery) (1988) - "Song Of The South (live)"

References

{{Authority control 1984 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Minnesota American post-punk music groups Indie rock musical groups from Minnesota Homestead Records artists Musical groups from Chicago Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1988