Wreck was an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band formed in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

in 1988, and later based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. After releasing three albums the band split up in the mid-1990s, with singer/guitarist Dean Schlabowske going on to found

The Waco Brothers The Waco Brothers are an American alternative country, or country-punk rock, band based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. History The Waco Brothers was formed by Jon Langford of the Mekons. The group grew out of Langford's wish to play more c ...

History

The band was formed in Milwaukee in 1988,Proefrock, Stacia
Wreck Biography
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, retrieved 2011-07-17 and comprised Dean Schlabowske (later of

) on

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, Bart Flores on

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, and Keith Brammer (from

Die Kreuzen Die Kreuzen (/ˈdiːˈkɹɔɪtsn̩/) is an American rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin formed in 1981. The name, which was taken from a German Bible, is grammatically incorrect German for "the crosses."Larkin, Colin (1995) "Die Kreuzen", in ''Th ...

and

Boy Dirt Car A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is "a ...

) on

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

. The band's first release was a self-titled EP on the Play It Again Sam label in 1989, in association with

Wax Trax! Wax Trax! Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago. It began as a record shop in Denver, Colorado, opened by life partners Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher, who sold the store in 1978 and moved to Chicago. In November of that ...

, 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 ...

producing.Christensen, Thor (1990)
Soundings
, ''

The Milwaukee Journal The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...

'', January 23, 1990, p. 2D, retrieved 2011-07-17 The ''

Milwaukee Journal The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...

s Thor Christensen described the EP: "Guitars sound like drums, drums sound like machine guns, and vocalist Schlabowske sounds like he's just swallowed napalm". Debut album ''Soul Train'' followed in 1990, also produced by Albini, and described by

as "abstract, difficult songs...the work of a band that had no desire to compromise its creative vision".Henderson, Alex
''Soul Train'' Review
,

, retrieved 2011-07-17 The band released another six songs on the ''House of Boris'' 12” EP in 1991, by which time Kurt Moore (The Won't, Primasonic) had joined on bass guitar.Locey, Bill (1991) "MUSIC WRECK Screeching Decibels The three-piece guitar band out of Chicago has hit the road for a tour of the West Coast. It will be pulling in to Isla Vista]", ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', October 17, 1991, p. 12 The band recorded a second album for Wax Trax! (''Your Monkey's on Fire''), but it remained unreleased apart from advance cassette copies. The band re-recorded it as ''El Mundo De Los Niños'', with production from

Jon Langford Jonathan Denis Langford (born 11 October 1957) is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Langford is a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, the post-punk group The Three Johns, and the alternative country ...

The Mekons The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands. The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of ...

, whom Schlabowske then joined in

.Robbins, Ira
Waco Brothers/Wreck
, ''

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'', retrieved 2011-07-17 Schlabowske later formed Dollar Store.Guarino, Mark (2007) "On the money Dollar Store open for business", ''

Daily Herald (Arlington Heights) The ''Daily Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The newspaper is distributed in the northern, northwestern and western suburbs of Chicago. It is the namesake of the Daily Herald Media Group, a ...

'', August 10, 2007

Discography

Albums

* ''Soul Train'' LP (1990), PIAS * ''El Mundo De Los Niños'' CD (1994), C/Z

EPs

* ''Wreck'' 4-song 12" EP (1989), PIASTRA * ''House of Boris'' (1991),

Singles

* "Mikey" 7"

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

b/w "Funk 49" (1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wreck Indie rock musical groups from Wisconsin Wax Trax! Records artists