Crumbächer was an American

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

new wave,

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

and

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...

band in the 1980s, headed by Stephen Crumbächer.

History

After five years of friendship, Stephen Crumbächer, Dawn Wisner and Jim Wisner played their first performance as Crumbächer at a New Year's Eve show in 1983. The following summer, the band entered the studio for the first time to begin recording a six-song EP for

Calvary Chapel Calvary Chapel is an international association of charismatic evangelical churches, with origins in Pentecostalism. It maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs. Beg ...

's MRC label with

Ojo Taylor Joey "Ojo" Taylor is an American bassist, vocalist and keyboardist, best known for his work with the Christian rock band Undercover. He produced and was a studio musician for Nobody Special, the stage name for his brother, Pat "Nobody" Taylor. ...

Undercover A cover in foreign, military or police human intelligence or counterintelligence is the ostensible identity and role or position in an infiltrated organization assumed by a covert agent during a covert operation. Official cover In espionage, a ...

producing and

Derri Daugherty Derri Daugherty (born Derald Daugherty; October 13, 1958) is an American record producer, songwriter, guitarist and singer, best known as the lead singer and guitarist for band the Choir. Daugherty is also one of the founding members of the R ...

of The Choir engineering. Once the label heard the early results, they requested that the band record a few additional songs so that it could be released as a full-length album, instead of an EP. The album, ''

Incandescent Thermal radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by the thermal motion of particles in matter. All matter with a temperature greater than absolute zero emits thermal radiation. The emission of energy arises from a combination of electro ...

'', was released in April 1985 on Broken Records, which was classified as a new wave material. The band signed with the newly formed

Frontline Records Frontline Records was a Christian rock record label, founded in 1986 by James Kempner in Santa Ana, California. The label focused primarily on modern rock, rap, dance-pop and hip-hop. The label closed in the early 1990s, and then resurfaced in ...

and began work on their second album, the self-produced '' Escape from the Fallen Planet'' which was released in 1986. The following year, after New Wave had died down, the band made the transition to

where they returned with ''Thunder Beach'', produced by Bill Baumgart, and in 1988, the band recorded their final album together entitled, '' Tame the Volcano''. In the years that followed, Stephen Crumbächer teamed up with Christopher Duke for the '' Worlds Away'' project, credited to Crumbächer-Duke. Stephen himself recorded one solo album in 1991, '' Take It In''. The band reunited in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...

on August 19, 2005 as part of the Broken Records Reunion Concert, with The Choir and other artists. It has been announced on the official website that a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

of this performance will be released soon. A Kickstarter campaign was launched on October 4, 2016 to get funding to release the DVD. Dawn Wisner and Christopher Duke have since formed and are currently still making music with Almost Ugly.

Discography

Source: * ''Incandescent'', 1985. * ''Escape From the Fallen Planet'', 1986. * ''Thunder Beach'', 1987. * ''Tame the Volcano'', 1988. * ''Worlds Away'', as Crumbächer-Duke, 1990 * ''Take It In'', 1991. Solo album by Stephen Crumbächer * ''Reinvention'', 1999. An

MP3.com MP3.com was a website operated by Paramount Global publishing tabloid-style news items about digital music and artists, songs, services, and technologies. It is better known for its original incarnation as a legal, free music-sharing service, ...

album (prior to the 2003 closing of the site). ;Reissues *''Thunder Beach + Tame the Volcano'' (Music Value Pack) (1999) This KMG Records contains two albums on one CD. It is missing "Great Little Dancer" and "Terra Firma" from ''Thunder Beach'', and "Once More (for the Band)" from ''Tame the Volcano''. * ''Escape From the Fallen Planet'', (2011) 25th Anniversary Edition. Includes Bonus Track “Alma Mater (a capella)", remastered by Chris Duke and released by Intense Millennium Records * ''Incandescent'', (2013) Remastered Edition. Includes Bonus Track “It Don't Matter (What's Shakin' mix)released by

on digital format thru amazon, iTunes and Frontline records store ;Compilations and other projects * ''What's Shakin, 1984. Various artists compilation featuring Stephen Crumbächer doing his original version of "It Don't Matter" (written by Stephen Crumbächer) :Stephen Crumbacher: keyboards, synthesizers, lead and backing vocals. :Gym: guitar :Recorded and mixed at Whitefield Studios by Derald Daugherty :Produced by Joey "Ojo" Taylor. * ''Time After Time'', 1992. "Best-of" compilation.

References

External links

Almost Ugly official MySpace page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crumbacher American new wave musical groups Christian rock groups from California Musical groups established in the 1980s