Pele

Home: Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee's Pele create perfect instrumental vignettes as expressed by soulful and literate ex-punk rockers.

Following the demise of Alligator Gun and Loomis, Pele was formed in the summer of 1997 by guitarist Chris Rosenau, bassist Scott Schoenbeck and drummer Jon Mueller. Two weeks before recording their debut album Teaching the History of Teaching Geography, the trio brought aboard former The Promise Ring bassist Scott Beschta to play keyboards. The keyboards proved to be the dominant musical element of the album as well as its companion remix disc People Living with Animals. Animals Kill People. which included remixes from Bundy K. Brown and Mark Greenberg. Shortly thereafter, both Scott's left Pele. Schoenbeck agreeed to assume Beschta's onetime bass duties in The Promise Ring. Beschta moved to NYC to join old friends New Rising Sons.

Down to a duo and without a bassist, Rosenau and Mueller soon recruited bassist Matt Tennessen whom they'd worked with in the pre-Pele group Tussin. As a trio, the band discovered their trademark sound, re-entering the studio to record 1999's Elephant. While to this point critics had dubbed the band post-rock, they now heard the striking jazz elements found in the songs' underbelly. The guitars were now nimble. The bass was rolling. The drums were skittering with angular fills and layered beats.

Spring 2000 saw the band signing with Polyvinyl Records in time to release their fourth album The Nudes. The album received a strong push from college radio and based on their raucous, incendiary live sets, the band was quickly beginning to make a name for themselves. In addition, Rosenau and Mueller could be found throughout various Milwaukee nightclubs performing in improvisational groups. The following year, in 1999, the two had founded Crouton in 1999, a label dedicated to improvisational and experimental recordings. This experimentation would carry over into their fifth full-length, 2002's Enemies.

Enemies saw the arrival of new Pele member Jon Minor on laptop. A long-time Pele associate, Minor's addition proved to be the perfect compliment to the band's sound. Starkly different than previous Pele efforts, Enemies fully embraced the band's improvisational jazz moments and filtered them through syncopated handclaps, voices, and various blips and bleeps.

Furthering their reputation for turning in blistering live performances, 2002 also marked Pele's first tour of Japan. On a nightly basis, Japanese television crews followed the band from venue to venue, simultaneously broadcasting their performances to television sets across the country. The band won over a new horde of fans as unprecedented amounts of Japanese mail orders began flooding the Polyvinyl office. Three songs from this tour were later released with Polyvinyl's 2003 reissue of Elephant, and a DVD of the tour is currently in the works for release on Crouton.

After 7 years, 13 releases, and various national and international tours, Pele announced their winter 2004 tour will be their last. Over the years, it has been a pleasure to work with them and their contributions to the label will sorely be missed. Fortunately, their members will continue to make music. Guitarist Chris Rosenau, percussionist Jon Mueller, and laptopist Jon Minor will soon have a new full-length out under the Collections of Colonies of Bees moniker (Crouton). Bassist Matt Tennessen will continue his work with Paris, Texas who have a new full-length due in spring 2004 on New Line Cinema's new record label.

---Polyvinyl Records

Players: Chris Rosenau, Matt Tennessen, Jon Mueller, Jon Minor
Instruments: Bass, Computer, Drums, Guitar
Discography: visit Pele Online