88 Fingers Louie

Denis Buckley: Song Dan Wleklinski: Guitar Joe Principe: Bass John Caroll: Beater
Chicago, a city with a reputation as the mainstay of organized crime. It was by taking this factor into account that they took the name 88 FingersLouie , the name of a pianist from the field. It would appear, however, that it is the title of an episode of the Flintstones that originated their name. In short, it was on April 09, 1993 that the band was born, having for line-up Denis Buckley (Chant), Dan Wleklinski (Guitare), Joe Principe (Basse) and Dom Vallone (Battery) and released their first demo at the same time. This one was very interested in Fat Mike, who, amused by the fun side and a pop-punk of the combo, offered them a place in the Fat Wreck family. In 1994, the band released its first EPs, Go Away and Wanted, and Totin' 40's And Fucking Shit Up on the Rocco label.
1995, Glenn Porter arrives at the drums to compensate for Dom's departure. We will hear it for the first time on the band's first album, released the same year in September, Behind Bars for the label Hopeless Records , an opus alternating both Punk-Rock, and Hardcore Mélodic, but the whole remaining pretty fast, accompanied by a rather powerful song and still deserves some attention. The group finally found its way. In April 1996, a split named Chicago Vs Armsterdam followed where, as the title explains, groups from the two continents, and more specifically, from the two cities in question, were found. A steadily increasing reputation allows 88 Fingers Louie to fly on their first European and American tour. It was during this tour that stress, agitation, and a beginning of tension between the members forced the group to officially announce its separation. Indeed, several dates of the American tour (in which Good Riddance participated) were cancelled for the penalty. Before the band completely disappeared from the memoirs, Fat Wreck released the EP The Teacher Gets It in January 1997, and the following month, the album Dom Years , a compilation of the band's songs, during the period when Dom Vallone was still drummer. This initiative inspired Hopeless Records, which soon came out, too, a compilation of Faces-B, 88 Fingers Up Your Ass bringing together a fairly large amount of old songs (in addition to live) to the very average sound quality, and explaining well the fact that 88 Fingers Louie were masters of Hardcore Mélo and showing quite impressive dynamism, and taking themselves very little seriously.
The four Chicago brothers re-formed the space for an instant course at the end of that same year, before officially announcing their great return in February 1998. For this, line-up almost unchanged except for the arrival of a new drummer, John Caroll. Thus, in September 1998, Hopeless Records released the band's ultimate opus, Back To The Street , probably the most worked and diversified galette as well as their popular style between Pop-Punk, Punk Rock and Hardcore. The last production will be a split with Kid Dynamite before the band to Denis says goodbye to the stage one last time under the name of 88 Fingers Louie . That same year Dan Wleklinski and Joe Principe created the no less well-known Rise Against group and thus flew to other skies.