Today, Milwaukee’s Die Kreuzen is a revered as a band who navigated the terrain of hardcore punk to define their own sound. But back in 1981 they were just another scruffy group who handed out cassette tapes to book shows and generate interest.
As a medium, cassettes were considered a virtually disposable. Unlike vinyl LPs, they were inexpensive. They were portable—you could play them on a boombox or in a car. But the more times you moved to a new place, the less likely it became they made the trip. Which might very well have been the story with the Die Kreuzen cassette demos.
Enter the good folks at mkepunk.com, who after a fair bit of detective work managed to track down master cassettes that were used to dub additional copies back in the day. (Though, no one said “back in the day” then.)
The Die Kreuzen collection, five demos from 1981 and nine demos from 1982, all clock in at less than two minutes, save for the epic “All White” at 3:25. While still molting, at this stage the rhythm section of drummer Erik Tunison and bassist Keith Brammer are already developing their own language. Guitarist Brian Egeness’ guitar tone is moving beyond the genre’s buzzsaw sound and vocalist Dan Kubinski’s eternal yowl is clearly on the horizon.
Tunison recalls Bill Stace recording both sessions. “One was done in the basement of the Starship and the other in a cottage house on the East Side,” he said. “I certainly remember the session at the Starship. They were done with a rag tag collection of microphones and all recorded on a big old Teac Simul-Sync four-track machine.”
Stace has the original Die Kreuzen tape, as well as tapes from many of the bands he recorded over the years at his Walls Have Ears studio. “I am working on trying to archive as much as I can. Old technology is a pain!” he said.
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Justin Perkins at Mystery Mastering gave the music a new life. The cover art, a live shot of the band in full flight, is an homage to iconic Blue Note jazz records. Songpreserve, a site to download or stream out-of-print punk, indie and hardcore is where you can find the compilation.
Stream now, a donation is made to Wisconsin Conservancy of Music with every play.
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To read more articles by Blaine Schultz, click here.
