Ten Boy Summer - Biography (1993-1994)

When people talk about emo music it's bands like this that they should be bringing up.  Screaming and crying.  Lots of screaming, but not without giving space to melodic and slower sections.  Ten Boy Summer formed in the spring of 1993 from the ashes of Leaving.  Lonewolf, the singer of Leaving, left the band and was replaced by Shimme who's band Business As Usual had recently come to an end.

The band name came from a book that Davey found at a second-hand store he worked at with Shimme.  Coincidentally the shop was owned by a certain Mrs. Garfield who would sometimes tell the boys about her grandson Henry who "also played music".  What music was that?  Oh, just Black Flag.  That's right - Shimme and Davey worked for Henry Rollins' grandmother...

The original book

The bassist, Anthony, moved to Minnesota not long afterwards and was replaced by Pete from Buried.  Pete also played bass, and he had a van, so that worked out pretty nicely.  The band lived together at the famous Milwaukee punk house at 2143 South Mound Street.  The band would rehearse and record on a 4-track Tascam portastudio that Pete rented in the basement of the Mound House along with contemporaries such as 309 Chorus/or was it Animal Farm?.  TBS would play a small tour and number of shows in the midwest before going further west in the winter of 1993-'94.  The band would play their final show in January of 1994 in Chicago, IL.  One memorable show, recalled by Pete, was in someone's living room:

Pete: the guy who lived in the house had a pet ferret, and at one point it somehow ran up Shimme's pant(sic) leg, like on the inside!  I think he had to pull his pants down to get it out.

During the band's short, but loud existence they recorded a handful of songs in that basement which they would send out to book shows and shared between friends of the band.  Only one song would ever see wax; released posthumously on Gregg Bateman's Food Not Bombs benefit compilation alongside the likes of Current, Franklin, Indian Summer, and other good company.  The band's page in the booklet reads more like an epitaph:

ten boy summer is upset with the seasonal transitions and vulgar bends in our spines.

Shimme went on a road trip after their final show in Chicago and when he came back the moment had passed.  Ten Boy Summer was over.  Davey went on to join Cap'n Jazz and eventually, after Ceilishine ended, he formed a new band you might have heard of with Scott and Dan along with Jason from Noneleftstanding.  The rest is history.

 

Listen to the band's 4-track demo here.

There were more rehearsal recordings made, and other songs written.  Those tapes may or may not be digitized in the future.