Biography
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Years Active
2000 – present (24 years)
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Founded In
Minnesota, United States
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Members
- Bill Caperton
- Knol Tate (2000 – present)
"Askeleton is a band born in the Twin Cities, MN. Askeleton has former and current members of obscure bands such as Kill Sadie, Hidden Chord, Aneuretical, The Swiss Army and Ela. The present line-up of Askeleton is: Knol Tate (vocals, guitar and percussion), Noah Paster (bass guitar, keyboards), William Caperton (guitar, keys, percussion), Courtney DeaKyne (keys, backing vocals) and Steve Yasgar (drum kit, laptop and percussion). Everyone plays a bit of everything. Askeleton plays music, most people hate music.
In 2000 Askeleton was founded during the breakup of Knol's former bands Kill Sadie and The Hidden Chord. Using a free version of a digital audio program he wrote songs based on samples, simply arranged keyboard and guitar parts and left over Hidden Chord lyrics. During 2000 and 2001 Knol made two records released in 2002 as the “Sad Album” full length CD (Minneapolis label Blood of the Young Records) and a CD/EP called “Modern Fairy Tales” (New York’s Alone Records). A modest amount of favorable press and reviews followed both releases.
In order to promote these releases Knol assembled a band to play the songs live. Many different versions of the live band where formed and finally in 2003 the line up that is now known as Askeleton was in place, making it no longer a solo project. Askeleton is known to bring out the tension, experimentation and power of Wire, Eno era Talking Heads poppyness, quirk and grooves as well as the obscurity and anarchic art of early bay area punks like Dead Kennedys and Crime.
Getting right out on the road and booking tours with bands such as Seattle's Minus The Bear (Suicide Squeeze/ARRC), The Bay Area's The New Trust and Velvet Teen (Slow Dance records), Chicago's Che Arthur (of File 13's Atombombpocketknife) and many local shows with local and national bands like of Radio 4, Dosh, Mark Mallman, Kid Dakota, 12 Rods, One Am Radio, Har-Mar Super Star, Motion City Soundtrack, Ted Leo, The Soviettes, Detachment Kit, and countless others.
In 2004 Askeleton released the second full length album called Angry Album -or- Psychic Songs on Atlanta's Goodnight records.
Askeleton did that. We did lots of things. Now we are writing a new record. We call it Happy Album because "it must be important for Askeleton to keep its emotional levels palatable to first-graders." (Richard T. Williams - Pop Matters) I say it fits the motif. It should be out sometime in 2005.
After some success, positive reviews and winning Minneapolis weekly’s Cities Pages “Song Writer Of The Year” for 2004s Angry Album, bandleader and multi- instrumentalist Knol Tate went straight into his own recording studio to work on the follow up. Ever changing sounds and aesthetic Tate moved away from the sample and lo-fi based digi-pop sounds of Sad Album and the digital rock meets minimalism of Angry Album. The (Happy) Album utilizes the Twin Cities community of musicians and the Askeleton live band. No longer a one-man band. Askeleton leaps out of the world of the computer composers.
Keeping with the some of the aesthetics fans of Askeleton have come to know, the music and lyrics are simple yet to the point. With songs about simple subjects like cities, cars, rock n’ roll and the idea of individuals and groups becoming simply “some people” Tate draws complex and sometimes abstract pictures with simple ideas and words. (Happy) Album is true to its name. The songs are brighter and more positive than past efforts and yet have the parenthesis around the songs (like the title) to clarify some of the meaning behind the underlined sarcasm of the happiness of the record. In a sense (Happy) Album is the perfect (happy) ending to the trilogy.
The music Askeleton makes is deconstructionalist or simple. Some people call it pop music, some people call it punk, some people call it rock, some people call it new wave. Most people hate music. Askeleton is a band."
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