Decapitado

Decapitado Makes Up For Lost Time
By Michael Carriere
In 2003, Milwaukee-based Decapitado released their Blacked CD, a collection of ridiculously heavy (yet also surprisingly catchy) songs that instantly marked them as a band to keep a close eye on. But year after year passed, and next to nothing was heard from the band. Now, more than five years later, the group has emerged with a flurry of shows and an ambitious recording schedule. Perhaps wanting to make up for lost time, Decapitado seems intent on doing all it can to get its music heard in 2009.
The impetus for the invigorated Decapitado seems to be a conversation between vocalist/bassist Daniel Kubinski and original Decapitado guitarist Andy Skeels. After running into one another at a Couch Flambeau show during the summer of 2008, the two realized that they missed playing together. Skeels' replacement-Takis Kinis-found himself unable to commit enough of his time to the band, and Kubinski thought that bringing Skeels back into the fold just might revive the long-dormant group (Kinis has since left the group on good terms).
So far, this strategy seems to be paying off. Kubinski is incredibly excited about the songs that he, Skeels and drummer Mike Olson have been writing. Kubinski says that songs such as "Autowriter," "Thermal Electric Skin" and "Nerve Endings" are all marked by Skeels' "massive guitar sound," a sound that relies heavily upon "off-kilter time signatures that turn sharp corners and keep listeners on their toes." According to Kubinski, such new songs are "much heavier, slower and more dedicated to the rhythmic side of things" than the band's earlier material.
"There is a kind of bump and grind" aura to this latest material, Kubinski explains, yet the songs remain "very punk in attitude and feel." Greatly responsible for this aesthetic is Olson, a talented drummer who has little time for the standard 4/4 beat that often marks heavy music. To Kubinski, Olson is an "absolute killer drummer" whose eclectic approach to the group's latest material wonderfully accents the somewhat odd time signatures that Kubinski and Skeels have come up with.
Decapitado plans to release a new 7-inch EP on July 31, the first in a series of three EPs to be released throughout the final months of 2009. At the same time, the band has begun to play across the Midwest, with scheduled shows in Milwaukee, Madison, Lansing, Mich., St. Paul, Minn., and Chicago. Hoping to build upon this momentum, Decapitado will then release a four- or five-song CD in January 2010, followed by an all-new LP/CD in the late spring of 2010.
Such activity bodes well for the future of the band, as does Kubinski's optimism regarding Decapitado's current lineup. "I really am enjoying our band again," he says.
Here's hoping that the band continues to enjoy playing together, as it would be the city's loss if we had to wait another five years to hear from this talented band again.
Decapitado plays the Cascio Groove Garage at Summerfest on Sunday, July 5, at 7:30 p. - The Shepherd Express

Spotlight: Milwaukee Music
Local Bands Get Their Due at Cascio Groove Garage
By Evan Rytlewski

Although Summerfest was conceived largely as a showcase for local bands, over the decades slots for opening bands became elusive as the festival began to emphasize national headliners, explains Michael Houser, a former Summerfest board member and the current chief executive officer of Cascio Interstate Music.
“There had always been some stages that were dedicating more time to local music, but much of the focus was being placed on national acts, especially after 4 or 5 o’clock,” Houser says. “Local bands were being relegated to afternoon performances. We wanted to find a way to get local bands on later, when the crowds are bigger.”

So in 2007, Cascio created its own Summerfest stage dedicated entirely to area music, the Cascio Interstate Music Groove Garage, a welcome change for musicians tired of groveling or competing in battle of the band contests if they wanted a shot at playing the city’s signature music festival.

The Groove Garage grew last year with newfound support from the Shepherd Express and 91.7 WMSE, flaunting a fuller lineup that included not just talented upstarts, but also some of the city’s most established, buzzed-about bands, the same ones that play venues like the Cactus Club, Stonefly Brewery and Linneman’s Riverwest Inn.
The stage will return this year to a new, more prominent location between the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse and the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard, and with an even richer lineup, bringing with it many of the most popular headliners from last year along with plenty of new ones. The lineup is heavy on many of the styles Milwaukee does best—including cerebral indie-rock, lush Americana, mercurial punk and unpretentious rock ’n’ roll—providing an 11-day primer on the local music scene.


Sunday, July 5
The Milwaukee metal trio Decapitado draws from the ambiance of industrial and the terseness of hardcore punk, but like every band featuring Die Kreuzen’s Dan Kubinski, their barbed sound disguises some surprisingly sticky melodies, many of them hidden in the singer’s piercing, iconoclastic wail. Decapitado plays at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, after a battalion of area hard-rock bands like alt-metal act Way to Fall, at 6:30 p.m. The night ends with an 8:30 set from Crumpler, a power-pop trio with shades of Weezer and Rush, and a closing 9:30 performance from The Color Truth, whose skyscraping alt-rock recalls another Milwaukee band with strong Summerfest ties, The Gufs.
For complete Summerfest coverage, including previews and reviews, visit ExpressMilwaukee.com. - The Shepherd Express

Summerfest finds '09: Decapitado
The Milwaukee metal band rages like early Metallica

By Decider Staff June 19, 2009
o help coax some serendipity into your Summerfest experience, Decider goes looking this week for side-stage shows that you might not have circled on your calendar yet, but should. We wrap up today with some Milwaukee-based punk-metal.
Decapitado (7:30 p.m. July 5 Cascio Interstate Groove Garage)
Good for fans of: In-your-face metal with local ties.
Background: Landing somewhere between Swans and early Metallica, Milwaukee’s Decapitado churns out particularly grinding industrial metal, accentuated by singer-bassist Dan Kubinski's throat-shredding yet oddly melodic yowl and Andy Skeels’ jaw-droppingly complex guitar leads. Bands don’t always get good results from mixing industrial music’s weird electronics with the visceral attack of metal, but Decapitado’s songs so far have managed to do so, creating an effect that’s both heavy and eerie. After a two-year hiatus, Decapitado started playing live shows again in early 2009. The group is now hard at work on a new 7-inch due out this summer and a full-length record it hopes to release early next year.
Sneak preview: Listen to songs by Decapitado at the band's MySpace page. - The Onion/Decider

Dan Kubinski: Punker than you
The Decapitado singer-bassist moves on from Die Kreuzen
Dan Kubinski (far left) is a former member of legendary Milwaukee punk band Die Kreuzen.
By Joel Shanahan July 5, 2009
o call singer-bassist Dan Kubinski of Milwaukee’s Decapitado a scene veteran doesn’t do justice to his stature in local punk history. Since co-founding the legendary Die Kreuzen nearly 30 years ago, Kubinski has always managed to stay a few steps ahead of his peers, and Decapitado finds him applying the energy and force of hardcore and industrial music to old-school metal. In advance of Decapitado’s surprising appearance today at Summerfest, Kubinski sat down with Decider to discuss the Milwaukee punk scene and just how in the hell his band got booked at Summerfest.
Decider: Do you still keep up with the Milwaukee punk scene?
Dan Kubinski: I am somewhat out of touch with the punk scene, although I’m familiar with and have played with bands like New Society Of Anarchists and 40 Oz. Fist. There are some other bands—I don’t know if you would call them punk—but I really dig Red Knife Lottery and Cougar Den. Also, there’s a band that is half from Milwaukee and half from Madison called Zebras who are really cool. They’re totally insane and unclassifiable.
D: How has the scene changed since the Die Kreuzen days?
DK: Well, there really wasn’t a hardcore-punk scene here when Die Kreuzen started. We had a band and we wanted to play shows. There were only a few touring bands—like Black Flag, D.O.A., and T.S.O.L.—that came through every so often. So, since we were pretty much the only hardcore band around, we would play with them at this place called The Starship. When The Starship closed up, we really had no place to play. It was up to us to find VFW halls and church basements—whoever would let us rent a hall and throw a show. It seems similar to that extent; I know there are a few houses in Riverwest that do shows. It’s probably still underground, and you have to be “in the know” like we did back then. But I really don’t know.
D: Decapitado has a much sludgier, stoner-metal sound than the work you did early on with Die Kreuzen. At what point did you ditch hardcore and head in this direction?
DK: I suppose you could say that DK became quite bored with hardcore early on. I mean, we liked the original punk idea from ’76 to ’77, which was be yourself, throw the fuckin’ rules to the wind, and do what you want to do. We toured relentlessly in the early days, and night after night we played with three or four bands that all sounded exactly the same. It would be, “Here’s a song called ‘Fuck You’” or “This next one’s called 'Reagan’s An Asshole.'” It was the same thing over and over again, and while we thought it was cool that the punk scene was happening and that the kids were out enjoying themselves, it was beginning to all sound the same. It was becoming as stagnant as anything else in the pop world. So we wanted to expand and follow what we believed to be punk rock, which was be yourself and don’t give a fuck about what anybody thinks. And that’s the theory that brought about October File, Century Days, and our final album, Cement. We kept getting more psychedelic, yet harsh. We always did everything we could to take another step forward.
D: Is Decapitado your first flirtation with metal?
DK: Decapitado has never really considered itself a metal band, but I guess where we all met musically was Slayer. I mean, we don’t sound anything like Slayer, and it was never really about starting a metal band. We were just bored and started throwing some ideas together. I really dig what we’re doing.
D: It’s been about five years since the release of Decapitado’s Blacked. What has been the hold-up on the next album?
DK: Well, we went through several lineup changes. Our original bassist hurt his back and ended up quitting, so I ended up picking up the bass. Our old drummer quit shortly after the release of Blacked. Our original and current guitarist Andy [Skeels] has quit and returned since the album came out. While Andy was gone, guitarist Takis Kinis and drummer Mike Olson joined us. Takis quit, Andy rejoined, and we are finally in full swing again with the current killer lineup. We have a 7-inch coming out at the end of July and a couple more that will be released this fall.
D: How did you get booked at Summerfest?
DK: The Casio Interstate Groove Garage stage added Decapitado as a friend on MySpace, so I checked out the page. I found a blog that said, “Want to play at Summerfest?” Of course, I responded. Less than 24 hours later, I got an e-mail telling us that we were on. So to anyone that says MySpace is a complete waste of time, I don’t know about that. I do about 95 percent or even more of my bands booking and communication through it. - Decider Online

Decapitado
CD: Blacked
by Andrew Frey
March 2004

Most bands worry about making music to appease and please the masses. Not so with Decapitado. This Milwaukee trio is focusing on originality in an effort to maintain their sanity and produce high quality art. These guys are not newcomers to the music scene by any stretch. Each is currently in at least one other band outside Decapitado and each has been in several others before this as well. Bands like Fuck Face, Custom Grand, Boy Dirt Car, and Die Kruezen to mention a few.

Dan Kubinski (vocals/bass), Andy Keels (guitar) and Charles A. Mayer (drums) are Decapitado. Starting at the top, Andy fills us in about the band name. “The word decapitado appears in a newspaper clipping in the movie “Curdled.” I thought it was such a cool word. My wife said it would be a great band name. I was in three bands at that time, and this one fit the name best. The name symbolizes the world today; a lurching, twitching body, lumbering forward, unable to hear or think or see. It stands for the way too many of us live our lives.”

“Everything from art to relationships seems to be disposable these days in our society, and that really kills me,” says Dan. “Nobody stands behind what they say anymore, nobody wants to do anything the hard and correct way, only what’s easy and takes up the least amount of time. That absolutely drives me crazy.”

The new album is done the correct way. Titled “Blacked,” it is bleak, heavy and intense yet also hard to categorize. Just how does the band describe its’ music to someone who has never heard it? “That’s a tough question, especially for a band that somewhat prides itself on being different and purposely straying from the path,” says Dan. “I would have to say that we sound somewhat like how you feel after having really great intense sex, mixed with smashing your finger with a hammer,”

“I like angry sounding music,” adds Charles. “I like the way drum beats and patterns can have an effect on ones feelings, and I like to take my aggression out on my drums and express it through the music.

Where does inspiration come from? “It comes from wanting to shout down all the fucked-up shit that happens,” says Andy. “Too many good people are silent, and the world is so loud and big, only the loud and the heavy can be heard. Don’t you want to tell that jet plane to shut-up? We all want a voice that will shake the world. We all want to be heard.”

Speaking of being heard, what other events are slated for the band? “I’ve been communicating with a video company on the east coast,” Dan says. “We might get into some serious video things in the coming weeks and months. We are busy writing material for the follow up to “Blacked” which is going well. We are thinking of releasing a 7 in. record next fall as a teaser to the next full length.”

How about some sage words of wisdom to those bands just starting out?:

Andy, “You have to stick with it, no matter what you’re up against: car crashes, mental illness, soured friendships, whatever. You have to have loyalty to your band mates. Band is a noun and a verb - ‘to join together for a common purpose.’ If you are best friends with the people in your band, people can hear that in the music.”

Charles: “Support local bands and local music. Buy a CD once in a while that you haven’t ever heard of. Be creative, and open minded!”

Andy: “Don’t let them get you down. Survival is the best revenge. Your enemies would love to see you give up. Fuck ‘em. Take strength from the world and use it save your friends. Have hope in a future we will never see. Rock and roll is new life, rock and roll is the future, rock and roll is the way of the world. Long live Rock.”

Catch Decapitado at Bomblastica 2004 March 19th at the Annex in Madison and March 20th at Vnuk’s Lounge in Cudahy (by Mitchell field in Milwaukee). Both shows are no cover and free beer till its gone. - Maximum Ink

Landing somewhere between Swans and early Metallica, Milwaukee's Decapitado churns out particularly grinding industrial metal, accentuated by singer-bassist Dan Kubinski's (formerly of the late, nasty greats Die Kreuzen) throat-shredding yet oddly melodic yowl and Andy Skeels' jaw-droppingly complex guitar leads. Bands don't always get good results from mixing industrial music's weird electronics with the visceral attack of metal, but Decapitado's songs so far have managed to do so, creating an effect that's both heavy and eerie. After a two-year hiatus, Decapitado started playing live shows again in early 2009. The group is now hard at work on a new 7-inch due out this summer and a full-length record it hopes to release early next year. - The Onion

Decapitado members describe themselves as "chaos controlled with razor sharp precision," and that is quite accurate. The punk bands instrumentation is telling as well, with singer and bassist Daniel Kubinski (once the frontman of the legendary Die Kreuzen) playing 5 string bass guitar and guitarist Andy Skeels playing 7 string guitar. In other words they like to play it low and dirty.
Decapitados new 7" vinyl release (red vinyl to be specific, and thats cool in and of itself) is a two song affair with "Autowriter" on one side and "Muzzle" on the other. The songs are grinding and apocalyptic but as the band claims, there is in some way a meticulous nature to them as well. That may, indeed, be the primary draw of the music: within the growls and guttural mayhem of overdriven amplifiers and hard pounded drums is a certain correctness, an emotional ambush, that is altogether human.
By Jeff Muendel - Maximum Ink

Mike Breen~Journalist @ Citybeat, Cincinnati Ohio
"wild eyed creativity, blending hardcore, noise, industrial, post punk and metal into a wholly distinct melange"

Craig Tiede~Booking @ The Cabaret Metro, Chicago Il.
"a blend of metal and raw industrial noise, Type O Negative meets Jesus Lizard"

Mark Supppanz~ CD Reviews @The Big Take-Over
"Extremely pulverizing, weighty and lurching industrial onslaught"

Jimmy Alvarado~ Cd Review @ Razor Cake #20, Los Angeles CA.
"dark and malevolent, steeped in quality"

Grahm Fons~Music Crittic @ The Shepherd Express Milwaukee WI.
"haunting, one intense experience"

Mike Lupica~DJ/Special Events Director @ WFMU New York City Area
"a totally killer band"

Dave McGrurgan~Freelance Journalist, The Phillyburbs.com
"a very good band, nearly untouchable in terms of intensity"

The Onion News Paper~
"a bold bottom heavy crunch"







- Press Quotes From Everywhere....

Posted on July 27, 2009 by wmseradio
We teamed up with Sonicbids.com to fill two slots for Radio Summer Camp, and it turns out the two selections come from right here in Wisconsin, one being from our fair city of Milwaukee.
Saturday, August 22nd

Club Garibaldi Rockhaus Stage:
To fill the opening slot for the Club Garibaldi show featuring Call Me Lightning and Post Honeymoon, we tapped Milwaukee’s Decapitado.
With members from legendary 80’s Touch & Go band from Milwaukee, Die Kreuzen, Decapitado bring the noise and should be “appreciated by punks, rivet heads, goths, industrialists and noise enthusiasts.”
- www.wmse.org

Minnesota's Battlefields wander a gloomy, vague realm of metal that offers much to get lost in, from low-end mud-puddles to lofty ambience. Though their songwriting often fits all too perfectly into the "post-metal" category, Battlefields' debut album, 2009's Thresholds Of Imbalance, is at least a good wallow, showing enough restraint to explore the creepy territory between sludge and star-blindness. Milwaukee industrial-metal grinder Decapitado boasts Dan Kubinski of hometown hardcore legends Die Kreuzen on bass and unmistakably driving, eerie vocals. The band hasn't put out a full-length since 2004's Blacked, but it's been productive lately, preparing tracks for a new record and putting out a 7-inch featuring the slippery guitar leads and rhythmic ferocity of the song "Autowriter." - The Onion A.V. Club Madison