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The unplesants started fitfully in october of 1996. Brian and nate, both having already come to the conclusion that valparaiso kinda sucks, decided to start a band to kill time. Brian, musical slut that he is, had played in a number of bands prior to the unplesants, ranging from folk to jazz to punk to ska. Nate, the more chaste and virtuous one, had kept his musical promiscuity to a minimum, playing in a couple of noisey (and lousy) hardcore bands. Initially the unplesants line up consisted of nate on bass and brian on guitar, and the sound was like a slightly more aggressive sludgeworth. After much deliberation and a marathon game of rock-paper-scissors (which brian lost 3 to 5), it was decided that brian would sing, and perhaps at a later date nate would add backup vocals.

Like all great bands (the mr t experience, screeching weasel, van halen, metallica, spinal tap), the unplesants have experienced their fair share of line-up changes. The unplesants first drummer, timmy, joined in late fall. (timmy, unfortunately, lasted only about one day before being brutally struck down by a passing car. Actually he was pushed. We couldn't bring ourselves to tell him we were kicking him out, so we tried to kill him.) The unplesants' second drummer, reuben (who is the only unplesant, past or present, to ever have been struck by lightning), would have worked out great except for the fact that he hadn't played drums for two years and couldn't keep the beat. Drummer numero tres, tony, lasted for a record two practices, but quit to play in an alternative rock band something along the lines of smashing pumpkins (yuck, ptooie!). Somewhere along this rough road of drummer after drummer nate switched to rhythm guitar and began singing more. The search now began for a bassist.

The unplesants first show was played sometime in the spring of 1997, at the Valparaiso University student union, in the great hall. The event was the Eco-Fair, something put on by a campus group of environmentally conscious people. Apparently they were SO environmentally conscious that they didn't want to waste paper on fliers or other forms of publicity, so very few people knew about the show. On top of that, the fledgling unplesants were so nervous they forgot to tell all their friends what time to come to the show! The show went well anyway, mainly due to the heroic efforts of big bad bob the drumming man. Bob drove two hours to valparaiso, arriving around 4am the night before the show, woke up early to learn the songs, and played the show. Feedback after the show was very positive, due in large part to two things: 1. The unplesants subscribe to a doctrine of "mobility-rock" which basically means that any band who doesn't dance and jump around while playing Really Fucking Sucks, and 2. The band who played immediately prior to the unplesants Really Fucking Sucked (in addition to playing bad funk and covers of alternative rockers Bush, this band stood completely still while they played, almost eerily so). In comparison to them, the unplesants high-energy and enthusiastic 1-4-5 rock'n'roll seemed brilliant.

School got out for the summer soon after this, and the various members of the unplesants retired to their respective homes in lagrange and marengo. About midway through the summer brian managed to find a bass player, the amazing Crawfy, who also plays trumpet for the ever-popular Modocs and also for Skali Baba. The unplesa-phonic sound continued to evolve, becoming less and less aggressive, and more and more poppy. Crawfy played briefly with the unplesants, and sounded good, but due to time and distance is no longer with us.

The unplesants began the 1997-1998 school year excited and hopeful, and soon found another drummer, one who didn't have to drive two hours to practice. Timmy, a former unplesants drummer and the only person with the distinction of being kicked out of the band twice, played bass for a little while but due to a lack of real interest was forced out of the band and given a healthy flogging for his trouble. Not long after that drummer #5 began to develop an attitude problem, not wanting to practice and making disparaging remarks. This became more and more frustrating as halloween approached (halloween being the date of the unplesants first REAL show, opening for animal chin and a few other great bands). Also as halloween approached the search for a bass player became more and more frantic. A week prior jason came out of the woodwork and, after some cajoling, agreed to play bass. The monday before the show the fifth drummer (who shall not be named) announced he'd quit the band and wouldn't be playing the show as it was a friend of his birthday that day. (we suspect he quit the band for a couple reasons... some of which are that the unplesants poly-phonic punk-pop sound wasn't arty, that is, emo enough for his tastes and the fact that he got blisters everytime we practiced.) Once again the heroic bobby came to the rescue, driving up from dekalb to play the show, and learning the set in an amazing 20 minutes.

So that's how we got to where we are today. Jason's enjoying playing bass for us, and once he learns the songs a little better he's gonna start to sing backups too, and if we can find ourselves a drummer who doesn't live so far away and isn't a dick then we'll be all set. At the moment, though, bob is still our rhythmic-force, and will play on our 7" to be recorded in early December, tentatively entitled "songs about girls." Further explorations of the evolution of the unplesants punk-pop machine will soon be forthcoming.