HISTORY:

Everyone met in Boston. Craig and Steve were roommates, they met Tommy through mutual friends. I then met Craig at what, unbeknownst to me, was Tommy's 21st birthday party. Everyone then floundered around for a while and for one lame reason or another, Craig, Steve and I all ended up back in Minneapolis. Ran into Craig at a party and asked him about his band. He was playing shows, but they just lost their bassist. He was trying to convince Tommy to move from Connecticut (like it should be that hard) and come and play bass. I buy a bass for lack of better things to do and start playing with Craig and Dave, the drummer at the time, and Steve marches and noodles along on guitar. Tommy moves to Minneapolis to go to grad school and Dave bails. Couple of singles and an east coast tour later, I decide to play drums instead, because I can't play bass worth shit. Tommy signs up on bass, and Skene ships us off to Chicago in 30 below weather to make a record with Casey Rice at Idful in the lavish Wicker Park area. Two more tours and a million shows later, Skene finally releases the record. By this point we have a whole bunch of new songs written and we are trying to figure out what the hell to do with 'em. so we call up the man Mike Wisti and say, "what the hell, let's just slowly start tracking stuff," but then the next day Kim at No Alternative calls up and says "Hey, let's do a record, but we got to do it in like two weeks" and we are like "O.K. cool." so we force Mike's head to the grindstone, and we make this record and call it Half Dead and Dynamite ,and now it's out on No Alternative Records and we couldn't be happier.

PERSONALITY TRAITS:

Craig has control of other people's money and likes to chew. Tommy is gay and really optimistic. I'm old and cranky and extremely neurotic. And steve, well steve is a crap shoot, he does a hair/love advice column for hit it or quit it, and just hangs out being steve. We dig dance parties and old bruce springsteen. We bring our own disco mix tapes on the road for spontaneous disco action. Me and tommy try and imitate girls against boys and brainiac. I don't know who the fuck steve is imitating, probably one of his many alter egos, and craig is a sort of combo of easy-e, the boss and bobby knight. Although a friend of mine who heard us said she imagines craig looking like he was into the allmann brothers. Though nothing could be further from the truth. -- Dan Monick, drummer

A shorter, slightly updated version found online everywhere:

Minneapolis art-punks Lifter Puller first took shape on the campus of Boston College when singer/guitarist Craig Finn began teaching roommate Steve Barone to play guitar. After graduating the duo relocated to the Twin Cities, recruiting bassist Tommy Roach and drummer Dan Monick to form Lifter Puller in 1994; the group`s debut LP, Half Dead and Dynamite, followed on the No Alternative label four years later. After Roach found the pressures of juggling music and grad school too intense, he opted out of Lifter Puller, and on Halloween 1998 new bassist Tad Kubler made his live debut; an EP, The Entertainment and Arts, followed on the group`s own Threatening Letters label a few months later. Their second LP, Fiestas and Fiascos, appeared in early 2000. The group later disbanded in the summer of 2000.

So where's everyone now?

Vocalist/guitarist Craig Finn is currently in NYC working for Digital Club Network as Artist Relations Coordinator. He's also one half of Mr. Projectile. Plus, he's currently involved with an as-yet untitled project [note: may become a band, but is just a project for now] in NYC that he's described as "more rock." The project also includes Matt Henderson (formerly of the Agnostic Front.)

Guitarist Steve Barone is still in Minneapolis, slugging it out in clubland with The Hawaii Show. Basically, The Hawaii show is Steve "performing" his keyboard-based songs to a pre-recorded backing track (including vocals) while a stunned audience watches. He's recently opened for such high-profile acts as Nickelback and Flipp.

Drummer Dan Monick recently moved to Los Angeles. He's still a world-class photographer. You can see some of his work at his web site.

Bassist Tad Kubler also moved to Los Angeles. His current endeavors include "dinner theatre and boxed wine."