Dissent

Dissent formed in the fall of 1985. The original idea was that of Bob, Todd, and a guy named Preston. Bob and Todd drew straws and Bob went with Guitar and Todd went with drums. Preston was going to sing, since he liked to sing in the shower. This line up did nothing more than dream and soon April came in on bass. Soon after that Troy came in to sing and we taught ourselves how to "play" by learning punk rock covers. Bad Religion, TSOL, the Ramones, Red Kross, Circle Jerks, etc. We played our first show in Jan. of 1986. The Amy Metzger Benefit, at the Knights of Columbus hall in Rapid City, South Dakota. The show itself was a major turning point for the entire Rapid City scene.
In the summer of '87, Dissent went to Denver and recorded several tracks. The lineup by now was Bob, Todd, Tanja, and Skip. We did something like 20 songs or so. The first two releases; Boy Eats Own Head, and the Einstein album, are actually from the same sessions, although they were released separately. This was mostly due to getting something out quickly and affordable-like. The photo on Boy Eats Own Head was actually of an older line up: Bob, Todd, Lester and Troy. Troy and Lester never recorded for vinyl with us though, and had in fact (Lester led and Troy followed) bailed on us in the middle of our first tour, which we supported with a demo. The photos for the Einstein LP were taken for the LP and were current.
Sometime in '88, Bob got a loan, co-signed by me, and bought a bunch of analog recording equipment. We fashioned our basement into a recording studio, with the occasional grumblings of our roommates and recorded "Epitome" ourselves. it was completely self done; recorded, released, and distributed. Lineup at this point was Bob, Todd, and Tim. Sometime in there ('88 or '89), we struck a distribution deal with Mordam Records. The PX EP came out next and I don't actually remember many of the details about that. I'll get the story straight if anyone cares. The 10" came out either very late '89, or early '90, I don't remember. Dissent was on break, with Bob living in Colorado. He was doing all the communication with the other bands, putting the thing together, then I did all the release notices, ads, ordering and distribution.
In June of '90 we up and moved to Olympia, Washington. We felt that after 4 national tours and countless local and regional shows, we had hit the ceiling in South Dakota. Some would say that for a punk rock band in the late 80s in South Dakota, the ceiling was pretty low to begin with. Van joined that band at this point, on second guitar. We struggled though, with a lot of personal shit, especially between Bob and I. We finally dissolved and broke up in the early fall, but agreed to continue preparing for an already booked show which would then become our farewell show, and one last already booked recording session in Seattle, which would be the posthumously released "Stress" EP in '91. We played our farewell show in Olympia, in Nov. of '90. That was it and we soon went our separate ways. Bob left, I stayed. He went to Colorado to be with his lady Bobbie, where they lived together quite happily until a drunk driver killed them both in '92.