The Wesley Willis Fiasco

Biography

The Wesley Willis Fiasco was a punk rock band in Wicker Park, Chicago, Illinois. The band featured Wesley Willis on vocals, Pat Barnard on lead guitar, Dale Meiners on guitar and bass. Dale Meiners previously played guitar Billy Corgan's pre-Smashing Pumpkins band, the Marked. In 1992 Willis began writing songs, and soon after, Meiners took Willis into his studio to record them. After many drummer changes, Meiners, Barnard and Willis formed the Wesley Willis Fiasco with Dave Nooks on bass and Br...

The Wesley Willis Fiasco was a punk rock band in Wicker Park, Chicago, Illinois. The band featured Wesley Willis on vocals, Pat Barnard on lead guitar, Dale Meiners on guitar and bass. Dale Meiners previously played guitar Billy Corgan's pre-Smashing Pumpkins band, the Marked. In 1992 Willis began writing songs, and soon after, Meiners took Willis into his studio to record them. After many drummer changes, Meiners, Barnard and Willis formed the Wesley Willis Fiasco with Dave Nooks on bass and Brendan Murphy on drums.

They released only one studio album, Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride (a reference to Willis's description of his schizophrenic episodes), which is found on the Urban Legend label. Various live albums are available, though most are bootlegs. After the band broke up, Willis went on to record his own solo albums, in which he rants over a sample song from his keyboard. One of his songs on his solo album "Rush Hour" is about the fiasco band.

The Fiasco band covered the song "Girls on Film" by Duran Duran, which appeared on the Duran Duran Tribute Album, in 1997. They also released a 7" vinyl split with Sublime.

The band toured with many bands, most notably Rocket from the Crypt, Sublime, and Lordz of Brooklyn. The band was also noted for charming Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam.

Due to conflicts between the Fiasco band's shows and Willis's solo keyboard shows, the band broke up. During the time, they were on tour in Ohio. Willis stated that the demons in his head worsened, causing him to constantly yell at the band. Willis has stated that he feels it is his fault alone that the band broke up due to him causing problems while touring.

After the breakup, Pat Barnard sold his equipment, and moved to Lake Tahoe, where he died a month later. Willis died on August 21, 2003. Murphy, who briefly played with The Jesus Lizard, lives in Chicago, working for an indie label. Dale Meiners builds custom furniture. Dave Nooks got married and was a member of the Chicago based punk and roll band The Symptoms for a time.

Band Members

Wesley Willis - Vocals
Dale Meiners - guitar
Pat Barnard - guitar
Dave Nooks - bass guitar
Brendan Murphy - drums Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.