Out of Order

Cover to Survival of the Fittest CD

Out of Order was a Chicago hardcore punk band that played from 1983 to 1989. There were one of the more popular live acts in the city and one of the leaders in the shift of the "Chicago sound" from punk to hardcore.

History

Out of Order was formed in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn sometime in 1983. Lead singer Devon Brock called a classified ad looking for a lead singer and met up with guitarist Rade Krklec and bassist Mike Cwik. Shortly thereafter they played their first show at the Centro-American Social Club with Savage Beliefs, Articles of Faith and Toxic Reasons. Shortly thereafter 8th grade drummer Joel left the group and was replaced by Matt Fusello. Around 1985 rising tensions led to the departure of Cwik and he was replaced by Jim Owens. In 1985 Out of Order released their only LP, Paradise Lost. Sometime after Owens left and Cwik was called back to fill in temporarily. Alan Luckett came in at bass for a short time until a classified ad yielded the final bassist Mark Khedroo.

Early History by Joel Tomano

"We did Originate in Berwyn - Me, Mike and Rade's hometown. I met Mike and Rade at a party where I was playing with a cover band called Amnesty in Sep. 83. After telling me about thier desire to start a punk band, they basically auditioned me on the spot. We played a few Ramones tunes much to the party's delight (Amnesty was playing Tom Petty and Ozzy tunes), and they gave me the job. Devon came around a couple weeks later, and it only took one or two practices to see we were onto something. Mike had briefly entertained the idea of calling the band "The Unexpected" which he'd spray painted on a stop sign, but was voted down. I can't exactly remember, but the name Out of Order can probably be attributed to Rade. With winter approaching practices moved from Mike's garage to Rade's basement, where the future Paradise Lost tunes were written. Dec. 83 brought us to the studio to record the Middle of America tracks. Jan. and Feb. 84 is when the band really started taking off. We had already created a buzz on the scene from having open band practices and Devon's non stop networking at shows. In Feb. 84 we actually taped a VIDEO!!! (see 6 mins in). A really lame production house lip-sync type thing with a fake crowd. This video would be the ultimate OOO collectors item, good luck. We did get alot of fans from that, who showed up to be in the fake "pit", and this is where I actually met Snarla for the first time. March of 84 would have us playing three shows, one at the Centro American social hall, with Articles of Faith and Toxic Reasons, and two at Cubby bear, the first with R.O.T.A. and the second with G.B.H. which in my opinion was OOO's breakout show. The place was packed and even G.B.H. was blown away by our set who couldn't believe these teenage yanks could slam so hard and so fast. I stayed on til summer 84 and played my last show with OOO at an anti-nuclear weapons demonstation in Grant Park. Thereafter the drum throne was handed to the incomparable Matt Fusello. I hope this clears up some of the time-line discrepancies in the Out of Order legacy."

1984 - 1989 history by drummer Matt Fusello

In May of 1984, 16 year old drummer Matt Fusello joined the band. Out Of Order's first show with Fusello was on July 14, 1984 at Chicago's legendary TUTS, supporting Naked Raygun. It just happened to be Eric Spicer's first show drumming with [Naked Raygun]. The show was billed as the "New Drummer Boys Debut". Following that show Out Of Order spent the Summer of 1984 touring around the Midwest playing with bands inlcuding Toxic Reasons, Articles Of Faith, The Dicks, Government Issue, Iron Cross, Channel 3, Battalion Of Saints, Life Sentence, Zoetrope, The Dead Milkmen, Broken Bones, 7 Seconds and the WNUR's Absolute Middle Of America compilation album release event at the The Metro with The Effigies, Big Black, Naked Raygun, Rights Of The Accused, Savage Beliefs and Nadsat Rebel. This also included doing a live performance on Rodney Anderson's 'Fast and Loud' hardcore radio show at WNUR 89.3 FM radio's studio in Evanston.

During the Fall of 1984. they went into Tanglewood Recording studios in Brookfield, Illinois and started recording their debut LP with grammy award winning recording engineer, Milan Bertosa. Bertosa had engineered the band's highly acclaimed demo tape with the original cuts of Survival Of The Fittest, Concerned, So Lame and Eric B, which were featured on Last Rites widely distributed compilation tape, CODE BLUE and the WNUR Middle OF America vinyl release

By the beginning of 1985 Out Of Order was now headlining their own shows and selling out The Metro in Chicago, a 1200 person capacity venue. They were also supporting larger shows w international touring acts including [Public Image Limited].

Their debut album, entitled Paradise Lost, was finished and they released it on the independent label, Walkthrufyre Records, a startup label founded by a few executives at the powerhouse independent record distributor, [Important Record Distributors]. The Paradise Lost LP was released for distribution at the start of 1986 and featured cover artwork by the now legendary tattoo artist Guy Aitchison, his first LP cover release at the age of 16.. The Out Of Order "Paradise Lost" record release show took place at Chicago's legendary Medusa's on May 5th, 1986.

Over the next several years they continued headlining shows at The Metro, Riviera Theater, The Vic Theater and Exit playing alongside touring acts including The Butthole Surfers, Naked Raygun, Gwar, Public Image Limited, Babes In Toyland and Killing Joke. They also returned to Tanglewood Recording Studios to begin tracking their second LP w engineer Milan Bertosa. In 1988, Out Of Order were recording again at Chicago's Idful Studios with engineers Brian Deck and Brad Wood.

In 1989 (though their manager Andy Oblander said 1990) Out of Order broke up. According to Brock, was "the combined effect of a revolving door policy on bass players, a lack of direction and a lack of business savvy did us in".

In 1998, Victory Records re-released the Paradise Lost LP, along with unreleased songs from their 2nd LP recordings and live tracks on one CD, called Survival of the Fittest. Also that year, Out of Order reformed for one night and played an all ages show with bassist Mark Khedroo at the Metro.

Members

• Devon Brock, Vocals 1983-1989
• Rade Krklec, Guitar 1983-1989
• Mike Cwik, Bass 1983-1985
• Joel Tomano, Drums 1983-1984
• Matt Fusello, Drums 1984-1989
• Jim Owens, Bass 1985-1987
• Alan Luckett, Bass 1987
• Mark Khedroo, Bass 1988-1989

Releases

• Paradise Lost LP (Walkthrufyre, 1985)
• Survival of the Fittest CD (Victory Records, 1998)
• Two tracks on the Code Blue Compilation, 1984)
• Two tracks on the Empty Skulls Compilation, 1984
• Two tracks on The Middle of America Compilation, 1984

References

• Almost all the information in the history section came from the liner notes to the Survival of the Fittest CD. Some years weren't specified but I did the best guessing I could. Gantry 15:43, 25 February 2006 (CST)

Shows

1986 September 28th (Sunday) at Cabaret Metro - Out Of Order/Fang/Lost Cause

External Links

• OOO MySpace page
• KFTH's Out of Order page
• Buy Survival of the Fitteset at Victory Records]
• Out of Order profile on Centerstage
• Video of OOO's appearance on cable, about six minutes in.
• CPP thread on OOO, with Joel and Devon commenting
• Discogs profile