biography
ARCWELDER is a Minneapolis trio who began under the moniker Tilt-A-Whirl in 1988. The band changed their name in January of 1990 after the Sellner Manufacturing Corporation (maker of the carnival ride called Tilt-A-Whirl) objected to the band's infringement in their trademark (ahem).
Drummer/singer Scott McDonald was a veteran of the Minneapolis scene serving time in numerous bands including Red Letter Day and Velvet Elvis before hooking up with bassist/guitarist Rob Graber to form Arcwelder. Rob enlisted the services of his brother Bill Graber who promptly took up a bass, guitar, and a bit of singing as well. With the Graber brothers switching between bass and guitar and Scott and Bill trading off vocal duties, Arcwelder's songs come at you from many different angles.
All of Arcwelder's songs have a distinctive rhythmic flow carefully crafted alternately by gut-wrenching guitar explosions and sneaky pop hooks. Arcwelder's first two albums, This (1990) and Jacket Made In Canada (1991) were both released on the Minneapolis label Big Money Inc.
The second half of 1992 saw the release of three Arcwelder singles, on three different labels ("Favour", "Raleigh" and "I Am The Walrus")
Arcwelder worked with recording engineer, Brian Paulson (Babes In Toyland, Slint) on "Raleigh," Pull and Xerxes.
Like the classic power trio that they are, Arcwelder wield the sort of musical weaponry normally associated with a five-piece; gut-wrenching guitar explosions combined with heart-breaking vocal harmonies come as second nature. But it's not all sound and fury, as Arcwelder also display a penchant for darkly poignant pop ballads dripping with melody.
Two of Arcwelder - the Graber brothers - have day jobs as rocket scientists. No shit. They know all about grace under pressure.
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*Latest album:
Our 5th album called "Entropy" was released in May, on Touch+Go Records. Featuring the smash hit Captain Allen. *Discography
*Tour dates:
Due to other pressing obligations, we only manage to tour for about three weeks out of a year, although we do play a decent amount of midwestern shows. Tour dates are usually posted to music related newsgroups.
*Artwork:
For some strange reason, after people saw the artwork on Pull, we've had a lot of nice offers from artists to do artwork for us. Believe it or not, we've pretty much got that under control, but thanks for the offers. It never hurts to ask (unless maybe you have carpal tunnel and it was severely painful just to type your message).
*Lyrics:
Lyrics for Pull & Xerxes are available.
*Europe:
We will play there sometime, really! Uh, just don't hold your breath for a few years.
*Videos:
Yes, we have made videos. Four of them. You just can't see them anywhere besides First Avenue. Well, OK, they played 10 seconds of "Missing" on 120 Minutes once, and "Smile" might be on "In The Mix" on PBS, but that's it for now. We also have videos for "Favor" and "What Have I Done To Me."
*With Honors:
An Arcwelder poster appeared in the movie "With Honors" featuring Joe Pesci. It was pretty obvious, it was centered sideways right between Pesci and another actor and was on screen for practically a minute. So that's cool. But the movie wasn't very good, so we can't really recommend that you rush out to see it. Rent it maybe.
*E-mail mailing list:
Sorry, there is no official arcwelder mailing list, on account of my mailer is incredibly stooopid (actually I think it's not so bad - I'm just stooopid). I will try to send info periodically to people who ask though.
*Mail Order Stuff:
We do have a mail order catalog. It's even on line. Ask if you would like to get a copy. I hesitate to send it out otherwise.
*US Mail:
You can send things to arcwelder at:
arcwelder
PO Box 2726
Loop Station
Mpls, Mn 55402