Lifter Puller

Lifter Puller, the Minneapolis art-punk outfit, originated at Boston College when singer/guitarist Craig Finn started showing his roommate Steve Barone how to play guitar. Once the pair earned their degrees, they moved to the Twin Cities and added bassist Tommy Roach plus drummer Dan Monick, officially launching the band in 1994; four years afterward the No Alternative label issued their first LP, Half Dead and Dynamite. Roach soon stepped away because balancing Lifter Puller with graduate studies proved overwhelming, so Tad Kubler joined on bass and made his concert debut on Halloween 1998; several months later the group’s own Threatening Letters imprint released the EP The Entertainment and Arts. Early in 2000 their second LP, Fiestas and Fiascos, surfaced, yet Lifter Puller disbanded that summer.