In early 1999, advertisements for punk performances at venues such as Allentown’s Sweatshop began circulating on Usenet and featured the Lancaster County noise-rock outfit Eighteenandahalfminutegap. After that group parted ways with its drummer, the remaining musicians met recently unattached Angelo Madrigale and launched Sadaharu. According to The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, the name belongs to the Tokyo Giants first baseman born in 1940 who amassed 868 home runs across twenty-two seasons, surpassing Henry Aaron. Joining Madrigale were Jeff Breil on vocals and guitar, Bill Bennett on bass, and Mike Madrigale on guitar; the latter arrived after Eighteenandahalfminutegap’s guitarist departed for Portland, OR. The new quartet began rehearsing in late September 1999. Within eight weeks they delivered a four-song performance at Kutztown’s Basin Street Hotel. Their first recording, only twenty-two-and-a-half minutes long and containing six tracks, captured the same concise approach. After four months of activity the band paused touring to track Punishment in Hi-Fi, subtitled “An Audio Boxing Match in Which the Listener Is the Loser,” at On Track Studios in East Stroudsburg, PA, with engineers Ryan Fenical and Jeremy E. Bentley; the EP appeared in June 2000. In February 2002 the musicians again worked with Bentley on material that would occupy half of the split release Sadaharu Meets Albert React, issued February 4, 2003, on CI/Revelation Records. The label described the disc as “a huge step forward for the band towards their current direction,” while the band’s site noted that the songs originated during sessions that also produced tracks for the Anthem for New Sonic Warfare album, likewise issued by CI/Revelation. Although jazz elements surface, Sadaharu excels at delivering intelligent, high-impact power rock. Universal Warning Records reissued the long-out-of-print Punishment in Hi-Fi EP in 2002, supplying fresh artwork, remastered audio, and bonus live footage that documents the group’s earliest phase; Sadaharu has remained almost constantly on the road since.
