Steve Almaas

Singer/songwriter Steve Almaas emerged from the late-1970s New York City punk milieu and built a respected body of work through the following two decades. Never aligned with major-label machinery, he performed in multiple groups while big-hair metal and glossy synth pop dominated the charts. The son of Scandinavian immigrants who had settled in Minnesota, Almaas spent his teenage years immersed in the Minneapolis post-punk underground, collaborating with the Suicide Commandos well before Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, and Soul Asylum turned the city into a recognized hub. After a brief period with the alt-country trio the Crackers, he formed Beat Rodeo in the mid-1980s. The band secured a contract with I.R.S. and issued Staying out Late with Beat Rodeo in 1985 and Home in the Heart of the Beat in 1986, while also mounting extensive tours throughout Europe and the United States. Toward the close of the decade Almaas joined forces with George Usher to create the Gornack Brothers, a project that signaled the approach of his solo endeavors. Regular appearances at New York City’s Ludlow Street Cafe helped shape his distinctive rock approach into a personal style. His first solo album, East River Blues, appeared in 1993, followed by Bridge Songs in 1995 and Human, All Too Human—supported by the Ministers of Sound—in 1998. Minneapolis nonetheless retained strong affection for his earliest band, inviting the Suicide Commandos to play a single reunion concert in 1996 that drew more than 10,000 people.