The Mighty Deerlick was originally formed many, many years ago as the Slow Pedestrians in La Crosse, Wisconsin by Dave Reinholdt and Dan Franke. They briefly changed their name to Pigs in a Blanket (after the delicious breakfast delicacy) which resulted in a flurry of songwriting – many of those songs are still enjoyed by Deerlick fans to this day – before changing back to the Slow Peds. After their first paying gig, they took the money and went to Madison to see The Ramones.
Being virtually the only punk band in town, they eventually had prestigious opening slots on shows by the many local and touring bands that drifted from the Twin Cities ‘cross the Big Muddy to LaCrosse, including the Replacements, Soul Asylum and Austin, Texas’ True Believers, who mentioned a new music festival in Austin called “South by Southwest†and said “you guys should come down and play it.†Sounded good to the Peds, so they did. Rumors that they were the first band ever to play SXSW have proven to be untrue. (In the old days, SXSW started on Wednesday night, took Thursday off for the Austin Music Awards, and resumed on Friday.) They were in fact the first band to play on Friday.
Eventually the bright lights and big beers of Milwaukee drew them to the coastal side of the state where they found many kindred spirits (both people and booze). They became The Mighty Deerlick, joined the New Community, a collective of Milwaukee alternative bands who staged their own shows (cover: always $3), released the album Beneath You, the 7" EP Stag Nation, the legendary Christmas album Bells To the Wall, and assorted tracks on various compilation CDs. For the Stag Nation record release party, they shared the bill with some up-and-coming youngsters called Uncle Tupelo, who have since broken up – just another band left in the dust of The Deerlick. They also briefly changed names once again, to The Beer Bottle Rocket, resulting in another songwriting flurry, before changing back to The Mighty Deerlick.
In 2005, Dan finally moved to Austin after talking about it for years, leaving Dave as the only founding member. But the Deerlick rocks on with longtime bass player Jack Rice and guitarist Bob Eickhoff, both of the Carolinas, and drummer John Wythes of StaLL backing Dave. They plan to temporarily change names yet again so they can write some more songs.
