Ben Grim started in 1995 in Neenah Wisconsin by Peter Saturday and Jayme Johnson. Peter had been the singer for punk band King Friday and Jayme had been the vocalist for Seven pound from Oshkosh. One day however Peter won a signed Bon Jovi guitar from a contest at the Exclusive Company in Appleton. With the power of a Mexican squire strat signed by Bon Jovi on his side he began to write his own songs on the guitar. Jayme had a drum set in his room at his parents house and the two of them jammed several times for purely for fun driving his parents up the wall and even annoying the family dog. These sessions did not last for long and neither did either of their aforementioned bands.One afternoon Peter was hanging out at Fox River Mall(hey it was the Fox Valley-what the hell else was there to do?) when he met Joel Wege and they talked about music all day instantly becoming long lost friends. Joel had briefly mentioned he had been writing songs himself and at the time it was hard to picture him actually singing since he was the vocalist for Experiment Fear, the Valley’s best death metal band. They always thought Joel sounded kinda like a werewolf in that band (which was meant as a compliment) and often saw him playing shows at the Blue Jay Bowl. Yeah that place ruled. Well It wasn’t long before both Peter and Jayme heard some of Joel’s songs he had written on guitar. They were both floored by his voice and his knack of crafting ultra catchy power pop. After some hesitance from Joel they finally convinced him to come jam. Peter decided to lay down the axe power of Bon Jovi and begin playing bass and Jayme focused seriously on drums.They had literally learned to seriously play the bass and drums in Peter’s parents basement out in New London Wisconsin within a month, stopping religiously at Kwik Trip to fill up with Karuba coffee on the drive there and back almost every evening. It was no time before they had gotten the rhythm section tight enough to incorporate Joel into the mix and create a real band. The three of them began to work on Joel and Peter’s ideas with both of them taking turns on lead vocals. The songs were practically writing themselves.
However as quick as things were moving they could feel something was missing. They needed another guitar player and they knew exactly who they wanted it to be. They contacted their friend Joel O’brien who Peter and Joel Wege were both friends with and whom they both admired his acoustic songs. It turned out that Joel O’brien was ready to lay down the acoustic guitar and plug in bringing with him his influences of bands like the Doughboys, Descendents and 7 Seconds. Not only was Joel O’brien the missing link on guitar he was the third singer and brought with him some of Ben Grim’s best songs. They spent months jamming with Joel O’brien commuting back and forth from college. Soon they were ready to play out and it began a string of shows opening for the likes of The Doughboys, The Atari’s, Dillinger Four, Pegboy and Face to Face. They ended up touring the US twice with their best friends from Virginia “Fun Sizeâ€. They recorded four 7†records, a CDEP, appeared on several comps and even had the UK label Boss Tuneage release a retrospective release in 2004. Maximumrocknroll called them “The best up and coming pop punk band of the late 90’sâ€. At the end of 1998 Ben Grim called it quits. Fast forward ten years into the future and the boys are back planning to record a Split ep with their good friends and touring partners Fun Size. I guess it is true superheroes really do never die….
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BEN GRIM covers "Android Dreams" by MEGA CITY FOUR
