ABOUT
Minor Distraction is a four piece band based in Central Wisconsin with a long history of entertaining audiences of all sizes, from intimate venues to large festivals. With their amped up selection of party tunes and an energetic stage show to match, Minor Distraction always delivers a performance that will have you dancing and laughing Lionel Richie style (All Night Long).
We’re always asked to describe ourselves, over the years we’ve found that the best way to describe the music/show is High Energy Punk/Rock/Country/Pop/____. You’ve got to experience it to truly understand.
“Not only are these guys talented, they are very energetic, and hilarious!! The “showmanship” is an A++ in my book and the craziness is probably at the same mark!!” – Wisconsin Club Owner
HISTORY
Minor Distraction was formed in the spring of 2007 from the remains of Elmer Twitch, 10 Steps Down and Damaged Goodz. The original all-star line up featured Shawn “Monkeyboy” Brunke on vocals, Skibob on guitar, Josh “Sausage Fingers” Zenner on bass and Keith “Steve” Purdy beating the drums. After a few months of practice in a slaughter house they began booking gigs, playing wherever they could get their foot in the door. If you didn’t hear about it before they played there, your friends probably told you about it when they recovered afterward. In the fall of 2009 Keith dropped out of the band and was replaced by Joey “too cool for the room” Albers of 5 Second Rule, and the Distraction machine rolled on. In the fall of 2010, Joey left the band, and Keith was brought back in. Minor Distraction continued playing high energy, high volume, performance enhanced versions of your favorites from the 1900’s, 2000’s and beyond.
In December of 2012, just before the Mayan predicted “End Of The World” and the Christian holiday of Xmas, after a grueling 2 years in the studio, they completed work on their first highly anticipated volume of recorded music, the country cover album “Awww Shit… You Just Bin Twitty’d”. They released it on the interwebz where it promptly went triple aluminum with the help of local radio play. Eschewing the retro-hipster trend of releasing albums on vinyl, they are blazing a new hipster trend and will release it only on cassette and 8-track. Look for it wherever fine cassettes and 8-tracks are sold. It continues to shoot up the Billboard Hot One Billion charts.
In the summer of 2018 Keith retired from drumming and the Minor Distraction boys called it quits. But they soon got bored with gardening, knitting and shuffleboard and started the search for yet another drummer to replace KP. That search led them to Barry “Crusher” Calnan, the Canadian sensation of Central Wisconsin and they were back in the rawk n roll business.
We’ve been asked on a few occasions to describe our sound in a few short words. This is a very difficult to do since we draw on a wide range of influences. But here is an attempt at it… Imagine if Johnny Ramone, Johnny Rotten, Johnny Cash, John Denver and Michael Bolten flew cross country together. Shortly after takeoff the four Johnnys throw Michael Bolten out the window. Then a few booze soaked hours later, somewhere over the Rockies, the plane crashes (because John Denver is the pilot). When the rescuers arrive they pull one mangled, twisted life form from the flaming wreckage. It has the head of Johnny Rotten, the left arm of John Denver, the torso of Johnny Ramone, the right leg and index finger of Johnny Cash and various other parts from a cougar that the plane landed on… That life form is Minor Distraction.