rock

BoDeans

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Wisconsin roots-rock band built on the vocal blend of Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas, with a heartland catalogue reaching back to the mid-80s — 'Closer to Free' later found a second life as a TV theme.

Kurt Neumann and Sam Llanas met at Waukesha South High School in 1977 and began writing songs together almost immediately, discovering they shared the same musical instincts. Llanas started college but left at Neumann's urging to pursue music full-time. By 1980 the two were performing as a duo called Da BoDeans, working the East Side music scene around Milwaukee.

The pair lost their rhythm section early on and kept writing and recording in the garage of a friend, Mark McCraw, who became their manager. Drummer Guy Hoffman joined in 1984, and their first recorded song, "Sally," appeared on a local compilation. Neumann rigged his guitar with extra pickups to cover for the missing bass, until Bob Griffin joined in 1985.

Multiple major labels came calling after the band built a following around Milwaukee, and they signed with Slash/Warner Records, who suggested shortening the name to BoDeans. T Bone Burnett produced the 1986 debut, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, mixing heartland rock, rockabilia rhythm and close harmony singing. A Rolling Stone reader poll soon voted them Best New American Band.

A planned second album with Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell was shelved over disagreements about direction, and Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison stepped in instead to produce Outside Looking In, released in 1987 with a more modern rock sound than the debut.

"Closer to Free," from 1993's Go Slow Down, reached a much wider audience once it became the theme to the television series Party of Five. Llanas left the band in 2011, and Neumann has continued to lead the BoDeans since.

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