Cerebellum

With a short lifespan and just one cassette-only release to speak of, Cerebellum would seem like a mere blip on the Louisville indie scene that sprang up in the wake of Squirrel Bait. However, Cerebellum's members went on to so many other projects — most of them notable, or at the very least intriguing — that their legacy extends much farther than appearances would suggest. Founded in the summer of 1988, Cerebellum grew out of several local acts, and originally featured a quintet membership of vocalist/guitarist Joey Mudd, guitarists Breck Pipes and Tim Furnish, bassist Jon Cook, and drummer Will Chatham; additional vocalist Drew Daniel, who doubled on metal found-object percussion, soon came on board as a sixth member. The band often switched instruments during its live shows, and helped push Louisville away from a growing punk orthodoxy and toward a more challenging, progressive style that foreshadowed the math rock for which the city would later become known. Owing to various musical differences, the quartet of Daniel, Furnish, Cook, and Chatham began working on new material independently of Mudd and Pipes. When they played their first show together as Crain in June 1989, it spelled the end of Cerebellum almost immediately. Cerebellum's only album, a self-titled affair, was released posthumously on cassette by the local indie label Slamdek several months later. While Crain never broke nationally, they would go on to exert a significant influence on the local scene. Daniel left Crain after a few months to attend college; he would later form the experimental techno duo Matmos. While still in Crain, Cook spent a short time as the inaugural drummer of math rock favorites Rodan. Furnish went on to form Parlour after Crain's eventual breakup.