Midnight Evils

Hailing from Minnesota, the Midnight Evils are a frantic combination of garage punk attitude and hard rock muscle, generating enough energy to light a medium-size city for a week. The Midnight Evils formed in the small Minnesota community of St. Cloud in 1997; after playing plenty of small local gigs, the band released their first 7", "Powerhead," in 1999. That same year, guitarist Joe Evil left the band, and vocalist Jonny Evil (aka Jonny Evans), Steve Evil (aka Steve Cooper), Curan Evil (aka Curan Folsom), and Jesse Evil (aka Jesse Tomlinson) soldiered on without him as a four piece. A second single released in 2000, "Ain't Got Time for Love," helped cement a reputation as one of the best new punk outfits in the Midwest and won rave reviews in punk bible Maximum Rock'n'Roll. After extensive touring, the band returned to the studio for their self-titled debut album, mixed by Jim Diamond, which hit the racks in late 2001; by this time, the band had added a second guitarist, Brian Vandy (aka Brian Vanderwerf). After more gigging and relocating to the (relatively) big city of St. Paul, the Midnight Evils signed a deal with garage rock clearing-house Estrus Records and recorded their second album, Straight Till Morning, in Texas with Tim Kerr in the producer's chair. Shortly before the album was released, singer Jonny amicably parted ways with the band, and the band opted to continue without him, with Curan and Steve trading off on vocal chores.