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Wisconsin's PUNK Pink Reason

Description:

A PUNK-INFLECTED REASON FOR THE CHEESEHEAD STATE TO BE LOUD & PROUD
By Jesse Kontny, Artificial Art, Music Editor for Fashiontribes.com Rock Punk Magazine

Sometimes you think that you're listening to some indie-hipster band, sometimes it’s as if someone took a brilliant 80's song and broke it and sometimes it just sounds like something you'd hear in a small town bar jukebox (on the moon). Either way, Pink Reason and their variety of styles is always compelling and amazing.

Pink Reason was originally conceived as a project for current frontman Kevin De Broux’s friend Dax, with the twist being that Dax is deaf. This wasn't a cruel joke. Rather, the harmonics of the songs were meant to emphasize the unique sound of his voice. Despite the earnest intentions of the band, this didn’t go over so well, and Kevin found that his material was better suited to his own voice.

Despite the fact that we’re from the same town, Kevin and I never encountered each other previously, probably because of his unassuming demeanor. At 6’5 and a buck fifty soaking wet, he's the most innocuous NBA reject I've ever met! According to local legend, however, he's a bit of a wild-man. Querying local contacts, I was regaled with stories about his “steal-your-girlfriend-and-beer-without-missing-a-beat” reputation. Three separate people told of Kevin stripping naked at a show at a public park and calling it performance art.

Stocking up on sausage and cheese at his parents house before proceeding, I had the fortune of meeting his father Dave. If there ever was a commensurate response to the somber nature of Kevin's music, it would be his Father's intensely cheerful demeanor. During the course of a 20 minute meal, he told many stories not fit for print -- much to the chagrin of his wife Gini and son Kevin. After we were properly overfed, we proceeded to the local gay bar XS, the apparent vanity project of an aging 80s queen given all the Pet Shop Boys songs that were played, and the owner, Rob, in what looked like full military garb, dancing to Gang of Four's ‘I Love a Man in Uniform’. Yet, I couldn't complain. Being from Green Bay, I was appreciative of the small glimmer of fun provided.

During the course of the evening, in between watching Kevin parlay “dancing” (getting electrocuted) like Ian Curtis of Joy Division into getting girl's phone numbers, I was able to etch out a basic biography of the man behind Pink Reason.

Kevin was introduced to punk rock by an attractive teenage babysitter who gave him some Dead Kennedys vinyl when he was 10. By the time he was 12 he had wet his beak in Russia with punk band called Anesthesia, and went through a variety of projects after being unable to return to the US due to the fall of communism. After a variety of hardcore outfits, his next project was a short-lived 14 man improv band that sounded like the flatulence of demons, with a portly poet in a never-washed Alien Sex Fiend shirt reading bad rhymes over the chaos. He eventually gained some local fame in hardcore unit Zone 13 Rejects, primarily due to his eccentric antics. Following an incident involving bottle rockets, full frontal nudity and a 40 person melee, the band was barred from playing ever again. After hearing the desolate gloom of some of his recordings, his cordial nature shocked me. I figure the reason for the discrepancy to be this: Only one capable of truly viewing the world with honest eyes can see the beauty and the ugliness of it; Pink Reason captures both with songs so lush that they will make you want to cry with joy, and songs so ugly you’ll want to duck for cover. As a true mirror into the world and into Kevin's psyche, Pink Reason's music is all encompassing, yet entirely intangible.

For more information, please visit MySpace/SecondCulture and Deaf-Culture.org.