A Brief History in Tantrum of the Muse

"Tantrum of the muse are freedom fighters. It takes a lot of conviction to play the kind of music the way these guys do. Never give in!!!!

- STEVE AUSTIN (TODAY IS THE DAY)"

Tantrum of the Muse (respectively Stephen Sarro, Jim Settle and Udrick Wise) holds a special place in my heart. A group of three musicians who challenged me personally to think and dream for myself and to question things and hold it accountable. Who showed me how to love in the face of imperfection and adversity. To live among those whom I love and often sometimes can't stand and still be willing to die for them.

Let's turn back the clock the the year 1999 and travel to south eastern portion of Pennsylvania. Tucked away in the rolling hillsides, farm communities and Amish villages existed a trio friends. Stephen Sarro, Udrick Wise, and Jim Settle. I met these guys in February of 1999. They played a brand of music built out of their passionate lives. Built out of their successes, their trials, their convictions, their errors, their fiery relationships amongst themselves and humility. This was Tantrum of the Muse.

I showed up, after a seven hour ride, on the door step of then bassist, Jim Settle, who at the time called Wilmington, Delaware home. The two others would travel from their rural Pennsylvania homes to his house where they practiced. This particular weekend, as I was there, Tantrum of the Muse had a couple shows booked that I was privileged to witness. The show was at some church in a Philadelphia suburb. Prior to the show I was treated to TOTM 101 (Tantrum of the Muse). My friend, Matt DeBenedictis, who traveled there as well popped in their CD and I listened. It was his idea for this particular trip, he went there to meet a girl mildly associated with the band. I didn't know what to make of the music. I never was one for being put in situations where I had to formulate an opinion on something as subjective as another persons art in a matter of seconds. It takes time for me to soak the entire statement in. It's a rare occasion that something moves me upon hearing it one the first spin.

The music was playing. Track one moved into to track two and then three and then four... I had never before heard a band play music the way they did. The lyrics came off to me as self loathing, honest, spiritual, disinterested and very incensed at the modern church. I didn't understand it fully at the time as I was amid my own spiritual journey, but I appreciated what I was hearing. Finally, people who are less than perfect and not trying to be perfect. And they had music that underscored every arrival of hope or disappointment in their lives. I started to slowly take it in and it started affecting me.

We arrived at the show. It was sparsely attended as most rock shows were in those days. The band set up and plugged in and tore into to their set with a fury. Screams and churning guitars set the sound scape for a whole different take on their music that their DIY CD I was listening to on the way there did not have. The band was like an entire different expression live than it was on disk. I loved the duality.

We drove back that night in a caravan of automobiles back to Jim's house where we painted graffiti on the walls of the basement and watched Stephen's endless collection of horror films. We spoke extensively about their music and their ambitions. The detailed how they sent demos to Tooth n' Nail Records who at the time were considering them, if even in the least. Stephen described how there were things about TOTM that the label felt uncomfortable with, particularly their stance on the Christian market and the church. TOTM didn't want or feel the need to change things about hem to make them more acceptable to the Christian market. Adding fuel to the fire, Tooth N' Nail and TOTM went their separate ways.

In June of the same year I crossed paths with them again as we were both in bands that unofficially played this annual summer festival in Illinois called Cornerstone. It was a great year. I arrived to drones upon drones of kids incessantly chatting about the TOTM performance they witnessed in the 100+ mid summer heat and humidity. Tantrum of the Muse created a buzz and stir there that I haven't heard of since.

Chad Johnson, owner of the upstart Takehold Records from Birmingham, Alabama became interested the band. Later they inked a deal which had Takehold re-release their DIY album "The Heart Is A Two Headed Sperm" with new brand new artwork and at least one more album in addition to it.

The following year TOTM released it's next album "ModernMu$sick2000!" and then embarked on a tour with their label mates Narcissus (of Canton, Ohio) called The Forty Days of Disaster Tour. It lived up to it's name as it came to a rest with a final tour stop in Birmingham, Alabama for the short lived Furnace Fest.

I met up with the band again at this event and got the lowdown on the contentious tour. There was fighting and scars to prove it. The guys seemed to all have collectively felt that they had went to hell and back again with each other on this tour. They were weary and only spoke of home.

The subsequent years TOTM began to change shapes. Udrick Wise left the band and joined The Huningtons as their drummer. Jim's personal life had led him to flea Delaware for Florida. Stephen later joined him there where he and Jim recorded Stephen's solo album, "Sympathy For The Living". This solo album shared a ride just as torturous as the fate of the band seemed to be having. Stephen returned to Pennsylvania with out Jim and began reorganizing TOTM. He met Seth Luzier who joined TOTM as the keyboard player. With a rotating roster of replacement members the day finally came when news befell my ears. I was delighted when I heard that Udrick and Jim would be rejoining TOTM. It seemed to good to be true. I found out sometime after that indeed the two did make their attempts to rejoin TOTM, but other events led them away before it was realized.

Since then, Stephen Sarro never gave up his passion. He put aside the idea to restart TOTM and instead re-tooled his music and started a new chapter in his life called "Unteachers".

Tantrum of the Muse lives on through Unteachers. It may not always be called TOTM, but it will always feel like exactly what I grew to love about Jim Settle, Udrick Wise, and Stephen Sarro.