Bremen Cafe hosted an exciting evening of rock and roll Wednesday featuring Milwaukee acts Gorilla Knifefight, Chinese Telephones and Iron Pizza alongside San Diego-based Decent Criminal.
Chinese Telephones consists of vocalist/guitarist Justin Telephone, guitarist Daniel James, bassist/backing vocalist Andy Junk and drummer Logan Stang. Formed in 2004, the band’s kinetic style encompasses pop punk and power pop. “Justin started the band,” James recalls about Chinese Telephones’ origins. “I believe I drunkenly told him that I’d join his band because the next day he asked me if I was coming to band practice. We had different people in the band then but Andy joined shortly after that.”
“Dan and I were in a very short-lived power pop band called Open Sores for a spell,” Junk adds. “I lived with him at Endless Nameless, but then when that blew up we lived at the Twitch House for a bit. David (another original member) was our roommate.”
James jumps back in, “Trivia fact – I played bass at the first Chinese Telephones practice…I think that’s part of how I got talked into doing it because I really wanted to play bass in the band. We got there and David was playing guitar, and I kept looking at him thinking I could do this better so I made him switch instruments with me halfway through practice (laughs).”
“Then we ended up going on tour with David and recorded our first CD demo with him,” Junk said. “I ended up recording over his bass lines for our first 7″.”
Chinese Telephones released their first two records in 2007 (self-titled debut) and 2008 (“Democracy”) respectively. The band went relatively inactive for a while once their then-drummer moved away; previous drummers have included Gorky, Amos Pitsch, Evan McCaw and Steve Bennett. They would only play a couple times a year for several years before Stang joined once he moved back to Milwaukee. “I remember running into Dan at X-Ray Arcade and asking what Chinese Telephones was up to,” he recalls.
“Immediately we all knew he was the key,” James said about Stang. “Then like a week later COVID hit and everything shut down. A year later we were like “hey, remember that thing we talked about?” (laughs).”
Chinese Telephones released an EP in November titled “Outta My Hands” – their first new music in 15 years – out on Dead Broke Rekerds and Bloated Kat Records. They have worked with and been friends with the labels for a while so they were obvious choices for the band’s release. The four-song EP delivers catchy hooks and adrenaline-filled melodies that collectively mark a refreshing return for Chinese Telephones.
“We always had the idea to do new material but it was just hard to do it,” James shared. “Once we had the ability, Justin worked his magic. There were a couple other songs we’d worked on over time with Gorky and Amos that never ended up happening, so these are all new Justin compositions.”
“Once we had a domestic drummer, we knew we could progress,” Junk explains. “There’s probably a few riffs from like 15 years ago he had lying around that he finally fused together with Logan – one of them at least. Then there’s two other organic new compositions, and the last song is a cover.”
Chinese Telephones are doing an East Coast tour with Constant Insult in March. They do not have any more Milwaukee shows announced yet.