Inch was an American
post-hardcore
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...
band formed in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, California, in 1992. The group was founded by former Sub Society vocalist Michael "Stimy" Steinman, guitarist Mike Paprocki, drummer Dave Hepler, and bassist Jeff Reese. Inch released three albums during the 1990s until their disbandment in 1999. After being involved with numerous other bands, frontman Steinman died in 2010.
History
Inch was formed in 1992 by Michael "Stimy" Steinman, Jeff Reese, Dave Hepler, and Michael Paprocki. Steinman sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar, Hepler was on drums, Reese was on bass, and Paprocki sang backup vocals and played lead guitar. Steinman was the former lead singer of Sub Society, a band that achieved notoriety by being featured in several
H-Street skateboarding videos and with the single "A Whole Lot Less." Hepler formerly was the lead vocalist for Helicopter, a nominally significant contributor to the early '90s San Diego sound. The band initially went through a variety of names until they decided on "Grinch". Although Reese and Paprocki had screen-printed numerous promotional stickers, they soon found out that another band was already named Grinch; thus, they cut the first two letters of the word, and settled on "Inch" as the band's name.
The band self-released an untitled demo cassette in 1992, which featured five songs. Around the same time, Reese was replaced on bass by Christopher "Pippin" Spanninga. The band officially released their first single, "Oxidizer", in early 1993 on the independent label Redemption Records. In July 1993, Inch toured the west coast of the US opening for
Frank Black
Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965), better known by the stage name Black Francis, is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He is the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies. Following the band's break ...
. Afterwards, the band was signed to the major label
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...
, and was then moved onto the
Seed Records imprint. The band's debut album, ''Stresser'', was released in the spring of 1994 on Seed Records. A music video was filmed for the lead single "Linger". Paprocki was fired from the band not long after. The stripped-down three-piece, with Steinman taking over lead guitar, spent the summer touring the US as part of a "Pre-Palooza" night-before
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
package that included
Failure
Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. On ...
,
Sponge
Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and a ...
, and fellow San Diego band Rust.
Seed Records went out of business in 1995, around the same time that Inch had almost finished their second album; thus, the album was instead released on Atlantic Records. The album, titled ''DOT Class "C"'', was released by Atlantic Records in 1996. The song "For Duty and Humanity" from the album was featured on the soundtrack of the 1996 comedy film ''
Flirting With Disaster'' and was included in the Foundation Skateboards video ''Duty Now for the Future''. The album's release was short-lived as the band was dropped by Atlantic Records shortly afterwards, and the album was deleted from the label's catalog. After performing on the album and participating during a short tour, bass player Spanninga abruptly quit the band after a show at Moe's in Seattle. The band completed the remaining tour dates with Steinman performing solo acoustically. On their return home the band hired bass player Kristian Dunn. ''DOT Class "C"'' was re-released by
Cargo Music
Cargo Music Inc. is an American punk rock record label based in San Diego, California. It distributes records for other labels, such as Cherry Red Records, Earth Music, FistPuppet Records, Grilled Cheese, Headhunter Records, Re-Constriction Re ...
/
Headhunter Records
Headhunter Records is an American rock music record label distributed by Cargo Music.Hustwit, Gary (1995)Hard Work and Non-Hype Characterize The Bands And Labels In A Super-Active Underground, ''Billboard'', February 25, 1995, p. 82,86, retrieve ...
on CD and on
Goldenrod Records/Trademark Records on LP in 1997, limited to a run of 750, with hand-silkscreened art by
Drive Like Jehu
Drive Like Jehu was an American post-hardcore band from San Diego active from 1990 to 1995 and later from 2014 to 2016. It was formed by rhythm guitarist and vocalist Rick Froberg and lead guitarist John Reis, ex-members of the band Pitchfor ...
singer and artist
Rick Froberg.
In 1997, Inch took home the Best Alternative Rock award at the
San Diego Music Awards
The San Diego Music Awards is an awards show held annually in San Diego, California, United States, to recognize the best artists and bands in local music. The awards show benefits the San Diego Music Foundation, a non-profit organization dedica ...
and spent the summer playing the second stage of the traveling Lollapalooza tour.
The band's third and final album, ''This Will Fall on Dead Ears'', was released by Headhunter in 1998. The title of the album was both a play on the band's dissatisfaction with their label not promoting them, and also Steinman's past experiences with drug use and the occult. Inch then went on hiatus in 1999 and the remaining band members would go their separate ways.
Hepler retired from the music industry and instead worked towards becoming a lawyer. Spanninga became an in-studio engineer for various artists. Reese later retired from the music industry and became both a mechanic and a freelance journalist. Dunn formed the band
El Ten Eleven in 2002 and released numerous albums afterwards. Steinman formed Lakeside Orchestra with Dunn and Pat Hogan (formerly of Rust and Chacon). He later formed Congress of the Cow, which would later receive the Best New Artist award at the 2002 San Diego Music Awards, Steinman's second time overall winning an award at the ceremony.
He also later joined the Colorado-based band Harvey Knuckles.
Steinman was found dead in his
Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...
home on December 30, 2010. He was 38 years old and had died of heart disease.
Inch reunited for a memorial show on February 16, 2011, at
The Casbah in San Diego, with Hepler on drums, Paprocki returning on guitar, Spanninga and Dunn trading bass duties, Steinman's school friend Matt Page on vocals, and also original bassist Reese in attendance.
A reunion of Sub Society opened. Steinman's guitar is mounted on the wall of San Diego bar Livewire, where he used to bartend.
Members
*Michael "Stimy" Steinman – vocals, guitar (1992–1999)
*Dave Hepler – drums (1992–1999)
*Michael Paprocki – guitar (1992–1994)
*Jeff Reese – bass (1992)
*Christopher "Pippin" Spanninga – bass (1992–1996)
*Kristian Dunn – bass (1996–1999)
Timeline
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bar:Stimy text:"Michael Steinman"
bar:Paprocki text:"Michael Paprocki"
bar:Reese text:"Jeff Reese"
bar:Spanninga text:"Chris Spanninga"
bar:Dunn text:"Kristian Dunn"
bar:Hepler text:"Dave Hepler"
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bar:Paprocki from:02/01/1992 till:06/20/1994 color:Guitar
bar:Reese from:02/01/1992 till:08/01/1992 color:Bass
bar:Spanninga from:08/01/1992 till:05/07/1996 color:Bass
bar:Dunn from:05/07/1996 till:02/01/1999 color:Bass
bar:Hepler from:02/01/1992 till:02/01/1999 color:Drums
Discography
Albums
Singles
Soundtracks and compilations
*1994: ''Jabberjaw'' Compilation (song: "Buzzers and Bells")
*1994: ''
91X - San Diego Local Music Soundtrack'' Sampler (song: "Linger")
*1995: ''Kamikaze - Music to Push You Over the Edge'' Compilation (song: "I'm the Cat")
*1995: ''Homage (Lots of Bands Doing
Descendents
The Descendents are an American punk rock band formed in Manhattan Beach, California, in 1977, by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson (musician), Bill Stevenson as a power pop/surf music, surf punk band. I ...
' Songs)'' Compilation (song: "Kids")
*1996: ''
Flirting With Disaster'' Soundtrack (song: "For Duty and Humanity")
*1997: ''The Thing Magazine: Hell City Race 666'' Sampler (song: "Shaking")
*1998: ''Fer Shure: A Tribute to the Valley Girl'' Soundtrack (song: "The Fanatic")
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inch
Atlantic Records artists
American post-hardcore musical groups
Musical groups from San Diego
Musical groups established in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 1999
Pop punk groups from California
Punk rock groups from California