Yipes! is an American rock band from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

History

Band members McCurdy, Hoffmann, and Strand had been playing together since 1971, but formed Yipes! in 1977 after the addition of Freese and Bartel.Former Milwaukee favorites Yipes! reuniting for WAMI awards
'' Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel'', April 12, 2013. After winning a battle of the bands contest, the group submitted a

demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

to Millennium Records, which signed the group. Their debut, self-titled album was issued in 1979, and a follow-up release appeared in 1980. During this time Yipes! opened for Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Kansas, and

Jefferson Starship Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight gold or platinum-selling studio albu ...

. In 1980, Yipes! charted in the Billboard Hot 100 with its cover of Darlin' (The Beach Boys song). The band was dropped from their label in 1981 and disbanded soon after. Reviewing the band's debut LP in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981),

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

wrote: "This Wisconsin band is nowhere near as yucky as name and packaging suggest—how can you hate someone who complains that Californians 'got no ceilings on their cars'? Subjects of other cartoons—some simple-minded, some not—include class rivalry, being white, and the

cold war The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. The problem is leader Pat McCurdy, who has one of those 'good rock voices' that enable the artiste to shout in tune but don't permit much nuance. You can almost see him curling his lip and raising his eyebrows whenever a joke comes up. Oh well." In 2013, the group reunited to play at the Wisconsin Area Music Industry awards, and was inducted into their Hall of Fame. In 2014, the band reunited again for a concert at Milwaukee's Summerfest. On May 16, 2015, Yipes! played their third show in 34 years at First Avenue in Minneapolis as part of a reunion/tribute show to the famed but long-closed Minneapolis punk bar Jay's Longhorn. A third, new album was released on December 17, 2018 with the original lineup, entitled "Yipes!!!".

Members

Pat McCurdy Pat McCurdy is a singer-songwriter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Biography McCurdy was influenced at an early age by the first appearance of The Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. After teaching himself guitar and participating in several hig ...

- vocals *Andy Bartel - guitar *

Mike Hoffmann Mike Hoffmann (1953/1954 – October 24, 2021) was an American guitarist and record producer. He is known for performing with the band Yipes! and as a producer with The Verve Pipe, Willy Porter, Paul Cebar and Violent Femmes co-founder Victor DeL ...

- guitar *Pete Strand - bass *Teddy Freese - drums

Discography

*''Yipes!'' ( Millennium Records, 1979) U.S. #177Joel Whitburn, ''The Billboard Albums''. 6th edition, 2006, p. 1168. *''A Bit Irrational'' (Millennium Records, 1980) *''Yipes!!!'' (Yipes Records, 2018)

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1977 Rock music groups from Wisconsin