The Wesley Willis Fiasco

The Wesley Willis Fiasco was a punk band fronted by schizophrenic singer/songwriter Wesley Willis. Based in Wicker Park, Chicago, Illinois, the group was formed in the early 1990's. Besides Willis, the other members were bassist/guitarist Dale Meiners, guitarist Pat Barnard, bassist Dave Nooks, and drummer Brandon Murphy. The Wesley Willis Fiasco recorded and released their first and only album "Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride" on the Unity Label Group in 1992. (Various live albums are solely available as bootlegs.) The band toured with such groups as Sublime, Lordz of Brooklyn, and Rocket from the Crypt. Moreover, The Wesley Willis Fiasco covered the song "Girls on Film" for a 1997 tribute album for the group Duran Duran. The band eventually broke up while on tour in Ohio in 1996 because of conflicts with the group's shows and Willis's solo keyboard shows. Following the break up of the group, Willis went on to pursue a solo career before dying of leukemia at age 40 in 2003, Nooks got married and was a member of the Chicago punk band The Symptoms for a while, Meiners went on to build custom furniture, Murphy briefly played with the group The Jesus Lizard and got a job working for an indie record label in Chicago, and Barnard moved to Lake Tahoe, where he sadly died in a drowning accident at age 27.