Breaking Circus
It doesn’t smack you in the face or hit you over the head, but if you give it long enough eventually Breaking Circus will burrow into your brain like a parasite. Adjectives to describe the din include: terse, sharp, jagged, sinister. Musically akin to Roland from Big Black sitting in with Fly on a Wire era Effigies (that all could be suggested by the common locale of Chicago). Former Strike Under guitarist Steve Bjorklund was the mastermind behind Breaking Circus, releasing The Very Long Fuse in 1985. In ‘86 Bjorklund moved up I-94 to Minneapolis and began working with the Rifle Sport rhytm section of Flour and Todd Trainer. Two more recordings followed in 1987 - the simmering The Ice Machine LP and the 6 song zenith Smoker’s Paradise. Enjoy the beauty of “Knife in the Marathon”, the sharp cut of “Eat Lead”, and everything in between:
from The Very Long Fuse
Breaking Circus - Precision.mp3
Breaking Circus - (Knife in the) Marathon.mp3
Breaking Circus - Christian Soldiers.mp3
from The Ice Machine
Breaking Circus - Song of the South.mp3
Breaking Circus - Took a Hammering.mp3
Breaking Circus - Where.mp3
from Smoker’s Paradise
Breaking Circus - Three Cool Cats.mp3
Breaking Circus - Shockhammer 13.mp3
Breaking Circus - Eat Lead.mp3
20 Comments so far
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Excellent choice! I think the efforts of the Bjorklund brothers are severely underappreciated.
Should also be noted that Steve was in the very earliest, and by my estimation best, incarnation of Ballon Guy. The band didn’t even come close to recapturing what they had on that first demo tape when he was in the group. Believe that. Cancer survivor (or was it a brain tumor)too. Heard somewhere along the grapevine his brother Chris (from Bloodsport and before that the phenomenal Trial By Fire) moved up to the Twin Cities and have something cooking musically but beyond that I haven’t heard anything. Anyone?
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Wish I had these…if I did, I woulda posted em a loooong time ago. Thanks!
Great choice. One of my favourite Homestead bands.
Excellent. Nice rips. You know, I really thought it was a toss-up between you, Joe Stumble or Jim @ Vinyl Mine as to who would do a post on Breaking Circus first:
http://vinyljourney.blogspot.com/2004/06/rifle-sport-image-courtesy-tcpunk.html
I re-purchased The Very Long Fuse and The Ice Machine about 4 years ago, after my cassettes (dubbed in ‘89) began to be truly unlistenable. ‘Been looking for a good copy of Smokers’ Paradise, though.
Funny - I specifically checked Jim and Joe’s sites for Breaking Circus posts and was surprised when I didn’t find any - great Rifle Sport and Volcano Suns posts on each though, which I may piggyback on soon
Excellent, excellent post. Terrifically underrated band.
Simply an amazing band. It’s a tragedy that this stuff never made it to CD. Gotta check out Bloodsport too! Seconding question about Chris brewing something in Chicago. Is it true?!?
It should also be noted that the initial version of Breaking Circus in Chicago featured John Lundin, who was in Naked Raygun (1980/1981) and Toothpaste.
Peter/Eric - Chris Bjorklund is currently in a band called Kontrol Panel with Gerard Boissey (Rifle Sport). Don’t know all the details, but I think they are releasing an album soon.
Finally, thanks for posting this band. I’ve been looking for this for a lonnnng time. Can you post the rest of the first album in the future?
Thanks for posting Three Cool Cats! I ain’t heard that shit in years, but sure did want to.
YES! Been looking for Shockhammer 13 for ages… any chance you’ve got the whole mp3 available? The one above cuts out before reaching the proper ending! Thanks for the rest too!!
Knife In The Marathon is the greatest song ever… I can’t believe I played my band Nadsat Rebel played our first show ever with Breaking Circus, and they insisted on opening for us! We were not worthy… A great, great band. Steve is also a great, great guy…
Yeah, Steve was an amazing brilliant musical being. The first song I ever really played in public was “Knife in the Marathon”, with him, at a record store in Minneapolis called Let It Be in about ‘91. He and I started the band Balloon Guy which Peter Davis mentions above in about ‘92. As far as music goes, he impacted my life in a huge, never the same, kinda way and I’ll always have deep gratitude towards him. Not just gratitude though, also listening back to these songs, deep admiration too. Amazing. Thanks so much for posting these, it made my day to hear them.
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