User:Waxing Phil

Waxing Phil is a folk rock band out of Minneapolis, MN (USA). Its current members are Eric D. Bull (Trixie D)(b. July 25, 1969), Angelo Piga (AJ), Craig Butler and Gary Olson ("G"). Although most often considered a band, Waxing Phil has operated primarily the alter ego of founder and primary singer/songwriter Bull. The group was founded in 1996 by Eric D. Bull, who, at the time was attending law school at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. MN. The name Waxing Phil was coined by a visiting law professor who asked a fellow student to stop "waxing philosophic" when asked a question about tax law.

Waxing Phil songs are often heavy on lyrical content and storytelling, with the music usually being made up of two, three or four chords, in the folk music tradition. The songwriting process employed by Trixie D. has been to write the lyrics in their entirety prior to composing any accompanying music.

Early / Solo Career:
With a handful of original songs Waxing Phil debuted as a solo singer/songwriter at a Minneapolis coffee house in 1998. He performed at a few private events including high school graduations and Independence Day parties in the Minneapolis area. He also was runner up in the annual Bob Dylan sound-a-like contest, with a rendition of "Hurricane" that same year.

Waxing Phil recorded and released a four song EP, Life In the Day of... at Oarfin Studios in Minneapolis, that was released in May 1999. Bull played acoustic guitar and sang, while the studio engineer played bass with a hired session drummer.

Around the same time as the release of the EP, Bull moved with his family to a hobby farm 30 miles west of Minneapolis, where he built a project studio in an old outbuilding. He also founded the vanity label Lola Records with his college roommate Michael Nielson to record and release new material. Between 2000 and 2004, Waxing Phil, which now included Bull on acoustic guitar, vocals and songwriting, Nielson on guitar and bass, Steve Youngblom on guitar and backing vocals and various other friends and acquaintances on drums, percussion and backing vocals, recorded the full length album, Sensational Bad News (rel. 2004 on Lola Records). For weekly rehearsals at the farm, members drove from as far as Duluth, MN (180 mi.) and Somerset, WI (50 mi.). The band performed at various bars, coffee houses and bookstores in the area to promote the album. Songs from Sensational Bad News received limited airplay on local and college radio.

Finding Bull demanding and difficult to work with, and desiring to work on their own original songs, all of the supporting members left the band shortly after the release of Sensational Bad News and formed Quiet Earpp, based out of Duluth, MN. Undeterred, Bull quickly replaced the departing members with a full-time drummer, Gary Olson, and a rotating cast of guitarists/bassists and background vocals (which for a brief period in 2005 included Olson's sister, Julie).

In 2005, after suffering mounting financial difficulties, Bull sold the farm and studio and moved into a suburb of Minneapolis. He rented a small, rundown commercial building on the shores of Lake Minnetonka (since demolished), where he built a makeshift studio and rehearsal space using the equipment from the farm. Continuing to write new material and playing occasional bar gigs, Waxing Phil, sought to add permanent members on bass and guitar to improve the live performances and to record the new, more complex material. With frequent visits of friends and family to the studio, Bull was introduced to retired bass player Craig Butler (Spacebike, ________,) who reluctantly agreed to join the band (and has reluctantly remained ever since). The band also placed an ad in the local alternative weekly newspaper seeking a lead guitarist, specifically seeking a "Jerry" [Garcia] or "Trey" [Anastasio] type improvisational player. After several auditions, multi-instrumentalist Angelo Piga (Tramps & Thieves), solidified the four piece line-up that continues to make up the core of the current band.

Jam Band

With a stable line-up, the band rehearsed the back catalog, worked on new compositions and covers, leading ultimately to the creation of "The Wall", a list of 60+ song names and chord progressions written in Sharpie on one wall of the studio. During this period (2006-2009), the band developed into more of an improvisational, jam band and began playing more live shows at increasingly larger venues (Lake Harriet bandshell, 10,000 Lakes Festival).

After several months of steady rehearsing and gigging, the band began recording what was to become 2008's full-length album, "Unrefined". Tracked primarily in the Lake Minnetonka studio by the band, and with no particular timeline placed on the project, the band recorded and overdubbed multiple sound effects and instrumentation that were not traditionally part of the live set. Still adhering to the folky lyrical and chord structure of the songs, the addition of Piga, Butler and Olson's consistent influence led to a much more complex, and much less well-received, offering than the previous album. Unrefined was released on Lola Records officially in May 2008.

In 2007, Bull again pulled up stakes professionally and moved the studio and rehearsal space to a new location in downtown Minneapolis. The band continued to rehearse and perform until September 2, 2009's Waxing Philharmonic at the Lake Harriet Bandshell, which was released as a double live album. Announced as Piga's last show, the band announced that it was working on the follow-up to Unrefined.

The band sporadically posts new songs from an upcoming project called The Pursuit of Happiness, Vols. I-IV and continues to write and record, but has not returned to public performances. Vol I of the aforementioned project was released on February 1, 2013 and, according to the band's official website, is the first of four, 4 song EP's to be released as a larger double album project.