Conshafter had its origins in the back of a rent-a-wreck van. Chris Konstantinos and Dave Cykert were both members of the UNC Men's Crew team, and had a regatta in Philadelphia. A Weezer song came on in the van where the two were trying to escape the rain and the cold before rowing. Dave made the claim that he could play the song, Chris said that he could sing (both were probably lying) and the rest was history. Shortly thereafter there were practice sessions held in Dave's dorm room at UNC-Chapel Hill using a shitty Fender M-80 amp and no microphones. Dave's roommate was often disgusted by the senseless noise and demanded that they leave or else die, but the love of nerd rock and catchy melody was not to be held down. Harris Teeter was created, and the writing process was so fun that the two were hooked (just not to each other).
The next step was to get proper equipment and gigs. Chris and Dave took every spare penny they had and invested it into a PA system and a Marshall half-stack to ensure that the guitar driven sound would come through loud and clear over any drum kit. After equipment upgrades and an albums-worth of songs were written, Ben Vanderneck was incorporated into the group as bassist. His bad-ass recording prowess, ear for melody and rhythm, and similarity in taste of music made him a perfect fit for Conshafter. At the time Conshafter had written "Harris Teeter," "Evil Twin," "Nebula," "Attitude Adjustment," "Three-Chord Manifesto," and "Hero." With Ben's input Conshafter wrote "Porn Star Mustache" and proceeded to play it fifteen times that day and forgoing dinner before they were satisfied with playing the hell out of their new creation. The song "Bridget" came about as Chris made a drunken promise to a friend to include her name in a song (bet she didn't know the song would be about a midget though). An incident involving Chris's pocket organizer combined with pensive and overall bad days shared by Dave and their friend Stephanie Walters led to the acoustic song "Dying A Slow Death."
Now all they needed was a drummer. Conshafter went through approximately six (and a short stint by another guitarist, Brian) before settling on Greg Klaiber (aka Grog the Caveman) on the kit. Greg was in the pirate-punk band Skurvy as a guitarist, but his sexy stage presence and love of rock distinguished him from the rest. Greg recorded the album dork epiphany with Conshafter and also has played in their subsequent shows. dork epiphany contained nine songs and was recorded in the hot and smelly attic of Greg's house. Attitude Adjustment got cut because it sucked. But the recording process was very educational and the album has a very garage sound (i.e. it sounds like poo in places). The band has been writing much more proficiently now and hopefully this will show in their second album attempt. Now the boys are at work on their second CD, your day job in the studio in Richmond, Virginia. The album tries to look at Corporate America and how it and its minions eat cock. There is a much more varied sound on the album, as well as better quality due to more money and time being spent. The songs include (but are not limited to) "Day Job," "In It For The Money," "Midlife Crisis," "Wanker," "Road Trip," "Next Galaxy," "Schwartz," "Kerouac," and "Garage Song." Look for that one to be out around March 2001.
Friend input has always been Conshafter's strongest suite. Dana Craig and Megan Sharky were on the staff of UNC's campus paper, The Daily Tar Heel, and designed the Conshafter logo for the first album. Chris and Dave's inability to organize anything left the door open for their friend Darrell Jones to get them gigs and manage a seemingly unmanageable band that sounded like crap. The first of these gigs were an infamous and enormous party called Money Shot, and a Battle of the Bands at Pantana Bob's in Chapel Hill (an ill-prepared Conshafter came in second). Nick Auten has contributed to the band in terms of live freestyle. Yes, white boys can rap, and Conshafter acknowledges this at live shows (unfortunately the content of these sessions is often too profane for an album). So it all boils down to this: Conshafter is a Chapel Hill college band that loves pathetic pop punk music. It's all about the rock, but Conshafter enjoys melody, catchy song structure and just having fun. Hopefully they will deliver a little something for everyone.